Summer Bits and Bobs.

[oldherbaceous]

That’s really good news, Colin….hope all goes well!

[Myrkk]

Glad you got someone to take them OH. A nuc of honeybees is now over £200 so he will have been very happy indeed.

Best hobby ever, sitting watching them puttering about their lives, and when you open the hive the smell is amazing. Sadly there is a terrible case of foul brood sweeping the honeybee population in the UK currently. Very sad. Our poor honeybees are having such a rough time.

[oldherbaceous]

Do you keep bees, Myrkk?
Really glad I was able to help him then, as he was such a nice bloke…..

[Westi]

I don't know what went on at the plot yesterday, but when I went down this morning there was drying mud all over the back area on the ground, table & outside staging? Not tons mind but about 1-2" deep on the table. I quickly checked as best I could through the hedge row in case the farmer had access again to his field but the railway guys are still there but out of range & no tracks or anything. Slowed me down a bit but that area needed a spruce up & as the mud looked fine topped up the flower pots on the staging & hosed the rest into the back bed on the artichokes.

Of course the lads down there had some fun with their suggestions but think I can rule out aliens & a Geiger Counter check would be total overkill. I think some mini weather event like a wee cyclone that sucked up the dry soil from the railway pile & dumped it but then we had a few showers hence the mud.

Over to you for more suggestions; creative as you like!

[oldherbaceous]

Maybe an plane flushed it’s toilet while flying over…..

Had a busy day over the allotments today…..cleared a 30 foot double row of broad beans, that had been decimated by black fly….then put Big Bertha over the cleared area, then set the frames up, that has the enviromesh over, for a late sowing of carrots, beetroot and some cauliflowers!
Then I set up a taller frame and netting over the tenderstem broccoli, as the pigeons were landing on the lower netting, and pecking any leave that were touching and making a right mess…
Final job was to cut a large area of comfrey down, which I put between my dahlias!

[Clive.]

Today, I was sent to the workhouse...or rather I had an invite to the 200 year anniversary afternoon at the Workhouse, Southall, with a work colleague.
I hadn't visited there other than for a works training day...it's a very thought provoking place...and has a very tidy volunteer operated vegetable garden which I hadn't got to to see on previous visits. With plantings in advance of us out in the grey drizzly East here...

..and with tea tonight I have some stewed River's Early plums..along with a few raspberries to follow...and thanks to a kind delivery from the gentleman next door a fresh pick of cherries..

I must make tomorrows job picking and freezing some broad beans...some rust on the leaf but not so bad blackfly here whereas in the big garden more rust, more blackfly..and a peppery aroma of blight on the potatoes..

C.

[Myrkk]

It’s amazing what they can do to help poor eyesight now, thought the thought of anyone near eyes always makes me shudder. I blame my OH for making me watch Jeepers Creepers… can’t bear to hear the song now. Glad they are taking good care of you Colin.

I used to keep bees OH, when we moved back to Scotland I didn’t want to move them across the country and gave them to someone I knew. Now that we’re settled and the hives are out of storage I keep looking at them and thinking about it. Need to fix one of the hives that the rats got a hold of though. If you’re thinking of doing it I can heartily recommend it as a hobby although it is tying in the summer as that’s when they swarm and you need to try and keep as many bees as poss. Not least ‘cause they’ve become extremely expensive to buy.

Railway guys have a sneaky mud wrestling match?
Two pigs having a sunbathe and a scratch on the table?

Have lifted all of my charlotte pots now as the blight was starting to become more of an issue and just pulling the affected leaves wasn’t cutting the mustard any more. Got quite a good harvest and some of them were rather large for a salad potato. Very tasty with a sprinkle of salt n pepper and a little dab of mayo. Nom.

Looking to do a late sowing of some chard, beetroot, carrot, lettuce in the empty bed now. Need to look at the latest mag for some inspiration for other things to sow. This time I will be netting the patch so the local wildlife doesn’t get a hold of the youngsters. I thought it was slugs that had got my brassicas but considering how many doves and woodpigeons are in our garden (no fear, they sit 3 foot away from me and just watch), I think they are probably the culprits.

In Bristol tonight staying a 2 min walk from the Clifton suspension bridge, it’s an odd feeling knowing someone was there yesterday dumping a dismembered person. A lot of police around. Tomorrow will be nicer, I’m at the Chinese Herb Garden in Bristol Uni on a CPD course. Hoping for some inspiration for planting the garden up next year.

[Clive.]

Change of plan at home here ..as ever.. shelved the bean shelling as day started with heavy drizzle , so went for plan b which was demolish berberis bush, which is now safely in the green bin. Gorgeous thing but deadly spiny...including the one that went in my right knee at Christmas and put me out of action for some days as it threatened to "go wrong" when I started a previous assault on it.... There's a rather large Japanese cedar alongside it which is as high as house gutter now.! for which I will have to seek prof' support...and then the distant dream is to have a clean up of the area and turn it into a herbaceous planting..I've already paced out for the rear central position...to be home of 3 telekia speciosa....and have stock of prairie purple aster and a unique bronze helenium similar to moorheim beauty and not far away is some tall pink aster believed to be Barr's pink....
...but that's, as ever, a way off.....

In the meantime it's the local show on the playing fields...so ought to go have a look, some of my work colleagues are staffing a stand there..and it's only 3 minute walk away so I'm running out of excuses not to....

C.

[Primrose]

Husband today harvested 3 splendid. elephant garlic bulbs, obviously self sown from the tiny bulbils that often appear around the bulbs.
We now have about 9 more little bulbils to sow in a quiet corner and leave to grow into maturity.
I've lost track of how long this takes so they may outlive me! CAn anybody enlighten me. Possibly longer than one season? Can't remember how long the last lot took.

Incidentally not a single runner bean flower of ours has yet pollinated and produced a bean yet our self pollinating climbing French beans are producing beans steadily. Would really urge newbie growers to hedge their bets on future bean growing and grow both types. So disappointing when a total crop fails. Even in poor summers like this our self pollinating French beans have never failed us. Good old faithful Cobra variety ! I always save some seeds for sowing the next year.

[Primrose]

I worked in Southall for many years before retiring Clive yet never came across The Workhouse which I must investigate. possibly because most people who didn't live there drove straight in in the morning and straight out at night. The grocery shops are fascinating with their huge range of ethnic foods and spices, and oh those lovely boxes of delicious yellow skinned sweet mangoes. We really indulged ourselves and they were so cheap back in those days!

[Clive.]

Apologies Primrose...I made a tired typing spelling typo with ref the location of my visit... It should read Southwell, as in Newark, Notts although it may or may not be pronounced similarly.

C.

[oldherbaceous]

I feel a lot better now you have made a typo, Clive….all my posts seem to contain them…

[tigerburnie]

Just lifted first 2nd early tatties, got a decent kilo or more from one plant, that'll do two of us for dinner with a few broad beans and peas, pity the carrots failed again.

[Clive.]

Busy now shelling out broad beenz ...whilst enjoying Radio Caroline North, live from the MV Ross Revenge

C.

[Clive.]

...and now some sandwiches of beetroot Bettollo which is of very sweet flavour, just as advertised

C.