Continued war on caterpillars and other Saturday shenanigins

Today my partner has the car, so I'm still at home in my pajamas.
Since I can't get to the allotment, I decided it was finally time to do some things in the post-stamp garden this morning. First task. Caterpillars.

I thought I'd rid myself of most of them after last week. But nope. I'd seen a few in passing to the compost bin a few days ago. But its worse than I thought.

I'm going to have to make a daily effort to go out and check that there aren't more fat hairy worms on my poor brussel sprouts. They're not looking happy.

I had less mercy with them this time. I put them in the compost bin. Probably not a good idea, as the bin is basically next to the poor plants BUT, I did do a lot of weeding and tipping out of wet old icky soil on top of the caterpillars, so they should be entombed. Even talking about caterpillars and I can feel them all over me. It makes me itch! Yuck.

Next up was onions. I wanted to dig them up. We're going away on holiday soon and I didn't want to leave them until I got back- although they most likely would have been fine. I have to laugh though as they're only about as big as they were when I put them in the ground.

This is due to the poor soil, the density of planting and the fact they've hardly been watered all summer. AND I pulled them too early. Its my own fault but it was fun to try. They're drying in the shed.
I never expected them to work properly in that location anyway. I'm going to try a lot harder this next year in the allotment with them.

I finally separated out the Rogue Pot and finally repotted my strawberry runners. If they survive, there will be 3 new strawberry plants from runners and 1 tiny strawberry from the rogue pot.

I also separated out the primroses into new compost. I now have 5 pots of primroses from the one rogue pot. Hopefully my rough treatment of them won't hurt them and they'll grow next year.

I repotted my loganberry that was looking very sad in its current pot. It was very root bound and I should have done it months ago. I'm hoping the discoloration isn't due to something more malevolent like vine weevil.

Bees are still visiting the garden. 

The Rogue Pot

Oh really? 

When my mam was making room for more seedlings in her shed, gave me a pot to take home. It was one of my wild primroses she grew for me from seed. She nabbed the rest of them for herself.

I took it home and a few weeks later, it started to look a bit odd and sprouted some other things. I left it to its own devices to see what it would do. Apparently the wild primrose is sharing its house with a strawberry plant (that I nearly pulled out thinking it was a weed!) AND a corncockle.

It certainly wasn't as advertised. I'm not sure what happened in quality control when this one was potted ;) Free strawberries!

Soft fruit progress

Looking back I spent almost all of my expendable wage this summer on buying plants, compost, tools, feed and pots every chance I got.
Ridiculous really, but in my mind I was investing, as next year the plants from this year should hopefully be much more established and producing more next year.

My favourite purchases are my fruit bushes. To add to my original blackcurrant bush, I now have some raspberry canes, a loganberry, strawberries and  a gooseberry bush.

In the mail I have blackberries, pink blueberries and pinkcurrants on the way. The idea of pink blueberries and pinkcurrants makes the little girl in me squeak with excitement.
I'm hoping they don't arrive whilst I'm away on holiday in less than 2 weeks, but knowing my luck they will. Hopefully they will survive in their dehydrated state til I get home 10 days later!

Only 1 of my 4 strawberry plants from 2014 survived in my strawberry planter. I think this was a combination of being blasted by the wind in winter, an infestation of red mites and my planting them too deep in the soil.

The one surviving plant only produced the most pitiful flowers this year. I managed to buy some 3 more strawberry plants late in the season to compensate. They seem to be a different variety and were better planted. They've produced quite a few strawberries and I'm much happier with their size.

Ready to be separated from the mother plant

 They've produced runners too, which my original strawberry plant has never managed, so more strawberries for next year!

Blackcurrants and my first ever sad split strawberry that I kept for posterity

The tub filled to full capacity now

I couldn't believe how much my little blackcurrant bush produced this year. I can't wait for next year to see how it gets on. I've kept everything that didn't get eaten immediately in a storage tub. The plan for them is to be included in my first rhubarb crumble of winter.