Avoiding Carrot Root Fly

Growing your own carrots is easy and rewarding - nothing beats the sweet taste of freshly lifted young carrots. There are many varieties of all shapes and sizes and all are easy to grow. I grow the 'Early Nantes' variety which is a slender finger length carrot.
The only problem you are likely to encounter is the carrot root fly. The adult flies first lay their eggs in May/June and then lay a second batch in July/August. The eggs hatch to produce small maggots which tunnel into the roots. The adult fly is attracted to the carrots by the smell released from fresh leaves so it is best if you handle the leaves as little as possible. It helps if you don't sow the carrots too thickly so there are fewer seedlings to thin out. 
One way of deterring the adult fly without using chemicals is by interspersing rows of carrots with rows of onions. The smell of the onions allegedly disguises the smell of the carrot leaves. I haven't tried this method as I have limited space to grow root crops in my vegetable patch. So I decided to try a different method. I saw a television programme which featured someone who had previously suffered a lot of problems with carrot root fly and who found a simple chemical free solution. Evidently the flies will fly at a certain height and this person solved the problem by growing their carrots in a barrel about 3 feet tall, above the height at which the adult carrot fly travels.
I have managed to get hold of an old 45 gallon plastic drum which I have filled with soil and planted with carrots. I tried this for the first time last year and had a reasonable crop so I hope to repeat that success this year.

Conserving Water in the Garden

This has been an unusually dry spring and some parts of the country are officially in drought. We all need to think about how we are using water and gardeners can make a real difference by using water wisely. Collecting rainwater is the easiest way to conserve water use in your garden. If you have a water meter it can also save you money. Proprietary rainwater diversion kits, together with rainwater storage butts, can be purchased from most DIY outlets but all sorts of containers can be utilised by the innovative gardener.
I installed my first rainwater butt (pictured) at the rear of the garage a number of years ago. Since then I have installed two others at the front and rear of the house, and two smaller containers collect rainwater runoff from the greenhouse. It's surprising how much water you can save with just a few storage barrels.
Another good way of preventing your garden from drying out excessively is by mulching your borders to reduce water loss, and by adding plenty of humus to your soil, especially if it is very free draining. Home made compost is excellent for this job and it's free, saving you even more money.
If you want to be more creative get advice from a plumber regarding a 'grey' water system. Grey water is what comes out of washing machines, washbasins, showers and baths. It may contain soap and detergent but this can mostly be removed by suitable filters. The objective is to pump this water to a special storage tank where it can then be reused for flushing toilets, washing the car and watering the garden. It's a great idea for water conservation but a bit of an expensive investment for the average gardener.

Oriental Poppies

June is the month that my Oriental Poppy (Papaver Orientale) comes into flower. Oriental Poppies are really spectacular when in flower, the bright scarlet flowers being about 4 inches in diameter.
This is a hardy spreading border perennial which grows to about 2-3 feet tall. There are a number of garden varieties with flower colours ranging from white through to pink and blood red. My plant is a beautiful scarlet red. It's a shame the flowers don't last longer. By the end of June they will all be gone. As the foliage is rather untidy I prefer to cut it back once flowering has finished. Sometimes if the weather is mild enough they will produce a second flush of flowers in the autumn.
Oriental Poppies are happy in ordinary well drained garden soil but need a sunny position. Plant them out in March/April or October. Established plants can be propagated by dividing and replanting the roots in March or April.  

Growing Tomatoes using the Ring Culture Method

Each year I like to grow a few tomatoes. My favourite variety is 'Gardener's Delight' which produces lots of small sweet fruits. This variety can be grown outside as a bush plant but the weather in this part of the country is not really good enough to ensure a decent crop. So I prefer to raise my tomatoes in the greenhouse. Tomatoes are easy to grow under glass, whether grown in the soil border or in growbags or pots. If you use the soil border to grow your tomatoes the soil will need changing after 2-3 years. If you use pots then a richer soil based compost such as John Innes No.3 is required.                   My greenhouse has a solid floor and I don't really like using growbags so I have been using the ring culture method for a number of years and find this gives excellent results. This simple system uses 12 inch diameter bottomless pots (also called rings) which stand on an isolated bed of aggregate such as gravel, crushed stone or pebbles. My aggregate bed is a frame constructed of 6 inch deep wooden planks lined with plastic sheet and filled with small pebbles. Plastic 12 inch diameter rings are placed on the aggregate bed spaced 18 inches apart. These are filled with John Innes No. 3 compost and a bamboo cane is inserted into each ring to train the tomato plants up. After planting water in well and leave for a few days for the plants to root through the compost into the aggregate. Continue to water the compost sparingly for a few weeks followed by watering the aggregate regularly. Once the first couple of flower trusses have set and the fruits have started to swell, a proprietary tomato feed can be watered into the compost on a fortnightly basis. When growing tomatoes up canes or wires as a cordon, make sure any side shoots are removed so the plant's energy is concentrated in the production of the fruits.