Mid Summer Bits and Bobs - 2016.

A place to chat about anything you like, including non-gardening related subjects. Just keep it clean, please!

Moderators: KG Steve, Chantal, Tigger, peter, Chief Spud

PLUMPUDDING
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After the slow start to the season, I'm now overwhealmed by everything producing huge amounts. I'm not complaining but am seriously wondering what to do with it all. The freezers are already full and I'm selling and giving away lots and we should be incredibly healthy with all the fruit and veg we're eating.

I'm trying to find contact details for our local food Bank to see whether they take fresh produce as another option, and I think there is a project in Sheffield that collects surplus apples to make cider and apple juice. Has anyone e else got any suggestions please?

I've already made a note to grow less of everything next year, and the fruit trees will probably have a rest after this year's amazing crop, so we'll see what next year brings.
PLUMPUDDING
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Just thought, we can't even rely on local kids to come and steal apples any more - apples are much too healthy for stealing them to be "cool".
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dan3008
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Queue the courgette glut lol. From the 2 plants that have fruited, I've dated a dozen, given away a dozen, and last night canned 1/2 a dozen. And that's not counting the ones that got damaged or I ate raw off the plant... Mmm lol
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Primrose
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Earlier this week made 7 lbs of Victoria plum jam from plums kindly donated by a neighbour who was overwhelmed with them. On the underwhelming success side i have just harvested two miserable sweet corn cobs which were hardly worth bothering with. I think this is one crop I won't try and grow again. It's big temptation to try and grow a little bit of everything when you have a smallish patch but really it seems better value for your efforts to grow the things you can grow well and buy other stuff from the experts. Less disappointment that way !

I've also just indulged in a little guerilla gardening and sprinkled my collected foxglove seeds along the banks of a nearby footpath in the hope that eventually there may be some Flowers to brighten up the passage of those who walk by. (Although I suspect that even if flowers appear, most people will have their eyes so glued to their mobile phones that nobody will notice them !
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Ricard with an H
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Primrose wrote:most people will have their eyes so glued to their mobile phones that nobody will notice them !


Top marks to you Primrose, about a mile away we have a lady who has made jams and chutneys selling them to people who are passing but I bet few of them notice the effort she makes to bring more colour to the Pembrokshire-banks at the opposite side of the narrow lane.

Establishing flowering plants into places where established species grow isn't easy. Sadly I bet most passers-by don't notice the results of her work.
How are you supposed to start and maintain a healthy lifestyle if it completely removes a wine lover’s reason to live?
Richard.
Westi
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Today - a live rat! As big as a small cat & out in daylight. Dog spotted it & it was off over the fence, but it was just merrily walking along the back where I have the table & chairs. I knew they were about as besides the dead ones, I have tunnels in my compost heap (my heap is right next to neighbours fence who has the chickens), & windfall fruit has canine chewing marks in them.

A wee chat to the neighbours & the committee as I think the bait man needs to put some traps on my plot, rather than the neighbours with the chickens.

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Ricard with an H
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My attitude to the rat has changed since I left suburbia for farming-community, at first I just accepted the rats I would see scurrying about at odd times. When my car was disabled by what I assumed was a rat I went into overdrive with TomCat blocks everywhere after it cost me to get my car working again but it may have been mice that did the nibbling.

I always have rats and/or mice in my wood store, why not ? If I create a perfect residence then I should expect those perfect places to be taken up. Also I use a dalek type composter for food waste and no matter what I do with expanded metal to keep rats out, they find a way in but it isn't causing me a problem and the food waste either rots or gets eaten.

Twice a year I have a session of placing TomCat Blocks out in effective places, the ussumption being that I'm keeping the population down.

The adjoining barn is owned by people who regard themselves as above just about everyone, certainly above me. I regard them as sad and poorly educated. If they ever get to see a rat they become difficult to console if I can be bothered to make the effort, mostly I smile.

