Kitchen Garden Forum

Nice quiet day down here. Decided to go to the big supermarket to get those silly little things that we forget; well I forget anyway! Blimey haven't the prices risen? A lady & I started a conversation & she said her weekly shop is near £40 more now. She said they are blaming the world oil issues but was confused to how come the prices on the packet were changed so quickly..no obvious signs of the rip off of the old label but same use by date. Food for thought!

I really like these random chats I have with our older folk, they are kinda dismissed as in the way or something but nearly all the ones I meet really have their finger on pulse....(I exclude the really old guy who wandered around with his trousers falling down constantly)! Off to the plot tomorrow....hope my jeans stay up!

Rather pleasant out there today!
Hope you don’t get sunburnt, Geoff…..
Plenty of jobs to e getting on with now, Clive…..

All OK, dug out my sunhat. Lunch and dinner outside. 18.7° pretty good for up here.

At last today tempted out the Brimstone butterflies...we had seen the other hibernating types but I reckon the Brimstone was having an extra lie in...

Also 3 Red Kites up on high. They are now an almost daily sighting or at least several times weekly but 3 in one bit of sky is a new one in these parts East.

Also saw a Thruster T600N microlight..they were very popular this way on but not so frequent now but I spotted a local one freshly out of hibernation...

C.

Threw my list away when I got down to the plot as my 2 flooded beds had dried up significantly so thought I would do some work on them before we got more rain. It was only digging up the stones so I could make a deeper channel around the beds so at least have some better drainage. All the stones went back in so will see, but hope is it is deep enough to carry the water without it flowing over into the beds.

Even managed a weed of one of the asparagus beds so pretty productive overall.

Very misty this morning, but the rising sun soon burnt through and it became a lovely warm day here. I even managed to plough a little patch of land for my vegetables to grow in. As normally a devout pessimist the warmer days do make me feel a little optimistic.

Barney

Prices?
Thought we would get an ice-cream and have a stroll by river in lovely weather.

£3.25 for cone with one dollop of ice cream not even a flake!

Next time stroll minus ice cream.

We are still getting frosts overnight, so apart from some onion sets and shallots nothing is planted in the garden yet, the greenhouse is being used for early crops, carrots are sown in the border, lettuce in trays, peas in cells and broad beans in cells, all growing.

We have frosts predicted for the next couple of nights…. the seedlings that have germinated in the greenhouse, are very slow at growing on!

We have had several frosts here, especially this morning. I decided to put some fleece over my rhubarb this afternoon just in case future frosts affect them. Did a little more apple tree pruning to-day, I know it is a bit late but I spoke to a fruit expert who said he was still pruning at local cyder farms as long as the fruit buds had not yet blossomed. It has been so very wet here when pruning should idealy be carried out. Hoping to finish cultivating some ground to plant my potatoes soon.

Barney

Will be down at the plot tomorrow but not over keen on the 0C temp predicted with a max of 13C. It remains sunny though so that's a positive but rain back on the agenda after. Fingers crossed the brassica seeds in the tunnel have decided to start growing, only 3 showing when I was last down!

Just got to weed the back asparagus tomorrow before too many spears come up so I don't stab them. Not weeding it entirely just digging out the large big weeds that have blown in, the rest will work out how to thug through the little weeds. No real plan tomorrow so will weed, tidy & edge the outside flower beds I think so a bit more curb appeal. Just got to put my new grass shears together then & give the rest a trim.

White frosty here this morning.....meanwhile, breakfast went with a bit of a bang...a few seconds into its boil my New Years day purchased kettle went with such a bang....small ball of glowing molten something blew out the base, leaving a black mark on the work surface..! Pleased the breaker on the distribution board did its job ok.

This time it will be a visit to the local trusted hardware shop...because the shop that got me back with kettle by being open on New Years day is one of a chain of stores that are in the throws of closing down...

C.

White here this morning too!
Like Barney, hadn’t got my fruit trees pruned, because of the constant rain…so got over the allotments really early, and now have it all done.
Sounds like you had a very lucky escape with your kettle, Clive…..whoever would have thought, making a cup of tea could be so potentially hazardous…..

I’ve just realised, the adverts at the bottom of the page have gone…does anyone know how long that’s been?

New kettle has just filled the tea pot....after two cleansing boils that got used for path weedkilling...

Yes, seems the adverts are gone here too..hadn't noticed to be honest....

Maybe their sales weren't too great via here ...

C.