Early Autumn Bits and Bobs.

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

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WestHamRon
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oldherbaceous wrote:Dear Stravaig, you didn't swap a cow while on your way to market, for anything did you.... :)

Magic, OH. :lol:
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Primrose
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After two successive days of blight warnings I decided to remove the last of my small green outdoor tomatoes and pulled up and chopped up all the plants. I'd been planning to leave the last few on the plants to see if they would ripen naturally but the leaves were looking very yellow and withering., so they'll have to take their chance indoors.

The chopped up remains will go in the bottom of next year's climbing bean trench and compost down in situ. Now that I'm finding gardening more of a physical challenge, digging out compost heaps and carting stuff around in wheelbarrows is becoming difficult so composting in situ is becoming more attractive!
Stephen
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The sun has been shining today after yesterday's sun mixed with sudden intense showers. (I'm in Cambridge for four days)

My list of things that need doing on the allotment seems to be getting longer rather than shorter. In particular I need to prune the currants and gooseberries at both home & 'lottie, I need to shift several loads of manure from 'lottie to home (a ten-twelve minute barrow-wheel one way, eight minute return when empty!), but on the positive side the celeriac looks ready to harvest as does some kohl-rabi, the ever reliable chard still keeps giving. I need to plant some fast growing winter greens (mustards etc).
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Westi
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Sunny this morning but the rain moved in this afternoon. I'm really impressed with what I'm still harvesting on the allotment, took loads of french beans, runners, cabbage, peas, beetroot, fennel, lettuce, kohl rabi. Still loads of tomatoes to take, swedes look a great size, turnips good, pakchoi just starting to bolt, took my pumpkins before some low life did, raddicho ready, took a brilliant large domed calabrese head, chickpeas ready & had more late strawberries.

Now to get anxious watching for the first frost so I can save the wonderful bounty. An absolute disastrous start to the season that has come good! I just love the challenges, especially when I get the rewards!
Westi
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Primrose
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Stephen, it must be great to have a good manure pile but when its in the wrong location as some of yours is, it must be a real pain. Still, getting the real stuff is always an advantage. When I last tried to get some local manure they would only deliver in massive quantities which would have been fine for an allotment but would have totally submerged my entire garden in the stuff! Of course there,s always the bagged stuff but even trying to loads bags of that Into a car boot can be physically challenging.

Of course in the olden days I suppose people would have just emptied the contents of the old privvy thunderbox at the bottom of the garden straight onto the vegetable patch. I guess its contents were probably healthier then as they were less likely to contain the residue of all the medications which are now available, but which hadn't been invented then.

Westi - sounds as if you're having a great harvest. Do you actually manage to eat it all? I find sometimes when you have a surfeit of so many goodies at the same time it can be a real challenge to eat everything while it's still in good condition. Menu planning obviously helps but whatever would we do without our freezers? I was only discussing with grey haired friends the other day how difficult it must have been to make the most of your harvests before freezers had been invented, especially during war time when there was such a shortage of food. I think we are fortunate to have such bounties and to be able to preserve them much more effectively.
Stephen
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Primrose, I think I have told the tale before but...
...soon after I moved in to my house I remodeled the garden (a handkerchief of a lawn is useless) and arranged for a farmer to deliver a trailer load of manure. He delivered it and, understandably, tipped the trailer in the only possible place, on my drive (well drive is overstating it - it is the width and length of a car). I climbed over the pile to return to the house and started barrowing it around to the garden at the back. My neighbour looked at this pile and said "Hello, Steve, upset someone?" :lol:


Meanwhile, I am now arranging something similar for the place where I volunteer as a gardener, because it desperately needs a pile of manure.
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Primrose
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I asked around some local neighbours if they wanted to share a trailer load of manure with me and they looked at me as if I was a mad woman, "What, Share a pile of SH** and then have to shovel it ourselves????" No thanks!

We did have a trailer load delivered many years ago. The farmer delivered it onto the entrance to our driveway at 6 am on the hottest Sunday of the year while we were still asleep! My husband was incapacitated with a bad back at the time so I had to spend all day wheelbarrowing it to the back garden before I could get my car out of the driveway to get to work the following day. Those were the days when I was brave enough to settle for a bikini and wellington boots as appropriate gardening gear!
Stephen
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Easy to clean up afterwards like that!
:wink:
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Monika
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Just had to tell somebody: my No.1 grandson and a friend completed the National Three Peaks Challenge at 03.10 this morning, having climbed Ben Nevis (Scotland), Scafell (England) and Snowdon (Wales) in 21 hours and 58 minutes.The driving was done by my No.2 grandson (who is the one with terminal cancer), all to raise money for Sarcoma UK for research into this horrible disease.
Conditions were ok on Ben Nevis, so-so on Scafell and absolutely horrendous on Snowdon. But they did it and are now home and dry, literally.
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Geoff
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Great achievement, good job the weather wasn't as bad as at home.

My plan to cycle the Dales from my armchair today has been thwarted by the weather, I was really looking forward to them racing over my favourite places of Buttertubs and Gunnerside. I suppose it was inevitable, we've had almost 18mm already today and still coming down.
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Primrose
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Well done to your grandsons Monika. This will be a high point to remember in every sense of the word.
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oldherbaceous
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That is fantastic news, Monika, so thank you for sharing it with us, you must be so proud of them all.
Kind Regards, Old Herbaceous.

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Stephen
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Monika, congratulations to Numbers 1&2 grandsons and friend.
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Primrose
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I'm amazed at my red pepper crop since I bought my plants indoors. For three weeks in succession I've picked at least half a dozen large red ones to slice and freeze. I was rather hoping I could clear the plants of fruit and regain my bay window ledge but new flowers and small new fruits keep appearing. . I think they're finding the overnight temperature more reliable indoors which isn,t hampering theIr growth. Still giving them a weekly Tomorite feed.
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As I have little success with red peppers I thought I'd go for the 'lunchbox' sized ones this year. Now I have seen these in the shops & was expecting small fruit that would be right size for the two of us without any waste. Hmmm? It would appear the lunchbox for these is obviously a doll's one. They are really tiny, all turn red quickly and very productive so I always have about 5 or so ready for a salad, but certainly would need several plants to actually have enough to cook with. Not a disaster as such but not worth the space so back to trying my success with the 'normal' ones next year.
Westi
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