Kitchen Garden Forum

Disappointed with the weather. There was a good thundery downpour while I was out about five miles away but not a drop when I got home.
We've had a few rumbles of thunder and strong winds probably drying things even more. Looks like I might be watering everything tomorrow.

I'm digging my first potatoes of the year tomorrow, for cooks Birthday......i hope she scrapes them just the way i like them.
Also first Broad Bens of the year, too!

No rain today, ground bone dry even after putting 4 gallons where I was about to plant the runner beans.

Thunder & lightening down here last night! Spuds not ready as they got frosted a bit earlier on in the season - recovered from that but will need a bit longer after that set back!

Still no appreciable rain today, just a few spits and spats around 2pm, whilst northwest and northeast of us it has been pouring! I think we are jinxed ..... Another bout of watering with the cans tomorrow.
Planted the dwarf beans out today, with fleece protection, and also the last peas from root trainers, all well puddled in.

Our broad beans are about half the height they should be but are covered in flowers so I hope the insects are doing their bit. Radishes have swelled nicely but with very little top growth.

We had a yellow flood warning between 1pm and overnight up to now we have had 10 minutes of slight drizzle

10.4mm did quite a bit of good.

Very little but there is a damp feel to the morning

GARDENING SHORTS

I've bought some excellent shorts from Aldi this morning. I got the men's ones as they were more substantial material and had nice big cargo pockets and they were a £1 less than the ladies ones.

They are a good fit, a nice length and the dark green won't show the dirt. £6.99 can't go wrong

Brassica cage plastic net roof now on and eighty assorted brassicas planted out.
Room for another forty, now what shall I choose?
Finished under a gentle shower.
Hoping for some steady overnight rain, our bbc forecast is for about three hours of light rain.
Under my mulch the soil is lovely and moist, where the surface is exposed it is set hard and is drier at the same depth as the mulched areas.

80 brassica's and room for 40 more !!!!!

Your mum must have drummed it into you to "Eat your greens up"

Heavy spots of rain late afternoon but did not last, no signs of any rain at present. Nice bright sky.

Was planting out Firestorm runner bean yesterday, only a short 7ft double run. Poured 4 glns water where beans were going, even so below 2inches down the ground was bone dry.

Lovely morning down at lottie, got about 3/4hr of steady rain about 2pm, but sunny prior to that.

I've found my spring onions, just coming up now which is weeks after sown. I had since given up & planted other crops so have them among the beetroot & kohl rabi, so it will be careful weeding, which it was today when I found them! My little self sown tomatoes from the last few years are just popping up. The seed I saved (or rather tried to), was a disaster, they just wouldn't dry & clumped together. I've lost 2 early potato plants as well. They were doing fine growing out the frost damage but had just disappeared today. I will dig the spot tomorrow when I go down just in case there are a few tiddlers to be taken.

Still to show are my french beans (2 weeks sown), fennel (3 weeks) & parsnip (3 weeks) and continued poor germination on some other regulars. Might be mice with the french beans but have sown 2 rows so would have thought some would have been missed by them & would have shown by now.

Harvested a large punnet of strawberries, broad beans, asparagus & some mixed salad so not bad. Currently 20 degrees but hopefully weather report is right & some storms to come about 10pm which I will be grateful for as it is very muggy as well!

Pa Snip wrote:80 brassica's and room for 40 more !!!!!
Your mum must have drummed it into you to "Eat your greens up"
......

Nope, ten of this, ten of that.....

Summer cabbage
Winter cabbage
Green kale
Purple kale
Calabrese
Purple sprouting
Brussels sprouts
Cavolo Nero.

spent time in the polytunnel this morning sorting out the supports for the 22 tomato plants and generally weeding , a balmy 68f and the pitter patter of light rain on the plastic. reset the max min thermometer cos it had gone off the scale at over 50c sometime in the last week. should be some more strawberries to pick for tea .

Surprised today! French beans all popping up - what a difference a day makes!

Pea's in flower & the weeny asparagus left from yesterday's harvest shot up! My first sweet pea - nice dark pink one & I found a parsnip! Mainly a weeding day though - allium beds all look pristine now & quite impressed with the size which couldn't be judged with the weeds & self sown poppies smothering them! Even confident enough to take down the dog barrier - may regret that though!

Glutted myself on strawberries off the plants while hoeing & cursing Plum Beauty who has dropped about 90% of the crop! I know same old moan, but what a challenging tree! Gave it a stern talking to to pull up it's socks while I summer (kind off) trim!