Winter Bits and Bobs.

[retropants]

Happy Boxing Day to you all. Suffering from a lovely Christmas lurgey . Had to leave my folks earlier than planned, as my dad is vulnerable to catching things due to his treatments. I may have left it too late though sadly. Fingers crossed no one else caught it, I was extremely careful though.

Hope you all had a good day yesterday, and are keeping warm, it’s bitter out this week.

[oldherbaceous]

Hope you are soon on the mend Retropants….also hope your Dad is soon in better health too!
Just been to feed someones cat and the lane is completely sparkly with frost….looks lovely but, very slippery under-foot!
The birds were singing loudly this morning…..

[Clive.]

A bit more back garden progress... A further 4ft wide strip dug across, then wire and posts from Radeo pea row taken down to ready another section. Black seeded runner bean wigwam also removed.
Small rootstock Bountiful apple tree lightly pruned.....this is on the edge of a patch that I didn't get to last year...and as such the ground beneath is rather a mess....
I decided I ought to top tidy the pathside border by the cordon apple trees ...this was ok at the house end but once I got to the end with my mums old iris collection it was full of rosettes of wood avens and some fine twitchy like grass...so certainly not a full success there but I can see the pathside once more.

This morning I had a bit of a bash of the other path edge by the tumbled down chicken sheds/runs.

..and for lunch, found some small beetroot that were still all ok, not frosted nor running up so thought they ought to be put in microwave and thence between some bread buns

C.

[Colin2016]

Has anyone any experience of using thermal labels on allotment?

Wonder how long before they are unreadable?

[tigerburnie]

I know this is a horrible thought but, I have an awful feeling the forum might come to an end in the near future…..so I had a thought, and only if this did happen, do you think it would be worth looking to all join another forum….maybe we could choose one in advance and we all move over to it, if the worse did happen…..any thoughts?

I used to use several other forums, even had a role as a moderator on one, but sadly it seems that the younger generation prefer facebook or the like and forums in general, not just gardening ones are on their knees. A photography one I used for years has closed down and several others seem to be running on life support.
I don't use facebook or twitter or whatever it's called, doesn't have the same connection as a forum to me, but it seems they are about as relevant today as video tapes or cassettes to listen to music(I still do by the way).

[Westi]

I'm sure there will be changes to KG to match the changes to FB which is now A1 managed. I am on 3 sites on FB, all were 'padlock' controlled closed sites before this & it's been honoured by FB so they retain control, have their own site name & rules to sign up to, but still on FB though. Our site is FB protected as had the padlock. Post do appear on the main feed but read only....or supposed to be; but the rouge person still pops up & is allowed to answer but they do get deleted when the moderators follow up.

I think KG could fit into this 2nd group as should be a padlocked site anyway as a business....but can they provide the time? Can they screen users etc? Any one able to contact them directly so we're not just surmising?

[oldherbaceous]

Good to see you back, Burnie, and hoping you are keeping well!

[tigerburnie]

Good to see you back, Burnie, and hoping you are keeping well!

Thankyou, it's been a relatively quiet year for me, but our youngest Grandson is going through a rough patch health wise, took the edge off it really. I hope you are well and I wish all posters here a Happy New Year as I may be busy for the next few days.

[oldherbaceous]

So sorry to hear your Grandson is having a rough time, Bernie!

Do you still do your photography and filming?

[tigerburnie]

I am still doing some filming, we have a red weather warning for snow, so if it's not too rough I hope to be out in it over the next few days . I am doing less stills photography, but I'll see if there's anything worth posting.

[Clive.]

Couldn't seem to get set up for digging yesterday so instead weeded the two narrow strips by the front gate. Home, for years, to pink hyacinths on one side and a red, maybe species, tulip on the other side...good to get them sorted ahead of them pushing up, the hyacinths are already moving..

Today, back to the strip of digging that I got prepared, so another 5ft wide section is turned over

C.

[oldherbaceous]

I was going to start the Winter digging this morning but, the ground was quite frozen, so had a really big bonfire instead…..everyone had seemed to have dumped all their clearing up stuff, up the top of the allotments, but hadn’t burnt it…..so had a nice few hours keep topping the fire up.
Looks as if we are in for some real hard frosts, Friday and Saturday night.

[Westi]

It will be Sat or next week before I can get down again. I was a bit disappointed as worked everything around the decent weather dates for popping down to the plot but not to be thanks to Mother Nature's games! The week following is going to be rain again but maybe fingers crossed it sorts itself out & the temp is much better.
I scrolled through some of my old plot diaries & days down did not look as wet or cold consistently like this years! If this summer was the warmest it won't be the same for Autumn!

[tigerburnie]

Raised beds and no digging is the way to go for a Septuagenarian, but I do miss it weirdly.

[retropants]

Happy New Year to you all! I’ve had to pop bubble wrap and a blanket over my poor wee worms, they are still thriving over a year after I set up the wormery, but I don’t want to lose them all in the forecast freezing temps. Have a fabulous 2026 everyone, 2025 can get in the bin. X