Author Topic: Gardening  (Read 99904 times)

Offline tghs

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #540 on: July 03, 2020, 04:53:04 PM »
took some garden picks this morning,, prepped things to harvest honey Sat. morning..getting cukes , beans and tomatoes at this time,, have about 5 types of squash flowering.. also giving sweet potatoes a try this year..
what the @#&% over

Offline Art K

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #541 on: July 04, 2020, 03:08:08 AM »
Ah yes, the honey bee's. Jo your photos of your bee hives remind me of my dear departed grandfather. We just used his last bottle of honey, he died in 1988.
Art
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Offline tghs

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #542 on: July 04, 2020, 06:00:01 PM »
not a bad morning, the hive had 5 very full frames, have about a gallon for us, gave pints to the three connected neighbors,, they are all careful about the bees, enjoy watching them (plus I think they really like the fresh honey twice a year)
what the @#&% over

Online steam guy willy

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #543 on: July 07, 2020, 03:07:07 AM »
Something to do in lockdown... I made up this VEGUKO puzzle. a bit like soduko but for people that know their onions !!! :D also my Eshcer chair that I made earlier !!

Offline Jo

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #544 on: July 15, 2020, 09:44:27 AM »
What an odd gardening year it has been so far: The long sunny days in March and April brought everything on early and I was eating Asparagus at the beginning of April over four weeks early. However as we reached May the weather turned and we had a month of rain, June was a little better and so far July has been more normal. As a consequence of the weather I found great difficulties getting any of my beans to grow. It took four plantings of runner bean seeds to get a reasonable covering of the frame. My onions suffered from mildew and consequently died off early and were a small fraction of their normal size. :( I hear up North Old blightly has been attacking Tomatoes and Potatoes, I am not sure if this is a consequence of the weather or refound UK Nationalism as a result of leaving the EU  :noidea:


The good news is that we have been enjoying beetroot, courgettes, new potatoes and courgettes for three weeks now. Of course the cucumbers finish about the same time the tomatoes start which is not very useful  for doing salads. One of the oddest growth of crops is the peppers: They are going red two months early than last year but the early heat caused some of the larger ones to not form correctly  :-\

Round the remainder of the garden the flowers are also confused with the weather as a consequence I have left many of them to have that slightly unkempt look, which has been helped by the blackbirds flicking the wood chippings all over my paths and it doesn't matter how often you sweep it up they think you are trying to hide something and five minutes later are back tidying up again. I have a pair of Song Thrushes that have moved in and a cracking job they are doing on the snails  :ThumbsUp:

The compost heap is once again populated with grass snake eggs, I know this because for nearly a week a huge female grass snake was sunning herself by the compost heap, this means I have had to move over to using a different bin to throw my waste in for the next three months and around the end of August I will have to be careful for little hatchlings which will be found all round the garden. I have no problem with grass snakes (as long as they don't eat the compost heaps resident slow worms  >:( ) but where I live we also get smooth snakes and Adders - neither of these are egg layers so any eggs found in your compost heap are Grass Snake  :ThumbsUp:

Once again this year I have been finding teeth marks all over my beetroot: I thought this might be rats but having put a couple of rat traps out (under that cardboard box in the pic) baited with peanut butter I found it was actually mice. Clearly the neighbours are feeding their cats too much and they are getting lazy. While I do not appreciate them digging up my beds to poop in, at least they used to keep the mice down  :disappointed:

The apple trees are equally confused with the weather and while apple day is the second week in October you can see I have a good crop of apples which are nearly sweet enough to eat (the wasps already think so)

Looks like I need to do a bit more weeding  :facepalm:

Jo
« Last Edit: July 15, 2020, 09:48:44 AM by Jo »
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Online steam guy willy

