Kitchen Garden Forum

Saw the first two swifts on Friday 6th, exactly the same date as last year. amazing how regular these migrant birds are, isn't it? I have a list of local arrivals from 1908 and there is a slight trend for them to arrive earlier now but not much change. Willow warbler, chiffchaff and blackcap are singing but I haven't heard a cuckoo yet.

The three blackbird chicks in our porch have successfully left the nest and are now hiding in the undergrowth in the garden and being fed by dad.

We had a "promise" of heavy showers last night but they never came, so lots of watering to do!

I found about 25 snails lurking under a spare roof slate whilst weeding my strawberry border this morning so "repatriated " them to a nearby public footpath.
I should have put some red nail varnish on their shells to see if it's true that they have a rehoming instinct and all turn up back here again.
Does anybody know how long the average snail lives for?

Primrose wrote:I found about 25 snails lurking under a spare roof slate whilst weeding my strawberry border this morning so "repatriated " them to a nearby public footpath.
I should have put some red nail varnish on their shells to see if it's true that they have a rehoming instinct and all turn up back here again.
Does anybody know how long the average snail lives for?

About 2 seconds under my boot

Hit 22 degrees on Lottie today! Watered, hoed weeds, sowed some bits & bobs, earthed up the spuds & harvested a red lettuce, some nice radishes, asparagus & rhubarb. Quite bearable except for the Factor 25 applied which then attracted all the dust & what I'm self diagnosing as tennis elbow. Bought a support for the elbow but pretty useless & sliding off with the suntan lotion - not to mention the thought of a white stripe on one arm.

Went home via the beach & quay - big mistake! Heaving, but nice to see the boats & boards out on the water & the pub & cafes full.

Westi

Another glorious day here again

Put up some greenhouse shading this morning.

Sowed some Palace parsnips in my new raised bed.
I've sown a different variety in another part of the garden, so I can compare how they grow.

Sowed runners and climbing french beans direct in the ground this year. I'm going away at the end of this coming week for a fortnight, so hopefully they will be up when I get back. I had to fence them in, otherwise the blackbirds would have thrown them all over the place on their evening digging sorties

Some of the water butts are getting low already.

The Early Onward peas that I mentioned higher up this thread, May 2nd, I see tonight are coming up.

Clive.

I just cannot remember who it was that came up with this solution for my French bush beans but here is the resulting belt-and-braces protection from wind and low temperatures.

Afternoon Richard, that seems to have everything covered... ..

Nice steady rain here today, that will bring things on nicely.

Looks pretty good & secure Richard. They should be well protected with the cloches as well until it warms up a bit.

Westi

I'm almost embarresed Westi, come-on, who was it that gave me the idea when I had all the stuff to do it but didn't even think in that direction ?

I tried those plastic cloches last year, they blew away complete with nine inch wire pegs into the soil, like I said. If the soil is what we all aspire to it won't hold tent pegs or even those plastic moulded ones. They blew over into the next field, the far bank/hedge in that field managed to hang onto them and fortunately the cows hadn't started chewing them.

Also, I'm going to try to grow straight beans rather than curly ones.

Yeah it was me, but idea just clicked when I recalled the pictures of your raised beds you posted ages ago! Here's to a mega bean crop & plenty of recipes posted to use up the excess!

Westi

Ahh, it was you. Thanks again.

Those bean plants have doubled in size already although it difficult to see them because the cloches were very steamed-up. I did open the small vents at the top.

Courgette plants are being nibbled and don't look very good though out of twenty seedlings I'll have enough if only two survive, I suppose it's slugs so I put pellets down.

I noticed on the weather forecast that you on the east side of the island are due another cold period.

Afternoon Richard, Just one thing to be a little careful of regarding the cloche's. The French beans will grow a little soft if left under the cloche too long, resulting in them flopping over when the cloche's are removed. I suppose it would be a lot of trouble to remove them on nice days and put them back at night, wouldn't it....just a thought....

Thanks for that advice OH, I'll,take them off now. Just put them back on if we expect low temperatures.

Went to lottie to harvest some asparagus this evening!

Set off from home in sunlight, pulled into lottie site in about 10 mins to a few drops of rain, by the time we drove to lottie itself it was thunder & lightning & that's about 3 minutes. Stuck in car for about 20 mins until it passed as it wasn't just a shower!

Got my asparagus eventually though! (Oh & wet feet as so many puddles)!

Westi