Blog of The Organic Gardener

2007 THE GARDENING YEAR SO FAR

It was disappointing to find myself unable to keep a regular updated record of my year. But here are a few exciting highlights.

A WINTER WARMER

As a mild January turned into a mild February the talk was of global warming - early flowering and bird nesting etc... but the dire predictions that young birds would have nothing to eat didn't seem to happen. The facts were not as frustrating as the worst fears. Indeed as always the year took everyone by surprise.

Especially important was the absence of a good ground freeze to kill off the pests and break down the soil. It seemed sad that gardeners could no longer rely on the weather to do this important job.

As March progressed the weather became warmer still. But not all plants are fooled. I noticed no difference in the flowering time of Forsythia or indeed many plants. Magnolia on the other hand did flower earlier and then the flowers were spoiled.

SUMMER COMES WITH A BIG BIG SPLASH

In the U.K. we had the hottest April on record. Garden centres were stocking up on water butts and water holding crystals to add to pots etc... But a parched land scorcher never materialised. May was more overcast and included rainy days.

By the end of May the rains started in earnest. In the U.K. several villages were flooded and these problems were serious. At different locations around the country the floodings were repeated over many weeks. It was very distressing for those involved; many are still out of their home as I write.

At the height of the danger, Tewksbury on the Severn estuary became an island and the streets swamped. Not far away an important power station was literally an inch from complete shut down. This could affect power supplies: heating, lighting and, the pumping of fresh water to houses. The U.K. government with a new Prime Minister - Gordon Brown - faced a crisis. They were right on the brink of putting a massive evacuation into action: hospitals, prisons, old people's homes, houses. Goodness knows what might of happened if the water had not subsided in time - but it did.

Although we had avoided the parched weather, this unusually wet weather was still blamed on climate change. The weather-people told us that the jet stream had, unusually for the time of year, become stationed over the middle of the country bringing with it the rain bearing weather fronts that circle the centres of low pressure.

At the very same time parts of the United States were having a severe heat wave. Perhaps some of these problems might also be attributed to a weak El Ninio event in the southern Pacific, but I'm not clear on this.

CRISIS AFTER CRISIS

As the year moved into its homeward stretches, the new government faced a new "Foot and Mouth" outbreak in the south east. Thankfully this was confined to an area close to the Pirbright laboratory from where the virus had escaped during the floods, partly due to poor maintenance and management of drains. However, the crises still brought a freeze on stock movements in other unaffected parts of the country.

On top of this, animal stock farmers now had to face the appearance of Blue Tongue virus on our shores. Spreading across Europe and rampant in Belgium, it had apparently been transported over the English Channel by a swarm of gnats to an animal sanctuary on the south coast.

May I suggest to sheep farmers that they cultivate some tall herbaceous areas containing strong smelling herbs like Garlic, Cow Parsley, Chervil, Sweet Cicely, Rosemary, Thyme, etc... and have their animals shelter in it and lie down and roll it. There is no vaccine yet available for Blue Tongue disease but organic methods are probably the best protection.

All farmers should keep drinking troughs with clean water every day, and remove any other unnecessary sites of standing water were gnats breed. This last piece of advice had become public information as the damp summer was expected to cause irritation from larger numbers of mosquitoes and gnats.

WHAT ABOUT THE GARDENING?

The mild winter and wet summer was a boon for slugs and snails. They are normally confined to travelling on cools nights but this weather was surely slug and snail heaven. Yet I'm surprised and perhaps a little releived that my plants were not more severely affected. The sprouts got the worst hits. But I had cauliflowers and purple sprouting broccoli that escaped damage and broccoli that was only 50% to 75% damaged.

I came to the conclusion that probably just one pest was responsible for most of the damage. This blighter would attack the same plant, only later did it move on to others. If only I could catch it. It's probably a good tactic to go out at night with a torch.

Actually I tried a range of organic methods, grit, garlic etc... but I'll evaluate these later on the website.

Now winter is here I can hear the thin shrill tweets of birds like Redwing, and Thrush. One report pridicts that many many more garden birds, Robins, Finches, etc... are set to arrive in the U.K. this year from Scandinavia. Better check the bird feeders are stocked up.

Well events have moved on a lot now. The year ends with typical U.K. grey skies and frequently wet and windy days. I'm not displeased with that.

I SAID GOODBYE TO MUM -
A LOVELY, HAPPY, SMILING LADY - LOVED BY FRIENDS AND RELATIVES

Finally I felt much sadness as my mother died in hospital on 31st of December 2007.
+ God Bless her
+ may she rest in peace +
She had been telling everyone that I (her only son) was the best son.
Thanks Mum.
You were the best.