Rat poo all over my logs has become a nuisance so I'm just about to do a TomCat Block session, wood piles, under bird feeders (Classic) and other random places.
How are you supposed to start and maintain a healthy lifestyle if it completely removes a wine lover’s reason to live?
Richard.
robo
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I have rats around my chicken pen it's inevitable if you could see what our plot backs onto you would understand I have tried everything to eradicate them but it's a mission impossible , we have 2 new plot owners just been given plots by the council these 2 are a bigger problem than the rats I wish I could poison them very nasty people who want to change standing rules for their own benefit but they have a bad attitude as well
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Ricard with an H
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What a shame, allotment work isn't easy. You have to have rules so everyone understands what is expected, surely if holders don't adhere to the allotment rules they get kicked out ?
How are you supposed to start and maintain a healthy lifestyle if it completely removes a wine lover’s reason to live?
Richard.
robo
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If only we could kick people out, we are a council owned allotment they say who is getting a plot and if they do not cultivate it to the council standards they remove the offending person, we as a committee put suggestions to the council and raise money for our own use, one of the suggestions we made around six years ago was ,"asking the waiting list is so long why not give only half plots out to prospective new plotters " this was agreed and worked until three months ago when a few half plots where given out to three new people now one of them wants a full plot and because he can't get his own way is causing mayhem couple that with a woman who was a co-worker getting the plot she co-worked on changed to her name which should have been divided up and given out to people on the waiting list she also has a real bad attitude but as a committee we can't do anything about it so yesterday in the middle of a very heated meeting I resigned as secretary but I'm still wound up and not in the best of moods
Westi
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Understand completely Robo. I was on our committee for a year or so & it was like a comedy show, I'll second that to your mate so it goes through, even though it is the most inane unworkable idea. The meetings were so outdated in content & outcome, not to mention boring.

The NHS may have some bad points but we run meetings like clockwork, there is an updated evolving action plan & heaven help if you don't have a valid reason for not completing your actions, after this is the new agenda items, presented & debated for their value & achievability, (without sulking & taking it personally), which will be added to the action plan if a whisper of doable, but not to be done but to come back & prove it could be. No seconding & through, but a proper vote which you have to explain why you voted that way - he's my mate isn't sufficient! I've been in the NHS for nearly 30 yrs & it is truly at it's most dynamic & creative now. (Not that the press would have you believe that).

Westi
PS: Allotment is more challenging by far though, don't start me on divided plots, whatever the size they are either worked or not, so don't limit those that do work them! :D
Westi
Westi
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Another blight warning today - let's see if KG1 tomato makes it! Already got blight blotches on the stems, but toms ripening nicely & in abundance! I cut some leaves off on Sunday when down that were obviously blighted badly to lessen the risk. Nothing soft or slimy on the patches so will see.

I've selected and marked the ones I'm going to take seeds from, so fingers crossed!

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Primrose
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I'm expecting another blight warning any time now after today's humidity. I've had a good tomato crop but still have plenty waiting to ripen so have removed as much foliage as possible to reduce the areas where spores can settle.

Talking of spores, a health topic for anybody who may suffer from asthma. A chum of ours who suffers from this recently moved to a new house near a densely wooded area and started to become very unwell and breathless. After a hospital referral it transpires that he has developed Allergic broncho-pulmonary Aspergillosis of the lungs’ which is a fungal infection caused by breathing in the minute spores generated from leaves, compost and rotting vegetation blown around in the wind from woodlands. Apparently normal respiration systems have enough immunity to fight these off but asthmatics can be very vulnerable. Turns out moving to that location was probably the worst thing for him. He's been put on anti fungal medication but apparently it will be several months before the condition is fully cured. So any asthmatics, take care in woodlands on windy days ! It wasn't a condition I was even aware of.
PLUMPUDDING
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I wonder whether KG could have a separate forum to discuss particular plants and varieties and say how they have performed so we don't have to delve through all the other places comments appear.
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Johnboy
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Hi PP,
That is a superb suggestion.
To be able to hear from growers which plants have out performed those previously grown.
We could build-up quite an index.
Sincerely,
JB.
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