A View From (T’Shed By) The Greenhouse; Murders Most Foul

I’d been pottering about in the greenhouse for an hour or so after opening up the shed and decided it was time for a drink of water. Much panicked flapping of wings greeted me, the result of an infant house martin (I think) which, having found its way into the shed, had decided that the window was the only way out. Having dealt with crushed toad/frog gate, I wasn’t eager to further worsen any positive karma I might have by harming the little thing in any way. Thankfully it calmed down enough for me to cup it between my hands and set it free. No real harm done and (hopefully) a tick on the positive side of the ledger, although they do say no good deed goes unpunished!

I may have mentioned that, for the first time (so far as I’m aware) we have a bit of a white fly problem. Unluckily, and through no malicious intent, it was introduced via some seedlings that a friend had germinated for us. Any road up, I’ve been treating everything with neem oil and these yellow sticky things, both provided, I have to say, by the same friend who provided the pests in the first place. There’s little evidence of any real infestation at the moment, although, tiny as they are, the odd straggler still appears, but the damage, which makes sense once you see it, seems to have been restricted to the very bottom leaves of around half of the tomato plants. I’ve since removed them from ALL the plants and continue to use a light solution of the oil. Hopefully, that’s that.

As poor as the weather’s been, there’s some little progress in the experimental pea bed. Any success, however limited, will be much appreciated, but I think I’ll refine the process next year. Fresh seed, I think and I’ll germinate them in the short pipe lengths before planting them out into the bed, which I’ll have to both fertilise well and find a less time consuming way of getting water to the plants, should the need arise, say if the sun ever comes out next summer, or even if we have a Katastrophik Klimate Heatwave event for two or three days. Lets be fair, given the increasing rise in sea levels and the total melting of the polar ice caps, one cant be too careful. Be prepared, as the old motto goes.

Apropos of nowt, really, but you may remember that I did a bit of “Yorkshire-ing” and planted a couple of lemon pips last year (more in hope than expectation) that actually germinated. Having realised that being this far north and not being posh enough to have a conservatory where a lemon tree might thrive, I left them over the winter to their own devices. One survived and although it’s early days it seems to be going from strength to strength. Although the plan isn’t yet fully formulated and bearing in mind it needs to keep growing, I may find a permanent place for it in the greenhouse (utilising the soil we “harvested” last week). Hopefully fleecing it over, whilst still allowing some light to get to it, will see it survive a first winter and also harden it off a bit. Lemons in Cumberland, eh?

Although the primary focus of the B&M department is on making sure the house doesn’t collapse around our ears and the secondary focus (unlike Keir Starmer, it knows how to compartmentalise its various focuses) is pest control, he does have a penchant for claiming a bit of “grund” to grow several species of cucumber and a half dozen padron peppers which he’s taken a liking for following several Canary Island holidays, where, presumably, the taste for them was acquired. As with cucumber, so with padrons; I can take them or leave them, but cucumber plants do make a fine display. We’ve put an Armenian “yard long” cucumber in this year, it’s a plant I swapped in for a couple of tomato plants. It’s actually a variety of melon that looks and tastes a bit like cucumber, only a little sweeter. We wait with bated breath for the first fruits to appear!

Changing the layout in the house a little left us with a reasonable are where we’ve had a second go at growing some butternut squash. We know that they’d probably do better outside, but, more through luck than management given the weather so far, it looks like putting them inside may not have been such a bad idea. There are three plants in total that have produced some excellent looking leaves which hopefully will be reflected in first some decent  flowers and then, in the fullness of time a crop of gourds. Discussions are underway about potential going to bags for potato growing, which would free up outside space for the squash (amongst other things), but I suppose we’ll have to wait for global warming to properly kick in first.

A quick look at the vines again (I know) but the last time we clipped them back we made a point of removing most of the smaller, more “straggly” bunches and also manouvered an leaves and stems that were growing through bunches out of the way (as best we could). Apart from maybe the somewhat different growing conditions we’ve experienced this year, I’m tending to think that these tow simple processes are what’s making the difference both in the quantity of decent looking fruits and, fingers crossed, their future health. No doubt we’ll have wasps and the odd fruit fly to contend with later on, but I’m increasingly optimistic about this crop.

