Here we go Bits and Bobs - 2016.

[Primrose]

Richard, with so many courgette plants you'll have the luxury of being able to pick them when they are still baby finger size when I think they're at their most delicious, and quite capable of being eaten raw in salads or sliced lengthways to be included as part of a crunchy sandwich or ciabatta roll filling. The supermarkets will never sell them that small because there would be no profit in it weightwise but in my view most commercially sold courgettes are far too large a size to be enjoyable.

[Ricard with an H]

Goodness Richard, you better get a taste for courgettes with 20 plants!

Westi

We don't eat courgette very often, if I grow some straight ones I may try a Spiralizer-thingy, just for a bit of fun. I don't get enough fun these days. I even sold all the wetsuits I was hanging onto.

I suppose the reason I sowed a full packet of courgette seed is that I haven't grown them for three years and whilst I'm gaining confidence with most seeds and just sowing a few there still appears to be a case for sowing enough to account for failures.

My very worst failure is with French beans of the type where the seed has a very soft coating, they rot and just disappear very easily, also, I can't grow Gialardia (spelling) from seed for some reason. Do they need very high germination temperature ?

Adding to my post about the best compost I ever made, the only neighbour I have has a pile of very-well rotted compost made of mostly leaves and twiggy material, they don't know how much other stuff they put onto this pile but I was like a rat-up-a-drain with my wheelbarrow and shovel when they offered me to take some, it's very crumbly but will it need some nutrient adding ?

[Primrose]

Richard - you seem to join many of us with your failure getting French beans to germinate. I sowed my second bath yesterday after my first sowing got only 4 out of about 25 seeds to sprout.

I think the people who produce them for garden centres must have a similar problem because if you look at the strips or punnets in which they are sold, there are often varying numbers in them. I make a point of checking these, knowing my own failures. I never know how many there are supposed to be in a strip because there are a different number of beans in every one. This suggests that either the people who sow them can't count, or more likely, many of their beans have failed to germinate too. That does make me feel slightly better about my own failures as I imagine their sowing conditions are probably better than mine.

[Ricard with an H]

Thank Primrose, that was fairly close to having a group-huggy/consolation type thing. I need a gardener neighbour to bounce of but my only neighbours aren't that sort of gardeners. They have established gardens with flowering plants that are either perennial or they buy annuals, they don't even know about bi-annuals.

What I usually do with bean seeds is to prove them in the same way I make sprouting seeds sprout, I soak them in water then drain it. I repeat this for a few days until they germinate, or-not. In the case of the pale and thin skinned type this doesn't work and I suspect they just rot though it does work for broad beans and other beans that have a hard coating.

Did you know that rabbits don't eat carrots ? I'm probably stating the obvious here though you can ask me if you want the whole story. Not that I have any experience with the rabbits, for some reason we don't have rabbits even though I very occasionally see one a mile or two away. Same with squirrels. Maybe the buzzards take then, we always have a pair of buzzards in the immediate area. We also have a lot of foxes, they probably predate rabbits when the lambs run out.

[Geoff]

Mr McGregor would disagree.

Nasty shock last night, just packing up to come in and the gritting lorry went past. Quick dash in to check all the versions of the weather forecast and decided they had got it wrong, went down to 7.5°C in the end, Council with more money than sense as usual.

[Geoff]

It must be Spring - Cuckoo and Swifts in the last couple of days. Hope this isn't correct though.

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[alan refail]

I hope you escape that, Geoff. Sounds rather odd to me. The minimum temperatures forecast for here next weekend are 7C and 8C with maximum 14C and 13C.

[robo]

We have had a weather warning for our area giving heavy rain and hail stones

[Primrose]

My tumbling tomatoes and a few "too early sown" indeterminate tomatoes were planted out in the border today to stop them getting too leggy. I have large water bottle "cloches" to protect them all overnight or if it gets too cold but the stronger sunlight outdoors will hopefully bring them on.

Have had to resow all my cavalo nero and Swiss chard. None has germinated. The soil has been so dry. Seeds have been watered but I suspect slugs are the culprits so haven,t forgotten the slug pellets this time. Lovely day for working out in the garden.

[Gerry]

At mid-day today it was all of 7c in my tunnel. It made me very concerned.

Regards, Gerry.

[Ricard with an H]

I've been wearing shorts and a loose linen shirt it's been so warm here, possibly got up to 20 degrees out of the breeze. Friday was uncomfortably warm, yesterday it was muggy. Sometimes cloud cover, then the sun would pop out. Very warm, even warmer in town.

I have been watering daily now for some time.

Forecast for today and tomorrow is the same, 19 degrees at midday.

[snooky]

Up and about this morning pottering about the garden after breakfast.Birds singing away,pigeons fighting, magpies feeding young,planes overhead lining up to land at Heathrow or Gatwick,trains going to and from London,kids playing,but no church bells ringing out to call the faithfull to church.It may well be that the churches hereabouts have no bells or the Noise Abatement Police have quietened them because of complaints from local residents.My bet being on the latter!

[alan refail]

I think the real answer is that people don't go to church any more. Can't blame them really!

[peter]

Finally,some swifts.hove into view today.

[Primrose]

Yes, swiftsarrived here to this weekend.. It's really quite diffixult to miss them, is!'t it, screeching around in the sky. Hopefully plenty of insects for them with this sunny qesther after their long journey.