Kitchen Garden Forum

Evening Clive, it was a bright and sunny start, but with a cold old wind a blowing, then clouded over, got colder, then started to rain.

So all in all, not quite as good as i had hoped for, especially as i got shorn at lunchtime and was doing a guttering job as it was raining this afternoon, got to smile though.

I was about even earlier than my normal time, but it wasn't the rumbling of planes, but my stomach rumbling away that woke me.

To me it feels like we are about where we should be here in Zummerzet with the occasional March warmthness, I am sure I am behind but I always catch up, Yesterday I put six first earlies in a trench and covered them well, I shall apply fleece if severe frosts are forecast when they emerge in about three weeks.

cOmPo

Compo,
Been meaning to ask this of our experts for some time, but your comment about earlies in a trench has triggered it off. What is the advantage (if any) of digging a trench for spuds, as against just digging a series of holes. Having a dodgy back I usually dig holes, press the spuds into the bottom, add a bit of compost, then a bit of manure, and finally fill it up with soil. They seem to do OK, but perhaps not as good as in a trench?? (My soil is well-worked and very loose and crumbly).
John N.

oldherbaceous wrote:I don't think we have finished with the snow yet, although i suppose that statement is not applicable to Alan.

How right you were my dear old forecaster. A week later BBC has caught on and is promising US (yes US) snow for Monday and Tuesday.

Putting some tatties in, found a caterpillar.don't know wether to boast or complain.

Dear Shallot Man, i suppose it depends on whether or not it was on a Summer Cabbage that was ready to harvest.

Made some good progress at home here today. ...lovely and sunny but with a reminder of reality in the cool breeze...

3 rows of Early Nantes 2 Carrots were sown and covered with the fleece. A couple of short rows of Beetroot sown.

My small collection of large Dahlias came out ok from storage in the middle of the garage and are now in. A short row of Gladioli too.

Small Penstemon collection has had a trim down...that'll bring the cold back..

Mum has been forking and weeding along the boundary with the back field where we keep a strip cultivated immediately beyond the fence to try to stop field invading the garden

The "Cedarwood" greenhouse had a dose of preservative to its outside window cill....it's getting to show its age a bit and really wants a new door and there's some potential for slipping glazing..glazing pins looking a bit fragile in places.
Dad constructed it back in 1967-ish...I can just about remember the struggle to get part of it out of the garage at the time .

I see the Potatoes in pots in the greenhouse are just showing through.

It was good to get some jobs sorted....with weather, reportedly, to be not so good in the next few days.?

Time now to start fiddling with the many clocks......

Clive.

Evening Clive, a very productive day indeed by the sounds of it.

I have been mostly pricking out and potting up in the greenhouse.
But i did have an hour down at the other end of the village at my Mums, seeing if i could catch the person that keeps stealing from her stall, probably better if i don't catch them in some ways.
I also re-pointed some oak dahlia stakes, that the bottoms had seen better days.
I was hoping to get my onion sets in but, we had a couple of heavy showers, so a job for another day.

I'm going to put all the clocks back tomorrow morning.

I have already put our clocks back.....

...on the wall, on the mantlepiece, on the ...etc.......once I had moved them forward that is.

Clive.

Just done mine, just the Church clock to go now, but i think i will wait until it gets a little lighter.

Church clock now done.

The clocks do go forward by the way, just incase any one believed my nonsense.

i put our clocks on this morning then fried the last of last years tomatoes with bacon and mushrooms. the tomatoes were picked green when it got frosty, i guess sometime in november , and have been in a banana box in the conservatory over winter, getting eaten as and when...i deliberatly left the last handfull just to see how long they would last, normally the last get polished off at christmas. it was a mix of varieties, tigerella, san maranzo and a yellow one (possibly sungold but ive been saving the seed for years and cant remember for certain what they started as ).

Gosh Richard, i have never managed to keep them that long.
Not long before we will be picking this years.

Doesn't feel very Spring like out there this morning!

I know i shouldn't tempt fate but, has anyone else noticed the lack of strong gusty winds.?