Monthly Archives: April 2008

Grapevine

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I took a closer look at the grapevine today; they are starting to put out buds. It’s great to see that they are still alive, as they are only one year old. What is not great is the soil, its very dry and full of clay. I don’t know what is going on this property ;-) It will definitely take some years before we have healthy mould to grow in, provided that we leave all our vegetable scraps in the composting box. (If you want more organic waste for you compost, just ask friends and family you trust, if you can have their waste. Admitted, it’s gross. But what do you want the most – steril hands or great vegetables?)
I decided to give the grape trees a good start of the year with water from the new rainwater tank. 150 litres were collected so pressure was beginning to build up. It is a strange feeling to look at the gathering clouds thinking “Yes! More water.”, instead of the usual complaining. It took only 5 seconds to fill up a 10 litres bucket from this big tank. I watered each grapevine with 20 litres in 2 minutes. This is nice ;-) Now let’s grow some grapes.

Small composting box

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Small Composting Box

I’m starting up new beds in the garden this year. The problem we will be facing is that the soil is full of clay. I don’t know why it is that way in this area, but some “healing” needs to be done. Therefore I bought a small plastic box to be used for organic waste and put it next to the sink in the kitchen. We’ve been using it for a couple of weeks now, and it’s amazing to discover how much of our garbage is able to go into that box and on to the composting box outside in the garden. We eat a lot of vegetables, and the parts we can’t eat get cut off and put in the small box. It’s peels and scrap from onions, carrots, potatoes, apples, leeks etc. So please worms, get up and do your thing so we can have something to mix into the clay later on ;-)

Cockchafers

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Cockchafer

About two weeks ago I was digging away on the new bed for potatoes and onions, and I began to notice quite a few bugs in the dirt. They were about 3 centimeters long and almost 2 cm across and started to wake up and crawl around when the soil was turned. I estimate that there were about five bugs per square meter, when the soil was turned to a depth of 30 centimeters.
I’m a little worried what those bugs will do to the potatoes, so I picked one up and carried it over to one of the neighbours to find out if she knew more about the species. The sun was shining and the weather was great for garden work, so she was outside too, preparing a bed for potatoes. She has been living here for decades, and I hoped to hear some history from her.
She didn’t know for sure what species the beast was, but she made a guess that it was a cockchafer. Her mother, who is also interested in gardening, confirmed that it indeed was a cockchafer.
It’s brown with wings, and it has antennas on its head. I found out that in the 1800s the state would actually pay per bug that was killed and turned in, indicating that it was a major plague in Europe. They managed to control the spread, but the bug has had a comeback in 1980s. The cockhafer is clever: it begins its life as far as 1 meter down in the ground, making it impossible for the birds to prey on it. The adult bug crawls up to the surface 4 years later.
I guess it would be best for my gardening to collect the rest of the bugs I dig up and feed them to the birds.