Kitchen Garden Forum

Primrose wrote:Am searching through the dim and distant memories of my youth when I used to be a bell ringer and went on all kinds of ringing outings, ringing at different chirches . . Not sure I recognise that one though. . Usually often only remember the towers where a rope or a bell stay snapped on me !! You don't forget those events in a hurry , especially when you have a 15 cwt bell on the other end of the rope and you get thrown across the belfry. I had a very exciting youth! They didn't t have whitewater rafting in those days!

If you grew up in the same area you are now living the church pictured is not a million miles away from you.

Mr Westi is allowed to drive!

Best news ever & can't believe how it has impacted on lottie. I have harvested the potatoes & hopefully have them in the dark & well hidden from the mice, I still have Russet & Red apples on the tree (well did - it has been a bit breezy) & hopefully some plums left.

I have been taking a few home, (plus other veg), on the bus, but after a few blocks walk to the bus, then another 1/2 mile or so at the other end to walk home I have found some things don't travel well & have had loads of squashed toms & plums & squashed raspberries no matter how carefully I pack, & have had to abandon some heavier stuff on garden fences along the way as bag got heavier as it tends to do the longer & steeper the journey. Very few flowers have made it either.

We don't use the car much & I tend to walk to the shops & buy frequently as needed, so not carrying much, but it just doesn't work with lottie when everything comes at once & every other critter wants a bit! Fingers crossed I have not missed the boat, but thankfully at least can say 'next year' will reap the rewards!

Westi

Good news about Mr Westi being able to drive. It will certainly make a difference in getting your produce home safely, albeit rather late in the season. . Mr Primrose suddenly had to stop driving a couple of years ago when he was un expectedly diagnosed with a massive aneurysm. He was out of action for several months after surgery before he could resume driving. . Luckily I drive but it's easy to take your mobility for granted and especially difficult if you can't just pop out into your garden veg plot to tend and pick your produce.

Autumn digging has started! The ground is in beautiful digging condition because we have had very little rain lately and the weather was just right, so I am back to my most favourite gardening job - digging. Even the iffy foot is enjoying it.

Well I don,t think anybody round here will have been digging today with the rain

Didn't even venture out of the house

What a beautiful day it is out there.....just doesn't get much better than this.

I have been pulling up the last of my climbing bean haulms and trenching them in next year,s location where they should be niced rotted down by next year's planting out time. . The final outdoor cucumber has been piicked and once the last two tiny courgettes have grown a couple of inches, those plants can come up too.
And I have planted a rowof Elephant garlic. Never grown it before so looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

Just a quick question, what sort of money do people pay for a grafted tomato plant? I do mean a full plant and not just a rootstock.

i don't know OH apart from having more money than sense. I can,t believe the flavour or the quality of the grafted one ever be commensurately better than an ordinary variety. The same goes with those paying good money for the latest oddity - a tomato plant which also grows potatoes from its roots. It surely stands to reason that any plant is going to be so physically stretched trying to produce fruit at both ends thar none of them are going to be up to much when it comes to quality.

Lovely sunshine here. You feel you just have to grab it while it lasts. i have been planting tulip bulbs in a rather bare border. Normally I would just plant and forget them, enjoying the surprise wherever they pop up .in spring but the squirrels round here do so much digging that I,ve marked their positions with sticks this autumn in an attempt to keep some kind of audit on how much damage they actually do.

In the process I've dug up a number of the big purple Pom Pom allium bulbs which seem to be considerably smaller than when I planted them last spring. . Do they just get smaller and smaller every year u til they gradually disappear? . I never know with some of these bulbs how many years' life you can expect to get get out them and the catalogue and garden centres are remarkably quiet on the subject.

Today I had to harvest my squashes!
The foliage had collapsed revealing the Crown Prince fruits, so they had to be removed from view. Got a builders barrow load of five varieties. Now laid out on the greenhouse staging to cure.

No prizes for guessing what Peter will be esting for the few months then!

Peter I feel jealous you having all those squashes, we love them roasted with the Sunday joint in a casserole or mashed with potatoes, I have grown them every year and saved my own seed and never any problem till this year, no squashes I ended up with courgettes and marrows which we don't like.

I still have one usable Crown Prince from 2014 harvest.