Early Summer Bits and Bobs.

[Elaine]

Retropants, regarding losing glass in your greenhouse, due to the wind....have you got that black rubbery stuff...(I can't remember what it's called, I call it liquorice!) cushioning your glass?? My neighbour hasn't used it and she has lost lots of glass this year. Both our greenhouses have it and we haven't lost any glass at all.
Just a thought...

[PLUMPUDDING]

Thank goodness it is raining.

[retropants]

hi Elaine, there is grey rubbery stuff around each section, on which the glass presses. Is that the same?

[robo]

Bed it on silicone

[Monika]

Plumpudding, are you as dry as we are? The forecast for today was rain but we just had 1mm worth of drizzle early in the morning, not even enough to wet the ground under the beans. Everything is really dry. The calabrese are forming heads although they are only about 12" high!
There has been almost no rain since the beginning of June, so this week it will be a slog to carry all the watering cans again - we cannot use a hose because the water comes from a dipping trough.

[Primrose]

Our soil ihas been terribly dry here for weeks.. I had a couple of large packets of water retention crystals given to me and have drilled holes with my leek planter/dibber .at strategic points nesr the roots of thirsty plants and dribbled the crystals in. . It's a drip in the ocean I know but every little helps!

[Elaine]

Hi Retropants...yes I would think so. Ah well, it was just a thought.

[Shallot Man]

Just put in my second lot of runner bean seed. Don't know what is happening this year.

[Primrose]

I too have had problems with beans this year. My row of climbing beans contains beans from three separate germination attempts. I have today planted a few sprouting beans which I first put between sheets of wet tissue paper to sort out which would sprout and which were "dead"

It certainly saves a lot of guesswork waiting for beans sown in compost which never appear. i am impressed with this method and will try it next year. This yesr I sowed into empty loo rolls. Half didn,t germinate and I ran out of loo rolls. Next year I will fill the loo rolls with compost and only out the beans in them when they have started to sprout.

[oldherbaceous]

Morning all, i have been rather quiet on here for the last week, as i have been very busy getting things sorted for a holiday....anyway, i'm off this morning to the Peak district for a week and very much looking forward to it.

[peter]

I'm having a peacful extended weekend as wife and daughter are with friends in Paris.

Enjoying company of the dogs who are a bit calmer.

[Shallot Man]

Ruddy fox has dug up more potatoes. Also played havoc with my leeks.

[Ricard with an H]

Oh hell, new experiences coming up for me.

I just dug up those Charlotte that were grin from co-op old spuds that had gone sweet. It must have been the tight-wad in me to plant spuds that had probably been chemically treated and stored for for to long.

I had to dig them up because the green wasn't as green as the PFA greens and it looked sick
Y.

From three sick plants I now have just a handful of tasty Charlotte, I hope I didn't leave any in the ground because the PFA top growth looks very healthy.

My very first spuds.

[Westi]

Congratulations Richard!

Waiting to hear from the taste test.

Westi

[Ricard with an H]

Very tasty Westi, I'm now looking forward to the PFA's that might need another four weeks and I did grow a second row that have just shown.

I hadn't realised that you have to clear the ground of potato tubers, leaving just one in the ground can bring on a lot of disease. Apparently.