Kitchen Garden Forum

Well. what a gorgeous Sunday morning it is out there today. Lot's to do today so made an early start.

Get as much done as you can before it rains this afternoon. Looks a wet week in store for Milton Bryan

We finally managed to get the brassica cages erected on Thursday and Friday...so I hope to get them planted up this morning...before the rains reach here.

Clive.

A drop of rain is not a bad thing really!

oldherbaceous wrote:A drop of rain is not a bad thing really!

So long as it is only a drop and not a full blown Monsoon

VPM
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I did get "my" brassicas planted this morning...they look a bit of a motley collection but they are in at last...and this afternoon it came that drop of rain, 6mm at home...so hoping it came similar at work, for the greens if not for the visitors.

Did I just hear...down to 6 degrees overnight...?

Had a ride out to Sibsey Trader Mill this afternoon..and I gather that our old Westminster chime clock that we left with the clock restorer there for repair is well once more and currently being run under test.

Clive.

Mix of sunshine and heavy showers here today - 13mm so far. Strangely, though, I was hoeing the allotment yesterday and was surprised how dry the soil has become in the last few days.

The peas and broad beans have certainly suffered in the cool weather earlier: the broad bean plants look very healthy but the set is terrible: they had plenty of flowers but now some have barely any pods! And some of the peas look "dried off", I assume from the freezing winds we had earlier. So this year's harvest really will be nothing like last year's bumper crop.

We have had the first French beans from the garden, though, and delicious they were, too.

Managed 6 runner beans...which is a bit of a miracle as it's my 3rd planting mice & pigeons being the culprits. Savoured every mouthful

Oh forgot another couple of courgettes..not complaining - yet! I am watering but rain is coming again. Beleive it or not I harvested a savoy cabbage - been in for a year and didn't try to flower! I am thinking of starting a new thread - worst natural harvest - legumes of all sorts this end of the island. Broad beans disappointing, peas eaten by mice & my runner saga.

Not defeated
Westi

Well, if that was "high summer" I suppose we should switch to an "early autumn" thread. Never mind OH, it was a nice thought! Apart from this coming Thursday we seem to be in for at least a fortnight of rain and chill.

Not a one of the many hotels and boarding houses up the road in Cricieth, on the front or in the town, has ever posted "No Vacancies" so far this "summer". I feel sorry for all the people round here who are trying to make a living out of tourism.

The lowest night temperature I have recorded this week is 6.9C but although it was raining last night the temperature was 13.8C.
My beans are at last producing flower but I do not have much hope for good crop. The growth pattern is as I have never seen before. Stunted!
Flower stems about 3" apart in some cases. I suppose beggars cannot be choosers!
JB.

Rather wet here today, but tomorrow, now that's a whole new day, and i'm feeling quietly confident.

And, from Saturday, Somerset has the pleasure of my company for a week. Although maybe i shouldn't have mentioned that, as when i said i was coming to North Wales, it was like a ghost town.

Johnboy wrote:The lowest night temperature I have recorded this week is 6.9C but although it was raining last night the temperature was 13.8C.
My beans are at last producing flower but I do not have much hope for good crop. The growth pattern is as I have never seen before. Stunted!
Flower stems about 3" apart in some cases. I suppose beggars cannot be choosers!
JB.

It's odd but I have grown the same variety 'Scarlet Emperor' in both my home garden and with the kids in the school garden. My Beans are looking magnificent and have climbed up and over their wigwam with nice long beans forming and tonnes of flowers.

The school beans are almost like a dwarf variety with the plants only about 1.5 feet tall but with loads of flowers but small beans. Both sets of plants have been treated exactly the same but have grown in completely different ways - very strange

The peas, on the other hand, have gone wild

VPM
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I'll get a crop from most things but sooo disappointing in both quality & quantity..until they find out why the jet stream didn't move as expected this could be the future

And I consider myself fortunate being in the 'tropical' end of England!

Westi

My beans are not too bad now. I'm comparing my usual Red Flame with Moonlight (first time). Difficult to get a photo of the row with other stuff in the way but the vigour of both varieties is very similar with perhaps a few more flowers on Red Flame. I've seen plenty of bees on both, even though Moonlight is self fertile it obviously still attracts them - they wouldn't oblige when I had the camera. The set is definitely better on the Red Flame, you can see the stubs where beans should be on the Moonlight. I'll report back later on yield and eating quality.

Hi Geoff,
If only my beans were like yours but they simply refuse to fill out (plant wise) they simply have masses of flower to come a virtually no decent foliage.
I am growing both Red Flame and Moonlight on trial this year and both are well in flower and young beans set. My own home grown, for the very first time, have rather let the side down and maybe they are at an end.
Strange thing is that my own beans germinated very quickly and grew very rapidly in the initial stage and when planted out they simply sulked for more than a month and refused to grow! There is plenty of nutrition in the soil. They then sent up runners that simply would not wind round the canes. It has been a total disaster area for weeks and weeks.
I can honestly say that I have never had these conditions ever before.
Boo Hoo!! But I must not cry in my beer I will have to reflect on all the years that have been wonderful and the truly have.
JB.