Back to the brassica enclosure for a final round up of progress so far. Although three of the six broccoli aren’t looking so chipper, everything else seems to be taking to captivity quite nicely. There have been some white butterflies about, and I expect more once the weather turns, but I’m confident they’ll not breach this mesh defense. Just behind the broad beans are seemingly flourishing and there are some signs, (better late than never, I suppose) that half a dozen of the dozen or so climbing beans I put it are starting to put out new leaf shoots. The climbing beans wont be ready for t’village show (if they’re ever ready at all) given that it’s only six weeks away, but I’m hopeful of having the requisite number of pods of both broad beans and peas. There might even be a swede, or a kohl rabi for the “vegetable with flower” class, although it’s unlikely there’ll be any beetroot. Swings and roundabouts……..innit?

I’ve been “feeding” all the plants, inside and out (apart from potatoes) with the solution of nettle, seaweed and banana skin once a week, or thereabouts since we started seeing evidence of shoots. This week was the first feed for the tomatoes (they’ll still get nettle once a week) of specific tomato food, which I hold off on, as per recommendation, until such time as the plants have formed trusses. Although I’ve seen them with healthier tops, all in all things seem to be going more or less as expected (apart from the white fly problem) hopefully the weekly regime of three pints or so of diluted feed will give them the push they need to start properly fruiting.

In recent weeks we’ve seen sentence passed on two murderers and one “accomplice” for crimes that really do pass the understanding of ordinary folk. A 23 year old man was sentenced to “life” imprisonment, with a minimum term to serve of 21 years (a sentence currently under review) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8721y4341qo for the senseless multiple stabbing of a young man for the crime (or so it would appear) of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. If this sentence isn’t increased, and there’s no certainty that it will be, then this fellow will be back on the streets, albeit on license, before his 45th birthday. The young lad who so cruelly had his life robbed from him will never walk the streets again. To my mind there’s something intrinsically and deeply unfair with this. We all saw the video clip of the young mans final moments and we all know how badly he was let down by the very people who were charged with protecting him, hopefully they’ll also see some form of justice served upon them, but I won’t be holding my breath.

Even more shocking were the revelations following the trial and sentencing of two men who adopted a child (Jamie Varley and John Mc-Gowan Fazakerley) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czrx8gj112mo , seemingly with the tacit approval of another group of people who were charged with said childs’ protection, for the sole purpose of fulfilling their depraved sexual desires. I won’t list the injuries this poor mite received at the hands of these two poor excuses for humanity, suffice to say they’d sicken the most cynical of us. One of these men has been given a whole of life term, which in theory means he’ll die in prison, his “partner” and accomplice in this horrible crime has been sentenced to 25 years, with a stipulation that he should serve a minimum of two-thirds. He’ll be on the streets well before his 50th birthday.

I wrote about the sentencing system following the abolishment of Capital Punishment on this august blog back in 2019 https://going-postal.com/?p=4107&preview=true it’s still there in drafts if anyone’s interested. Nothing that’s happened since then has changed my view and these two cases have strengthened them by degrees. Without having recourse to the “ultimate sanction” I argued then that sentencing had been watered down and that justice wouldn’t always be served, in my opinion, because of this. My view is that there would have been a case for Henry Nowaks’ killer to have been considered for execution, but in the final reckoning he would have been more likely to have received a tacit whole of life term, with the possibility of an early release (under strict license) after maybe 30 years, but only if it was deemed fit and proper to do so by people who had, first and foremost, the safety of the public in their minds, and not the needs of the perpetrator.

Axel Rudakubana https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gweeq1344o who murdered three small girls in a frenzied and fully planned knife attack was given a sentence of 52 years, Deng Majek https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5yvwdgjpj3o an asylum seeker who murdered hotel worker Rhiannon Whyte was sentenced to 29 years and a chap called Safi Dawood https://www.cps.gov.uk/london-north/news/announces-man-charged-murder-and-attempted-murder-after-uxbridgestill awaits trial for a triple stabbing incident (on charges of both murder and attempted murder) which resulted in the death of  road sweeper Wayne Broadhurst. These are not isolated incidents, there were over 50,000 “knife crimes” in the year ending September 2025. On average (although victims and their families will care little for averages), 1% of such crimes end up with someone killed. Putting aside the fact that the cost of keeping any one of these people in prison for a year is currently around £50,000 (there are currently 7,500 prisoners currently serving life for murder), I believe there’s both a moral imperative and a growing need to at least consider the reintroduction of the death penalty. The result of a referendum might be very interesting, maybe that’s why those in government continue to resist putting this question to the nation.
 

© Colin Cross 2026