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Hi, I'm just throwing in a couple gardening tips here, some of which you may or may not know!
How about burying banana skins and crushed eggshells near the roots of rose trees, to supply them with extra vitamins and minerals.
Garlic grown near roses is supposed to keep them clear of green fly.
Finely Ground eggshells will not only act as a fertilizer but will also keep the slugs away!!
Another way to eradicate slugs is to pour some beer in a small plastic container, and place it near the slugs favourite plants. You'll find they'll have a ball! Another way, sprinkle salt on to the slugs.
Sprinkling salt on pathways gets rid of weeds.
GARDEN TIPS
Strolling through a country village, one spring day, I heard the vicar saying to a guy who was doing some gardening, "You can see God works in this garden!" The guy stopped what he was doing and straightened up. Looked around his beautiful garden and replied, "Yes, but I wish he'd take his turn at doing the weeding!!"
At the end of a hard tiring day gardening, relax, have a nice cup of coffee!
The Robin, the gardeners friend and one of Britain's favourite birds, can be heard singing to herald the Spring!
My garden was only small but I was determined to make as natural as I could for I wanted it to be a haven for birds, insects, butterflied, bees, frogs (hopefully no snakes!).
I had a little pond and soon had lots of frogs, well 7 anyway. I left some of the nettles for the bees etc. I also planted 2 Buddleia shrubs, the butterfly bush, so named because its allure to the butterflies. I also planted this shrub as I knew it was hardy and would grow anywhere. You can see it growing in the most unlikely of places. I went to Oxford once, to scour bookshops, when I came upon one growing in a pavement join near a shop and an alleyway. The shrubs had the desired effect, because the blooms had attracted numerous butterflies. The most common was the cabbage white and one I had seen only rarely, it was a small pale blue one, very lovely and very delicate looking.
It was only some years ago that I learnt that the Buddleia was introduced to Britain from China via Russia, at the end of the 19th Century. Also the name Buddleia is named so, after the botanist Adam Buddle, a Lincolnshire-born clergyman, who specialised in the study of mosses and grasses and wrote a new English Flora in 1708 describing thousand of native wild plants. I should think, botanists would be hard pushed to find as many this day and age!
Don't forget to be thoughtful and generous and leave some food for the birds on the bird table, such as rotting fruit, bread cut into cubes fried in bacon fat until crip. If possible wedge a lump of cooking lard and suet, into a crevice in a wooden post or tree. Also bowl of water, for them to drink. I hope you will be able to find a cosy corner for the hedgehog to enjoy his long sleep without him being disturbed. They will show their thanks, by singing in our gardens when the spring and summer comes and by eating the insects which damage our plants and vegetables.
My mother in law gave me a copy of this verse when we moved into our new house, which had a lovely old fireplace.
Old oak logs - first choice, but scarce,
Beech - burns well and clear, best stored for one year,
Birch or fir - will burn brightly, but burns away quickly.
Ash - excellent wood for fires
Apple - burns well and gives out a pleasant perfume.
Poplar - not recommended, burns with an unpleasant acrid smell,
Elm - is not good for fire, but does make excellent coffins!
