miércoles, 17 de febrero de 2010

Red Scale and Mealeybugs and Neem

In the coming months I am going to catalogue the common bugs and beasties which affect our gardens here on the Costa Blanca and what we can do about them.
Whilst out and about in clients garden's I see what beasties are prevalent at different times of the year.
Although still in February, yes we do get a winter in the Mediterranean, the plants in our gardens are starting to bud and are preparing themselves for the spring sunshine which is just round the corner. As a consequence the green fly white fly and black fly are preparing themselves for some early spring pickings too!!
The first culprit to come under the hammer is the Californian Red Scale or “aonidiella aurantii” to those people who speak Latin or wear white laboratory coats. Strange but true , it is called California Red Scale but originally comes from Australia and is found in nearly all hot countries. I have noticed some heavy infestations of scale on rose bushes lately and of course on citric trees. Other plants that are particularly prone to attack are olives and boxwood.
The difficulty with treating scale insects or mealy bugs is that they have a protective coating in the form of a shell or a wax covering which means that many insecticides do not “ reach” behind their defensive armour, and the majority of insecticides that were effective in their control have been removed from the marketplace.
What do scale / mealy actually do? They suck the fluids from leaves and stems, robbing plants of essential nutrients. Mealy bugs/scale feed on all parts of the plant, but especially on tender new growth. Leaves wither and yellow and, on crop plants, fruit may drop prematurely. In many untended orange groves Red Scale is responsible for the dead “bits” of the trees.
How to treat.
The mealy bug problem is probably slightly easier to deal with as if there are not many these can be taken off by hand.
On fruit trees a winter oil mix can be applied to treat scale.
The best course of action is applying neem oil at the end of Feb and then again at the end of May.



Scale on roses

Californian Red Scale on an orange stem.

Red Scale on an olive


A sight often seen - red scale on oranges

martes, 16 de febrero de 2010

peas in feb










Peas picked this week

domingo, 14 de febrero de 2010

chickweed and nettles

Some bits and pieces i dsicovered about chickweed and nettles.

Chickweed is called Stellaria Media while nettles belong to a family called Urticanceae.

Chickweeds are an annual herb, widespread in temperate zones, arctic zones, and throughout, probable origin Eurasia. Chickweeds have established themselves all over the world, possibly carried on the clothes and shoes of explorers. They are as numerous in species as they are in region. Most are succulent and have white flowers, and all with practically the same edible and medicinal values. They all exhibit a very interesting trait, (they sleep) termed the 'Sleep of Plants,' every night the leaves fold over the tender buds and the new shoots.
The cultivation of this one is not necessary it is abundant and easy to find. Gather fresh edible plant between May and July, as soon as flowers appear, it can be used fresh or be dried for later herb use.
Properties Chickweeds are Medicinal and edible, they are very nutritious, high in vitamins and minerals, can be added to salads or cooked as a pot herb, tasting somewhat like spinach. The major plant constituents in Chickweed are Ascorbic-acid, Beta-carotene, Calcium, Coumarins, Genistein, Gamma-linolenic-acid, Flavonoids, Hentriacontanol, Magnesium, Niacin, Oleic-acid, Potassium, Riboflavin, Rutin, Selenium, Triterpenoid saponins, Thiamin, and Zinc. The whole plant is used in alternative medicine as an astringent, carminative, demulcent, diuretic, expectorant, laxative, refrigerant, vulnerary. A decoction of the whole plant is taken internally as a post-partum depurative, emmenagogue, galactogogue and circulatory tonic. It is also used to relieve constipation, an infusion of the dried herb is used in coughs and hoarseness, and is beneficial in the treatment of kidney complaints. as an astringent, carminative, demulcent, diuretic, expectorant, laxative, refrigerant, vulnerary. A decoction of the whole plant is taken internally as a post-partum depurative, emmenagogue, galactogogue and circulatory tonic. It is also used to relieve constipation, an infusion of the dried herb is used in coughs and hoarseness, and is beneficial in the treatment of kidney complaints. New research indicates it's use as an effective antihistamine. The decoction is also used externally to treat rheumatic pains, wounds and ulcers. It can be applied as a medicinal poultice and will relieve any kind of roseola and is effective wherever there are fragile superficial veins or itching skin conditions.
Folklore Chickweed water is an old wives' remedy for obesity.
RecipesMedicinal tea: To 1 tbls. dried herb, 2 if fresh, add 1 cup boiling water steep for 10 min. Take in ½ cup doses 2 to 4 times daily, during a cold or flu.
Article by Deb Jackson & Karen Bergeron



Nettles -- http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/stinging-nettle-000275.htm

potatoes on valentines day








Potatoes picked today. It is also time to prepare seed potatotes if you haven't already done it.

February

Feb is here and the garden is cold. The rains prevail ( and more predicted this week) making the soil heavy and wet.


Today i went to the vegetable plot to see how things were, to breathe some air and generally be with nature a little. A little bit of weeding - mainly nettles and chickweed both of which are edible with medicinal properties. I quickly forgot about the medicinal properties of the nettles as i was stung a couple of times, and remembered the medicinal properties of an antidote in the form of dock leaves. There was a time when i made wine from nettle leaves, it was pretty foul tasting stuff but had a rather noted effect and a hell of a hangover.


At the plot the carrots required "thined-out", the process of taking out intermediary baby carrots (which are delicious raw or pan fried with a little butter) to let the others develope


Leeks are planted beside the carrots to ward off carrot fly in a style of complementary planting.


I lifted a couple of shaws of potatoes which look delicious, small tubers with little skin. Potatoes planted at the back-end of the season do not provide a large crop, however they have a flavour all of their own and are a gastranomic treat.


Radishes and sugar-snap peas along with fesh lettuce and curly endive leaves provide the salad which accompanied the paella today.


Tomorrows lunch will include some of the small cauliflowers cropped today. I will try them in some tempura batter along with the remaining sugar-snap peas.