Kitchen Garden Forum

Well since the weather feels like the title, I thought it was time to brace ourselves for one of the worse Winters for years....
Of course on the other hand, it might be quite a mild one....

Bright and breezy up here with sleet forecast for later, we could do with a proper winter, I find it sorts a lot of the bugs out.

I always think it's a bit odd that folk predict the severity of the coming winter by the amount of berries on the holly trees, etc - but surely that just means we had a good spring and the flowers got pollinated really well. Or is it just me??

You are correct Diane, it is what has been leading up to the berries and not what is to come....nice bit of folklore, though.

Oh the irony! A free packet of leek seeds with my newly arrived Kitchen Garden magazine this morning. But after two years of my leeks being decimated by bugs and turned to mush, I'm not sure whether I feel able to risk growing them again next year with so little spare growing space for rotation. Maybe I'll give them a final chance, harvest them young and freeze them before the bugs take hold.
It's annoying when you suddenly find yourself excluded from growing the vegetables you regularly use.

Heard Dave King on the radio, talking about his alternative way of predicting the weather. Seems we are in for a hard cold winter I’m keeping an eye out to see how good his perdition is. His web sight if any one is interested www.weatherwithouttechnology.co.uk

The bushes and trees behind our allotment are covered in berries it will be interesting to see if we have bad winter

The trouble is, people remember when it works out to be the case and forget about the times when it doesn't!

But if it doesn't hurt anyone, does it really matter...well of course it doesn't...

Diane - that makes so much sense that it just reflects a good Spring & Summer. I think some animals & insects have a better idea than us but plants?? In my youth it was if the ants came in the house or climbed the walls there was big rain coming with the potential of floods. Very accurate actually.

Primrose - why don't you plant them at the ends of beds with lots of other veg or just in between cabbages etc. rather than in one spot so if the creepy crawlies find some they don't find the lot. They don't actually take up too much space so would think they could go in & reside happily with other veg and might even deter some of the beasts that attack them or even vice versa.

Whatever happens it feels like it's a bit late this year so hopefully will be a shorter winter but cold enough to kill the ruddy white fly still on my kale!

My parents always used to judge how hard the forthcoming winter might be based upon holly and other berries on trees.
Personally I have always thought, and still do, that birds are the indicator of what is to come not berries.

Our feeders are on the front lawn, looked over from the kitchen. This morning, on feeders and on the ground, it was a flurry of activity as birds feasted more than normal

Thrushes, Goldfinches, Greenfinches, Chaffinches, Sparrows, Blackbirds, Robins, Starlings, Wood Pigeon and two Magpies were getting as much as they could, all at the same time.

We'll know its going to be harsh winter weather if the Fieldfares appear here.

Westi wrote:
Whatever happens it feels like it's a bit late this year so hopefully will be a shorter winter but cold enough to kill the ruddy white fly still on my kale!

Went to plot on Saturday to get some Brussels. Not a sign of whitefly at last.

The Fieldfares were all over the cricket pitch this morning.....so looks as if play will be abandoned this Winter then, Pa Snip...

I get really jealous of all the birds other parts of the country get to see ,we have fed the birds for years we only get the common ones blackbirds, thrushes , robins, blue tits, starlings, magpies ,and pigeons nothing more although a couple of years ago we had a greenfinch , I sit in the conservatory most days with a pair of binoculars at my side just hoping ,I think it's down to the heavy industry we used to have when anything that flew was jet black and called a shepie ,the result of all the factories blasting dirty smoke out of the chimneys and a company called Leathers chemicals turning all the canals into open sewers that caused people to vomit just by the smell they gave off , the good old days

The fog had real flavour then not the wimpy white stuff you get these days, bit like the bread really.

You are right Geoff you could say it took your breath away