Early Autumn Bits and Bobs - 2017

[tigerburnie]

Most of yesterday spent cutting the big hedge, pollarding the trees and shredding the unwanted stuff, satisfying when it's all done.

[retropants]

took about 8ft off a big laurel that has got a bit out of hand. Was waiting for the blackbirds to finish nesting...... they are still feeding their last brood!!!

[oldherbaceous]

I still sometimes get amazed, by the amount of stuff that you end up having to clear up!

[PLUMPUDDING]

Too right OH. I've been clearing paths and weeding and took 10 sacks of garden waste to the dumpit site yesterday - the car stuffed full with the seats down. I admit it's been neglected since May due to my medical treatment but am happy now it looks so much better. There's just one path to finish. All that is weeds run to seed or other nasties the rest of the prunings have gone into the compost heaps. Makes you think how quickly nature would take over again if we stopped any management.

[oldherbaceous]

Funny old weather, it's more like April showers here.....heavy showers then warm sun, then thunderstorms....wouldn't be that bad but, I have some late hay cut.

[Monika]

I cleared out the greenhouse two days ago because, in spite of the not so brilliant summer weather this year, our tomatoes (Gardeners Delight) produced an enormous crop and have all finished with just some very small green tiddlers left. So I used the comparatively dry and still weather to clear everything out, wash it down inside and out and fumigate it with a sulphur candle. Today, it has been open all day for the wind to get rid of the horrid smell and fumes and now the remaining herb and flower plants will be put back. Ee, it does feel autumnal already ......

[peter]

Rained pretty much all day, even thunderstorm at one point.
Went to Homebase for some retail therapy, mains electric hedge cutter £29 -and a 10" (circular) tablesaw £99, also some cyclamen for the front door.
The £30 tablesaw I bought last year is still on sale elsewhere, cheapest £69, it is brilliant for processing pallets into kindling and firewood. That's once I've used my pallet bar to disassemble them and removed the nails with hammer and pincers - quite a therapeutic way of spending a few hours, with winter warmth to anticipate.

[peter]

Cleared my squash bed today, they'd mostly started to die, the leaf cover for the fruits was gone.
Clearing revealed many rotting immature fruits and some rotting stems.
Not noting when I do things each year I'm unsure, but, I think this could be the earliest I've done this.

Twenty Crown Prince, a whole piled barrow load of Vegetable Spaghetti and some Festival, plus something I'm unsure of (green so dark it's nearly black and shaped like a pointy Festival) and many of what I think is Autumn Crown mostly immature - so we'll see if they ripen or rot in the greenhouse.

One oddity is that I planted out a number of butternut, including an American import from Cornell University breeding, not a single fruit at all! One chap a few plots up has a 6'×15' squash bed and he has about ten ginormous butternut.

Found many cucumbers and a final bucket of Patty Pan.
Finished off by picking a half carrier bag of quince from ground and tree.

After barrowing that lot back it got packed away, shared between frost free shed, greenhouse and garage.

Cabbage cage contents looking reasonably healthy, I'm hoping the weather kills off the cabbage white eggs and caterpillars, which are doubtless in there somewhere as the little vultures have been fluttering around.

[Primrose]

Gosh Peter, that's an awful lot of Crown Prince. Do you manage to eat your way through them all during the course of the winter. We use them in mixed roast vegetables and vegetable curries etc but even getting through one reasonable sized one takes quite a while !

[tigerburnie]

I too am starting to remove plants that have finished in the greenhouse, tommies on pots are the first and one of the tumbling toms in a hanging basket is close to meeting the compost heap.

[peter]

A gallon or two of bacon, squash, carrot & potato soup, with tactically purchased fresh bread as the previpus loaf goes stale makes a weeks food.
Plus I have West Indian and Indian friends at work. One takes it & preps ot to chunks & shares it out the next day.

[robo]

Gale force winds and torrential rain not a nice day

[robo]

Gale warning for tonight and tomorrow they are giving 70 mph and higher it's batten down the hatches time

[Primrose]

The fencing contractor who sorted out our wrecked fences after the last wild gale said he rubbed his hands with glee after hearing the weather forecasts for gales. They help to boost his business - in fact give him more work than he can cope with. . A case of "Every cloud has a silver lining" for somebody !

[Pa Snip]

70mph winds, half the speed of those just suffered over the pond and we go into panic mode.

Same effect as 2inches of snow.

Leaves on the line problem will crop up soon