It started with a whisper of a whiff. At first, I thought it was the smell of soil clinging to the potatoes in the vegetable rack, or a potato that had rotted. Or maybe it was the large basket of beetroots? However, by the time I had made another batch of beetroot chutney, the whiff had become a pong. Doc thought it was the smell of the house martin droppings outside, wafting in through the vent in the pantry. So he scrubbed, scraped and disinfected the vent as well as the path outside the kitchen.
The path was clean and smelled sweet, in fact we could have eaten our dinner off it but the pantry was now so putrid it made us feel sick to go inside. Something had to be done.
We took everything out of the pantry which was a large task because although it is a small room, it is much like Dr Who's tardis. Doc made remarks such as “Are you hoping to use this lot to barter with the barbarians as they rampage through the valley...?” I got to work with the disinfectant, explaining that there is nothing wrong with having a well stocked larder. (Although I have thrown out some jars of herbs and spices which had use-by dates too embarrassing to mention.)
Doc opened the window and it was then he noticed a yellow, damp patch in the corner of the windowsill. We lowered our noses and the smell was even more intense. Doc is a GP and said he had smelled the smell before. It was the smell of death....decaying flesh..... (who would be a doctor?)
With a little investigation on the internet, we discovered that it is not uncommon for small mammals such as mice to find their way into the cavity walls of a house, get stuck and die. Perhaps they are searching for cheese? Apparently, it takes weeks and weeks for a corpse to complete the decomposition process. So we have to let nature takes it course, or hire a builder to break the wall apart and retrieve the rotting mass.
Doc has installed blocks of activated charcoal and is researching some odour sucking crystals in the hope of managing the symptoms of this horrible problem. Currently, the contents on the pantry are in the dining room so we feel as though we are camping out. I am concerned that the fruit and vegetables from the garden will suffer in the warmth of the kitchen. The fridge is stuffed full!
On top of this, I was terrified out of my wits the other evening. I was reaching out for the toothpaste when I found a large insect crawling up the tooth mug. On closer, but very tentative inspection, the little critter appeared alien to me. It had a black body with a waist, lacy wings and bright orange legs. Sticking out of its rear was what looked like a long, nasty sting.
The words ‘don’t panic Mr Mainwairing’ came to mind, so I breathed deeply and coaxed the little beastie into a glass and covered it with a flannel. I carefully took it downstairs and although Doc was not visibly concerned, I noticed that he held the glass at arm’s length. He released the insect outside, slammed the door shut and we went to bed. I could not sleep though and was convinced this tropical killer had arrived via the supermarket shopping. It could have arrived in the bananas.
Next morning, Doc found the creature in the utility room so it must have crawled under the back door – though of course it could have been its twin. This time, there was no holding back. With a sharp tap, it was dead but not so squished that my TV CSI training could not be put to good use. I initiated a thorough investigation, beginning with the obligatory photographs and several searches on the Oracle.
I soon discovered that the offending insect was a Pimpla Instigator or ichneumon fly and there are many different species. They are totally harmless, nectar feeding insects but we are consoled that lots of other people have reacted in a similar way, with the same results.
Our visitor may not have killed us but it does have a rather grisly habit. The so-called sting is actually an ‘ovipositor’ and the female uses it to inject as many up to 150 eggs into a defenceless caterpillar. The grubs grow inside the caterpillar, gradually eating their way to the outside world. So, far from being a nuisance, our fly was probably killing off the caterpillars that eat the vegetables we are trying to grow!
With my ailing foot, harvesting the fruit and veg is something I can get my teeth into and that is exactly what I do with the Japanese Wineberries (Rubus phoenicolasius). There is something magical about popping these small, sticky, ruby coloured clusters of unctuousness into your mouth, straight from the pink, prickly stems. Not many of these delicate little fruits make it back to the kitchen but this season’s crop is the best we have seen, so there is a bowl of them in the fridge to have with our muesli tomorrow. And there are lots more to ripen.
Wineberries are an unusual fruit with a glossy appearance and a definite sweet red wine taste. They are exotic in their appeal but are remarkably easy to grow – either in full sun or partial shade. They are similar to summer fruiting raspberries in that they fruit on the previous year’s growth. Unlike raspberries though the canes are long and arching – so we tie them into a trellis but if you have the space you can let them run free, though they will not be well behaved! If you bend a stem to the ground and weight it down with a stone, it will root very easily.
You can use wineberries in cooking as you would raspberries, but we never do. They have such a wow factor that we think they are best served as they are. I can never understand why more people don’t grow them.
Doc and I are trying to keep up with the harvest and it feels good to wander back up to the house with a large trug laden with our own produce. Wandering up and down the garden is all I can do at the moment because I still am finding walking a challenge – and our plot is inconveniently on a hillside! 5 months ago I experienced a stress fracture in my left foot and although the fracture has healed, I am still hobbling about in pain. Complications have set in and I have no idea when I will be fit again. Thank goodness for Doc’s support, he is literally a tower of strength. We always thought we made a good team. He starts a job and I finish it or I start a job and he finishes it! He is relishing the extra time he spends in the garden, having recently reduced his day job to half time. He is outside in the fresh air most days, doing something or other - and of course playing golf!
Anyway, I can manage the harvesting (apart from the runner beans in the high reaches of the cane framework!) and I particularly love picking juicy, ripe tomatoes which have been warmed by the sunshine. Everything is at the peak of freshness and tastes far better than anything you can buy in the shops.
Not everything is doing well– and I don’t just mean the cucumbers. We seem unable to grow a decent pear tree, let alone encourage one to bear any fruit. When we moved here, there was an old pear tree but we did not know the variety. It was huge, far too huge to ever harvest fruit from it. However, this was an irrelevance because even if it occasionally managed to grow fruitlets they always fell to the ground before growing to any appreciable size and it always looked tatty and listless. We have since had this tree felled and Doc plans to build a fruit cage in its place.
A few years ago, we invested in 3 new pear trees for the orchard – a Conference, a Concorde and an Onward. None of them can do anything but struggle. They have weak, spindly branches and all show bright orange spots on the leaves in summer and autumn. As for fruit, the Onward is boasting a pair of pears, but they are so small I fear they will blow off in a gust of wind! No chance of pear and walnut tart, I am afraid.
The orange spots are a rust fungus which feeds on the host plant over an extended period, without killing it. It is not able to survive on dead plant material. Pear trees are deciduous so it must either alternate with a different, perennial host such as a Juniper tree, or produce resting spores to pass the dormant season.
A common alternative host for the fungus is a Juniper tree and yes, you’ve guessed it, our neighbour has a Juniper tree! Non-chemical controls, like removing infected areas of the tree and dead leaves are unlikely to be effective for us because the spores can easily be blown backwards and forwards, across the garden hedge. We could consider an alternative site for a pear tree but we don’t have anywhere suitable.
If we really want to enjoy a juicy, home grown pear then I think we would have to resort to chemical control of this pest. We are still thinking about this one. Perhaps we will have to resign ourselves to becoming a pear-free zone......
Still, there are lots of plant species we can grow. Until a free packet of seeds prompted an experiment, we did not think our garden would suit Morning Glory. They are an annual climber and need warmth, masses of sunshine and a sheltered spot. We have given them a nice arch with a south facing aspect. However, it does get windy and it was very cold in the spring. I raised the plants in the greenhouse and when I finally plucked up courage to set them free in the garden, they sat and sulked for several weeks. Our patience is rewarded though because they look lovely at the moment. They are such a welcome splash of colour in August, a real bonus, and they look much nicer than the pear trees!
