Kitchen Garden Forum

O golly OH! A young nipper like you too! The moment any of us hit 50 the bombardment starts from funerals to stairlifts not to mention strange bathing arrangements...
They'll have to rethink their advertising as most of us can't retire at 55/60 any more, they'll keep cracking the whip till 66, 67, 68... retirement will be a government banned word.

On the funeral theme the Co-op funeral people had a stand at Bakewell show this year and you could have all sorts of unusual hearses and coffins. I rather liked the look of a motorbike with the coffin instead of the side car - a cardboard coffin covered with lovely vibrant flower pictures. Not sure how waterproof it was, but looked good fun.

And talking about afflictions etc. I went for the results of a scan on my achilles tendon yesterday was told there wasn't much they could do for it but would I like my flu jab and a pneumonia jab. So now I have a swollen heel and two sore aching arms today.

You didn't get the 'what do you expect at your age' syndrome did you? My 92 year old dad was told that and said he what he expected was a doctor who would do something about it!

still harvesting cucumbers from the greenhouse. (is this a record??) also, tomatoes (green, the last few moneymaker) one red chilli that was hiding and some broccoli.

leeks are appalling, another year's crop lost to leek moth, even though they are covered with mesh.

potatoes are the wormiest ever, thrown about 2/3rds away. and they are plentiful and a decent size too

autumn planted onions are up though

I notice the comparison websites have yet to get into the funeral business. On the same subject, Shouldn't all cremations be in a cardboard box. Why wast wood.

Our own potatoes are finished and it was the worst crop ever in our 30 years on the same allotment - small, few of them and full of slug holes. Must have been the weather. Every year is different.

We have had a poor lot of maincrop potatoes this year too but the whole allotment site was hit by blight. We took the haulms off as soon as we found signs, so we did get some reasonable potatoes, which we have just about finished now. There were a lot of spuds with holes and woodlice, plus some sluggy ones. We did better than most on our site, many plot holders lost the lot.

I hope that I do not sound too smug but I have been pleasantly surprised with my potatoes. They were planted quite late in peat soil and I did little to them (did not bother to spray or earth up) and they have no slug damage and taste extremely good. I am also still picking courgettes and will hope to sow some broad beans soon if I can clean some of the ground from couch grass and bindweed.

Barney

We are away wednesday for a month ive been trying to get the plot under control , we have emptied half the polytunnel and put all the green tomatoes into cardboard boxes, tried to get as much weeding done as possable but the weather has been against us for the last 2 weeks then there's always tomorrow

Not at all smug, Cider Boys! I'm glad you got a good harvest.
Our 1st and 2nd early potatoes were wonderful and plenty of them....they weren't affected by blight.

Broad bean seeds arrived today, hope to plant them next week. Ground is dug ready for them and I cover with net on hoops to keep the jackdaws off and mice out!

MW

I put the broad beans in this week, I'll have no time for several weeks.
Like several others my spuds are a bit disappointing. Well, the main crop are. Lots of slug/wireworm damage, hollow heart.
Otherwise an excellent year.

My spuds were OK on quality but disappointing on volume. Beans great, tomatoes dreadful!

I sowed some rocket and lambs lettuce a few days before coming away on holiday this week, more in hope than expectation of getting a late autumn crop but with the sunshine and temperatures we've had this week I may return home to a pleasant surprise. I expect some of plants and the birds are finding the weather a bit confusing too. My pyracantha bushes are definitely confused They are bearing berries and blossoms at the same time

We have the narcissus Paper White Ziva, supposed to flower around Christmas, in full flower and scent in the cold greenhouse at the moment. They were planted on 20 September!

Aquilegias are flowering in the garden and today there were lots of ladybirds all over the violas in pots and honeybees fed on the ivy flowers, just like an early summer's day .....