Kitchen Garden Forum

What a grand Indian summer we are enjoying! I do hope most (or all?) of you have been having this wonderful weather, too. The last few days, our michaelmas daisies have been covered with small tortoiseshell, red admiral, peacock, painted lady, comma and speckled wood butterflies and the occasional silver-y moth as well as loads of other insects, some quite weird and wonderful. Our bank of flowering ivy is humming with insects, too, which must mean that we shall get lots of berries in spring, always much enjoyed by the thrushes.

And tonight, the sky to the west (we can see for several miles (deep into Lancashire, in fact) was deep orange red, so another good day seems to be on the cards tomorrow.

Enjoy!

Dear Monika, indeed, we are enjoying the same beautiful weather as yourself, what a real bonus at this time of year.

Our ivy is also covered in a huge amount of flower, which in turn is covered in all sorts of feeding insects.

Glorious day here too with insects everywhere, buried ten huge barrow loads of compost in 10'x20' area that I hope will do better next year, and followed by yet another lovely sunset.

Hi Monika,
Have just been outside to see how much ice there is on the vehicles and they are well covered. This is the third frost we have had in the last week. Strange thing that the first two didn't touch the beans but suspect that this frost will be the end of them.
These Runner Beans are the result of my experiment of sowing a double row of Beans on the 14th July, a full six weeks later than ever before, and because of the good weather I have been picking beans of wonderful quality for the last fortnight. Can I get away with it for a third time?
JB.

It did rain quite persistently on Sunday morning, but apart from that it's been glorious and we did need the rain.

I've spent the last five days on the allotment, having had a few days off work. I'd love to go there today as it's dawning into another beautiful day, but as I was supposed to be there yesterday and took another day's leave, I'd be pushing it if I did the same today

It's been beautiful here too and I'm slightly cursing myself that I picked all my outdoor tomatoes when I did because they could happily have enjoyed almost another fortnight's sunshine outdoors without the night temperatures falling dangerously low. However, they are all ripening nicely indoors but I have to say, there seems to be a distinct difference in their flavour when ripened in this way. Even the green Gardeners Delight which I find one of the most flavoursome varieties don't taste as good when ripened inside. Am just wondering now how late I dare leave the outdoor grapes before I pick them.

We have returned today to our seasonal work cutting down and forking through the herbaceous borders....the Yellow Border today...so we need a good few weeks decent weather to help us on our way.

The last week has seen us hosting a group of 10 folk on a Working Holiday in the lead up to our Apple day that was on Sunday..and working on a myriad other tasks too.

We did have some rain last Tuesday evening and that has made things just nicely workable.
There have been some lovely blue skies and the Buzzards have been out perfoming most days..

A German F4F Phantom has been visiting locally too...providing me with some alternative aerial entertainment.

Apple day Sunday was a bit fraught getting ready for....having collected varieties in trays over the last couple of weeks..it takes a surprising amount of time on the morning getting them onto display in sensible sort of order... I got up to 43 varieties, from the gardens, actually displayed...with 2 variations of Crab Apples that is ....
....but not including Beauty of Bath which was long gone..and Winter Gem that there was only one example of..that then rotted last week and 4 recent plantings that have yet to fruit..
The day saw quite a bit of sunshine..but it got a bit cool and breezy late afternoon...but calmed down nicely when it was time for us to remove the marquee covers...

This morning things were very damp...suspect not far off a frost as we wandered around first thing in search of things Badger......

Meanwhile, at home here today...Mum spotted some movement in the Dahlia patch...and spotted something run off....and later came across what she thinks was a dark brown Ferret?....which again legged it rather smartish........

Clive.

Dear Clive, lovely photo and a lovely write up as normal.

Forgot to say, what was the grim reaper picking up off the grass on the outside of the marquee.

Ohh OH

Here I was admiring the apples now I want to know which one in
the picture is Snow White and which variety of apple is poisoned.

Westi

Dear Westi, you're getting as bad as me, on second thoughts that might be a bit harsh.

..I don't know..


I will add that I ate Arthur Turner as part of my dinner. .............

..and on topic...it has been a dry, still day...
We had a visit from the local U3A ...and I have forked over more border...not much in fact as I was battling removing the lovely Thermopsis montana..

Buzzards circling overhead again...and Police searching the parkland....

Clive.

Here's an interesting article
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/6360124/Meanwhile-back-in-cold-reality....html

Makes you wonder about global warming scares.

Very Interesting article - makes you rethink doesn't it?

Only thing is I don't like the thought of snow down here -
we just aren't prepared like the rest of the country and
it is quite dangerous. As much as I like the look of it and
the wonderful quietness it is like having a death wish trying
to get to work which is only about 10 minutes away.

Walk it and you risk slipping everywhere as the pavements
are an icerink and driving is pretty much the same. Thankfully
usually melts quite quickly.

Westi

Westi wrote:Very Interesting article - makes you rethink doesn't it?

Only thing is I don't like the thought of snow down here -
we just aren't prepared like the rest of the country and
it is quite dangerous. As much as I like the look of it and
the wonderful quietness it is like having a death wish trying
to get to work which is only about 10 minutes away.

Walk it and you risk slipping everywhere as the pavements
are an icerink and driving is pretty much the same. Thankfully
usually melts quite quickly.

Westi

It's strange how people think everywhere further north has lots of snow. This is probably tempting fate but here in Wakefield (in the Aire valley) we rarely have any snow and when we do like you it usually doesn't stick around. As for prepared it still causes chaos! I think last year we had more than normal about three days worth.