Late Summer Bits and Bobs 2021.

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

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oldherbaceous
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Well Monika wasn’t kidding about the feel of the weather…thick cloud here with drizzle and the North wind has a real nip to it!
Kind Regards, Old Herbaceous.

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Monika
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Our Virginia creeper is starting to lose its first leaves. And yesterday I pulled up and composted all the broccoli plants, but what a harvest we had from them!
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I suppose it is late summer.
Lots of harvesting, so that is good. As ever there are courgettes to give away :lol: There is plenty of salad leaves, the tomatoes are ripening at last.
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Blight has been the enemy this year, even sneaked into the tunnel, but luckily I spotted it early so actually have some toms, but damn thing took my hospitality too far & does not want to leave despite the eviction order! (Luckily have some blight resistant in the mix & proving themselves)! I'm a bit worried about the pumpkins as size is good but not ripening despite their window to the sunshine with the leaves removed - which is the missing link! I can't say it is cold but certainly dreary & cloudy & the bright thing has disappeared!
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Chantal
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It's more like autumn than late summer here. I sat on the plot yesterday with leaves showering down on us from the avenue of trees nearby. I was wearing three layers of clothes and still needed a coffee to warm me up. No sun for days and drizzle at times too. I'm hoping for an Indian summer, but I fear it may be a vain hope. :roll:
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retropants
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The forecast looks better next week for the south east. Not sure how it will be overall though. Pretty dreary here too, very breezy & cloudy and not like summer at all. No tomatoes or carrots this year due to pests & diseases. Corn looks about ready, but I'm sure there will be some sort of issue with it, as it seems this year is not my year.
Stephen
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Dull & dry here. There was the merest hint of drizzle on Tuesday morning, more like mist than rain. Great for "air plants", absolutely of no use to the growing veg!

From what I can see, it's going to be like this all week. Then warmer and sunnier for a couple if days. So I'm about to go out to water the plot.
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Geoff
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For once it has been good to be in the frozen North. Just been doing my spreadsheets for month end and it has been the best August yield from my solar panels for the seven years I've had them even though the last few days have been very grey.
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Primrose
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I sat down earlier this afternoon and sorted out my two large plastic boxes of vegetable seeds whixh can now bed away in the garage for winter. .

What a history of successes and failures they represented of growing over the years! Some of the packets were veritably ancient and have sadly had to go the way of all flesh! But i came across some ancient tomatillo seeds. (Were they from Monika many years ago ??)

I also found some Horned Mellon seeds which Elmigo who used to post on here kindly sent me although my attempts to grow them outdoors never matched his prowess at growing on his apartment balcony in Holland and I never managed to get a single fruit despite prolific greenery! Come back Elmigo! i miss yiur interesting posts and wonder how your garden is faring.

This sort-out reminded me how interesting it is to swap seeds and experiment with different varieties other people share with us. I have a mass of unopened Kitchen Garden freebie packets which will be useful for our village seed swap event next spring and hopefully everything in my seed boxes now has a viable chance of germinating! I do have a dreadful habit of hoarding half used seed packets. They,ve become increasingly expensive over the years which makes me reluctant to throw anything away, but honestly, how many half used packets of different lettuces or tomato varieties does one really need to feed two,people, even with occasional give-always ???
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oldherbaceous
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I’m hoping we get a good end to September and also the beginning of October….that’s not being greedy, is it… :)
Kind Regards, Old Herbaceous.

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Primrose
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Let's hope so oH. We could do with an Indian summer to round off the growing season.

We have a dilemma in thia household. Do we continue to enjoy the last fresh fruits like plums and nectarines from our village market stall which we can,t grow ourselves before they disappear or should we be eating up all those gooseberries, redcurrants and blackberries which are cramming up our freezer? (Which, if truth be told), are not our favourite fruits )

We're lucky to have available such a surfeit of produce when some people are going hungry but I have to ask why I,ve grown & frozen some things I no longer much enjoy. I suppose enthusiasms do sometimes wane over the years. Anybody else guilty of this bad habit?
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Clive.
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oldherbaceous wrote:I’m hoping we get a good end to September and also the beginning of October….that’s not being greedy, is it… :)


In my head I have already started some border overhauls...so I tally with your weather hopes.. but must be sensible and keep my feet on the ground...or at least on the platform trimming Yew hedges first..

In my home garden I have been running on Cobra beans with my tea for some days but they are coming to a dry halt and the black seeded runner beans have gone old as I wasn't keeping up with using their production :oops: I have become an aficionado of chard stems a la microwave... a mutli coloured change from beans... but tonight was Boldor beetroot sandwiches. :) Sugar Gloss, in quantity, and Shirley tomatoes feature in my pack up. So the home garden is seeing use. :)

Puddings are stewed whatever is quickly pickable fruit wise, this week been on some lovely Reine Claude greengages and tonight another pick of Loch Ness blackberry with a bit of apple sliced in ...almost sound like I can do cooking :? :wink:

C.
Monika
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It's interesting to read your sun verdict for this month, Geoff. I exchange my monthly weather data with somebody else in the village who has an electronic weather station and solar panels. And he wrote this morning that, although August wasn't brilliant, this summer has been very productive, solar-wise. I quote 'It has been the third sunniest summer out of 11 (only 2013 and 2018 better) and the second sunniest first eight months of the year, beaten only by 2018.'

I certainly think that the north, for a change, caught the better weather this year. Well, Scotland has been brilliant lately when most of us have been suffering from days of anticyclonic gloom.
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Primrose
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Somebody commented to me today thwt they thought the skies had been so dull and sunless this summer because of the massive amount t of fine dust particles in the air from all the vast forest fires around the world. I don,t think that could be the case but wonder if anybody else has theories along these lines?

I certainly know that in the past couple of minths we,ve had more then one occasion when the rainfall in our water gauge
Has been a distinct shade of pink. (Presumably from Sahara dust) dust, so its certainly true that polluting microscopic particles can travel a long way in the air and be capable of lingering in the atmosphere.
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Geoff
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My pattern is slightly different - you can pass him my numbers!

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