Is it worth it?

Megansmum

Thanks for that ixwood. They were pretty dry but these evening i gave them a good soaking. Even though they were probably there only a couple of days, will I still have the aphid problem? The soaking they've had tonight I'm hoping i've got rid! Great idea about the pots - i had just bought some new ones without holes so I will put holes in the side as you suggest. I will also use the vaseline. Should I also put that round any other trunks - like on my trees?

I will look into the wildflower idea as there is plenty of room on the plot! Do wild weeds count!

olly300

Megansmum wrote: »

I will look into the wildflower idea as there is plenty of room on the plot! Do wild weeds count!

Any plant you don't want in your garden is a weed.

Oh and if you plant and sow lots of marigolds you will get lots of hoverflies.

Last year I went a bit marigold mad with french, african and hybrid marigolds in the garden so I had lots of hoverflies and no aphids.

Muffin99

So great to have an update Megan's Mum!

Wow! All what you've done in a day - you should be chuffed - BIG WELL DONE! :j

Don't worry about your set-back - at least lucky that no harm done! I know what you mean about automatic reaction, it was like that with the spider, I reacted so fast I barely had time to register properly. It will take a little water under the bridge I guess to become so use to them your sub-conscience doesn't go into alert BUT I know you'll get to that!

One trick with sub-conscience is; do you ever dream and know that you are dreaming? Sometimes when you're in this sleep stage you can control your dreams a little. Some people are familiar with this others are like hey??! If you do, next time you're in this dream state you could control the dream and dream a positive insect experience. Or maybe remind your sub-conscience that you're not scared of insects as you're dropping off to sleep. Just a thought hth

A cherry tree - YUM! And a giant blueberry bush, which variety is it?

ixwood

You'll still probably have the aphid/ant problem regardless of where they're living. They're always after my fruit trees!

Greaseband on any trees the ants are farming on (and you care about) really.

Well, there's plenty of folks who'll say wildflowers are just weeds, but generally wildflowers are considered to be the the less aggressive species found in traditional hay meadows and the like. You could just leave weeds to grow and an area of grass uncut, but they'll do their best to take over the whole site which would annoy and frustrate everyone else, even if it didn't you.

Meadow species normally need low nutrient soil, so other "weeds" can't out compete them and take over.

Here's some random pictures of the sort of effect you'd normally be after:-

http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=wildflower%20meadow&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

Megansmum

Hi Muffin99, thanks for that. I will try the dream idea - although knowing my luck tonight will be giant ants and I'LL be the strawberry :eek: Lol.

The blueberry tree is "blue jay". Got it from spaldings with the cherry tree. As they'd been posted I thought it best to get them in asap! The ground here is really clay like so I added a load of compost - I've no idea if that was the right thing to do as there were no instructions with them! I got them both because megan loves blueberrys and cherrys - so i'm hoping to save some pennies there! I'm hoping to get a victoria plum tree and a pear tree too - for megans benefit - but they are SOOO expensive! I've found a triple set of dwarf trees, those two plus another apple tree, but it's £35 - I was hoping to get another poundland find and get them for £5 each!!
All this and I don't eat fruit! Oh well!:o

Have you been doing much garden wise? I don't know when to sow carrots? I keep reading about it's best to wait until the carrot fly are less prolific, but i don't know when they are around here! Carrots are Megans ultimate favourite food - i swear she was swapped at birth! Lol. I have never known a toddler love fruit and veg like she does!

Megansmum

ohh - got "The new complete book of self sufficiency" by john seymour from cynus books for £12 including postage. (I saw on another thread people looking for it cheaper than £20, but can't remember which thread)

ixwood

Are you aware that blueberries need acidic soil? You can buy "eracious" compost OR if you're frugal/lazy/green (in a good way!), you can use soil/needles from under a pine tree and used tea bags/dregs.

ixwood

Blueberries need multiple plants for pollination normally. The cherry could too, but hopefully it's "self fertile". Even so, even self pollinating varieties still crop better with another pollination partner.

Fruit is a different ball game to veg and some reading up 1st would be really helpful. You can bung it in and get by with veg as they're typically annuals and the most you can lose is a packet of seed. Fruits are perennials which take years to grow and cost a lot more, so it could take 3 or 4 years to find out you've made a costly mistake.

You also need to consider root stocks, pollination groups, preferred conditions etc None of it is hard, you just have to spend a bit of time getting an undertanding of what you're doing.

I've a year into converting my garden into a fruit garden and have found all the learning and planning enjoyable.

ixwood

LIDL/ALDI/Netto/Wilkos/Pound stretcher are the cheapest place for fruit trees and bushes. Much cheaper than online and you can choose the plant you want. On the downside, they often don't tell you the rootstock and plants can be ropey after a while in the store.

Have you considered "family" trees? These have more than one variety of fruit on the same tree and don't cost that much more than normal trees. I've got a few as they extend the season, pollenate each other (so no extra trees are needed) and I like the unusual look of them.

ixwood

Sorry, I'm going on now. last post, honest.

Free wildflower/bee seeds here:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/bluepeter/central/getinvolved/seedgiveaway.shtml

They're aimed at kids and come with nice bright stickers and a little Bee factsheet. I'm sure megan would love something so cool being addressed and delivered to her...