Sacha wrote:
Found my first of the season this morning. :-( A mating pair, no
less. Can't even feed them to the chickens ...
Hallo, Vicky! Nice to see you back. I don't think lily beetles have
got this far yet. If they have, we haven't seen them! Istr reading
some time ago that they're only found in certain areas. Is that correct?

I believe that that is correct, but I was under the impression they covered the south up to the midlands. I guess it's only the eastern side of the south so far. Probably only a matter of time till they get to you, I'm afraid. (May be hope for the north if it's a bit cold for them, though)

Do you get asparagus beetle? I am told they are related.

wrote in message
...
Sacha wrote:
Found my first of the season this morning. :-( A mating pair, no
less. Can't even feed them to the chickens ...
Hallo, Vicky! Nice to see you back. I don't think lily beetles have
got this far yet. If they have, we haven't seen them! Istr reading
some time ago that they're only found in certain areas. Is that correct?

I believe that that is correct, but I was under the impression they
covered the south up to the midlands. I guess it's only the eastern side
of the south so far. Probably only a matter of time till they get to you,
I'm afraid. (May be hope for the north if it's a bit cold for them,
though)

Do you get asparagus beetle? I am told they are related.

We get Lily Beetle down here from time to time.


--
Charlie, Gardening in Cornwall
Holders of National Collections of Clematis viticella
and Lapageria rosea cvs
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk

On Tue, 01 May 2012 00:05:28 +0200, Martin wrote:

And so long as the Irish (and now also the Germans after shutting down
their nuclear plant) are burning peat for electricity on an industrial
scale the amount an amateur gardener uses pales into insignificance.

The Germans call it brown coal.
--

Martin- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Brown coal is not peat.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lignite

but it is what Germany burns in power stations.

Yes we know they do. But that doesn't make it Peat .
Ireland as you stated does use peat to fuel power stations,
some parts of Eastern Europe, bits of Scandinavia have /have done but
usually in smaller local plants .
Have Germany started to use Peat as well?
Wouldn't surprise me as with their power shortage since the sudden
close of Nuclear they will probably end up burning Pallets.
Affects the UK as well as they are now in competion with us for French
Nuclear output. Britain has been exporting a lot to Europe this winter
much generated in Coal stations. so the Germans can claim they are
green while our emissions go up.
G.Harman

On Monday, 30 April 2012 18:46:57 UTC+1, Sacha wrote:
I think you and Raymond were separated at birth! One of the arguments
against peat use is gardeners using it as a soil improver. We
certainly don't do that but we do use peat based composts for our
plants and the results are obvious. We have visited nurseries that
won't use peat and have seen some very sickly plants. This is NOT to
say that the results are inevitable but it's amazing how often they
seem to be. When my stepson undertook the job of improving my son's
Jersey garden, he bought (in Jersey) tons of soil improver for pennies
by comparison to peat. It did just the job it said on the tin so
perhaps gardeners could look into finding such material before buying
expensive peat products to do an unnecessary job?
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
www.hillhousenurserytearoom.com
South Devon

No, it's just convergent evolution Sacha ;~))
I don't know what's happening with our local authority, they seem to be unloading the green waste compost to our farmer neighbour rather than making the effort of marketing it to the local community. I don't know what the deal is but it's unlikely to be at a financial loss to the farmer. This farmer has had a huge tractor and trailer running back and forth collecting about 8 loads per day since last September (around 16tonnes per load) so it's quite a big pile now at the farm. I've got the offer of more when I want it so this is one very happy gardener.

Rod

On 02/05/2012 09:39, Martin wrote:
On Tue, 01 May 2012 13:52:35 +0100, wrote:

Affects the UK as well as they are now in competion with us for French
Nuclear output. Britain has been exporting a lot to Europe this winter
much generated in Coal stations.

Are you sure? http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/ shows electricity
being imported from France The Netherlands and Ireland.

Yes. He is right. During mid winter we were running all available coal
plant flat out in early Feb and exporting electricity to Europe. We were
briefly borderline for one cold snap but it didn't last.

so the Germans can claim they are
green while our emissions go up.

Their dirtiest electricity plants are in the former GDR.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

In article ,
lid says...

On Wed, 02 May 2012 10:53:58 +0100, Martin Brown
wrote:

On 02/05/2012 09:39, Martin wrote:
On Tue, 01 May 2012 13:52:35 +0100, wrote:

Affects the UK as well as they are now in competion with us for French
Nuclear output. Britain has been exporting a lot to Europe this winter
much generated in Coal stations.

Are you sure? http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/ shows electricity
being imported from France The Netherlands and Ireland.

Yes. He is right. During mid winter we were running all available coal
plant flat out in early Feb and exporting electricity to Europe. We were
briefly borderline for one cold snap but it didn't last.

I've watched gridwatch right through the winter. It has always shown
energy being imported from France and The Netherlands. How does
exported British electricity get to Germany?

Via the 1,000-MW BritNed interconnector (exports generated power from UK
to Netherlands where it connects to Germany).

http://uk.mobile.reuters.com/article...72H02Q20110318

Janet.

On Wed, 02 May 2012 10:39:58 +0200, Martin wrote:

On Tue, 01 May 2012 13:52:35 +0100, wrote:



I was mistaken. I thought brown coal was a form of peat.
I blame a German who told me it was.
Have Germany started to use Peat as well?

Not that I know of. I think they even want to stop using brown coal
and black coal.

Wouldn't surprise me as with their power shortage since the sudden
close of Nuclear they will probably end up burning Pallets.

In future the Dutch brewery industry will use plastic pallets made out
of recycled plastic, so there may be lots of wooden pallets available.
Did you mean pellets?
No ,I was being sarcastic,they have closed nuclear,if they stop coal
what will they use Gas from the East I suppose.

Affects the UK as well as they are now in competion with us for French
Nuclear output. Britain has been exporting a lot to Europe this winter
much generated in Coal stations.

Are you sure? http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/ shows electricity
being imported from France The Netherlands and Ireland.
It does vary but back in the cold snap we seemed to be exporting more
than importing and that seemed unusual compared to what usually
happened. I would be very surprised if the UK was importing from
Ireland ,the link has been constructed because they have limited
resources and they realise the Peat will not be available for ever.
The Gridwatch site is good but it is easy to miss the minus sign on
the figure below the Interconnector dials. minus sign means power
leaving the UK. The Irish link was down for most of the Winter as the
cable got damaged. Other times I've seen in from France and out to the
Netherlands or other way about which must be down to pricing
agreements ,or maybe the Belgians want too much to pass it through.
Anyway I expect most readers have been driven out to their plants by
now so I must do the same. There appears to be a brief patch of
Sunshine.
G.Harman