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #545 on: July 15, 2020, 12:30:16 PM »
Hi Jo, that sounds a lot of what has happened up here in Norfolk  !! there was also a few nights of frost...everything seems to be ok now though

willy

Offline Bluechip

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #546 on: July 15, 2020, 05:23:59 PM »
What an odd gardening year it has been so far: The long sunny days in March and April brought everything on early and I was eating Asparagus at the beginning of April over four weeks early. However as we reached May the weather turned and we had a month of rain, June was a little better and so far July has been more normal. As a consequence of the weather I found great difficulties getting any of my beans to grow. It took four plantings of runner bean seeds to get a reasonable covering of the frame. My onions suffered from mildew and consequently died off early and were a small fraction of their normal size. :( I hear up North Old blightly has been attacking Tomatoes and Potatoes, I am not sure if this is a consequence of the weather or refound UK Nationalism as a result of leaving the EU  :noidea:


The good news is that we have been enjoying beetroot, courgettes, new potatoes and courgettes for three weeks now. Of course the cucumbers finish about the same time the tomatoes start which is not very useful  for doing salads. One of the oddest growth of crops is the peppers: They are going red two months early than last year but the early heat caused some of the larger ones to not form correctly  :-\

Round the remainder of the garden the flowers are also confused with the weather as a consequence I have left many of them to have that slightly unkempt look, which has been helped by the blackbirds flicking the wood chippings all over my paths and it doesn't matter how often you sweep it up they think you are trying to hide something and five minutes later are back tidying up again. I have a pair of Song Thrushes that have moved in and a cracking job they are doing on the snails  :ThumbsUp:

The compost heap is once again populated with grass snake eggs, I know this because for nearly a week a huge female grass snake was sunning herself by the compost heap, this means I have had to move over to using a different bin to throw my waste in for the next three months and around the end of August I will have to be careful for little hatchlings which will be found all round the garden. I have no problem with grass snakes (as long as they don't eat the compost heaps resident slow worms  >:( ) but where I live we also get smooth snakes and Adders - neither of these are egg layers so any eggs found in your compost heap are Grass Snake  :ThumbsUp:

Once again this year I have been finding teeth marks all over my beetroot: I thought this might be rats but having put a couple of rat traps out (under that cardboard box in the pic) baited with peanut butter I found it was actually mice. Clearly the neighbours are feeding their cats too much and they are getting lazy. While I do not appreciate them digging up my beds to poop in, at least they used to keep the mice down  :disappointed:

The apple trees are equally confused with the weather and while apple day is the second week in October you can see I have a good crop of apples which are nearly sweet enough to eat (the wasps already think so)

Looks like I need to do a bit more weeding  :facepalm:

Jo

Alas, 'tis true.  :'(  There is some decent foliage left on the toms. We shall have to see  :thinking:  The 'Charlotte' tatties look a bit dishevelled but the 'Sarpo Mira' are pretty much untouched ....  :cartwheel: see piccy   
Anyway .......
Gardens have wildlife eh ??
OK. Some piccys of my newly designed and built Moth Trap  ;D
All packs away back into it's box ..  :)
Clever old bugger eh ??

OK No big deal .....  ::)

Dave


Offline Jo

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #547 on: July 15, 2020, 06:17:03 PM »
That looks good  :ThumbsUp: . Have you tested it and does it work  :)

Jo
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Offline Laurentic

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #548 on: July 15, 2020, 10:01:00 PM »
Jo - you are not alone having problems getting beans to germinate this year. Widespread reports around our village in Somerset that beans have been hard to get going, one lady had no beans germinate from 3 packets and my beans have only a 50% germination rate.  Even my gardener friend who saves his own seed has only had a 50% success rate this year.

Some plants have just sort of sat there, done nothing and just looked at you and then only very reluctantly decided to grow on a bit.  Coriander and basil have been dire for that, then the slugs move in.  Good news is that we have a song thrush local to us and visits our garden - first one I have seen since I was a lad and thats a long long time ago now, so really pleased about that.

