Kitchen Garden Forum

Summer is ending here today. The swallows and martins were swirling around overhead in great numbers (several hundred) dipping down to drink thirstily from our large wildlife pond so I expect they will be gone in the next day or so as this is what they did last year just before all disappearing off on their migration south. I know they will be back next year, but it does make me quite sad to see them go and our skies will be quieter until they return next May.

We are on a migration route from further North and there were little flocks of swallows, martins and finches drifting past all day yesterday.
Our migration has been put on hold by the new restrictions. We were supposed to go South this weekend to decorate the nursery for our first grandson expected in November. There is a some virus around us that I may have had contact with (14 days ends tomorrow) and although we would be travelling before the rule change on Tuesday it seems inadvisable, my son is a GP and if some neighbour spotted my car registration and reported us it would be professionally rather embarrassing (not got the immunity of a government advisor).

Yes, absolutely right Geoff but a somewhat anxious time for new parents expecting their first arrival in the current conditions being forecast, I think everybody's' longer term plans just have to be on hold for the time being. With people being increasingly encouraged to report rule breakers its not worth the professional risk.

I’m in an awkward position my youngest’s husband told me yesterday that I’m in their bubble (his words not mine) I can visit when I want to as the only people I have contact with are family members and people I talk to down the plot all kept well over 2 meters away from me ,today I told my eldest daughter who to my surprise was not happy her comment was “so he is getting in first is he “ it surprised me I did not know I was so popular

You are indeed a popular fellow, Robo, especially on here.

You'll have to claim forgetfulness if you get invitations to other family bubbles althiugh in case of further lockdowns i guess it makes sense to join with those who live closest who can help you out most easily in case of emergencies.

Tricky times.

I'm off to Somerset tomorrow.
My "bubble" is me and the undergardener who lives at the other end of the High Street.

But I'm meeting my sister and her family (hudband, son, daughter & boyfriend) who travel from elsewhere. We are staying in a self-catering cottage. Fortunately we are just six of us and we have received a note from the company letting the cottage that we may only be six staying there (it can accommodate 9) as the undergardener opted months ago not to join us.

Checking my greens, found some white cabbage butterfly eggs. Thought it is a bit late in the year.

We were cutting back potato haulms in our older compost heap this morning when I noticed three healthy avocado seedlings about
12 inches high growing in there

It reminded me of the sixties and seventies when people thought it fashionable to keep the stones and try to germinate them but I know they're a hot climate plant with no hope of surviving here so I,ve just replanted theM back in the compost and will have to leave them to their natural fate I guess. .

Reaped a satisfactory crop of potatoes from the heap though ! Noticed that those grown in the heap all had lovely smooth skins whereas those grown in containers had rather "gritty" rough skins. Any idea why this should be ?

Primrose wrote:We were cutting back potato haulms in our older compost heap this morning when I noticed three healthy avocado seedlings about
12 inches high growing in there

It reminded me of the sixties and seventies when people thought it fashionable to keep the stones and try to germinate them but I know they're a hot climate plant with no hope of surviving here so I,ve just replanted theM back in the compost and will have to leave them to their natural fate I guess. .

Reaped a satisfactory crop of potatoes from the heap though ! Noticed that those grown in the heap all had lovely smooth skins whereas those grown in containers had rather "gritty" rough skins. Any idea why this should be ?

Perhaps the role was played by the nutrient medium and a large amount of free space.

Picked all the remaining outdoor tomatoes yesterday and the unripe ones are now on trays indoors. I was surprised what a good crop I got from those self sown ones I left to grow in a patch in the vegetable plot. They were all smaller varieties, including some plum shaped and I imagine, sprawling all over the ground is how they were first discovered in South America.

My Ferline tomatoes have been massive this year, all about 5 oz. . When I first started growing them I seem to remember they were about the same size as Moneymakers, which I have also grown this year, but for some reason they have performed spectacularly this summer. Can somebody else who has grown them confirm whether this size is normal or whether I've just been lucky?

We have had four showers of hale two of them lasting over half an hour , can’t see it doing my outdoor tomatoes any good

White over and 0.6°C on weather station - close run thing for the dahlias, look a bit tired but I think they'll survive.

3C here this morning and a decidedly chilly northerly wind. So I cleared the last tomatoes and sweet peppers from the greenhouse, gave it a good clean inside and out and let the wind and sunshine do the drying.
The peppers (Long Red Marconi) have done particularly well this year and I have just frozen lots of them - topped, halved, seeds removed and frozen flat on trays.

I've also grown long Red Marconi again this year and have found my plantS cropped well but were particularly tall and lanky this year. I don,t recall them being quite so lanky in in previous years and wonder if this is actually the norm.