Mulching, Pest warfare and stumping!

by Andrew Pullen
(Cambridge, UK)

Well, the snow has finally gone (but for how long?) and the garden is looking a bit bedraggled but there's the anticipation of a new season and year to look forward to.
Last year we grew lettuce, toms, French Beans, cucumbers, courgettes and loads of Chilli peppers. However the most successful crops were the lettuce, tomatoes and peppers. The cucumbers and courgettes were abysmal and despite careful plant care simply showed an apathetic attitude to growing. I think they were on a 'go slow' as they produced fruit that were so small I could have pretended to be a giant with really big hands.... (bit surreal that)

So I'm planning a much more efficient way of growing and increasing automation so it's the hydroponics route for me (not me personally I don't like being immersed in water for great lengths of time - it's the plants)
Last year with our unpredictable summer proved to be hard to react to when it came to watering. Despite using drip feeders etc, some of the Toms still split although those planted in the flower beds produced good fruit. I've found a solar and battery powered watering pump unit with a timer that can pump from over five metres head and has an almost infinite number of watering settings. My wife and I love being in the garden and outdoors in general but I don't want to have to spend most of it dragging a heavy watering can around every few hours. I really do need to mulch.
Our battle with the slugs and snails was won by us as we had great military back-up from the local birdlife, a wandering Hedgehog and loads of Ground Beetles that obviously loved the piles of wood and shrubbery that we left dotted around the garden. Our Insect hotels have proved popular with visitors (many have 're-booked') so we now have Lacewings, Ladybirds (Lady Bugs) Ichneumon Wasps, Spiders, that all help to keep the local wildlife troublemakers in check.
I also removed (by force) an 'ASBO' Lilac tree that was taking over the veg/flower bed. After many years of constant trimming and removing shoots, we decided to cut it down as it was sucking nutrients out the soil and apart from a short flowering season did nothing for the garden apart from pressing against a fence post. Once it was cut down I used a spade end drill-bit to make holes into the stump which killed off the heart wood. The shoots haven't come back. The Willow tree was given a short back and sides but has sprouted what looks like a 'fro which our tree surgeon (I could never be a tree surgeon as I can't stand the sight of sap...) said would happen as it's a form of pollarding. Great if you can use the regular growth to make things but as it's a 'Twisted Willow' all the branches are curly so no good for wicker baskets etc. We're still deciding on whether to take it down as the lawn suffers near it and nothing grows in its shadow. Maybe I'll recreate the tree-felling scenes from Avatar and paint myself blue to make a really low budget fan film for my You Tube channel...? Or maybe not.

So to summerise, we're aiming for the high tech approach to growing fruit and veg to increase yields and make it less reliant on human intervention. I'll keep you posted on any developments.
Had some success with a Lemon tree. Last year I managed to germinate two lemon pips from a lemon (funnily enough) that we'd bought from Tesco's. Didn't think they would be fertile but after soaking the pips for a day, peeling off the hard shell I then planted and placed in a heated propagator where they sprouted. The tallest is now 9 inches tall and the other one is the runt of the litter and is also on a 'go slow' or should that be grow slow?

My You Tube channel is www.youtube.com/user/TK42138

It's a channel with nature/landscape/car related and 'how to' videos. Random stuff- just for fun.

Bye for now.

Andrew Pullen, Cambridge.