Splitting daffodil bulbs in September

Tulip and daffodil bulbs have already started to shoot underground.

Tulip and Daffodil bulbs in September

If you’re digging your borders, be careful not to cut into and damage your bulbs.

Gently pull Daffodil bulbs apart

 

Gently pull the bulbs apart

If you haven’t already done so, it’s a good time to split your bulbs by gently prising them apart, beging careful not to damage the delicate roots.

Plant the the bulbs in the ground about three times the length of the bulb and about 10 cm apart.

Narcissus grub infected daffodil bulb

If the daffodils have blackened ends near the roots and the shoot have not begun to grow then check for the narcissus grub. These pests eat the centre of the bulbs. Throw the bulb away as it won’t really recover properly.

Complete Gardens advice CD-ROM

Bee safe wasp trap. How to make your own wasp trap for free

Wasp killed in trap

Wasps can be a pest, especially if you’re eating or drinking in the garden and the wasps want to join in.

You can make your own bee safe wasp trap without attracting and killing bees in the process.

Recycle plastic container.

An empty plastic container makes an excellent wasp trap

Cut the top off to make a funnel

Cut a plastic bottle and turn the funnel up-side-down so it fits inside the container.

This makes easy access for wasps to enter the narrow hole yet difficult to escape.

Sweet and sour attractant attracts wasps but not bees

Add a mixture of vinegar, sugar and salt.  The wasps are attracted to the sweet and sour scent yet bees don’t seem to be attracted by this sour mixture whereas a honey mix would be a fatal attractant.

Keep the wasp trap out of the rain as it will quickly fill with rainwater.

The down-side of this wasp trap is it also attracts and traps beneficial insects such as lacewing and hoverflies which are a natural pest control of aphids

Are Wasps a pest or garden natural pest control

Wasps are fascinating eusocial insects with a queen and many infertile female workers. I think they are the tigers of the air. Some people consider wasps a pest because they eat the fruit and drink their beer whereas others consider them a welcome garden natural pest control.

As the season comes to an end, they prepare by producing Virgin Queens to carry the genes in to the next generation.

Queen wasp building a nest

Instead of only producing workers to tend the nest, the workers of colony decide to feed some the larva with protein to produce Queens. They want meat. Prey can be caterpillars, or insects, some they rade from spiders webs. They chop the caterpillars into manageable pieces and fly back to the nest where they are chewed up and fed to the larger queen larva. It’s only the larvae that can eat meat, Wasps can’t. The larvae regurgitate a sugary meal in return for being fed by the adult wasps.

Wasps are very useful as natural garden pest control because they eat a large number of garden pests such as caterpillars, aphids, queen ants.

Wasp nest in lawn can be dangerous to humans and pets Wasps excavating a mouse hole in lawn

Wasps excavating a mouse hole in a lawn

 

Wasps will often make their nests in our loft space, where it is dry and out of the way of danger or under tree roots and sometimes they will excave underground mouse holes. These can be more of a problem because if they are disturbed by people walking on the lawn near the nest or disturbed by the vibrations from a lawn mower, they are more likely to go and defend their nest and sting whatever they consider a danger.

A powder can be sprayed in to the nest – best to do this at night when it’s dark and all the wasps are inside the nest and less able to come out in defence of the nest.  If the colony is causing no danger to humans or pets then best to leave them alone.

In the northern hemisphere only the Queens survive the winter by hibernating and emerge the following spring to start a new colony. All the workers and drones will die.

In New Zealand however, the weather allows the wasp colony to survive all year round and our European or German wasps are causing havoc to their native wildlife.

Photography Neil Bromhall. Complete Garden plant advice CD-ROM

Growing Sweet Corn and how you know when to harvest.

Sweet corn ‘Butterscotch F1′

Plant your sweet corn 2cm deep, in a frost-fee, well drained, fertile soil and sunny position in your allotment or garden. Ideally the pH should be around 6.0 – 6.5

I first soaked the dried corn seeds over night to allow them to absorb water. Then kept the corn in damp kitchen paper for a few days to see which were viable then selected the ones that had started to germinate.

Ideally your plants needs at least eight hours of sunlight a day.
To germinate the soil temperature should be about 60 degrees. You can start planting in pots in the greenhouse then transplanting the seedlings when the soil is warm enough.

Don’t mix up different varieties together as you’ll get cross pollination. Plant the same variety of corn in a block 30cm apart and rows about 60cm apart. The plants need to be close enough together to ensure wind pollination and to ensure they fertilise each other to produce corn on the cob.

Water well throughout the growing season and don’t let the sol dry out.
If our British weather ever gets too hot, water more frequently. The sweet corn will not grow well if it becomes to dry for long periods.

Milky liquid indicates when the sweet corn is ripe

The time to harvest your sweet corn is when the ’silks’ are brown and dry and you can pierce the kernels with a finger nail. If the liquid is clear it’s not quite ripe. When you get a milky liquid then it’s the time to pick your corn on the cob by twisting the ears of corn which should snap off the main stem.

Peel the husks off before boiling your corn on the cob.

The best time to harvest your corn is in the cooler hours of the morning.  Store them in cool temperatures, the cooler the better.

You will get the sweetest flavour if you eat your sweet corn on the cob as soon as possible. BBC prestenter Carol Klein suggests even taking a pan of boiling water to the plant and popping the cob in to the boiling water within seconds.
Boil for 6 minutes. Spread butter and a bit of salt to your taste. Delicious

The variety photographed is Butterscotch F1

Sweet corn mouse damage

Pests: Mice will eat your sweet corn as soon as they are ripe.

Photography Neil Bromhall. This blog is an extension to the Complete gardens planting advice CD-ROM

How to hand Pollinate courgette flowers

Pollinating courgette flower by hand

In wet weather conditions your courgettes might not get fertilised due to the lack of insects to pollinate the flowers.

Courgette blossom end rot with spores

If so, your courgette fruits won’t mature or worse develop blossom end rot.

Courgette flower male and female

It’s possible to hand pollinate the flowers by brushing the pollen from the male courgette flower on to the stigma of the female flower.

Photography Neil Bromhall. Complete garden planting advice database with 3,500 uk garden plants, vegetables and 9,000 photographs.