Talk to older people just along your street about their garden

 Way back when about six years old it was thought safe to talk to the older people just along the street about their garden. They in turn had the simple pleasure of adding to the understanding of a young child how the compost benefitted the garden.

So to did my Great-grandfathers gardening activities as he often put little insects into my hand. Ladybirds, worms and millipedes form a part of this list. When Great-grandad was alive still he was just a long trip away.  

But gardening was already in my blood.  It was a commonality with which to talk to people.

Now that time has moved onwards the age of sharing this understanding is done in a completely different way. The people who catch the bus stop off at the front of the house. Hopping off the buss they see shrubs and some cacti that survive on little water. long with lillipilli trees.  

A few younger people have come here with their parent, or parents, for other reasons. That parent then goes back to their place and adds cuttings or in the case of the "oops I spilt a half a packet of butter beans in water and the germinated. Here's a few for you to grow."

But in order for these to be shared there is a task to complete. That is: To learn more about these nocturnal tomato burring millipedes

The end of the tomato growing season has come. There are still tomatoes being produced but there pest about.  The black millipede has been digging into these tomatoes. 

Tomatoes are a luxury food for these tomato eating anthropoids. Now they are meant to be eating the decaying leaves and other dead plant matter of the composted material added to the garden bed.

Sure the millipede plays that important role  in a garden bed. They aerate the soil well., but do they have to destroy the living plants. Yeah millipedes even love to eat onions.

Big plus is that spiders love millipedes.  This year there seems to be many spiders hanging around.

Well it time to 

• Haul out those last remaining tomato plants.
• Add these into the compost bin [ minus any millipedes hosteled there. 
• Turn the soil over and just let the bids in to check out what's new or left over [like millipede eggs]. 
• Then replant the Butter Been seedlings into small pots for the nest few weeks until that ground is cleared as naturally as possible.

Defiantly it looked like the only control was to be a slug and snail bait that was used last year - with some success. But not until the birds have had their picnic.

So today the reseeding and tomorrow the pest control digging