Kitchen Garden Forum

Monika. Grew JERMOR for some forty years. Always kept my own stock. Would be allowed to really dry out. The largest was put aside for seed. Smothered in flower of sulphur. [ this stopped the Memsahib from raiding the stock ] Found as the years went bye, got less bulbs but larger. Miss the plot terrible.

Oh, I dug up the garlic last night just before dusk. I'm very happy with it. First thing I planted in the new patch at home

I tried Elephant garlic for the first time this year, along with the normal. Today probably wasn't the best to harvest as even with the air com on in the car on the way home there was such a strong smell of garlic! I thought they were supposed to be milder, but if smell (& wee nibble on site) is to go by they are not so much milder but just not as raw. Deffo doing them again!

Not veg but I thought I'd share my Kiftsgate rambling rose. Pity I can't record the noise, absolutely alive with insects in a morning when the sun hits the fresh flowers, mainly small bumble bees.

oh, that's wonderful!

retropants wrote:Oh, I dug up the garlic last night just before dusk. I'm very happy with it. First thing I planted in the new patch at home

retropants. use to grow garlic for my daughter. Would buy from a well known seed merchant [ and I thought paid through the nose.] Alongside Spanish 80p garlic from local supermarket. When hung, couldn't tell the difference. Seem to recall reading some years ago, French troops were based in the Ilse of Wight, during WW2 used to get SOE after landing Agents in France, to bring back garlic.

Westi wrote:I tried Elephant garlic for the first time this year, along with the normal. Today probably wasn't the best to harvest as even with the air com on in the car on the way home there was such a strong smell of garlic! I thought they were supposed to be milder, but if smell (& wee nibble on site) is to go by they are not so much milder but just not as raw. Deffo doing them again!

Done elephant garlic for a few years now, it is milder, but more pervasive in a dish, you certainly know it in there.
Plus I get a number of uniclove bulbs, above golf ball size each year.

Blackspot is bad on the roses so spent an hour picking off the affected leaves.Don't get this bother with fuchsias!!Checked my phone when finished to find a message from EE to the tune of "we are upgrading your plan and it will cost you three times as much from August".Stuff that.Hour later a new plan sorted for less than I am paying now with the same amount of data.Result!!
Then I realised why they wanted to put me on a new plan - roaming charges apply at £2-a-day from January if you take your phone abroad and forget to switch the roaming service OFF and it doesn't apply to customers on existing plans.Apparantly my plan doesn't exist anymore that's their excuse and arguing didn't help.Conning ..........!

Memsahib passed away 4months yesterday, wish I had told her more often how much she Ment to me.

Sorry to hear that shallot man ,it was my wife’s birthday to day she would have been # a bit younger than me but I feel just the same as shallot man. I grow elephant garlic for my eldest far to mild for me ,all my garlic this year seems to be stiff necked but I didn’t plant that all wight garlic but a few different types I’ve only dug two up one was very good the other is half size

Shallot man and robo. The fact you both remembered these particular dates shows that you remain the people you still were while your loved ones were alive. Treasure the memories you created together.

There's an increasing wind here blowing up through the sunshine - a sign of the rain storms forecast for tomorrow.. It' s that sort of weird feeling you normally get at the end of summer when you see the first V shaped flock of migrating geese flying away overhead and can somehow sense a change in the air. I always wonder what it is that triggers the geese to decide it's time to move on.

No rain forecast for us, alas. Everything is so dry and brittle.
I harvested the last broad beans today (de Monica), podded and froze them. It always intrigues me how the number of actual beans vary in the pod. Some long thick pods only contain two or three beans whereas an unassuming slim one comes up with six of them! Is the lack of beans the result of insufficient pollination? Whatever, it's been a great year for them.
The last shallots (Yellow Moon) are now drying in the greenhouse. Will try the garlic (Mersley Wight) tomorrow.

We had a weather warning for tomorrow through to Sunday warning of flooding but it was cancelled yesterday

Evening Shallot Man, i'm sure your wife would have known exactly what you were thinking, without you having to tell her...
So sorry to read this sad news.

Well the weather has been fairly erratic this year for sure, but the crops aren't complaining too much. Well not complaining now but certainly did earlier in the season. I'm enjoying the fact I'm not watering as much, not quite as pleased that I had blight (crop saved though), & now my plums are complaining about the humidity & rotting on the branches & the Victoria is bereft of any fruit as the worst case of powdery mildew ever & never had it before. (Hints & Tips welcome btw on how to sort it as all my research says spray but it has to be 15' tall & also reassurance this is a one off would help). Cucumbers are weird, loads on & look healthy but at a stand still growth wise! On the positive soft fruit loving it, brassica's thriving but I can see a glut coming & happy neighbours!

How's it going for everyone? Anything more unusual than usual going on in your part of the world?