Lily Beetle

I have lilies in pots at home and they have never suffered with the dreaded Lily Beetle, however, when I went to the allotment yesterday there were three of these pests feasting on the lilies which I have planted there. They feed on the leaves, stems and flowers of lilies and you can see where parts of the leaves have been eaten. This causes the plant to stop producing food and weakens it preventing it from flowering next year, and in some cases, killing it. I'm not very good at killing insects, even bad ones, so I got my hubby to squish them. I'm going to have to be extra vigilant and check over the plants each time I make a trip to the allotment.

The sweetcorn which were planted out a few weeks ago are putting on new growth now after sulking for a little while when they were first planted out. The sweetcorn which I have grown previously in containers always did really well for me so I'm hoping that they do just as well at the allotment.

It is nearly 12 weeks since my potatoes were planted and they are now starting to flower so I shall be unearthing some of them within the next week or two. Again, they have done really well for me in containers previously, so it will be interesting to see what difference planting them in the ground makes.

I can't believe how much growth the brassicas have put on. They have literally romped away since they were planted out. Unfortunately, I lost a few of them to slug damage, but I replaced these plants and they are now doing fine. They are planted in the brassica cage which I posted about earlier, to prevent the Cabbage White butterfly from laying their eggs on them, as their caterpillars can do more damage than slugs.

We had a huge downpour during the night but today is warm and bright again. This weather is just what plants need to make them have growth spurts, but unfortunately, the same goes for weeds. I think I'm going to have to set a day aside to do some serious weeding of the beds at the allotment as weeds are popping up everywhere.

With everything growing so well at the allotment, my attention is now turning to follow on crops. On Sunday I picked some peas which I have growing in containers in the garden. After eating some straight from the pods (how could I resist?), there were just enough left for one meal, with more pods forming on the plants for later. The peas at the allotment have pods which are just starting to fill, and I have some more plants at home which are ready to be planted. Yesterday I sowed some chard and some curly kale so once they have sprouted I will have to find room for them at the allotment.