Summer Bits and Bobs.

[retropants]

OK, it can rain tonight, then stop for the day in Chesham (I am doing the local produce market) and then continue after 5pm when I've got home and unloaded the market kit from the car!!

[tigerburnie]

After overnight rain it is bright and a bit breezy, only 11 degrees, feeling Autumnal best describes it.

[oldherbaceous]

Been very windy here this morning…just been to check over the allotments and two peoples runner beans have gone over!
Looking like very heavy rain now for tomorrow……

[Westi]

The forecast is saying big rain with thundery showers & lightening heading this way overnight & staying without invitation until tomorrow evening! Looks like I best start doing some domestic chores to fill the day, it is overdue for sure! I like the look of one of those robotic vacuum cleaners but it wouldn't be able to navigate under the beds & couch, which have been my goto, to shove stuff when guests expected. Well in truth I have no choice now; the flooring guys measured up downstairs today & happy to move furniture but doubt would count some of the stuff under the couches as moving furniture! I just know it will take me ages as have to empty the bookcase as well - all those gardening books will have to be flipped through!

[oldherbaceous]

Proper rain out there now….what a welcome sight!

[oldherbaceous]

I really am concerned about our precious forum! I know we have been here many times before but, even the few long term members are struggling to visit the forum as much, for many various reasons…such a shame if it does fade out……

[Clive.]

Not sure if I'm on the right forum ...as I was doing a little house work today so perhaps should be on the heritage Dyson users forum

Plenty windy Thurs and Friday..especially so yesterday morning...many bits of stick and twigs about but thankfully nothing more major...got some oblique dahilas now though....
...and rain this morning...with cloud to the floor at lunch time.

Plan was to tackle some more errant blackberry that is climbing in from over NE fence corner after the green bins got an empty on Thursday. Also have the raspberries to cut out and tie in the new canes..it's historically windy at about this time...but seemingly more so this year. Rain kept me in, other than two visits to the big garden....including once sun had re appeared a pick of Queen and Arthur Turner apples..

Beetroot was a component of lunch...and some stewed apple for pud, the variety Queen, which was from some young grafts in the back garden here. Apples seem to be ready a little early this way on this year...

........and had the first picked sweetcorn for tea...

C.

[oldherbaceous]

I noticed my Bramley’s are about four weeks early this year….

Also noticed the Bramble stems are extra thick and long this year….probably double the size of normal!

[Westi]

Agree with you OH, but to me it seems there are better days with lot's of posts, then it wanes off. I was thinking like me, everyone is struggling a bit to keep up in their gardens & plots, especially with the rain as well! I think my poor start with the rain, flooding & prolonged cold basically put me behind as nothing was germinating, & then the whole lot popping up at once has put me all out of synch as these would have been harvested by now & I would have had beds closed so limiting the work like weeding.
Oh well, doesn't address why new names are popping up as joining but we are not even getting a Hi! I'm new to welcome them, nor the numbers popping online to read but not engaging further. I know I keep mentioning it on & off but maybe simplifying the number of topics/choice of where to put a question might help??

[tigerburnie]

I think almost every forum on the internet is in decline, I use dozens, mostly different rugby ones, the old garden one I was a moderator on has all but collapsed, with just a few diehards trying to keep it going. I think other social media formats are more popular, let's face it if they took the BBC gardeners world off line, others are bound to be struggling.

[retropants]

I’m in here way more than fb, which I hate. However, I do spend time scrolling on instagram, which I use for my little soap business.

I did my market in Chesham today, it was ghastly, poured down most of the day and the gazebo sprung several leaks. A day to forget.

I did harvest a good heap of bush beans yesterday and I have lots of green (still!) tomatoes coming and a couple of aubergines developing.

Good stuff!

[oldherbaceous]

I did think of you, retropants, as I was potting up in the greenhouse….it must have been bad!
Just been picking a load of veg this morning and I must admit it was a little nippy on my fingers…..must be getting soft in my old age!

[Clive.]

Yes, definitely a little cool first thing. I've been to the big garden to bag up some Queen, Rev W. Wilks and Arthur Turner coking apples and after a cup of coffee intend to do something in the back garden...either the errant brambles to cut back to fence line or the raspberries to cut out and tie in...

With ref the apples Queen is my absolute favourite cooking apple..it's a totally reliable cropper, seems happy to grow on any rootstock, lovely to look at with its red striping, lovely crisp white flesh, very tasty, (acidic, tangy and fruity..says the official wording)
Rev W Wilks tends to be biennial in cropping.. whilst Arthur Turner is a reliable cropper with the addition that it has a long season staying put on the tree and filling out...although its branches do seem a little brittle.. given what it tries to carry. The variety Hawthornden will be next...

C.

[Myrkk]

This weather is driving me nuts. It’s either too windy, too wet or I’m too busy and never in the right order lol. So the bed we’d cleared is now full of weeds and some glorious poppies. Will have to week it all over again. The daisies have been replaces with clover in the cracks between the crazy paving and the apples are cracked and dropping like crazy making a real mess.

We also have a pigeon in it sitting, I’m presuming, on eggs. I’m a little concerned about that as it is so late in the season. Wondering if I should put some feed out specifically for her.

It’s been a funny old year.

[oldherbaceous]

Morning Clive, I might try and get each tree that you recommend….are they all early pollinators, do you think?

I think the Pigeon will be absolutely fine, Myrrk….I think if it gets used to you feeding it from a young age, it will just rely on you all the time…..