Early Summer Bits and Bobs - 2016.

[oldherbaceous]

Afternoon all, i'm afraid i have been so very busy the last couple of months, that i seem to have had very little time for the forum.
But hopefully i will be back on here a little more soon.

So, is everyone happy with the way things are growing this year?

My Runner beans are going to be late again this year, as they have only just started to climb their canes....but they will be worth waiting for.

[Pa Snip]

Afternoon OH.

Just got back from our plot and don't think there is a single plot that is any further ahead with runners than you are.
Many way behind in fact.

Really pleased with how things are going this year, plot wise and personally.
All that remains to be transplanted to plot are two cucumelons
one each Ogen and Emir melons
and the leek bed yet to be sorted.

Other than that it is a very full plot

Might post a photographic tour of the plot that I took on June 2nd.

[Westi]

Yeah! We're off then - Early Summer!

Thanks OH! Glad your back with us!

Pa! Well fed up with re-sizing my pics to post & have been trying to find my wee camera. (It's in one of the plastic boxes in the garage where I've stored stuff from the sideboard & bedrooms waiting for the decorator - who has now had a hip replacement)! All the excitement of decorating & replacing some of the hand me down furniture is a faded dream - except I have the new furniture with the old stuff all crammed in as no room left anywhere! Good excuse not to be too house proud though so more time for the allotment! Silver lining & all that!

Westi

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Westi, you will get there in the end and i'm sure it will have been worth the wait.

I went to sow my Parsnips the other day, then realised where i didn't put a proper seed order in this year, i had only got a opened packet that was three years old. But not to be put off, i sowed them anyway....a pinch of seed every 8 inches and low and behold, within a week they are up and i can't see a miss anywhere along the line. I'll give them a week, then thin them down to one per station. You never know how good your luck is going to be.

[Pa Snip]

OH

You obviously used your magic fingers parsnip germinator, so with luck like that I think that henceforth you should be known as.......................................................................
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THE GERMINATOR

because you're back.

[Clive.]

Just checked and my Parsnips are coming through, likewise hadn't got a new packet, but mine were only last years. Beetroot, late sown, is up too.

Just had salad lunch at home with a few new potatoes, from a seed potato that mum had taken pity of and had planted it under the staging in the greenhouse. It was one left in a tray after I had planted up the garden here..not sure of variety...

Just 5 Shirley tomatoes in the greenhouse this year.

Pigeons had an attack of both Radeo and Early Onward peas...had to net along both sides of the row. Also a bit short of sticks for the tall Radeo row.

Bunyards broad beans had second string put around yesterday, in full flower, cut one stem off as it was covered in blackfly.

First sown runner beans just starting to show signs of climbing, second sowing just popping through, climbing french beans at one wigwam likewise.

Lady Christl potatoes not far off for digging but a bit uneven down the row.

Kestrel and Sarpo Mira look more even although got a few bits of tops blown about in the gale of last week. Late planted Maris Peer looking nice and even.

Raspberry canes not looking as good as last year but loganberries covering the full frame really well and are a mass of flower.

Stewed Invicta Gooseberries followed the salad today..

Clive.

[oldherbaceous]

Afternoon Pa Snip, I don't know how you dream these things up.....but they sure do make me smile....

Afternoon Clive, do you know, you really do have a very special way with words, as your posts are always full of interest and a pleasure to read. I suppose you could say they are the complete opposite to mine, they are just full of nonsense, but it takes all sorts.

[dan3008]

Well, my turnip and sweed are dead for sure now not a patch of green anywhere in the bed. Time to put something else in that bed... Maybe a late crop of carrots...

On a happyer note, my kale, broccoli and onions are doing well, and I'm sure my courgettes double in size every time I turn around

Oh, and the pea's have just taken over, they have a 4'*4' bed all to themselves, and they are still trying to take over the path and are climbing the cherry tree...

