Glorious Spring Bits and Bobs.

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Westi
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Nice day down at lottie today, sun was shining & it hit 19 on the outdoor thermometer. Got lots done, not much off my list though as when I went down the neighbour had strimmed my front bit. I quickly raked that up for a compost bin treat, but then my rose & flower beds out front looked weedy & not pretty, so that got a going over as well. Then I got some sowing done, a bit of a burn & black plastic taken off the main spud crop bed ready for tomorrows planting.

Looking good to date for the bank holiday weekend, so all will hopefully be spick & span when I go back to work on Tuesday. I can't wait to retire & reduce my hours - plan is July, but just trying to get my pension is extremely frustrating! Filling in the forms & daft over the phone health questionnaires & then you hear nothing & have to chase them! That's the private one, NHS one comes with the warning you will hear nothing but I'm used to that having 30+ years in their employ! ;)
Westi
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Colin2016
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Hope retirement comes to you soon Westi, but be aware that when it does you will wonder how you ever have time to work, time will just fly by.
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Primrose
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Bet you're counting the days Westi. Good you will still have a little bit of summer left in which to start practing your retirement !
I still think the sweetest part is having a lie-in on a dark frosty morning listening to your neighbours having to scrape the ice off their windscreens to drive to work.

Let's hope for some good weather over the Bank ahokiday for catching up with all those outdoor chores.
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Monika
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Lots of gardening today: sowed some dwarf beans, runner beans, third lot of broad beans, winter brassicas, more beetroot, Florence fennel, chard, wallflowers, French marigold, cutting asters and cosmos, all in rrottrainers, pots or divided trays. Direct-sowed peas in the ground (pre-germinated in damp potting soil) and planted the second lot of broad beans. Lots of hoeing and preparing for more planting.
The potatoes in pots are now outside (but with some handy fleece just in case!).
A day of rest tomorrow and we will go to have a look at the Waterways Festival on the Leeds Liverpool canal marina in Skipton which is usually quite a spectacle, especially with the weather as forecast! On Sunday we shall be 'trapped' at home because the Tour de Yorkshire comes through our village.
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tigerburnie
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Starting my new strawberry bed as the other is now over 4 years old, got 6 plants for £6 from B&Q, nice strong looking plants, Elsanta, which I have never grown before, I shall take some runners from my existing bed of Cambridge Favourites and I'm after some Honeoye, anyone got any other recommendations
Been gardening for over 65 years and still learning.
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Geoff
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I've grown Symphony from plants bought in 2008 and think they are great. Great flavour and shape and they force well too, quite a bit of fruit set in the tunnel. I tried some of the millennial ones, I forget the name, and couldn't grow them for virus issues, after a long email exchange with the breeder at East Malling I scrapped them.
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Geoff
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Busy day today. Planted Greenshaft Peas, I only grow one batch of ordinary peas. Perhaps I should have cut the sticks for them a few weeks ago, luckily birch doesn't root. Later planted cabbage Kilaton and Lodero and cauliflower Clapton; uncovered the potatoes yesterday so it looks like somethings happening at last.

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tigerburnie
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Hardening off some Brassicas for planting later in the week
Been gardening for over 65 years and still learning.
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Geoff
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Can seed potatoes vary in vigour? I planted 12 Rocket in the tunnel the same time as last year but they have been very slow. A few flower buds now but we ate some on 30th April last year but they still look some way off. I put it down to the weather, according to my solar panels we had less than 80% of the light this April compared to last. Then I uncovered the ones outside. There are 10 Rocket in the tunnel cloche in the foreground but the rest are Charlotte (nearer) and Picasso. They had the sheet of polythene flat over them until a couple of weeks ago when I raised it up on the hoops. They are both out growing the Rocket hence my question.
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tigerburnie
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Tatties do vary in vigour, indeed my carrots are as well
Been gardening for over 65 years and still learning.
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oldherbaceous
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Good question, Geoff, I do think certain varieties respond to different weather conditions.....maybe Rocket like warmer, bright conditions!
Kind Regards, Old Herbaceous.

There's no fool like an old fool.
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Pa Snip
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Well it's a bit of a long shot that we may have any NASA employees on forum but does anyone else know what the best Rocket fuel might be.

The danger when people start to believe their own publicity is that they often fall off their own ego.
At least travelling under the guise of the Pa Snip Enterprise gives me an excuse for appearing to be on another planet
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tigerburnie
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Farmyard dung?(my Charlottes and Roosters are doing well just now)
Been gardening for over 65 years and still learning.
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oldherbaceous
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Behave Pa Snip.... :)
Kind Regards, Old Herbaceous.

There's no fool like an old fool.
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oldherbaceous
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It looks as if you all had very busy days yesterday, workingthe soil, infact that busy, there were no new posts this morning for me to read... :)

Just off to do a few early jobs....
Kind Regards, Old Herbaceous.

There's no fool like an old fool.
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