Kitchen Garden Forum

...and in the Old Orchard the Primroses, self set/self spread, have been putting on quite a show...

Clive.

This weekend I think the stars may be the Flowering Cherry trees..

Clive.

..and the lily scented Thalia...

Clive.

Lovely Thalia Clive, mine has only two flowers on it - time to give it a bit of a feed and mulch I think.

At home here our dug ground has gone a bit nutty so had the 1970s MT Major out...I should have done it properly and used the finger rotors...I did attempt to get them but they were trapped at the back of the shed behind loads of...........

Broad Beans had their posts added and first string run round. Runner Bean canes set up and the first Beans sown...now that folk are returning from Boston May Fair.....sowing in accordance with my late Grandfathers wisdom.

Clive.

Had Big Bertha roaring around my long allotment, went over the ground tree times and now have soil that islike velvet. The rebuilt magneto has certainly done the trick, money well spent.

Lovely photographs, Clive.

And, i have planted fifty Runner Bean plants out, so tempting the frost to strike.

Did the mowing today, drive to the Hayter Harrier's roller went near the end, not sure whether its in the engine or not, neighbour works for Hayter so will waylay him.


Couldn't strim, slow running on big strimmer got worse by the yard. Pressing the feed bulb on the fuel tank made it momentarily better, so stripped fuel feed, inside the weighted bit in the tank was a lump of dirt n fibre which I removed, reassmebled, still bad. Will try replacing the two thick fibre rings that are the in tank filter next.


Finished potato planting, only six (?) weeks late, four more 30' rows.

I'm a bit worried about my sudden photo flurry. ...pushed us too quickly to page 17...looking at the photo view numbers. Did you see Geoffs huge Harlow Carr Cowslip on page 16.??

Clive.

Thanks for the reference back Clive, I enjoyed your pictures. I am just wondering if a lot of the supposedly wild flower Cowslips that are being planted in verges and the like are already slight hybrids as I remember them as much more delicate little things. We have some like your cowslip x primula in the garden where Primroses (still the best of the family and I have a lot of them from Denticulata, through Bulleyana and other Candelabras to Florindae) and Cowslips grow together. We went to Harlow Carr for the plant sale and added to the family group with a couple of white Denticulata, that I took root cuttings of before planting out!
White Narcissus seemed to be a theme at HC, both Thalia like yours and a slightly more delicate single headed one that I didn't find the name of.

I think when wild flowers are planted, or self seed in cultivated soil, they always seem to make bigger plants, as well. And when they used to grow in verges and the like, there probably wasn't the run off of fertilizers like there is today.

You must be correct OH - that's what my wife says!

Spotted today just how lovely the blossom of Pear Durondeau is...

Clive.

Yep - that is beautiful! My pears are just about to blossom. My apples are sluggish but thinking about it! My Plum Beauty had done it's job - OK I did it with a paint brush but my Victoria is attracting 'real' pollinators! Fingers crossed!

Westi

We have loads of blossom on the schools pear tree (although the tree itself is quite small), so hopefully we may get some fruit this year

VPM
x

Felt off yesterday, so didn't really do anyyhing.
Today tidied a bit of the workshop shed, then hit the greenhouse, cleaned, tidied and sowed lots.

Squash, herbs, brassicas, cucumbers, sweetcorn, leeks, lettuce, French beans and kales.

Managed, with help from a friend, to get the pullstart off my JCB strimmer and re-cord it. Sits between engine and shaft, so have to take off shaft and an adaptor which screws onto the engine output shaft. Had to open the crankcase and jam the engine with a clean bit of wood to unscrew the adaptor. Which then allows you to remove the plastic engine housing, front half, that holds the starter. As for what had to happen before that, lets just say it was fiddly.