But salad leaves have done very well, as has beetroot, spinach and courgettes, and as for the autumn fruiting raspberries, we'll be picking them by the end of the month easy.  No apples this year, I think the frost did for them, came at the wrong time, but the pears survived, and one plum.  Just the one.  I haven't decided what name to give it yet
« Last Edit: July 15, 2020, 10:04:19 PM by Laurentic »

Offline Vixen

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #549 on: July 16, 2020, 01:14:45 PM »
I cannot compete with you guys and gal, but I have noticed my grapes are weeks ahead of normal. The black Gamay variety grapes are already stating to colour up and the white vines are also well advanced. At this rate the harvest will be in late August, early September instead of the usual early October





Stay safe

Mike
« Last Edit: July 16, 2020, 01:24:06 PM by Vixen »
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Offline Laurentic

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #550 on: July 19, 2020, 11:19:29 AM »
Well, no need to think what name to call my one and only plum - it's gone.  Some thief had it away during the night.  Hope it choked it.

My early autumn fruiting raspberries are now beginning to ripen, a full two months or so early, we're had a couple already and they were delicious with loads more in process of finishing ripening, so not all bad.  I love raspberries.

But what is the secret of growing basil and coriander outside?  I've got some basil in pots sort of thinking about growing, but the coriander, well.  Started them (several times in succession) indoors and transplanted into pots when able to get them outside, then the slugs/snails wiped them out one night, or they just die out or wilt.  Now I have got some going outside which seems to get eaten by something, not all of it, just a bit of it, but even so, and they don't seem to want to grow either, just want to sit there.  So much for sucession planting and having lots of home grown for the cooking and salads.
« Last Edit: July 19, 2020, 11:23:22 AM by Laurentic »

Offline Jo

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #551 on: July 19, 2020, 02:26:30 PM »
Well, no need to think what name to call my one and only plum - it's gone.  Some thief had it away during the night.  Hope it choked it.

I had my entire Pear tree cleared over night last year  >:( We still do not know who/what did it.
Quote
But what is the secret of growing basil and coriander outside?  I've got some basil in pots sort of thinking about growing, but the coriander, well. 

I grow Basil in pots inside my conservatory. If I attempted to put it outside it would be eaten by everyone  :facepalm: The only trick is keeping it warm enough to germinate/ want to grow: I find it grows away happily over 20 degrees but if it goes colder over night it seems to stop growing. Early in the year because of the temperature requirement I cheat and buy Supermarket pot herbs take them out of their pots, spread the plants out and repot them in new compost. These two pots were started that way in March/April time and I now have a new pot of seedlings just starting out and that will be split out once they get a bit bigger.

I gave up growing coriander as I found the smell over whelming  :paranoia:

Jo
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Offline Laurentic

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #552 on: July 20, 2020, 10:39:43 AM »
Your pot of basil looks like mine Jo, they germinated indoors then have spent over the last month on a table outside my shed in the sunshine doing very little.

In an earlier life I used to work for a horticultural company that grew all the varieties of pot herbs one buys in supermarkets, and they were one of the first to do so.  The only problem with them as you have no doubt found is that the plants are very 'leggy', as they are grown in heated greenhouses under assimilation lighting to kid the plants the days are very long and so are a bit forced. :shrug:

Having said that, I have leggy coriander seedlings that have not been force grown but just germinated in my conservatory on top of the dog cage!  Perhaps I kept them under cover a tad too long.  The next batch are just sowing so the cover will come off tomorrow and we'll see. 

Cant have too much coriander, like the smell and love the flavour in salads and spicy dishes. :stir:

Chris
« Last Edit: July 20, 2020, 11:21:10 AM by Laurentic »

Online steam guy willy

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #553 on: August 04, 2020, 05:48:32 PM »
I have sown some butternut squashes but seem to have got Marrows ?/ they are very near to the courgettes but these are yellow ones ...strange things happening ?!!! also got the dreaded finger grass. Digitaria erinathea   this is from North Africa and just grows everywhere about late June...

Willy

Online steam guy willy

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Re: Gardening
« Reply #554 on: October 07, 2020, 03:11:48 AM »
Hear in Norwich we have had a virtual veg show .. I won the recycling part using radiators for raised beds  !!! some pics.......we have had 6.4 inches of rain over the past 2 weeks ?!!!. and for people that know their onions a Soduko inspired  puzzle ?? The pic with the sweetcorn  has green manure  growing in it !!!

Willy

 

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