Wildlife & Gardens

Discussion in 'Taylor's Tittle-Tattle - General Banter' started by Sting, May 7, 2019.

  1. Moose

    Moose First Team Captain

    So who’s got a trail camera then and what have you captured?
     
  2. The undeniable truth

    The undeniable truth First Team Captain

    I use one and get short 5 sec videos of the foxes we feed, plus badgers, muntjac and roe deer, hoped we'd get some hedgehogs but none, presumably the badgers eat them all locally.
     
  3. Moose

    Moose First Team Captain

    Brilliant. I’m all cats and foxes so far. And occasionally Mrs Moose as she gnaws on a few saplings.
     
  4. Filbert

    Filbert Leicester supporting bloke

    What’s going on with these bloody mosquitoes at the minute? Bold as brass, getting all up my face. Anyone else noticed it’s particularly bad this year? I’m covered in bites.
     
  5. hornmeister

    hornmeister Tired

    The quinine in gin & tonic is meant to repel them. Thash my exsqush anyway.
     
    Filbert likes this.
  6. HappyHornet24

    HappyHornet24 Crapster Staff Member

    Not many mosquitoes in our house - I’m assuming the hoards of mutant gangly spiders that are invading it at the moment are keeping them at bay.
     
    Last edited: Sep 16, 2020
  7. Diamond

    Diamond First Team

    I've got a security camera covering part of the garden and regularly see foxes, badgers, muntjac deer and strange cats.
     
    Moose likes this.
  8. Filbert

    Filbert Leicester supporting bloke

    They’re the worst, got plenty in our house but apparently they’re too lazy to do anything about the mozzies.
     
  9. Filbert

    Filbert Leicester supporting bloke

    Got woken up the middle of the night a few weeks ago by a loud squeaking coming from the garden. Watched from the bedroom window as a fox played with the squeaky dog toys strewn all over the lawn. Cute as hell, until the morning when I realised it had made off with about £50 worth of dog toys including a Kong treat dispenser and a big rubber toothbrush thing you put dog toothpaste inside. I’ve trained our dog now to go out and gather all of her toys up off the lawn before bed, which is an adorable thing to watch.
     
  10. Smudger

    Smudger Messi's Mad Coach Staff Member

  11. I Blame Pozzo

    I Blame Pozzo First Team

    The foxes that visit us quite often move flower pots and shoes around.
    I'm thinking of leaving a chess set outside by their feed area to see if they play!
     
  12. The undeniable truth

    The undeniable truth First Team Captain

    So, time to cut down the asparagus, douse with chicken pellets, and cover with porous black sheeting ? I only got 1-2 shoots per plant in the second year (first year started late). Beginning to think the bed isn't getting enough direct summer sun due to surrounding trees and bushes...final attempt next summer before I turf over it....!
     
  13. Bwood_Horn

    Bwood_Horn Squad Player

    Oddly enough I just chicken pelleted and blood & bone'd mine. Another way of putting it: asparagus is the only plant you harvest before it's grown - you eat the growing shoots. If you don't pick the shoots the plant won't grow any more. I'm not sure of the sheeting - most things I've read recommend bark as a mulch (a barrier to weeds and keep the soil moist) I use the leaves my leaf blower collects. I think as it's getting colder and I see the stems turning yellow I'll be cutting them back soon. In late Feb don't forget to blood & bone them again (I month before the first shoots appear). Actually this year's crop was very disappointing - very spindly but very tasty when cooked like this.
     
  14. The undeniable truth

    The undeniable truth First Team Captain

    Ah OK. I was expecting to see half a dozen shoots from each plant, .....so they only throw up new shoots when you cut the first shoots off, makes sense i guess. Well next season I should be able to harvest all shoots up to end of May so we will see. Only about 13 of the 20 plants came up this summer, all were very spindly and 2 of those were only about 4 inches tall. I'll cover them in plenty of fb&b and pellets and use leaves and bark as a mulch and see what happens next season.
     
  15. Keighley

    Keighley First Team

    Same here.
     
  16. Bwood_Horn

    Bwood_Horn Squad Player

    The leaves I use are dead, brown and after they've got through the 'blower' (actually it's more of a 'sucker') they ground up by a 'thing' before they enter the collection bag.
     
