Kitchen Garden Forum

I do love these light summer evenings, but when all the darned wood pigeons round here start up their Coo Cooing competitions around 3.30 am and we sleep with the windows wide open because of the heat, I wish I had a shot gun.

Incidentally, I notice that whenever I seem to sow lettuce seeds in hot weather for succession growing, they never seem to germinate well. There must be a maximum temperature over which they refuse to germinate, despite regular watering.

I've had to drape a long old folded net curtain over the top of my mini greenhouse cover to try and provide some protection from the sun's heat during the hottest hours of the day. The greenhouse is strapped to the wall so the ends tuck in nicely down the sides about halfway down the structure.

So primrose you could say it's curtains for the lettuce

Havn't seen many ladybirds.

There were dozens of pupae on the hollyhocks yesterday and a few ladybirds were emerging. They were so new that they were still pale orange and their spots hadn't formed so I don't know if they were Harlequins or not. I think I'll go and have a look if there are still some there. There is also a small group of larvae on the garage door which seem to be eating little flies from a spider web but I've seen very few ladybirds all year.

Just had a look and there is one unhatched but all the rest have gone and there's no sign of any ladybirds. Disappointing.

And who is that dodgy looking character on the swing seat?

We have the cool Haar rolled in off the sea, quite chilly this morning

90 deg down the plot and getting eaten alive by horse flies

Old Codger, OH? Haven't heard of him for a long time .......

I hope he hasn't popped his clogs, as he said he would water my beans, while i'm having fun in Lyme Regis....

Well OH you seem to be relaxing nicely surveying your potential opium field although I must say the potential crop looks a little sparse!

Now, I wonder if anyone can work out, what garden that's open to the public, that the photo was taken!

Woburn?

Not Woburn, Tigerburnie....it was taken from a garden, while i'm on holiday in Lyme Regis....

Well it must obviously be OH's summer residence because he's sitting on that seat looking like the Lord of the Manor !