Kitchen Garden Forum

So no wearing flip flops or open toed shoes anymore.

I use black plastic a lot to cover the beds when starting them off so will proceed with extreme caution in the future.

If you are down over winter/early spring regardless of the black plastic over some beds they will find somewhere else! The individual on our plot covered all of it in black plastic & did not winter sow anything & did not go down so to the adders it was a perfect gift! I always find it strange that some folk think growing is a summer sport - they are missing so much!

I only cover new beds for the first time to get ride of the weeds, beds that have been productive once are replanted.

I am in the process of adding 4 new 12ft x 4ft beds which will get the usual cardboard, compost & covered in plastic treatment over winter.

Been digging delicious small Charlotte spud's all week.

The Charlotte spuds are doing well, as always.....just a few with Blackleg but, if dug out early, it doesn't really effect them.

We are desperate for some rain......

The tops on my Charlotte looked pretty awful and I'm guessing that was also blackleg as there were no blotches on the leaves so I dug the lot, 61 kgs. There were a few nasty smelly rotten ones like blight so I'll be tipping them out for regular inspection. Trouble is we ate some so it's now difficult to go back to the rest of the Rocket.

I've been digging my charlottes this week ,the problem I found is the ground is that hard I could do with a couple of sticks of dynamite ,it has rained on and off for two days but the soil is rock hard I'm struggling to get the fork into it

I have been putting the sprinkler on the vegetable beds every three days or so because everything is so dry. We did not have a wet June (contrary to most part of the country, it seems) with 20mm on 4 June and then nothing but a few drips and drops. At this very moment the BBC and MetOffice forecast says it 'pouring' here but it's bone dry ......

Went for a four hour dog walk today, the stream/drainage-ditch he can get decent drink from normally was nearly dry, with stagnant pools and the ponds on the old estate we pass through were turbid and smelly.
Thankfully our river prior to the canalised majority and at the weir was nice and clear with a reasonable flow.

Meanwhile on the drier side of the country we had that 6.5 inches in a week about a month ago and then the night before last an inch from a very localised thundertorm. Actually we were dry up until the week of the June deluge such that the maincrop potatoes had about come to a stop and wanted a drop of rain...but not 6.5" in a week...that then swamped them to a stop.

The first earlies and the second, Maris Peer and Charlotte have performed well though and after the rain the Radeo peas are taller than ever.!

C.

Evening all, last year I was invited to an open day at a local nursery/garden centre to be on a " Gardeners Question time" panel, well I must have been ok as I was asked back again today, quite a laugh and we all were able to help and learn something as well, I was the "veggie man", though most questions were about fruit or flower/tree/shrub problems, I was able to offer some ideas. There was me, a recently retired horticultural lecturer and a professional gardener who had worked at Buckingham Palace amongst various places so I was in some quite illustrious company. Back to earth with a bump tomorrow as the grass needs cutting if it stops raining.

I need some rain - urgently! I am like Robo currently being unable to get the fork into some of the beds that I have cleared of onions & garlic and want to get some more summer stuff in! My sandy soil is usually a blessing as it does respond to a soak from nature, but a quick soak with the hose does not make an impact & the hoses lining up at the trough make me feel guilty so I can't give it the time per bed it needs so it caps, & our trough for putting the cans in is slow to fill & too deep for me to reach & my 3 butts need a top up as well! Thinking of a late night visits, but then the site in summer is full of BBQ's & family catch up parties so would be rumbled with the sprinkler!

Had online catalogues have started to arrive. Notice Marshall's & Unwins are identical. Why try to make out they are different company's.

I'm told most seed company's belong to one of two distributor's, not sure who they are, can anyone confirm this.

I don't know the answer to that one but I wouldn't,t be surprised. The whole horticultural industry seems to be contracting.
Our nearest Wyevale garden centre closed down two years ago and is now a housing development. The next nearest Wyevale about 7 miles away has now been taken over by an organisation ai'd never heard of. I imagine that it's a difficult business to stay profitable in when only about 4 or 5 minths of the year maximum are you actually able to sell a reasonable volume of plants and the rest of the year you have to sell consumer tatt and poncy arty crafty stuff to even cover staff wages and your commercial rates bill.