Early Winter 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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Westi
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Interesting - whatever has a taste for my beetroot has white fur. It obviously worked quite hard to get at them & left behind a clump. I can't think what it could be? The fur is quite long & very soft so mouse is out of the frame on length. Of course there is the possibility of an albino rat but I do have to question why rats were never interested previously. Anyone got an idea of what it could be. I wondered an escaped ferret or something as they could get in the tunnel through a rat hole I would think, but any other ideas?
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Grey squirrels.
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Westi
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I've never seen any squirrels down there before but there are trees around. I'll ask around tomorrow to see if anyone has had any issues from either squirrels or something else with a taste for beetroot! Thanks peter.
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oldherbaceous
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Going to be a sharp frost tonight!
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Geoff
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I've filled a couple of barrows with compost to continue digging the greenhouse beds and sheeted them over in case it gets in there. The three layers of carpet on the heap were board stiff but the compost underneath was fine. Also pulled the last four Kilaton cabbages and put them in the garage. We are forecast snow to follow the frost.
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snooky
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I don't bother with seed catalogues these days,I order online,but I looked through some catalogues which my next door neighbour passed on to me,I was astounded at the asking price for seed potatoes.How can the likes of Dobies justify asking £5.99 per kilogram of a bog standard variety?JBA are marginally better at £5.99 for two kilograms.Thank goodness for Wilko who are selling their seed potatoes at £2.50 per two kilo bag.
I know it will not suit everyone as they carry only about sixteen varieties which will limit choice but but the most popular(IMHO) are there including Desiree,Charlotte,Maris Peer/Piper,Swift,Rocket etc plus taster packs.So that where I shall be shopping again this year for seed potatoes,onion sets and shallots.
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oldherbaceous
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I was getting a bit fed up today as it has been very wet and I want to start the Winter digging but, just seen Alan Refail was on here….cheered me up no end…. :)
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Snooky, but if Wilko are a drive and a parking fee away, it isn't worth a special journey. (This applies to me)
If you are walking past their door anyway, that's a different matter.
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I really must be the grubbiest grower ever. After a bit more of the burn I decided to take up the membrane & fill the dips in the path, which are a bit of a hazard when the puddles freeze after rain. All was fine until one of the pegs got stuck & I pulled too hard. It flipped up & promptly dumped all the wet mud attached to it all over me. The neighbours thought it was hysterical & the dogs got far too excited with me flicking gobs of mud off myself.:)

An uncomfortable ride home wrapped in & sitting on bin liners with Mr fussing about touching nothing, but all in all a memorable day!
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At least you didn't have to drive yourself home
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oldherbaceous
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Dear Westi, a sight to behold….. :)
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Primrose
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These cold and wet conditions certainly make you ask yourself why Yiu ever became a gardener. The the warm sun comes out, shines on your back and you remember why! Certainly being able to work in a greenhouse out of any direct rain, perhaps listening to the radio, offers a little respite from the weather. I don,t know any gardener thiugh, who doesn,t offer up a sigh of relief when January is over. As a minth it has almost nothing to commend it. What a shame we can,t abolish it and leap straight from December to February. At least we,d have a noticeable change in the daylight light levels!
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retropants
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I am still to clear the corn and pepper plants from the small plot at home. It's just been too ghastly and muddy. I just can't seem to muster the energy. I am however, planning this years tomato seeds, after the disaster that was 2021 with blight. I have emailed Gary @ Tomatofest.com in the US, they sell loads of heritage varieties, hundreds. I've asked for his recommendations for the best blight resistant ones he can offer.
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Primrose
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I can,t help wondering, with the effects of climate change and suddenly varying weather changes, whether blight isn,t going to become an greater problem to deal with in the years to come. Apart from growing tomatoes in a greenhouse there is very little the outdoor gardener can do to combat it, apart from growing blight resistant varieties, whixh isn,t a total guarantee anyway.

It seems to me that if you grow them outdoors, the onky way is perhaps to grow them in such a way that, at any blight warning, you could pull up a polythene sheet cover over them all to protect them feom any airborne blight spores. But that might suggest having to grow them up against a fence or wall to whixh a polythene sheeting " roller blind" of some kind could be attached, to be u rolled or released at appropriate times. Definitely not the sort of thing whixh could be easily employed on an allotment.

I have found that in the past, as aIseem to be the only person in our immediate vicinity who is growing tomatoes in a back garden, I may have escaped some of the worst attacks of airborne spores . You probabky wouldn't be so fortunate on an allotment..
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Does growing indoors help? It would certainly be as hot and is likely to be more humid.
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