Kitchen Garden Forum

We've all talked about Covid but what about the Corvid epidemic or is it a plague? Numbers of them all seem to have gone up dramatically. It's like a scene from "The Birds" here every evening as the sky goes black when they return to wherever it is they roost. We find it is the Jackdaws that attack broad beans.

At least when it is mice there is a chance for survival as they usually just take the seed. If you spot them quickly & there is a bit of root they do grow on I've found.

I can trace my rhubarb to over 80 years in our family it’s always been brilliant winter before last year I dug it up and split it giving my mate down the plot one half he planted it and had real good results mine has struggled since I replanted it

No shortage of corvids here, predominantly jackdaws, who probably act much the same. So maybe I can't blame the pigeons this time!

Progressed a bit more digging in the back garden today. So the patch where the pea and broad bean rows stood this year is dug up.

Boltardy beetroot toast sandwiches for tea now..not toasted sandwiches but sandwiches made with toast...a new delicacy of recent weeks here after I went to the pantry to find bread had not thawed out..

C.

Not only a very good gardener but, it appears you are a bit of a chef on the quiet, Clive….

Some ten Oak Trees on the green out the front. Job to see any acorns. A sign of thinks to come ?

Same here,Shallot Man.Plenty of leaves but hardly any acorns.The resident squirrels might be a little hungry this year.

A windy autumn spreads leaf fall everywhere, but the last few weeks in the south have been remarkably quiet, with the leaves staying where they drop. as demonstrated by my little Bramley tree. Don't really want to sweep them up!

I remember seeing the Acers at Winkworth arboretum one year after such a wind less leaf fall with a lovely coloured circle of leaves under their respective trees....back in my early/mid 2000s days of traveling to visit the Sunny South

C.

A windy autumn spreads leaf fall everywhere, but the last few weeks in the south have been remarkably quiet, with the leaves staying where they drop. as demonstrated by my little Bramley tree. Don't really want to sweep them up!

Hah, I wish it would be always like that.

Mega leaves down at mine, I haven't had such a huge pile. I think usually just some trees drop theirs in some sort of succession so you just get a bag at a time & some blow off the plot. Maybe because of the mild weather they held on to them, only to respond on mass with the sudden dip in temp?? Looking forward to having them all broken down in a year or so though.

Best get them bagged up tomorrow as big winds coming in a couple of days.

Welcome to the forum alfred18qm!

With snow threatened before too long in some parts, I recently saw this tip worth sharing.

Fill a a dry empty jumbo milk bottle with a handle with dishwasher salt and keep the lid on to keep the contents dry.
Store by your kitchen door, front porch or greenhouse entrance wherever a concrete surface could injure you if you slip .and sprinkle the area if snow or heavy frost is forecast to help keep the area ice free. .

and don't do it on cracked concrete or weaker mixes' of concrete as salt "rots" concrete.

Oh thanks Peter - didn't realise that.
We have a tarmac driveway. What horrors will sprinkling salt on that do ?