CRANE FLIES

Crane flies or daddy long legs are among the animals, which cause the most panic in a bedroom, apart from probably spiders, that is. Attracted by the light, they fly in the window and start to flap against lampshades. Apart from this they do no harm at all. Craneflies are merely large flies. They do not feed as adults, nor do they bite or sting. The damage these insects do is when they are in the ground. The female lays her eggs in September, usually in the lawn. The resulting, larvae, called leatherjackets, feed on the roots of plants. They continue to feed throughout the winter and the spring. Identifying the pest is easy. They are dark grey in colour, about 1inch long (2.5cm) and look as though they have no head. In lawns that are effected you will notice that grass growth slows and yellow patches appear, the grass is easily pulled up, with little or no root growth and starlings peck at the grass in an attempt to eat the grubs


CONTROL
You can dig the grubs out of the ground and leave them out on the patio for the birds (I have tried feeding them to the gecko but she won’t touch them), but this proves to be far too messy and time consuming. Another method I find very useful is to put a large sheet of black plastic on the affected area and leave overnight. In the morning when the sheet is lifted there will be the offending leatherjackets ripe for the bird table. There are natural products on the market to kill the leatherjackets. They contain a parasitic nematode called steinernema feltiae, which kills leatherjackets but is harmless to children, wildlife and pets. They are effective when the soil is above 10°c / 50°f, so do it soon if that is the route you want to go down.

There is a chemical you could use from the Co-op too, ask the staff at the counter for details

Horticultural.

PET GECKO

I have taken up gardening of a different nature over the last few weeks. We have a lizard, or gecko in the house as a pet. She lives in a tank and thankfully up to yet she has only sunk her teeth into one unsuspecting visitor who inadvertently pulled on its tail to get it out from underneath a chest of drawers. Geckos don’t like their tails pulled, they tend to come off as a defence against predators and new ones are a long time growing back. Anyway when we initially we got it we didn’t really give the feeding aspects much consideration. As in life, things tend to change without warning and when Value Pets closed its doors for the last time in Buncrana we had to look for a new way to supply food for the gecko. There is a pet shop in Derry that will order live crickets for you a week in advance but I’m afraid my life isn’t organised enough to plan that far into the future. So what are we to do? For a couple of weeks the poor creature was looking longingly through the glass at us expectant of its dinner, (although I must add at this point that she can live without food for six months at a push). Then after a bit of thought we came across the great idea of feeding her crane flies or daddy long legs as they are also called. They flap around a bit and their legs tend to drop off very easily so I found myself crushing their wings so they would be eaten easier (I will fall off the pavement to save treading on an ant so this hasn’t been easy for me!) The gecko lapped them up but unfortunately for her the season of the crane fly is very short lived and now they are very few and far between. What next could we feed her on? Well our brussel sprout, cabbage, broccoli and kale plants are quickly disappearing under the invasion of caterpillars. We carefully put a few of the slimy creatures in to the tank to see what the reaction was. Again she lapped them up. The season for caterpillars is not that long either so a local expert on such matters suggested that we breed maggots. It gets worse. I have taken to leaving small pieces of meat and half full tins of cat food outside on the window ledge so that flies can lay their eggs in it and then I can feed the resulting maggot infestation to the lizard. Life was so much easier and far less smelly when we had a local pet shop. I know how Seymour felt in the play the Little Shop of Horrors!

Horticultural.

GREEN GARDENS

Over the last year with the help of the pupils from Cockhill School we have looked after the small roundabout at the bottom of my road. We try to make sure there is always a bit of colour and the weeds are kept in check. This week I noticed we have a budding Diarmuid Gavin from Home front in the garden with us. Like Diarmuid someone has decided to use a large amount of concrete to make a garden feature. I wouldn’t have minded if the person responsible had shaped it into an interesting feature like a space rocket or a garden gnome. Unfortunately the concrete has been left to set in the same shape as the inside wheelbarrow that it was tipped out of. I know in the grand scale of things this small lump of waste isn’t much to shout about, but to me it represents the total disregard that some people have to keep the Peninsula the beautiful place that it is.