  17. The undeniable truth

    The undeniable truth First Team Captain

    Yes I tend not to use the leaf blower/sucker for fear of sucking up wildlife so use a little push petrol mower (rather than the ride on mower) to hoover up the leaves giving wildlife the chance to hop out of the way. I'll use that. I've also got a large bag of bark that I had started to use for general garden mulch but stopped when the cat decided it was perfect for "litter". The asaparagus is netted off to keep the deers from eating it so no chance of cat **** !
     
  18. Keighley

    Keighley First Team

    Don't let @Clive_ofthe_Kremlin see this post or you will find Schloss Undeniable being stormed by the proletariat!
     
  19. The undeniable truth

    The undeniable truth First Team Captain

    27 goldfinches on the niger and sunflower feeders just now. The sparrowhawk is getting smart and starting to hide in the alder tree that they fly to before they dropp down to the feeders. Fortunately they seem to spot it each time and keep flying...
     
  20. Bwood_Horn

    Bwood_Horn Squad Player

    The "Olde Gardening Booke" I got from a carboot (20p?) is too big to scan. A quich google found this (https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/integ...agus_following_the_end_of_the_harvest_period/):
    [​IMG]
    The book recommends 'earthing up' where it grows - I use old compost from containers, hanging baskets - but from what I've seen I *think* that's to grow pal/white asparagus that they seen prefer in Germany.
     
  21. Keighley

    Keighley First Team

    Is that how white asparagus grows, then? I never knew that. Mrs Keighley and I rather like it.
     
  22. Bwood_Horn

    Bwood_Horn Squad Player

    Same, as they prefer pale/white celery?
     
  23. Keighley

    Keighley First Team

    Haven't tried that.

    Have done a bit of Googling and you seem to be correct. Can't work out how you would know when it was ready to harvest though...
    https://www.asparagus-lover.com/white-asparagus.html
     
  24. Bwood_Horn

    Bwood_Horn Squad Player

    Better image here:
    [​IMG]
     
  25. Keighley

    Keighley First Team

    So, if I read the Michigan State image correctly, that suggests waiiting for the fern to die down naturally (eg frost?) rather than cutting it back? My veg book says to do the latter.
     
  26. Bwood_Horn

    Bwood_Horn Squad Player

    I would assume that the used to earth up - nowadays in the garden put an upturned plant pot where the crown is? Much the same principle as the rhubarb forcer I showed the class earlier?
     
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  27. The undeniable truth

    The undeniable truth First Team Captain

    Interesting article and diagram. Hopefully the majority of the plans will fire on all cylinders next spring though I'm not sure whether the 2 plants with very small ferns will come back in the Spring. Its tempting to buy replacement roots to replace those that didn't make it last winter or this coming winter but could get tricky remembering which plants would be 2 years behind and not able to be harvested for a while....
     
  28. Keighley

    Keighley First Team

    Yes, I guess that might work. Odd that no one actually seems to do this in the UK, though.

    The link I posted suggests there may be different varieties too.
     
  29. Bwood_Horn

    Bwood_Horn Squad Player

    Ye olde booke mentions yellow and recommends the same with rhubarb. Looking at that Michigan image I can well believe that's the reason (as in the case of rhubarb all the books say you can only force it biannually not annually).
     
    Keighley likes this.
  30. Bwood_Horn

    Bwood_Horn Squad Player

    The forced rhubarb was incredibly sweet.
     
  31. Keighley

    Keighley First Team

    "Leave asparagus stems on plants as long as they remain green—well into autumn. When stalks turn brown and brittle cut them off at ground level and top dress the bed with compost or manure".

    I suspect I cut them back too soon last year.
     
  32. Bwood_Horn

    Bwood_Horn Squad Player

    Think of the asparagus plant like a bulb/onion/carrot: the bit of the plant above the soil is just to feed the main bit of the plant buried underneath.

    ISTR that you plant crown in the spring but you sow asparagus seeds the late summer/autumn?
     
    Keighley likes this.
  33. Clive_ofthe_Kremlin

    Clive_ofthe_Kremlin Squad Player

    Ride on bloody mower!

    You know what I think when I see these millionaires?

    Well that's 999,999 people who're short a quid.
     
    Keighley likes this.
  34. Bwood_Horn

    Bwood_Horn Squad Player

    I bet those cheese gang motherf***ers are looking at this thread in awe and envy.
     

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