Kitchen Garden Forum

Just about 5 mins of mizzle here in Dorset - then it all went away.

No amount of rain here, so it is getting worryingly dry....

Been working this morning, to try and catch up a little....so now can get stuck into my own gardening....

Today was cloudy & cooler but it was put the little 2' x 2' shed up at home for the tools day! Not a total disaster as we never got to the put up stage as the paint wouldn't dry, but neither Mr Westi or I could understand the instructions as the pics were blurred & text vague & carton had more bits than stated. My 8' x6' at lottie had less bits than this!

Fortunately he has a mass of clever young guys at his work always ready to earn a bit more to get through the month & a cake contribution from me seems to ensure a fine result!

As I no longer have my allotment, and no where to plant my veggies until I have taken up some hardstanding, I am having to improvise. Yesterday, I potted up some chillies for the GH bench, one cucumber and beefsteak tomato in large pots on GH floor and 3 GD tomatoes in a grow bag outside on the hardstanding. I also planted all my strawberry runners from last year (at the allotment) 3 per large pot. I have put them outside the patio doors for now, and netted them against the pigeons. We have a fox or two, one of them made a toy out of a little holly tree I have recently potted up from a self seeded plant in the flower bed. It is now deceased. This morning, I jokingly said to my husband, I had better check that the fox cubs haven't tipped over the tomatoes............

Retopants. It must be very frustrating for you not having a proper growing area yet but hopefully your pots will ensure your green growing fingers don,t totally forget how to grow things.
Pity the Scouts have given up their Bob A Job week.. you could have called in the burliest of them to dig up your hard standing area !!

Ah, yes Primrose, that would have been the ideal solution! The tomatoes survived the foxes overnight foraging, but they ripped the growbag open and half the contents were on the ground. Not sure what to do about that yet, but I have some large flat stones to put on the areas I cut open, to deter them from their compulsive digging.

HELP.Mason Bee cocoons. Had the same supplier for some four or more years now. For some reason, i have not heard from them this year. And for the life of me I cant remember their name. [senile decay ? ]

Retropants - I've occasionally found in the past that foxes will try to dig up areas of soil which have had chicken manure pellets forked into them. I don't know whether there is a nutritional element added to the compost in growbags which encourages them to think there might be something interesting to eat in them. Could you try wiping over the surface with a strong smelling substance like bleach perhaps, which might discourage them from trying again?
Do you have any area in a front garden perhaps where you could dot it small patches of vegetables like salad crops or the odd plant of kale of whatever winter greens you previously grew? It's surprising what can sometimes be planted amongst other things and solitary plants sometimes discourage the bugs from making a beeline for them.

Thankyou Primrose, you might be right about the nutrient content. The big flat stones worked to keep them off the tomatoes, however, they've gone right up to the house and tipped over my strawberry plants in big pots outside the patio doors last night. They had a frame and netting over them too. It looks like gremlins have run amok. What's next tonight I wonder?
I don't have any fornt garden, it's a gravel driveway, and we are on a main road, and all the rubbish discarded by lazy so-and-so's ends up under our hedge. I wouldn't fancy eating anything that grew there!!

A Hutton Period alert is in place today for at least one of your chosen postcode area(s).

A 'Full' Hutton Period occurs when the following criteria are met on 2 consecutive days:-
• Minimum air temperatures are at least 10°C
• Relative Humidity is 90% or above for at least 6 hours

It's that time of year again already. I can't believe there is any blight about, I wish they would go back to publishing the map of actual confirmed cases, pretty useless service otherwise.

Hutton Periods seem to come earlier every year. Agree that without any indication of location the info is pretty useless as local climate areas around the UK vary so greatly.

I might have been incorrect in my criticism. Last year I couldn't find any maps and sent out a few emails to no avail but I think I have found them. The incidents reported are in dumped potatoes but hopefully when actual infections occur it will be useful.

https://blight.ahdb.org.uk/BlightReport

Still raining heavily, been a few days now with no work being done outside at all, still a comfy 18 degrees in the greenhouse, so a bit of pottering about taking side shoots off the tomato plants.

Oh the dreaded blight alert, not as angsty as I was previously as get down a bit more, but still a way off hopefully! Cloudy today but got another job tackled & almost completed. The old front compost bin sorted & I've nearly won. Got all the decomposed membrane around it & tarpaulin cover out & most of the nettle roots, neighbour fixed my gate so I can actually get out from that side now & if weather behaves I think just one more day & a big tick on my 'To Do' list! Weather looks a bit iffy, but means I might get a bit damp but time saved watering could just about do it!

Well I read the meter on my solar panels for the month end and confirmed May was as grim as I thought it was, almost the worst in the five Mays I have had the panels, 84% of last year's amazing month. It's been educational having the panels, things aren't doing well then I find the sunshine is down.