Welcome Spring, Bits and Bobs - 2016.

[Pa Snip]

No driving range, putting green, golf course or crazy golf nearby.

The balls are carried in
The onions have ben there since October

The ball was dug up a couple of weeks ago from a larger clear patch, I left it on the surface and it disappeared within a couple of days. I noticed it almost completely buried again today in the spot in the picture.

[peter]

So, yesterday morning I'm up , walked the dogs etc and out in the garden working out how my new strimmer harness fits - like a gilet., I've just locked up the house and am about to go out my back gate to my allotment and the dogs start barking, I can hear a lorry idling.

So I divest myself of the strimmer and unlock my way through the house to find its my new rotovator delivery!

Unannounced, meant to be on Friday, with an email on Thursday indicating what time and a phone call from the courier.
Anyway it is boxed, on a pallet, in a truck with no tail lift and just the driver.

Nip back and get a scaffold plank as a slide, driver and I manhandle it off truck and down drive into shelter, our garage door is recessed.

Go off and do my strimming, come back and spend hours doing the "partial assembly required" by octopus with heavy duty clamps and multiple spanners. This is; outer pair of rotors, handlebar and rotor cover. The U section handle bar required a G clamp to close the top of the U enough to get the nut on the bolt that controls handlebar height. Delivered dry, no liqueds, fortunately it has trick wheel hubs, flip a handle out at the centre and you have freewheel, freewheel it round and into back garden, oil and fuel up, starts third pull, go up the allotment for a test run.

Likes to "launch" on hard ground unless depth is set shallow.
Powerful goes nicely on low throttle.
Cables needed tension nut turning a fair bit as the drive belt from the engind slipped a bit - stop motion movement.
Nothing fell off or worked loose.
Pleased with it.

Apache RTT3.

[Geoff]

Looks quite a beast. Quite a price range when you Google, eBay generates some strange hits.

[robo]

Briggs and Stratton engine as good as anything made

[Geoff]

Welcome Spring - where / when?

Foul day today, strong cold wind frequently laced with hail - not what I understand by April showers.

Spent the day juggling stuff between shed, propagator, tunnel and greenhouses. Star trek season looms - space, the final frontier.

[Westi]

Funny Robo!

We could all do with a Gardener Fox that grows nice onions like those! I've seen clips on FB of foxes playing with children's toys left out in the garden & some walked away with them so that could be what yours are doing.

Westi

[Pa Snip]

Yeah but how many kids you know that play in the garden with eggs purchased from the local shop

I guess the nearest game kids could be playing might be 'chicken'

[Clive.]

I have just put in two rows of Sarpo Mira potatoes...I haven't tried them before at home so thought I would give them a go.

Ground still only just go-able, dried on the top this morning, but turning up cold and wet still. Trenches back filled with a few tubtrugs of well rotted compost and a dressing of growmore.

So, potato wise, just some Maris Peer to go in. Haven't grown them at home for a long while....they were the first potato variety that I grew with my Grandad in the late 1960s.

Clive.

[Pa Snip]

I have just put in two rows of Sarpo Mira potatoes...I haven't tried them before at home so thought I would give them a go.

Clive.

Clive

Have you tried them somewhere else then.

I've been growing them for last 3 years and found them to give a good crop. However last year I did have to get them out slightly earlier than planned as the leaves did blight. Got them out before it travelled down the haulms.

This year I am trying Sarpo Axona instead.

BTW, do like the picture

[Clive.]

Hello Pa Snip,
I haven't grown Mira before either at home or at work but have grown another Sarpo type at work, Blue Danube. It did well, kept clean but had to be watched in the cooking as it tended to break down to soup if left unattended for a second too long...I'm told.

Clive.

[Pa Snip]

Hello Pa Snip,
I haven't grown Mira before either at home or at work but have grown another Sarpo type at work, Blue Danube. It did well, kept clean but had to be watched in the cooking as it tended to break down to soup if left unattended for a second too long...I'm told.

Clive.

Hi Clive

The one we had to watch when boiling was Winston.

Sarpo Mira has been a good all rounder.

In 2013 I planted 8 and harvested 35lb 8oz
In 2014 planted 20 and harvested 86lb 8oz
In 2015 planted 24 and harvested 72lb 10oz (removed early due to blight attack)

Stored well, not long ago had to bin the few remaining from last years crop as they were soft & sprouting

[Marigold]

You are all so busy!The bad weather here has made any attempt at gardening impossible; yesterday saw SNOW and a gale. Serious flooding in Cork and Kerry and high roads impassable with snow ..Bitter cold and temps in the low singles. Only life out there is the dandelions in the path. ....Still they are a welcome brightness.

[oldherbaceous]

Had a real scare Sunday afternoon. I had a phone call from a neighbour saying, they had found my Mum laying behind the gate after hearing her calls for help. She had caught her foot under the gate and fell backwards, akwardly and was unable to get up because of the pain in her hip. So i shot down there and rang for an ambulance straight away, as she had been laying there for over half an hour, and i thought that she had probably, either dislocated, or broke her hip. Anyway, after x rays at the hospital, she had snapped the ball off her right thigh bone. Mum had the operation yesterday to put in metal spikes, pins and bolts, late afternoon, early evening and looked really poorly, when i visited last night.
But when i went to see her this afternoon, she was out of bed and sitting in the chair, looking really well. She really is one of the most determined people that i know, in fact, there were another two patients in the same ward that had had the same sort of operation three days ago and still hadn't managed to bear the pain to get up.

Now it's just a matter of trying to stop her doing too much, to quick....

[dan3008]

OH: That sounds nasty thoughts and prayers for a speedy recovery for her.

My dad had a hip problem where he had too much bone on the head of femur. Had to have a hip replacement. He's a typical stubborn Yorkshire man, so I know how hard it is forcing somone to take it easy

All I can say is thank god her neighbour found her.

Puts my day into perspective... I was feeling sorry for myself because I've had an ingrown toe nail removed, so cant do any gardening for a few days

[Pa Snip]

OH
Very best wishes to your mother for a speedy recovery