With the days being shorter it must be difficult getting good size crops?
No, not really, they’re all vegetables suited to Winter here, that don’t cope with the heat of the summer. Completely different range planted for summer.
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I remember being a youngster in Kilkenny and being fascinated by the way the bees used go in and out of the Snap Dragons (Antirrhinum).
When I came to Limerick I often grew Snap Dragons but never saw the bees here doing it. Assuming Limerick bees were stupid I cast it aside.
Then last year I saw a packet of ‘Giant Snap Dragon’ seeds, so I said I’d give them a go.
You guessed it, sure enough the bees are busy now going in and out. The ordinary Honey Bees are struggling a little but the bigger Bumble Bees are working just fine.
I just about managed to get this photo. I might try get a video after.
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Having a ding dong battle with the caterpillars to save the broccoli. You couldn’t be up to the cunts.
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The slugs have literally destroyed everything i own. They even went after my horseradish.
Anyhow, harnessing the same defiant, ungodly, and visigothic spirit that led me, then but a mere youth, to senior county and provincial titles, i resorted to tryiing copper pot scourers. I’ve just returned from the garden. I can report one brute of a slug on a kale plant. Otherwise the copper mesh seems to have kept them at bay. There were dozens of the bastards crawling about the place. I did for them with a jet lighter. It wasn’t pretty and i may have nightmares. Tomorrow night im going out with a blowtorch.
Tip: Unravel the scourers, twist them into a tight rope and cut them with a pair of wire snips
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Lay out a rope smeared in vaseline around your plants. They won’t cross it. Lay a beer trap inside the rope to catch any stragglers.
You can test this out by smearing a 6 inch circle on a bit of timber. Put a slug in the middle of it and throw a drop of beer outside the circle.
It’ll be like watching Tipperary play hurling.
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Does smearing vaseline on the rim of a large pot cantaining susceptible plants work?
(Assuming you dont have overhanging leaves to act as a bypass)
It certainly does.
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I had hostas eaten alive few years back and saw the vaseline trick mentioned here. Worked a treat last couple years
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I kept throwing coffee grounds around my hosta this year and it kept the slugs away, but the plant never flowered. They destroyed my rhubarb though.
I was told you need to put the coffee grounds in with old newspaper or brown paper bag as the grinds can mess with the ph balance of the soil if thrown in solo.
Ahem, cough, cough, where would one procure a large tub of vaseline?
For medicinal and gardening purposes, of course.
Lidl or Aldi or Mr Price. Own brand stuff that does the same thing.
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It’s called petroleum jelly.
Any of you guys got any idea why I’ve got this stripe across the lawn. Used to be there previously but got the whole garden done two years ago, including the soil and new lawn grass laid in strips.
Im beginning to think theres some ancient ruins there or else I’m on a fairy fort 
Short of burning the house down anyone got any ideas of how to solve this?
I’d say the gardener juat started ro mow the lawn when your wife told him to get inside?
You’d have to suspect the foundations of an old wall. But I’ve no idea how to rectify it.
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Yes that or a pipe that’s possibly leaking, though that usually goes the other way, greener than the rest of the grass.
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Do you suspect better or poorer drainage in that spot?
We had a similar problem years ago on the farm in kk. You wouldn’t notice it with grass but when we tilled the field the barley grew very poorly on that old wall foundation.
The father suspected too much lime from the old wall. But he never did anything about it.
If that’s your problem you could try watering it with vinegar diluted water. Say an eggcup per bucket. This will bring down the ph.
I’d try it on a sample area first. Say quarter of that strip and see how it goes.
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