Glorious Spring Bits and Bobs.

[peter]

The effects of last weekends weedkiller are very visible, but incomplete.

Yesterday I served beer from Cornwall while Hertfordshire absolutely stuffed Cornwall 50 - nil in the Bill Beamont cup, our boys go to Twickenham.
Cornwall RFU has possibly the best supporters I have ever met, some wearimg mining hat with pasty attached, Cornish flags everywhere, loud in support and philosophical in defeat, our boys taught them a few verses of the Yogi bear song they hadn't heard before!

Today started with allotment society shop duty, canes and Humax compost the big sellers, then wended home via Pets at Home for an economical 17kg sack of dog food and Sainsbury's for somewhat better food for the rest of us, including gin.

Mowed our diddy lawns and the main track at the allotments, then cleared my 4 rod squash plot, weights off, carpet along edge hauled & stacked, rolled in bars at ends out and nearly twelve year old very knackered weed membrane turned over to shed debris and folded/rolled up for the tip.
Then got my RTT3 out and ran it across three times, should be ripe for one more pass next weekend if it stays reasonable dry and then some planting.

[robo]

We are crying out for rain but not shouting it very loud we have not had a drop for over three weeks ,I was nearly one and half hours this morning watering the plot ,as soon as another plot holder turns their tap on the pressure dies ,we have had thirty new plots forced on us this year and not one tap for them to use ,my plot is on the end so they all use the tap that is supposed to be between three of us

[Primrose]

Checked my elephant garlic today and discovered that at least half a dozen have started to go to seed. Usually when this happens many of the crop follows. It's been very dry here. I have watered them but suspect not necessarily given them the good soaking they needed which might have prevented this happening. Not had any serious rain for a while and the soil is becoming very dry.

[Pa Snip]

We are crying out for rain but not shouting it very loud we have not had a drop for over three weeks ,I was nearly one and half hours this morning watering the plot ,as soon as another plot holder turns their tap on the pressure dies ,we have had thirty new plots forced on us this year and not one tap for them to use ,my plot is on the end so they all use the tap that is supposed to be between three of us

And just over three weeks ago people were complaining that they couldn't get things in the ground because it was too wet.

As for your tap situation robo I think you are lucky to have had a tap between three of you. We have 40 plots on site and 4 taps, one at each corner of the site.
As we know from previous posts on the subject, many sites have no taps.

[robo]

We have now got one tap between 33 plots , don't get me wrong this is not a moan about the lack of taps it's the stupidity of a council that feels it's ok to put 30 new plots on and existing 30 plot site when the original plots have one tap for every four plots and the new ones don't have any

[Westi]

We had great thunder storm down here this afternoon which might help my newly direct sown seeds spring into life finally - only one turnip germinated, no chard showing & only about 4 swede & no pumpkins & squash have dared to pop up. I re-sowed yesterday & this wee storm that started off with a light drizzle might do the trick!

I share the tap with about 20 plots & with the hoses lined up at the tap you are nudged to give a fundamental damping rather than a proper water & the re-fill on the trough is quite slow so it's a wait to fill the watering cans as well & some are not quite as polite with the can line up as they are with the hoses!

[Monika]

Lucky you, Westi, getting some rain. I spent all morning watering on the allotment because everything is very dry. No rain here since 10 May and that wasn't much (just 14mm rain so far all May). We don't have taps on the allotment just a dipping trough but, luckily, we are well downhill from the trough, so we run a hose down to our allotment and fill our three large drums and the watering cans, one after the other. Hard work but manageable. At least we can water in all the newly planted and sown broad beans, peas, summer brassicas, beetroot etc. It's very obvious, though, that the identical plants in the garden at home, where I can use the sprinkler, are much larger than the ones on the allotment! The NE wind is very drying, too.

[Shallot Man]

peter. Rugby supporters take a bit of beating.

[Primrose]

I agree Monika that growing crops in the garden does make for easier work, just being able to water more easily and to do occasional bursts of activity when you have spare moments. It also makes short term protection of crops easier if sudden bad weather conditions crop up unexpectedly.too few taps on allotments must be a source of great irritation.

My mint bed is growing apace now and for the past few days I,ve been making mint tea with just a couple of mint leaves infused in boiling water. Haven,t made it for a long time and had forgotten how refreshing it can be. Does anybody on here make infusions with other herbs? I,ve got sage, thyme, rosemary and parsley but somehow they don,t seem to lend themselves to this process in the same way.

[Primrose]

One technique I sometimes use for sowing and planting out seedlings in a very dry spell is to thoroughly water the dug out sowing groove or the individual planting hole first before sowing the row of seeds or transplanting the individual seedling and cover with soil and water again. It does take a little longer eps to prevent the soil from drying out.

I,ve seen recommendations for covering sown seeds with dryer earth over the top of a watered groove but am not sure of what the benefit of this might be as surely the drier earth on top would only absorb moisture from lower down where it is it most needed to keep roots moist or to allow seed germination to take place?

[Westi]

I water the sowing line then pop in the seeds & water again when they are under the soil! I don't think my lack of germination has been the lack of water but more so the great fluctuations in temperature from day & night when they popped up. Too much for the wee ones - maybe? Our nights are not frost temps but a lot of degrees lower than the days so they would be stressed.

[vivienz]

Primrose - lemon verbena makes a lovely infusion (you see it as verveine in France). I'm not so keen on lemon balm but fresh verbena is delightful. When the lavender is going over, I also chuck a handful of the bashed up heads into a caddy of loose early grey tea, which is fabulous and my favourite, especially with just a pinch of lapsang souchong thrown in for a bit of smokiness.

[Geoff]

Congratulations to OH for his foresight on the 11th of April.

[PLUMPUDDING]

Yes Geoff, it has been glorious hasn't it.

Primrose, one of my favourites is Lemon verbena like Vivienz, but I have to over winter them in the greenhouse, and an infused rosemary sprig is a good if you need a boost in the morning. It is said to stimulate the brain. I also use mint. I've not tried lavender in a drink and really dislike lemon balm.

I studied the medicinal properties of plants and it was fascinating. I know that my great grandmother grew herbs to use medicinally and I have a recipe book written by my grandmother with a bit at the back for home made medicines which is fascinating, although a lot of the things they could buy over the counter from the chemist then have been banned now. There are some very potent sounding cough remedies.

I've mentioned before that the local cats have a special patch in my border where they've unearthed some Valerian root and they come and rub their faces on it and chew it and roll about on the path looking spaced out. Funny how they are attracted to sedatives.

Just remembered I use infused sage leaves for sore throats too. If you don't like to drink it just use as a gargle.

[Monika]

That's really interesting, Plumpudding. My mother used lots of natural remedies for all kinds of ailments, including the ones you mention. Our cough mixture as children was produced by scooping out a cone-shaped hole from a turnip, mixing the bits with brown sugar, replacing it all into cone-shaped space, then making a hole in the bottom of the turnip and letting the resulting 'syrup' drip into a glass. We also always had home-made elderberry syrup to alleviate cold symptoms, which is now sold in shops, rather expensively, as Sambucol!
Apparently, my maternal grandmother whom I don't remember, was known as a bit of a witch because of her herbal remedies. Well, good for her, I say.