Kitchen Garden Forum

Love your Painted Lady, Geoff. We have not seen any here yet though our son in Clapham (North Yorks, not London) has. But it's been good to see quite a number of peacock, small tortoiseshell, red admiral, wall brown, ringlet, meadow brown and also a small copper which had been absent for a few years. The number is not massive but if they breed well, we might get a better butterfly year in 2019. I haven't mentioned the whites of which there are many!

Earwigs or wood lice are eating my tomatoes in the green house, (although there is no wood in there)! Exaggerating a bit there, just eating my 1st giant Black Krim beefsteak! I fully appreciate they are also probably thirsty, so left it on the plant to keep them happy & hopefully keep them away from the other fruit!

My runners both at home & on lottie have a big gap in the middle, I had flowers & stressed beans with a red seam at the bottom, big gap with just stems & some sad leaves in the middle & now loads of flowers & proper green beans above that! After yesterday & today there will probably be another gap! It's still 27 degrees outside!

I've picked a bucket full of climbing French beans this afternoon. They are still very lush and producing lots of flowers. I put quite a thick compost mulch round them when I planted them and it seems to have kept the moisture in.
There are some black fly on the tips of some squashes but most of them are on a strip of nastirtiums planted next to them and there are lots of ladybirds having a feast .
I've not seen any baby frogs away from the pond but there were adult frogs leaping about all over the place when we had the splash of rain last week.
The butterflies are doing very well and we've had a painted lady and some holly blues to add to the list this week.

One painted lady, two small copper and a comma today as well the ones mentioned above. I hope they all find mates and do their bit!
Picked lots of runner beans today and tried to give them away to neighbours - alas, there was nobody at home at the three houses I tried ...... So I have wrapped them up in damp kitchen paper, put them in a plastic bag and will use them during the week. I have frozen them in the past but have never found frozen beans very good to eat.
Dug up the first leeks (Oarsman) at home and was surprised at the length and thickness of the white shaft.

Monike, I agree with you re frozen runner beans. They don,t freeze nearly as well as French beans. I blanch my runners in chunks, dry them well and open freeze them before bagging up for the freezer but still find they tend to go slightly soft. . Frozen French beans keep their texture much better I think. I often throw a handful of frozen runner beans into a minestrone soup almost at the end of the cooking time to prevent them going too mushy.

Two holly blue butterflies and painted ladies yesterday. Some of the buddleias are only just opening up, so, weather permitting, the next few days could be interesting.

All I get is Cabbage whites.

We have a lot of these in the garden just now, Silver Y moths

It went down to 7° early this morning. Quite chilly. We even had a shower in the evening but not enough, the ground is still like concrete.

I've been pruning the raspberries and couldn't push a garden cane in to support the new growth.

Got back late last night from two weeks away I intend going to the plot this morning after I empty the car and everything else I have to do

Well, I hope you had a good time away.

Meanwhile, the prospect of a Test Match at Lords brings the promise of rain for the south-east. Astonishing isn't it?

One of the worlds finest rain dances, stick 6 bits of wood in the ground and get some blokes dressed in white to dance round them, guaranteed to rain

Or (usually) run a net across a patch of south London grass and dig out your white clothes...

My father used to say much the same about the weather and Taunton Flower Show.

Just organise a village fete, a big outdoor social barbecue or sImilar event . That's generally calculated to bring on the rain ! ,
It's actually drizzling here at the moment but the amount of rain falling Has so far barely managed to wet the pavement and certainly won't be enough to make any difference to our dead brown lawn. At least the temperature is more bareable now.

We finally have had a little drop of rain, not enough to do a lot of good but, it does smell wonderfully fresh out there....