Ladbird vs. Blackfly in The Battle of the Beans

Didn't get down the plot till late today. Chronically hung over all morning and afternoon but had a nice sleep by the river surrounded by dragonfly.


Discovered that my Broad Beans have a serious black fly problem. On the plus side there were a lot of ladybirds about. I read recently that if beneficial bugs are at work it can be best to take no action and let things re-balance on their own. So, instead of spraying with soapy solution I decided to let the little red bugs keep munching.


*Edit 8 June - The blackfly are now gone, but they have completely decimated the beans. Waiting to see if they'll recover.

Last of the digging?

Quick history lesson - Cobham was the hometown of many of the infamous 'Diggers' who began growing crops on Common Land in protest against the Enclosures Act. Their belief was that the Earth should be 'a common treasury for all' to live on. It is fitting then (and uplifting) that as an environmental activist who has started growing veg, I have to walk past this commemorative plaque with my fork over my shoulder on my way to my plot. If only they could see what's happened to Cobham since they were around though...

So, another glorious day - we even have daffodils coming up at the front of the plot where we dumped all the manure. (Quite a contrast)


I found Aileen and Brian already hard at work and soon got stuck in myself - with the aim of digging out the final bed of the four that we were aiming for on either side of the central path and the areas we will set aside for wild flower and a pond to attract wildlife. It was good to see lots of people about - a really relaxing and friendly atmosphere.


On a less savoury note, some kids have been down lately and smashed everyone's greenhouses. Mindless little pests - I wonder how they'd like it if older people went round smashing their playstations when they're out? It's the first time it's happened in years apparently...


Mum came down with some tea and sandwiches mid-afternoon. So we sat in the sun for a bit. She's just had surgery on her feet so the walk is quite an achievement for her.


I managed to finish what I needed too - I even managed to burn most of the weed roots to make a nice potash. Was feeling pretty satisfied and relaxed as I walked home at the end of the day in a bright red and purple sunset. Lush. :)

Seeds and Poo

This Saturday, I walked round to my friend Henry's house to see his plot, which he has been using for the last few years. We then hooked a trailer onto the back of his car and set off into the sunny countryside round Cobham to go hunting for manure.

The first place we stopped was a stables who didn't have any going spare, but the second farm we went too couldn't get rid of it quick enough. "How much can you take?" the guy asked, "Ten ton?"

He wasn't kidding. We followed him over to Wisley airfield in his landrover, where he had huge piles of shit the size of small houses. Given the choice of animals and maturity, we settled on some well rotted cow manure and set to forking it into the trailer. The farmer was so nice he even mucked in with us.

Now, while it's not the kind of thing I'd usually get excited about, we were pretty chuffed with our trailer full of shit. Just a little bit worried we were going to lose it over the front of someone's nice new Porsche on the way home. Not for his sake, but because we'd have to do all that work again!

Once we got rid of some of the poo and had washed our hands, we went down to the farmer's market on the Leg'o'Mutton field, to get some tasty food. Then we spent a long time choosing our seeds at the local garden centre. Because you get so many in a packet we decided to share the ones we're both growing, so went home and split them up between us.

Finally we went back to our respective plots to dig in our glorious bounty of dark brown goodness before it got dark. The veg is gonna love it! :)