Kitchen Garden Forum

My order from Alan Romans last year was actually supplied from just up the road at Van Meuwen.

I have got on the garden this morning and done a little digging...just a bit on the heavy side...but I do set myself a challenge to get the garden dug this week....bit to go yet...

Yesterdays progress was my limited foray into things culinary...pickled Shallot manufacture...

Clive.

Mmmm, pickled shallots.

We ate some "hot" pickled shallots yesterday, that I bottled over 6 years ago and they were scrummy! Still crunchy and just enough chilli to make you sit up and take notice. Not sure how I managed to keep them so long.

Stayed dry this afternoon...so got a bit more progressed.

Worked around Apple, Queen, and continued along the fence digging beside the leggy Annie Elizabeth.....


Clive.

Was the earth as sodden as it looked? From the photos it looked as if it was heavy going.
Talking of sodden earth, what will happen to all the worms in the flooded areas around the country? I imagine they will all have drowned. Won't this affect the fertility of the soil in that any muck that is spread of fields will not be pulled down into the soil so efficiently?

Primrose wrote:Talking of sodden earth, what will happen to all the worms in the flooded areas around the country? I imagine they will all have drowned.

Earthworms breathe through their skins, taking oxygen from water in the earth around them. Rainwater has plenty of oxygen so they survive for long periods in sodden earth. Prolonged drought can be the real killer.

The ground is the wettest I have known it but it is just workable. In the open, away from the trees and Raspberries, I have dug to at least 12" and mostly to 14"+, down to the makers name on the spade strap. I like to just hit an inch of the subsoil which is above a layer of greensand.
Plenty of large worms about and signs of last years compost additions along where the Potato rows had been

It is heavier these days alongside the fence due to the shade cast by the fence....however the shade could be worse. We put the open pale fence up in place of the 1950s concrete post so that the fence line was in good order to our desired spec when next door changed hands about 10 years ago. There is a drop across the property, N to S, and the fence incorporated a set in 12" gravel board and a 6" on top to act as retainer....I suspect this has made us a good slug and snail hidey hole as well as retaining some wet too...

Clive.

I like digging with a fork rather than a spade. You don't chop the worms up and it is easier to break up the lumps.

I pruned the grape vine in the greenhouse yesterday and pulled some of the old loose bark off. There was a small colony of woodlice hiding under it at the base of the stem.

I also found a moth caterpillar hiding in the greenhouse border which was the culprit that had eaten some of my lettuces. I was pretty sure it wasn't slugs or snails as I'd put pellets down, so I had a dig around the plant with my hands and discovered the caterpillar about 2 inches down a few inches from the chewed plant.

Windy but dry ...so far. Rather dark though.

Made a bit more digging progress, a bit swifter as in open ground away from the fence and where the Peas and Beans had been.

Clive.

Afternoon Clive, cook is up above you, at Scunthorpe, picking up a horse-box. So i hope it's not as windy up there as it is here, actually i'm a little concerned, as i know empty horse-boxes are not the most stable of trailers.

Just started lashing down with rain here....and yes, quite windy...from SSW...so could be headwind back.?

Perhaps load the horsebox with something for the garden from the stable....

Clive.

Cook has just got back....

You were quite correct, Clive, luckily it was a head wind coming back, so not as lethal as a cross wind. It did bring the mph down rather though.

Now if only i had thought of filling the back with stable produce.

Glad she's back... been waiting for my lunch.

we are getting nothing but rain up north, ive been trying to build a chicken coup for 4 weeks cant get near to where its going every where is flooded

Afternoon Robo, it's the same here, but i'm sure things will soon improve and we will be able to forge ahead with all our jobs.

Another 7mm rain here this afternoon....it just keeps topping it up. I could only get on with digging this morning due to our relatively light land and there having been a windy dry interlude overnight.
At work it is a different matter, it tends to be a bit heavier with some clay element, the slow progress there of recent weeks is very frustrating and not sure just when it will all get caught up. We just have to do the job that will go on the day.

However....did I hear our local weather forecaster hinting at some dry on the horizon.??...next week.??

Clive.

The wind is roaring across the chimney pots this morning, good drying weather, shame it's going to rain heavily again tomorrow, but there's always Tuesday.....