Early Summer Bits and Bobs.

[Westi]

I have good sized fruit but not ready yet. I have grown 'Indigo' varieties before as blight resistant & tasty, but way late in maturing but worth it as very, very tasty, not too sweet but real tomato flavour & not too wet either. I have cut back all my strawberries as they went totally mad & I couldn't keep up with harvesting & want them to have some energy for next years crop, now getting raspberry overload but they are tougher so will be OK, & my back copes better harvesting standing up.

There was a thing in the paper today about how the winter cold & rain really suited them both this year! Any bets that the price of them at Wimbledon doesn't reflect that??

[tigerburnie]

The Strawberries at Wombledon are grown in poly tunnels in fields next to our village, so they have to travel all the way from Polar Bear country.

[Westi]

Today was try out the new hose day, pretty much a disaster as it kept twisting & kinking! It did not like the new long handled sprayer & it kept popping off. Ended up just having nothing on the end & doing the old fashion thumb control which I actually preferred as water pressure not enough to cause damage but allowed direct & hopefully specific watering needs.

The rest of the time was securing netting after there was some critter thinking they were trampolines! Then it was re-sows; (again)! At least about 50% of the carrot seeds up though from the last sow, so improving at least!

[Primrose]

We had some English strawberries today. Don,t know which part of the country they were grown in. They were some of the most enormous ones I,ve ever seen but sadly utterly tasteless.

[retropants]

We’ve been eating lettuce (little gem) and dwarf French beans, the strawberries started off promising, but the weather got the better of them and there are also a lot of non- set flowers. The cherry tomatoes and piquilo peppers are looking great, cabbages (savoy) are enormous and the summer broccoli have just started to show heads. This year is already waaaay better than the last two. I do miss the allotment though, when we used to bring home card loads of produce, enough to share with family and friends. I have a short row of potatoes (valour) but I won’t know what’s underneath until august!

[Geoff]

I've grown Indigo Cherry Drops for a few years now and have several plants again this year as they are now a firm favourite. This year I am trying some others from the Indigo family. Blue Beauty looks to be growing normally but doesn't look very productive at the moment. Blue Berries is just weird, it produces side shoots along the leaves so I have to take them off or I would just have a mass of foliage and the trusses (not very good) have leaves on the ends, the fruit will have to be pretty special for me to grow it next year.

[Westi]

Well we got the rain on the plot, way more than home & a quick test dig showed it reached about 5-6" & will be more when the path puddles run off. It ran under the tunnel cover as well to top up my work in there yesterday. I had my mandatory list, but decided to get proper digging out of weeds rather than hoeing then & them coming back in a blink!

All the brassica's beds now free of clover, bind weed & some deep rooted grass that doesn't grow high but wide. The front flower beds free of bindweed & some other thing that is joined by a stem; I really enjoyed chasing the root runs, very therapeutic & Bob the Robin & his sparrow friend were made up!

I know I've asked before but are you sure no-one knows of a 'Know your Weeds', book or want to write one? OK maybe not write one - with the local variations of names around the country it would take 2 life times!

[robo]

My strawberries were eaten by my young granddaughter and grandson it took them about an hour to eat the lot and I had a decent amount, my raspberries are a different propersition I’ve three bushes lest year I didn’t get one the birds had them all this year the bushes are laden even myself is struggling to keep up picking them if been going for nearly two weeks and I’m just about half way through them

[Colin2016]

Maybe a daft reply but have you searched 'Know your Weeds" seems lot of information out there. Look under images and video in the results.

[Westi]

Hi Colin, not daft at all I have searched which is when I realised the different local names. Found a name of some heart shaped leaved plant that seemed to have the same attributes as bind weed but not as invasive & when discussing with a neighbour they thought I was mad, which technically I am a bit, & when they looked at it called it something completely different!

My real old book I found at a table top sale 'Gardeners enquire within' has mostly descriptions but a few drawings; but Latin Names so excluded from that as well as I can't spell or pronounce them! I kinda need an 'Idiot's Guide'! I just know you are nodding, as over the years have experienced lots of my silly questions, but you can all take credit for the fact I'm still here & growing 'proper' - well mostly anyway!

[Geoff]

Aren't they all in wild flower books?

[Westi]

I wasn't the only fool down on the plot today despite the rain. It was quite light though initially so carried on with the tasks, but it got persistent & heavier when I got home & still raining on & off. The looks on the critters faces when I opened the door to let them out said it all. No point doing any digging so finally flipped the compost bins, tied in the asparagus, cut up all the spent raspberry canes & grape excess stems bagged them up & little chores that can normally wait.

But I found the first 2 Plum Beauty ripe. I took them to the car when Mr picked me & gave them to him to stop them getting squished. By the time I secured the gate & got the dog in the car both were gone! He reports they were lovely, hmm?

[janjones]

In the first week of January I start thinking about gardening and this year found 20 strawberry plants for £4.99 including postage, I thought what a bargain, ordered them then thought where am I going to put 20 strawberry plants in my tiny garden? The solution came in the form of the cats 10kg biscuit bag which I put some slits in the side and fashioned a home made strawberry planter. I have been getting a good handful daily for the past 2 weeks and still quite a few to turn red yet. Would take a photo but currently have a thunder storm.
Jan

[Westi]

Well I got the rain all night as well & until about 9am this morning - gratefully received I might add! I went down for an hour or so & swept the puddles off the paths & took the opportunity to finish pulling/digging up the weeds in among the Asparagus while it was still an easy if wet task & did a few re-sows into the gaps, but no doubt the rain will have woken up the previous sows! Spent time sharpening & oiling the tools & just looking at what I have!

It must have been a hard struggle for my Dahlia's over winter as it appears I have lost 5 of my well established ones, maybe they could still pop up as the tubers must be pretty deep with a decade or more of mulch over them, but doubt it this late. Shame as they were stunning!

[Primrose]

I've lost my last dahlia this winter sadly
However first ripe yellow tumbling tomato picked from one of my patio pots today. Duly cut int t wo, and eaten with due ceremony. Very sweet.and looks like plenty more on the plant to come. Just hoping the combination of heavy rain, sunshine and humidity doesn't bring the dreaded blight.

Has anybody had a blight warning under the new system recently. I think I may have fallen off the information radar since the old Blightwatch system changed.a while back. When things change nothing seems to work as efficiently as it previously did !