Kitchen Garden Forum

oldherbaceous wrote:Dear Jenny, did you mean your leaving party was your retirement party.

And by the way, i heard there is a tornado heading your way.

I'm surprised you can remember what a retirement party is Herby, considering yours was so long ago.

Yes, that tornado is my ride to the land of Oz.

Dear Jenny, i can't really remember my retirement party at all, it's a if i have never had one.

I hope your new Roses and penstemon grow as well as the rose in your photo the other week, it did look gorgeous.

Jenny/Primrose

My gooseberry bushes and nicely tucked away in a fruit cage with seven foot chicken wire sides and a net roof

No,its an unfeathered thief I am afraid we believe its an early morning plot raid

There have been other silly little things stolen too...a row of lobelia plants neatly cut from a seed tray for one

I woke up at 6am to find a strange yellow thing hanging in the sky I jumped out of bed, got myself sorted at was at the plot for 7am Within 10 minutes I was soaked up to my knees from picking raspberries and 10 minutes after that it started raining again I decided to carry on and after a whilethe sun came out, for 5 minutes and then it really hammered it down. I've given up. I was soaked to the skin, muddy and very, very VERY pissed off.

The only good thing is I managed to pick a load more raspberries, courgettes and a cabbage.

Oh, and just to make my day, it looks as if the potatoes may have blight.

weve had 6 inches in the last fortnight, about a fith of the normal anual rainfall. down in the village they started to renovate the roof of an empty shop about 3 weeks ago, its been wide open the whole time reckon all theyve got left now is the stone walls looks like heavy showers here today, soon be time to buy a sythe for the lawn.

After the mention of stolen gooseberries I decided yesterday evening to pop out and check whether mine were ready for picking. I couldn't believe my eyes. There were only about 10 red gooseberries left on one bush, and most of my dessert gooseberries had disappeared from the other plant . In all I filled less than half of a one-pint bowl. I am seriously hacked off. Part of the red gooseberry skins were still attached to the stems so itrather looks as if birds were responsible. They are ungrateful little b*****s considering all the fatty oats, bird seed and suet pellets I put out for them on a daily basis.

I've just got back from the allotment, cut the tops off all my potatoes, earlies, second earlies, and lates, they have all succumbed to blight.
But the worse thing is that it's also on my forty tomato plants, cut all the offending leaves off, but i know it's in vain.
And i got soaked.

But looking on the bright side, theres always next year.

Bet Jenny doesn't get blight, it would be a bit too common for her.

Theres been some lovely written replies to this topic by the way, these really do brighten up a dull day if nothing else can.

It's still raining here too. Was up at 5am this morning and it was a beautiful sunrise, then the clouds came in and off we went again with the rain.

I've finished picking the redcurrants, the blackcurrants are now ready so will pick those this week. The gooseberries have been fantastic. Big, fat, round and very juicy. The strawberries have been great too, although slugs and woodlice have been feasting. The new tayberry has produced fruit too wich is fab.

Poor old Grock is on her jollies in Wales, on a hill somewhere so she probably has webbed talons by now. Still, she's back at the weekend.

Popped in to water her and Mr Grocks greenhoses and she has mosaic virus on her cucumbers so have dealt with that. Her chillies are fantastic and starting to produce fruit, and Mr Grocks pumpkins are really taking off with all this humidity and rain.

One thing puzzles me though. Why is it that my redcurrants ripened over 3 weeks ago and Grocks are just starting to ripen now. They are both the same variety, gowen on the same soil and are only 18 inches apart, the path being in the middle?

This confuses me a great deal. It's what woke me up this morning, thinking about it. Maybe someone knows the answer.

Anyway, off to walk the dog. In the rain. Again.

It's not raining here now, but it probably will be soon. We're quite used to the rain here, but it's still a pain. It's the cold that's getting to me. This will be the first year I will struggle to get courgettes, two of my four plants died and the two left are pretty pitiful.

Everything else is soldiering on and I finally got my greenhouse sealed so I might not get mould on my tomatoes.

The weather is changing her nex week. Instead of showers followed by rain, it's going to be rain followed by showers!!!!!!!!!

We had 7.4" of rain in June..which if my sums are correct is not far off a 1/3 of our annual total...perhaps on that basis we are due a dry spell soon.??!!

This morning we had nearly another 1/2"...which when I went in to work this morning I noticed had brought the Ashby river up again...not to the proportions of last week..which saw it over the top...but it is well up again.

Picked Rasp's and Loganberries at home here this morning and took blighted tops off Lady Christl and Kestrel..

Strawberries at home have done well...much better than work ones..same variety...heavy soil at work but lighter soil here.

The new Buckingham Tayberry at work has been brilliant but the wind has damaged the new canes for next year.!!
Invicta Gooseberries at work have done very well..with new Hinomaki Red to follow.

We now have mighty gusty wind, sunshine and sharp showers...

I must add that Friday evening in Lincs was really lovely..I was mowing in the car park of our local preserved railway 'til 9pm...need some more evenings like that..if only so as I can get their hedge trimmed..

Clive.

House not flooded thankfully but we are facing financial ruin as everything in the ground is either rotting or dying. We have a fantastic new customer and cannot supply them with anything of our own. This was the year we should start making a bit of money and start paying off the debts, instead we will be in more debt at the end. The market garden was under a minimum of two inches of water, having been waterlogged for two weeks beforehand. Even the tunnels are waterlogged so no toms in and cukes that were planted looking decidedly peaky. I cannot bear to go and look any more it is too depressing.

According to the forecast, this is likely to continue till nearly the end of July.

But seriously, I sympathise with those of you who've had a lot more rain than we have - it must be discouraging to see crops drowned. And my special thought to OH with potatoes and tomatoes suffering from blight.

Dear Fen not Fen, i'm so sorry to hear your bad news, it really does put my little blight problem into perspective.
It really is upsetting when someone tries so hard, then only to recieve such a terrible hand of bad luck. I can only hope the weather changes for the better as soon as possible for you, and that you can salvage some of your crops.
I know you can't get back what you have lost, but maybe we might have a better end to the summer, and you might be able to claw back some of your loses.

For what it's worth you are in my thoughts.

thanks OH, my partner is convinced we'll have a long indian summer that will save the day. i hope so.