Summer bits and bobs.

[oldherbaceous]

The Bantam is nearly ready, i’m dreading bringing the first harvest home to Cook!

[Clive.]

You may get on better than the day I brought Bantam home....

...A Bantam D7 175cc... For restoration, said the guy that sold one to me and one to my colleague...back in 1981. Loads missing, no official reg id, although I have since traced the frames original reg details.....bent crank points cam side, much missing. £75 was a lot of money back then...and it sits under a blanket...as was, as is .....

C.

[Westi]

Pleasant surprise today to find all the plants sitting quite happily, although it was very dry & all the drippers etc were empty. That cheered me no end so after a nice water & top ups for them I tackled the area I have been avoiding with all the weeds & spent berry canes, but all completed, canes cut up & in the big rubble sack for the neighbour to take to the tip when he goes next.

Took a good harvest of beans & toms & found a fully ripe, fully red big pepper. It was one of the roundish ones I gave up on growing & changed to pointed peppers, but I gave it another go & pleased I did. Mind the pointed ones got slugged out & this guy has a healed wee section on the bottom so it was taste tested by a slimy but obvs they preferred the pointy ones!

Thundery showers supposed to be coming our way for the rest of the week but I'll go down as % quite low & warm enough to get a little damp & pretty much guaranteed no one else will be down so can crack on with the 'To Do' list!

[oldherbaceous]

Well we missed all the predicted showers again…maybe tomorrow!
I did leaf mow a large lawn today, just to tidy it up, no grass at all….

[Clive.]

We had 4mm rain late this afternoon....and like wise, last Friday, ran some lawns over to remove the dishevelled look, add some stripes and vacuum some fallen leaves.

C.

[Westi]

I had one very lush & long shower this afternoon that was slow to move on so happy about that as no watering tomorrow, well fingers crossed the plot got some but it was heading that way! A few showers tomorrow morning but the lightening is not forecast until the afternoon so plan is to get some seeds in & plant out a few BSP on hold while the soil is nice & damp & then scoot home. Of course the raincoat will be at the ready; as likely the actual weather & the forecasted is very, very different.

[Clive.]

There's a particularly active thunder cloud wandering the Lincolnshire Wolds at the moment...very rapid succession of lightning flashes within the cloud with a couple of other proper thundery anvils and building cloud in an otherwise mostly fully clear sky...with a crescent moon tucked alongside.

C

[Westi]

It started off just fine on the plot, the rain we had at home did reach the plots & soil was damp to the depth of my Hori Knife. But then mother Nature got bored & it was heavy shower after heavy shower consistently all morning. I got extremely wet when caught out by the first shower so just continued outside doing things I could ie; where beds weren't totally soaking which was not many, but at least some are weeded & tidied & the Chinese bed sowed. More rain to come but just a yellow warning currently.

[Cider Boys]

We had a few showers today, all very welcome. Put all my onions into storage in the glasshouse and harvested my butternut squash under cover of a porch. All in all I have been quite pleased with this years vegetables, despite the lack of rain many have done well, but all would have benefitted from regular rainfall. I will have to get some ground ready for an autumn broad beans sowing.

Barney

[oldherbaceous]

A drop of rain yesterday and some more predicted for this afternoon….i’m sure the straw coloured grass, has a tiny amount of green to it!
Glad you mentioned about the Autumn broad beans, Barney…..

[Clive.]

The pick up in late herbaceous plantings, from absolutely flagging, after a couple of days of mizzly rain is amazing...with another dose of rain listed for this evening...as long as it keeps coming in a few steady doses it will be ok...and no deluges like in the Sunny South..

C.

[Clive.]

I've just planted another 63 little leeks in the back garden...in a bit of a shame not to.... sort of moment, as they were sat there still in a seed row and too close spaced just to let them take their chance. Ran some water down the rows and then felt a few spots of rain..so hopefully I've got the job timed just right...if really rather late. The ones I planted last month are clearly nicely settled in and have grown, but not by much.
I'm sure the other side of the fence birch trees will be supping some sustenance but equally they have dropped a few leaves down the V trenches which hopefully will amuse the eartheworms...as every leek always has a friendly earthworm under it when lifted..

Washing was dry on the line ...guilty as charged for using the drier for a few weeks as big garden has been ruling things and washing has often run late into the evening.

I'm having a Co-op dinner for both lunch and tea sort of weekend in a mis-calculation of buying overstock and a few days over doing it and ending up having a non sort of tea....

...and I must add that the Autumn crocus are pushing up into flower outside the house back door here..

C.

[oldherbaceous]

A very comprehensive account of your days Clive, lovely to read and never fails to make me smile.

[Westi]

Not a day without rain since the first showers, but at least not continuous like then. The next couple of days are thunder & lightening with high percentages of rain so I will be prepping all the veg I bought home for freezing & making some soups to pop in the freezer.

[Colin2016]

Been playing with new toy Einhell cordless shredder ended up with 2 bags of chippings for the compost.
Going to be a great addition for shredding the the stuff on the plot before going onto the compost heap.