Thank you everyone for your thoughts on juicers and blenders...I'll have a look at them when we go back to Lidls on Monday.
In the meantime I've been planting some flowers out...Himself made me a bed using four pieces of wood he'd cut from our discarded telephone pole...Eilis and Mille decided all that lovely compost and muck from the compost heap was the ideal place to bury bits of bone they couldn't manage to eat...
So now I've stuffed the bed with plants...all special offers...you know the sort of thing...four plants for a tenner...buy three and get the fourth free. It's probably a con but I chose the ones I liked with the brightest flowers...
They're not from the little garden centre...these came from the farmers store in town where the staff pretend they can't see a woman waiting by the cash desk...they'd rather sell fertiliser and tins of Round-Up to old farmers who haven't washed in a while and smell of cow.
While digging the holes for the new plants I kept finding those dratted cutworms...fat grubs that nibble through the stems of newly planted seedlings so you look at your row of neat and tidy cabbages and find they've all keeled over in the night...I threw the horrid little beasts onto the gravel then watched as Sparrows picked them up and rammed them down their fledglings throats...
It was sunny and warm at intervals...between the icy cold showers of rain that is, so it was pleasant enough kneeling on a cushion and wondering whether the slugs would be out in force tonight to chomp through the Lemon Yellow Lupin...
I used to go out at night armed with a bucket, the garden trowel and the torch to seek out the slugs and snails...they'd end up tossed in the river at the bottom of the garden but I swear they just heaved a sigh and clambered back out again...
Don't bother now...too knackered by the evening!
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I go on snail patrol with trowel and bucket,have been doing it for about 3 yrs,and now we don't have many slugs at all,as we have dogs we don't use slug pellets even though the pack says they are safe for pets,Mmmmmm,I do wonder.we put a circle of fine grit around our plants to keep slugs or snails away they don't like the rough ground,the snails used to climb up the bird table after the seed,so we wrapped some very coarse sand paper around the main stand,it works great.
A saucer of beer will attract your slugs so they will die happy. Do you get May bugs? I had one hit me in the chest once. So hard, I thought his Lordship had thrown something at me.
A pest control man told me those bugs lay eggs, that turn into larva and will cause an awful lot of damage to gardens.
Once we had a big brown caterpillar appear, it lifted up its head and waved side to side. It had two white circles with a black spot on each. They looked as if they were stuck on eyes.
I didn't believe it was real and thought it was a toy one. Then I showed a photo of it to a chap who knows about such things. He said it was an Elephant Hawk Moth caterpillar looking for a place to hide,
We never saw it again, nor did we see the moth. They have big pink wings, but are very big. I wouldn't want one of them to land on me.
I absolutely cannot stand maggots, white larva from the June Bugs would be pretty scary for me too.
Recently, I thought I saw a maggot in the kitchen, fortunately it was only a piece of cooked rice.
Have posted a photo of a May bug and an Elephant Moth Caterpillar.
My problem are the squirrels that live in our cherry tree. One of the young ones was on the window sill yesterday examining the newly planted window boxes . Will probably be used as storage space for the monkey nuts I feed them on. Cheek
Slugs and snails are a real nuisance in our garden too vashti but I can't be bothered to go on patrol to find them anymore. I am sure your garden will turn out beautifully and you will enjoy seeing everything in full bloom.
I used to attend our local gardening club when I was more mobile than I am now. One of the guest speakers was a lecturer at Plymouth University who specialised in all crawly, creepy things. From my notes, snails have an amazing 14.000 teeth, called radulae. It's no wonder that they can chew their way through my lettuce seedlings in the greenhouse overnight. No use chucking them over the fence to get rid of them, their homing instinct brings them right back to you. They have to be taken at least 80 yards away before they are " lost " we quite often find small snails in bushes or climbing up leaves. There is a small organism that attacks and digests snails from their undersides. so we are not their only enemies.
Pete did well thanks Vashti and is now much happier with his stimulator. He is getting relief into the calf muscle too now which is what he wanted. Keeping an eye on the wounds and on Doxy to make sure no infection will be forthcoming.
Hope you get your gardening done. Bring on the sunshine now. Take care. xxxx
We have a raised bed in our new garden does make life easier. The previous guy had it built from railway sleepers. This house does not seem to have a slug snail problem but my last one was horrendous. We had squirrels digging the pots and the grass all the time. It was funny when a number of them all wanted to steal the bird food and start to bark at each other.
My garden has a much different problem. Something is enjoying walking around and leaving its scent, so there are around twenty 8inch diameter dried up spots over the lawn. It wouldn't be so bad if I saw a beautiful wild animal about. Have a good day barnow
Could well be. The her side of the road to me are woods and there are foxes and badgers in there. the neighbour on that side did feed them but is not able to anymore so maybe they are wandering further. If it is they are coming through my next door neighbours as her fence has been down for 4 years, but thay is another story. One of these sleepness nights I'll look out for them.
Reminds me of a joke. A guy picks a snail up and tosses it down the backyard. About six months later there is a knock at the door. He answers and a little vouce says "well watcha go doin dat fir!"
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Saddened by skis & how I'm doing in general 
Where do you do nebuliser treatment?
DNR not sure what to do.
Must be doing something right!