Green gardens
A garden that is green doesn’t have to be limited by the colour of the lawn. All gardens can benefit in their design by introducing a Green policy, meaning using old discarded products, for example if you buy a product that comes in a plastic container such as milk, the empty bottle can be used as a mini propagator or pushed into the ground near a plant with the base removed (this can be used as a saucer or seed tray) and when filled with water will soak to the roots where it’s needed. A friend of mine who has an allotment refuses to throw anything away, his borders are edged with old long-playing records, and the raised beds are made from old wardrobes and drawers. Any paper or cardboard is put down as mulch or added to grass clippings to make very good compost when rotted down. His shed is constructed out of old window frames and the peas and beans are growing up happily around old scaffolding poles. The allotment has a few old comfy armchairs scattered around for when you need to take a rest, these too after a year or two will rot down nicely and be added to the soil.

Here are a few more examples of reusing things in the garden:

Use polystyrene beads from packaging to mix with your compost when filling containers, they create pore spaces for water and allows air to flow, it will make the containers lighter too.
Make an interesting addition to paths walls and borders by incorporating bottles. Push the bottles into the ground or wall until only the base is showing, use different colours for a pleasing effect. There is crushed glass on the market at the moment, these look like shiny pebbles and are effective in pots as well as the garden.

Combine broken concrete, old bricks, wood and natural stone to form walls with texture and form in the garden.

Old railings can be turned into fences or trellises
If you have old paint in the shed this can be used to paint the railings or any old furniture that raised beds are made from.( I can’t think of anything else to do with old paint that would be safe)

Don’t discard your old bathroom, plant up the old toilet with petunias or turn the sink into a birdbath. The bath could make an interesting water feature; it would make an ideal home for a water Lily

.

Horticultural.

RECYCLED GARDEN PRODUCTS

(Click on the title for a link to BPF in Downpatrick)

Most products bought in shops come with some form of plastic packaging, which is mostly unnecessary and after the product has been removed is usually useless. To save this waste going to landfills, companies such as BPF in Downpatrick Co. Down (tel, 00442844831831) are doing their bit to recycle old plastic products. This still takes energy to do, but they are trying to remould the plastic into pellets at low temperatures to make sure there are no poisonous fumes released into the atmosphere, as happens with most things that are burned. These pellets are moulded into heavy-duty garden products such as fence posts, fences, decking boards, pergolas and trellis. Street signs, litterbins and bollards for council use are also made. The company claim the product out performs hardwood, cast iron and concrete. BPF can only use the waste from one supermarket chain to be at full working capacity, which gives us some idea of the amount of waste that isn’t being used for recycling, including lumps of concrete!

If you have any ideas for reusing old rubbish or have a garden feature made from reused materials please let me know.

Horticultural.

RAILWAY SLEEPERS

I once had the idea to import railway sleepers into Inishowen for use in landscape design. I would have had to go overseas, as most of the Irish sleepers have been used up. I am glad I decided not to after reading this week’s news. The Pesticide Control Service (PCS), have placed seizure orders on shipments of railway sleepers coming into the country. The reason for this is that the sleepers have been soaked in creosote. Creosote was banned in 2003 because of a risk of cancer and the EU concluded that even low levels of the substance cause rashes and irritations. The sleepers that are now sitting in the garden centres and DIY stores can only be sold to farmers. How this will be implemented I don’t know (and why is it OK for farmers to have them - are they more immune to the toxins?)

Sleepers do ooze creosote in hot weather and there are over 200 chemicals in creosote. Another worry is that if you have raised beds made from them, the chemicals could seep into the soil and be absorbed by the plants. A spokesperson for the Environmental Protection Agency claims that the “sleepers were being used for improper purposes, in domestic situations where there was a risk of contact with creosote” (I think they mean that they could be used as fireplaces in the home).
Never mind! There are plenty of other things to make raised beds out of (I made a great one out of old books once –maybe not as aesthetically pleasing, but it did the job).

For more click here

Horticultural,environmental.

SHOPPING FOR PLANTS

If you getting ready to spend lots of money at the garden centres, look out for the best quality plants available.

Labels
Avoid plants with labels that are old and faded, the plant probably is too.

Pests and disease
Steer clear of yellowing leaves and limp growth or nibbled leaves.

Value for money
Shop around; garden centres differ greatly in price for the same plants.

Water loss
Never buy a plant that has been denied water.

Plant shape
Avoid plants that are growing irregularly with spindly growth.

Weedy pots
Pots full of weeds are also a sign of neglect

Check the roots
Tip the pot upside down tap the sides then gently remove the plant. Check to see that there are plenty of visible fibrous roots as well as some plump and juicy ones

Aftercare
Try to plant in the garden as soon as possible.

Horticultural.