Kitchen Garden Forum

Had a bit of overnight rain, that's freshened things up a bit.

Think we are getting a drop tomorrow morning….we certainly need it!

Quite tropical up here currently. 27 is the cars take on the temperature and then a warm rain descended. Lovely but didn’t take the heat out of the air and seems a prime environment for fungi, moulds etc.

I had one of those clumsy days, fell over twice, one was tripping over a weed I was trying to dig out then tripped over a brick holding down some netting. Obvs the usual response of getting up in a blink checking no one saw me & just grazed my knee! Managed to pull the netting half off & tore it so then wasted time mending with plastic coated wire stitches.

Sorted this & moved onto the proper chores for safety only to get my hair clip caught in the netting there & stuck for a bit. Anyway I finally got this area finished & took the hint so did a little harvest & went home; fortunately without further incident!

Oh, Westi, what a day you have had……your descriptions do make me smile….

Couple of Claas Lexion 6700 with 930 headers have been prowling around the back field this evening....and have rapidly devoured the Spring barley.
Straw left to be baled and lovely clean and golden it looks too... One time would be looking for a bale for the strawberries...but suspect my pitch fork wouldn't now be much use....

C.

Nice day here with combines out getting the barley in already, tattie fields being sprayed with water from the stream, which thankfully isn't too low this year. Rape seed looks cooked too, I have put the onions in the greenhouse as rain is forecast, Broad Beans picked, just a few Peas and some Sweetcorn in the raised beds now.

Chopped up some of the logs lying around in the garden and got a lovely blister for my trouble. Had forgotten that I no longer do manual work and my hands will have become softer. Some of the logs are being stubborn and won’t split, hubbie tried and they wouldn’t split for him either so feel a bit better about that lol.

got some brassicas to plant out but need to put a net up to stop all the pigeons first, think that will be a weekend job. Can’t believe it’s nearly here already.

Afternoon Myrkk, sounds like you are making good progress with your garden!
We still have a lot of Pigeons around here but, they are not being as troublesome as they were earlier in the year, thank goodness…..

Are you going to be, “the top plotter”, Westi…

Think that’s the end of the light mornings for me….they have gone very quickly this year…..

Thinking the same OH & been looking at the bus timetable for later buses as only another couple of weeks left down here I would say. I am deffo not going down to the plot in the dark! I left my specs down there once & went down before catching my bus to work to collect them. It was completely dark as still within the time the lights are turned off by the council to save money, way too quiet as no traffic & every noise made me jump, & the biggest rats were running around!

Been raining all afternoon down here & expected to early morning, so spuds staying in for the moment! I will finish the weeding plot 1 while the gits are easier to pull then move to the tunnel which needs some gaps filling & toms need tying in again so just little things. Sweet potatoes have found their niche finally & going a bit mad trying to escape so need to direct them or at least try to contain them in their zone. Should be peaceful & quiet down there with no-one needing to water!

It appears there was not a 100% loss in my carrot germination early on! This guy certainly wasn't from the re-sows but neatly hiding on the tunnel! Took some digging out as wedged next to the tunnel skin but worth the effort for the 400 grams of him! That will keep us going for a bit giving the re-sows a chance to grow a bit more.

Dug and picked up my Kestrel potatoes today, and I have to say, i’m pleasantly surprised,
25kg of good sized baking potatoes and just over 35 kg of ones for roasting and chips, this was from 25 seed potatoes…..far better crop than the Charlotte, they have been very disappointing this year,

I've been having another tidy up attempt...this time in the old chicken run area.
This was once the back lawn or play lawn..there are photos of me at a very early age with the clothes horse set up as a tent support.

Then in the early 1970s my grandma's stock of chickens had dwindled and she really wanted some fresh stock. So my parents got her six new point of lay pullets and they were delivered to the old smallholding. Grandad was less than amused as it meant 'Flos' would be going through the aged farm buildings to the stackyard to tend the hens and he wasn't having it...

Hens had to go...

So dad set to and built a very nice elevated chicken shed and a wire mesh run with roof for them in the back garden here...on the back lawn.
Hence forth we had fresh point of lay pullets each year at least into the mid 1990s.

Since then the little sheds have housed this and that...and a couple of my sometime never projects/junk...........

The old run area became nursery for a collection of Asters in a potential rescue mission ...but in the event things settled and the rescued items weren't required and bramble has recently invaded the area..

Anyway...as of this weekend the bramble is now chopped and in the green bins, spaded through... There's still the tumbling sheds but it's a bit clearer.... i struggled to get started on the job..watched the Lancaster wandering the country on adsb online radar, listened to Radio Caroline North etc etc.....but eventually got job done...

..and back to watching Lancaster on adsb.. Get ready to wave Old H'

C.