[Parsons Jack]

Back from a very pleasant couple of weeks in Austria, where we had a mixture of hot sun, cloudy days, rain and snow

Spent the last week getting the garden back under control again. The weeds and grass always seem to grow twice as fast when you are not looking

I sowed the runners, climbing french and borlotti beans direct in the ground this year just before I went on holiday. All the runners and french are growing well, but only 6 of the borlotti have germinated

Everything else is growing well. Started picking strawberries a couple of days ago

The gooseberries are cropping really well this year. The first year ever without any sign of sawfly.

[Monika]

We have had some rain at last and everything looks much happier for it.
The early sown road beans de Monica and peas Hurst Greenshaft are flowering but the house sparrows are showing an unhealthy interest in the pea shoots, ripping off little pieces of leaf to eat! The later sown peas (Alderman and more Hurst Greenshaft) are just getting attached to their buddleia stick supports.

All the brassicas have taken well, the dwarf beans The Prince and runner beans Moonlight and Firestorm (both leftover seed from last year) were looking a bit 'starved' at start of the month but are picking up now in the warm weather, with rainfall and a dousing of very diluted chelated iron.

Tomatoes Gardeners Delight are flowering in the greenhouse and the chilli peppers and sweet peppers are nearly there.

Not too sure about the carrots. They were sown at the start of the dry spell in mid-May and, in spite of watering them, there is little to show. May have to sow them again. At least there is plenty of seed tape left.

All courgette and celeriac plants are planted out and doing well.

Sweet peas are about 2' high, more advanced than they have ever been at this time.

And I think we'll soon be eating our own Rocket potatoes, grown in large pots.

All in all, can't grumble ......

[oldherbaceous]

All this rain we keep getting here over the last week, isn't doing my strawberries any good at all....they are rotting on the plants. But i suppose the other plants are enjoying it....

[Pa Snip]

All this rain we keep getting here over the last week, isn't doing my strawberries any good at all....they are rotting on the plants. But i suppose the other plants are enjoying it....

Snap, just got back from plot, managed to salvage pick 2lb

[Monika]

I grew strawberries in the cold greenhouse this year - I bought 6 plants Hapil last autumn, brought them into the greenhouse in February, hand-pollinated them regularly when they flowered, fed them with tomato fertiliser and we have had lots of lovely big strawberries, totally undamaged by weather, slugs or birds. Obviously, from six plants it's just an occasional taste and not enough for jams etc, but we are really enjoying them. Growing them on the allotment in the past was always hit or miss and more of the latter, I'm afraid.

Still eating our way through last year's frozen peas and broad beans and the new ones are filling!

[Pa Snip]

Nice blue sky this morning with some, but not much, greyish white cloud.
Weather forecast for this area today is 18 >19 degrees max with showers between 13:00 and 20:00

On the strawberry front I have taken to picking whilst slightly under ripe, as soon as they ripen they are going soft and what I thought was slug damage is in fact wood lice eating them

On a personal front, I'm fine - or I will be soon.
I had nasty accident yesterday afternoon but I'm ok.

For the first time I went horse riding and let's just say it didn't end up quite as planned.
I got on the horse ok and started out slowly but it started to speed up and we were going a little faster than I was comfortable with
Soon we were going as fast as the horse could go ! I have to admit I was terrified!! Then the worst thing ever happened - I fell off and caught my foot in the stirrup, the horse was dragging me around and around in a circle. It wouldn't stop, it just kept going on and on. Thank God the store manager at Tesco's came out and unplugged the carousel.
Felt a right fool



On the plot front
Aim to make an early start up the plot this morning. Bit of hoeing to do as weeds, which have been almost absent so far, are now beginning to show thanks to lack of work on plot next to me, all sorts of seed being blown over. As they have no crops growing it really is tempting to pour weed killer over that plot !! Dare not though as its asking for trouble.

[oldherbaceous]

Thank you for the early morning laugh, Pa Snip, it starts the day off a treat.... ....taly ho....