Vermiculture Revisited

After eight weeks it is time to assess the worm farm.

Opening it up it was wriggling with life but worms are shy of light and soon darted 'underground'.

Top Draw

 For the most part they had abandoned the middle draw.  Any I came across were retrieved and retained in the farm

Middle Draw

This is the first time I have seen worms in the bottom draw. Some fell in as I dismantled the farm, but some must have made their way there and drowned.

Bottom Draw

Surprisingly the newspaper laid down as a liner at the bottom of the middle draw was still intact.

Middle Draw Contents Inverted

It's not much to show for eight weeks but it hasn't been much trouble. So now I have tipped out the middle draw and made it the new top draw, where new 'food' is added.

A knot of worms in the top draw.

Swans on the Pond

These chirpy chaps hatched yesterday and were out on the pond today.  A brood of eight. Well done mum.

Cabin Fever - The Musical

 It's raining so I thought I might update a state of play review that I did about a month ago In-cold-storage.  The greenhouse is bulging with plants waiting to be liberated. The forecast for the next three nights is 3 degrees C so it would be foolhardy to plant out.

Stage Left

Stage Right

Balcony

Outside the greenhouse there are plenty seedlings that would just love to be inside.  I cover these with propagator lids each night at dusk and remove them each morning.

Terracing

There's no lids to spare and some of the overwintered plants just have to tough it out.

Stands

Despite the cold temperatures the recent rain has seen a surge in the slug and snail population.  They quickly home in on these runner beans (and some dahlias suffered too). Reluctantly I have applied a sprinkling of (Organic Approved) slug pellets under each tray.

Overdone Brassica

Of course everything is going hell for leather right now what with spring proper arriving and all that.  Rather than try to list everything here is a representative picture of the sort of madness that is abroad.  This is my third sowing of brassicas (the earlier ones being cabbage, cauliflower and Brussel sprouts).  They have all come good with the exeption of the two Tuscan Kales.  Either they are slower to germinate or the seed (which is years old) has finally lost its viability. 

I find it amusing that blogging drops when there is more going on in the garden.  Paradoxically there is more to report on too.  Busy makes busy. 

Basil Three Ways

First, of course, is seed sowing.  Then there is the water sprouted cutting:

Last there is is real cheat:  taking pot of fresh herbs and potting them on (all be it 3 months after the Best Before Date):

All started off  (sown/potted up) today, let's see how they get on.

Hot but not Cross

In time honoured tradition here is this year's batch of HXB.

The weather is roasting just now and the best bit is that the night time temperature is holding up well above freezing.  I have been pricking out flowers and sowing beans and squashes. If we were to get another frost forecast I would have to take seed trays indoors.  Some space has been freed up in the shed now that the potato planting has started.  That is another Good Friday tradition (planting potatoes).

Focus on Fumitory

Here's a plant I just can't get in focus.  The macro setting on my camera just hates the arrangement of the flower petals (which refuse to conform to the botanical ideal of a flower) and instead latches on to the leaves. The flowers are cylindrical, vary in colour from one end to the other and are reputed to be pollinated solely by the increasingly rare turtle dove (although they are also self fertilising as a backstop). It is a member of the poppy family Papaveraceae.

They caught my eye on my wanderings, and I adopted my usual practice of snapping them on camera for an identity parade back in the comfort of my own home.  Only every shot was out of focus.  I was fuming!

So why is this called fumitory (Latin: smoke, earth)?

Here are some of the common explantions:

1. As Pliny famously noted: if you rubbed it on your eyes it had a similar effect to being engulfed in smoke.
2. As you approach it has the ephemeral appearance of a puff of smoke.
3. The leaves are wispy like smoke.
4. If you ease the root out of the ground a smell of smoke is released.
5. It reproduces through the interaction of smoke and earth, not by seed. (Really?)
6. (Tied in with 5)  This plant is held to be one of the first to appear after the ground has been scorched by fire.

Answer: You decide, but I don't think 5 is on.

There is a yellow version too grown in gardens as yellow corydalis.  I happened across some at Inveresk Lodge Garden just the other day.

After my recent experience with its wild sibling this was as near as I dared get to the flower.