Kitchen Garden Forum

Great pictures Westi, what it is to be in tropics, I've got a few Broad Bean flowers. What is the bush by the shed please?
You need to be a bit further West Monika, 15.5 mm and counting, not keen on the blustery wind with the heavier showers.
Got the Tomatoes planted in the polytunnel today and started potting up late Chrysants.

Hi Shallot Man!

It's my secret supply of horse bedding. (Well not too much of a secret, but most at lottie ignore it). Not much manure in it & the straw takes a while to break down so I use it as a mulch for year 1, throw it on the compost after the season or under the black plastic as rarely broken down enough in first season to dig in, but great by 2nd year. (Obviously well spoilt horses this guy has or expensive beasts that win races)!
The only other supply is pine chippings which is a rubbish mulch as can change the soil PH & never breaks down & the chips soak up the urine & can/does burn the plants when they are this tiny as they don't clear out the stables as regularly! Clearly the children's pony in those stables!

Hi Geoff!

It's a Big Bute Blackberry. From a cutting of the mother plant that died under suspicious circumstances that was planted out the front of the plot! When it comes to life after it's autumn trim I train it along a very low wire around the front & side of the shed then turn it back on itself on one a bit higher & tie in the stranglers along the way. Underneath this pic hidden by the asparagus post is the next generation! Massive berries, well tasty and thorn free - & easy to take cuttings!

No I,ve never seen straw around tomatoes either. Is it for mulch to try and keep moisture in or anti frost protection.? Looks better then bare earth anyway. I would be using lawn cuttings here as mulch but we've had so little rain the grass hasn't needed much mowing.
My tomatoes are all planted out now but mostly under their 5 litre water bottle "cloches". The unprotected ones seem to have survived so far!

Don't think I needed a Blightwatch email this morning.
Thanks for the Blackberry name Westi, looks a good variety.

My blackberry was called Black Bute, is yours it's big brother?

PLUMPUDDING wrote:My blackberry was called Black Bute,

Could it be the subject of a book, film and TV series, ? eventually having a striking similarity to the logo of a bank maybe.
Quids in if it harvests well, will truly pay dividends.
We will watch with interest.

Your right PP - it's is black! Nice aren't they?

Looking at adverts it seems to be Black Butte - for example, http://www.kenmuir.co.uk/index.php?rout ... uct_id=243 - strange name considering it is bred in America, does it mean something different with an 'e'?
However Ken Muir says it is thorny.

Yes, Black Bute is a very nice variety and it's thornless. I've had it a long time, has the variety changed, the name has since I bought it?

Proper rain here this morning. should help the parched hay meadow to yield a crop and of course, help the allotments too....

Few small puddles in the roadway but so far any rain here has just made the surface look damp.
Scratch the surface of the plot and it is dry as a bone at present.

Bet the surface would be damp enough to stick to my boots though.

Sowed two packets of D T Brown Tumbling Tom tomatoes recently. 1 x pack of yellow + 1 x pack of red.
Result so far > ONE germinated.

Peter we call them slang heaps around here or if you want the common name the burgies

A fair while ago I signed up for blightwatch. Have never heard a word since. No warnings no nothing.
Until this morning. Apparently "one of" my postcodes (didn't know I had more than one) has a Full Hutton Period Alert in place today

Yesterday was a Alert day, not a full alert, apparently although I heard nothing.