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05
Jul, 2017 By Sally Osgerby

Courgette Recipes

(This post contains affiliate links) The abundance of courgettes in the vegetable garden prompts the search for more innovative recipes! Elaine Borish has written a book called “What will I do with All Those Courgettes?” We enjoy our own recipe for courgettes on toast: Add some crushed garlic to hot olive oil in a pan. Stir in 4 or 6 chopped courgettes. When sizzling
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04
Jul, 2017 By Sally Osgerby

Terthill – A Solar Powered Weeding Robot

Franklin Robotics have designed a Solar Powered Weeding Robot called Terthill. The robot wanders through the veg garden strimming any small plant it comes across.  The robot senses and moves away from large plants, or plants which have been protected by special collars.  The range of the patch, through which it may work,  has to be defined by a barrier  which it will sense & move away
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02
Jul, 2017 By Sally Osgerby

Blackfly on Broad Beans

Blackfly    –  Latin name: Aphis fabae (in the family of Aphididae) Blackfly is a serious pest of broadbeans in the kitchen garden. A whole mass of shiny black insects cover the growing tips, flower buds and the underside of young leaves of the broad bean plant. Keep a sharp look out for blackfly on spring-sown beans when they are in flower in June. One
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01
Jul, 2017 By Sally Osgerby

Pinch Broad Bean Tops to Control Blackfly

Gardeners often pinch out the tops of broad beans to curb black fly. We very rarely pinch out the tops.  But if blackfly are a problem, the tips may be pinched out when the first pods are set. To pinch out the tops: select the top of the broad bean plant find broad bean top Hold the tip between finger and thumb pinch the
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30
Jun, 2017 By Sally Osgerby

Broad Bean Top Omelette

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has produced a wonderful omelette recipe using broad bean tops. Ingredients: * handful leafy broad bean tops * 4 eggs * 50gm of butter * salt & pepper to taste Click here to see Hugh’s article in The Guardian (Saturday May 12, 2007). This omelette pan is an affiliate link:
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30
Jun, 2017 By Sally Osgerby

Bean and Pea Seed Fly

Bean and Pea seed fly (Latin name – Delia platura, Delia florilega) Adult fly is very small (3 to 6 mm long) & grey in colour Eggs are pearly white, elongated & 1 mm long, laid on the soil surface Larva or maggot is white & grows to 8 mm long – feeds on germinating seed Pupa are red-brown, & 5 mm. Damage Caused
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29
Jun, 2017 By Sally Osgerby

Caliente mustard reduces potato cyst nematodes.

This post contains affiliate links. Caliente Mustard: reduces potato cyst nematodes improves soil structure – as a green manure suppresses soil disease and weeds – as a  biofumigant Caliente Mustard produces a naturally occurring biofumigant gas (isothiocyanate (ITC)) when its plant cells are damaged (by crushing or chopping). This gas suppresses a range of: soil-borne diseases, including Verticillium wilt, Rhizoctonia spp., Pythium spp., Fusarium
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27
Jun, 2017 By Sally Osgerby

Support Posts for Raspberry Canes & Other Fruit

It is worth doing a good job of putting supporting posts in, as it is such a nuisance if the raspberry canes fall down. Posts are needed in the kitchen garden to fix the wires along which fruit canes can be trained. When in full leaf the canes are quite a weight, (particularly if it rains & the leaves are wet) and if in a
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