Attack Of The Aphids!

Over the past week we've had some real growth of the fruit trees and vegetables in the garden yet there's been a curve-ball thrown at us! Why can't things just go to plan? A metaphor for life I suppose. Our pear trees have been swarmed by Aphids. These are just tiny green insects that crawl up the tree and hide under the leaves and slowly eat away at the leaves! This stops the trees and roots getting the sunlight that they need to grow taller and stronger! For a more detailed description: 'Aphids are small sap-sucking insects and members of the superfamily Aphidoidea. Common names include greenfly and blackfly, although individuals within a species can vary widely in colour. The group includes the fluffy white woolly aphids.' Wikipedia See the damage these savage beasts have caused below...

Now, what's this...the weeds attacking too?!

Not only are the creepy crawlies trying to have a piece of my trees, it's the weeds growing up from the soil too! It's important to weed every so often so that the tree itself can get the essential nutrients it needs from the soil and sufficient water can get down the soil. The weeds will take these for themselves, the greedy so and sos! But, I was on hand to tear some of these out making sure that I got hold of their roots, not just ripping the heads off and then they grow back a week later! The weeds have been able to grow so well because I spent time sifting the soil, almost to the point where it was like sand. This means that any small rocks or pieces of wood weren't blocking the weeds so they could just grow straight up! Prime growing conditions for the weeds! In a way, by being too caring it came to bight me in the backside. Oh well, you live and you learn.

Fear Not! It's not all doom and gloom!

Amidst the chaos and attacks on my beautiful garden, there is some light at the end of the tunnel! Here there are some blueberries growing in the first picture and what you can also see if that there are some damsons growing on the tree that I roped around and put some plum lines on! I tried one yesterday, perhaps they're a tad sour! A couple of days and they should be okay! We've had a 4th round of rhubarb. Yes, you heard me right, a 4th round of rhubarb! The stuff just keep on growing! Here you can see what we would harvest to give us another batch! We've been making rhubarb gin and also some rhubarb crumbles with it!

A New Season

There were some cucumbers that had been left in a tin can that I had grown from seed and forgotten about and they were starting to turn yellow as they were becoming too big and needed more nutrients than the small tin cans could offer! Thus, I decided to plant these into the ground and hope that nature works its magic and they can start go be green and healthy again and we can get a crop of cucumbers! Not really sure what to do with loads of cucumbers, only so many that you can eat! The apple that I planted is growing nicely, it's nice to get one out of the 3. Maybe another one is soon to come! I added some additional plums in their own pots, these were plums that I ate from the next door neighbours tree! They were absolutely enormous and so was the tree! They were so sweet and juicy! Hopefully these can eventually turn into one of those huge trees! The spring onions are starting to come along nicely and the addition of the tray underneath has been so helpful in keeping the water in. Before we would give them a drink and they would dry up in no time! I think next time I'll use a big round pot and just sprinkle the seeds all around!

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

Thank you very much again for taking the time to read this update of mine. I've really enjoyed taking up this new hobby of homesteading during the corona virus and I have also enjoyed documenting this on the local grower blog! Please feel free to upvote, comment and share. This really encourages me and really helps financially! As I mentioned before, I have been working behind the scenes too at creating the GROW token and I have been successful in doing that! It was something that crossed my mind and it has been so exciting to actually have done it now! I have thought long and hard about the GROW token and it's utility and quite frankly just what to do with it! This goes a really long way in support me so thank you very much! Special thanks to @darthknight, @trafalgar, @ocd, @ocdb, @qurator, @blocktrades, @canadian-coconut, @therealwolf and more for your generous upvotes!