Kitchen Garden Forum

Morning all, i seem to have been missing from my post over the last couple of weeks, but here i am now.....

Anyway, what a beautiful Autumn morning it is out there today and with the weather looking very settled for the next week, it should give us all time to get on top of things ready for the Winter.

Our new wood burner, replaced an empty chimney and blanked off fireplace, is very nice. My DW pretty much demands I light it at the merest hit of autumnal evening coolness.

Beautiful day down at lottie, sunny & mild, so just a T Shirt - although did have the fleece on first thing.

I don't have to share anything with the lottie bunny anymore, found him in the asparagus bed dead, probably taken by a fox by the looks.

Still harvesting courgettes, waiting for the pumpkin vines to die down, asparagus fronds still green, Jerusalem artichokes still in flower - I am going to really notice it when the temperature goes back to normal for October, but in the meantime taking full advantage.

Westi

We have had two mornings so far with frost on the car and greenhouse roof (Thursday and Friday), but the dahlias and nasturtiums are still flowering. More tidying up today and, hopefully, more digging this week.

Some beautiful leaf colouring starting now!

Lawns still growing proifically but have to wait until late afternoon when energy levels are gettiimg a bit low because the heavy morning dew takes so long to evaporate.
You feel yiu have to take advantage of every sunny day now don't you? Just a little depressing that the darker nights are piling in on us so quickly.

Have been pruning gooseberry bushes. Probabky gave nthem such a drastic haircut that they won!t bear much fruit next year but doesn't really matter as I still have a massive backog. of them in freezer to use up!
But Inalways feel a little guilty at all the spiders webs I desstroy this time f year as part of my garden tidying up process. Poor little perishers have probabky just finished spinnng their web and some deatructive human comes along, wrecks it and they have to start all over again!

Our Apple Day yesterday was very successful, 850 visitors attending. All but 5 of our 54 varieties were on show. The criteria to be on the display table is that the variety must be growing in the Gardens. One apple appeared as a star guest, Broadholme Beauty, an apple bred relatively recently in Lincolnshire. A visitor who now owns the property in the garden of which the original tree is planted brought some in for us to display.
This afternoon the full display was moved from Squash Court to the Stables so it can be enjoyed by visitors for a few more weeks, for as long as each variety holds up.

...and 2:15pm today BBMF Lancaster was on flight test around and about to the North of us...and later right overhead.

Clive.

Lovely apple display, Clive! I wish we could grow them successfully here, but this year, our one apple 'family' tree with three pollinating varieties produced ONE apple. It was seven last year, I think.

Speaking of aeroplanes, as you were, Clive: on Saturday, the Vulcan came over Harrogate, where I happened to be, on its way to RAF Leeming and later passed very low over our No.2 grandson's house in Barnoldswick, saluting the Rolls-Royce works there. Fascinating.

Always best to just be in the right place at right time to spot a Vulcan or Lancaster. or as some are hoping for, spotting both.


Clive.

Primrose - hope that was a typo for pruning rather than ironing.

Today (Tues 13th Oct) I awoke wondering if the November issue of KG is ever going to turn up.

My subscription is due in two months, could be a race as to which happens first.

Taking it as a serious matter, I also noticed that the Oct issue (217) never appeared as a advert on the forum opening page.
Are the Group overstretching themselves, am I safe in renewing subscription to KG, things are not being kept up to date it seems.

Mine arrived yesterday.

Thanks Geoff, mine might turn up today then. Great.

this appears to be grape month! last week I received a dustbin full of purple and green ones to make wine with. I used about 1/4 of them, gave some away to a fellow brewer, the rest are still in the bin Then, on Sunday, my neighbour gave me about 10lbs of green grapes to make more wine. I will be squishing these tonight. (Yes I squish them with my feet!). Strange how my own grape vine gets lots of grapes, but always succumbs to mildew.

Retropants - We'll all be heading round to your place in a few months time for a wine tasting. the problem with winemaking as a hobby is that you need a lot of space. We only have a small kitchen and years ago when making elderberry wine, we found the only safe place to store the demijohns, to guard against spillage until the more vigorous fermenting had slowed down a little, was in the spare bath !