Kitchen Garden Forum

HI Geoff,

The beans at home look like yours but, as you can see from the picture below, the ones at school don't which is disappointing but hopefully next year will be a different story:



VPM
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P.S. The picture was taken about 2 weeks ago but there has been little additional growth but loads of flowers and little beans

Was anybody else daft enough to watch The Crackpot Gang last night expecting there to be some gardening in it?

Geoff wrote:Was anybody else daft enough to watch The Crackpot Gang last night expecting there to be some gardening in it?

Nearly, very nearly but then realise Restoration Home was on Beeb 2

So did I have a lucky escape ?

VPM
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Probably but I haven't watched my recording of Restoration Home yet!

Geoff wrote:Probably but I haven't watched my recording of Restoration Home yet!

Oh it was a really nice one and the architectural history and social history side of this building was fascinating - but then on the whole they all are in this series. Next weeks looks particulalry challenging

VPM
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A sudden appearance of lots of large blue dragonflies (possibly migrant hawker)! It's probably the very warm SE wind bringing them from the continent. Nice to see them hawking.

Quite a few small tortoiseshell about, too, but few other butterflies.

It seems rather dark out there this morning, but i suppose we are going to have to get use to it, where has this year gone.

I do miss it not being light when i get up, better get the candles out again..

It would be even darker if it were throwing it down with rain as it has been here for the past 24 hours

Where has this year gone? Mostly down the drains!

Here its very sunny, the air is still and its already rather warm.

My squash plants are going to be wasted this year, right now they're the size they would normally be at the end of June. Even the Patty Pan are only just beginning to bear fruit sparingly.

We had rain over night but it's nice and bright outside now. Just checked my squash plants over and I have about 6 Winter Festivals growing, 1 pumpkin now football sized, 2 more that appear to have stopped growing at 'lemon' size, no Honeybears at all and the Cobnuts are only just starting to flower

And slugs have destroyed a female pumpkin flower that was about to open any day and the only other flowers I have are all male

But at least we shall have 1 pumpkin for Halloween and if mine and Peters experiences this year are anything to go by, pumpkins will be few and far between and very small in the shops come October!

VPM
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Finally this year, a day where I left the allotment carrying more than I arrived with.

Patty-Pan squashes, beetroot, French beans, shallots, garlic, carrots and mange-tout.

The forecast for us for the last two days was lousy with heavy rain, but it has turned really lovely (other than some light rain this afternoon). Yesterday, I dried two huge washes on the line, including thick jeans and T-shirts which fluttered nicely in the brisk NW wind!

And this morning, we worked on the allotment in very pleasant sunshine and a light breeze. well, so much for the "heavy showers with risk of flooding".

Hi Monika,
In contrast to you it was very overcast from dawn and around 9am the sun shone for all of five minutes and at 11.45am just as I was about to go to the pub for my usual Sunday pre-lunch couple of pints the heavens opened and before I could get onto the main road the water was poring furiously down the hill almost across the road. When I was coming back home the road was flooded. At 3pm the sun came out and was there to sunset as though it had been like it all day. How fickle!
JB.

A wonderful bank holiday weekend of rain and gales forecast for Northwest Wales.

Dear Johnboy, I shouldn't have opened my big mouth: we have had some very heavy showers the last two days but, I must admit, also some lovely sunshine in between!

The vegetables which are really enjoying all this weather are the leeks and Florence fennel - they are growing by the hour, so at our village show next week I shall be able to enter my annual "piece de resistance" in the "one vegetable and one flower" category - a big fennel with a sunflower head nestling in the foliage.