The gardening thread

[campanula]

All go at the allotment. Had a blight alert (full Hutton period today) but my copper order hasn't arrived yet. Also, time to cut the hay meadow...despite my scabious and sanguisorba just starting to flower. I have to decide whether to go for an earlier flowering meadow...with bulbs, cowslips, pinks and such...or risk waiting for later flowers. Think the light levels are too low for a later bloom cycle (the grass is lodging and the verbascums are just fucking enormous) so I am going to have to sacrifice the July/August flowers and go all-out for a 'flowery mead' type of meadow area. It has been a steep 4 year learning curve for me.

 

[gentlegreen]

sanguisorba

I think I saw some up the park yesterday - I'll have a look later

My resident fox is ridiculously tame - she'll lie there even when I go outside and sit down on my deck chair.

There was a den on the right under the bags of soil which I accidentally on purpose filled-in , but I think they have another one on the left that's been revealed through removing the bamboo and I imagine the 3 or 4 cubs sleep in that... there's an old Anderson shelter on the other side of the back wall that a badger once used ... and the neighbours have a big raised shed on the left that maybe they have access to the underside of.

They run riot between the three gardens - especially since I removed the bamboo and knackered fence on the right ...

I was hoping to get a 240 litre green bin and start disposing of all the dry material I have heaped-up, but they can't get any drivers and the service has been cancelled for at least the next 10 weeks ...

 

[Idaho]

Did you enjoy the kestrel potatoes, Idaho? I have been evangelistic to the level of tediousness. I have grown them every year for 20 odd years...and they remain my all-time best potato. Lifting the first harvest is an event in this household...even more than the first tomatoes or strawberries. In catalogues, they are often described as ideal for exhibiting...while the superb taste and all-round versatility never gets a mention. I grow around 10 kgs of Kestrel seed potatoes , a couple of kilos of Pink Fir or Anya and a lone kilo of something new, just in case I am missing out on another stupendous variety.

Yeah the kestrel are super reliable and versatile. However sometimes they can get a bitter flavour in my acid clay.

I grew a really good flavoured potato last year, Casablanca. Not a great yield though.

 

[campanula]

Ha, I also grew Casablanca, last year Very white. decent for salads. I have quite a few volunteers this year, along with Pink Gypsy as my 1 kilo 'surprise'
I am on alkaline chalk .

 

[iona]

I'm growing a right mix this year thanks to my habit of saving a few of anything from the local veg van that tastes especially good Got various rows and containers of Kestrel, Charlotte, Arran Pilot, Valor, some other waxy salad type, a big floury maincrop, something red and the blight-proof slug-proof everything-proof unkillable superspuds I got from the Permaculture Trust plot a couple years ago.

 

[Artaxerxes]

Given this wet June and July I'm going to be surprised if the toms survive long enough to eat and don't get blight

Supposed to clear up substantially by end of the week but it's been a fucking slog

 

[iona]

Yeah tell me about it Artaxerxes Especially after such good weather last year. One variety I got from a lucky dip seed swap (OSU Blue) are doing far better than anything else though.

 

[Leafster]

I've just picked another bowl full of tayberries and added the last couple of strawberries which haven't been eaten by the slugs Also spotted two or three ripe "autumn" raspberries to add to the mix.

On the subject of slugs, I've relented and put some pellets around the runner and French beans - at the moment, all I've got is a few sorry-looking stalks as the slugs have eaten everything else!

 

[Artaxerxes]

Peas are looking a bit worse for wear tbh, think some of em are getting root issues from the damp

 

[Johnny Vodka]

I've just picked another bowl full of tayberries and added the last couple of strawberries which haven't been eaten by the slugs Also spotted two or three ripe "autumn" raspberries to add to the mix.

IME if you've had autumn raspberries in your garden for a while, they tend to lose their "autumness". I'm starting to get a few ripe ones now, although there usually is a second, smaller harvest in autumn too.

 

[Johnny Vodka]

.

 

[Johnny Vodka]

These violet flowers are out now. They do, as promised, have a lovely night scent.

 

[StoneRoad]

After what feels like the relentless rain & wind over the past week or two - a shedload of my plants (trees included) have lost all manner of flowers / fruit, leaves and twigs.
Grass has got really straggly this past week / 10 days as that was the last time I had a chance to get the mower out (after a semi-drought for the previous two weeks).
The amount of litter is quite worrying, it looks like autumn out there. Plants are probably suffering as a result of being stressed by first "hot and dry" and then "wet and windy" ...

Tomorrow, if it is dry enough I'm going to have a walk around and assess the situation ... watching for blight and pests. [I've been picking sawfly caterpillers off the gooseberries for a couple of weeks now. Have a look at them !


oaw - Nematus ribesii larvae par StoneRoad2013, on ipernity

 

[Artaxerxes]

It's going to be dry, oh thank God.

 

[Idaho]

Sarpo maincrop on the left... All gone to blight. Can't recall the ones in the right. Some early.

These are the stray kestrel:

 

[Idaho]

Beans have picked up:

Blueberries harvesting starts:

 

[davesgcr]

It's going to be dry, oh thank God.

View attachment 278402

Plenty of rainwater stored and hopefully remove those bastard snails and slugs.

 

[friendofdorothy]

why can't I get parsley to germinate? I've been trying to grow it in various covered containers in batches on my sunny sheltered patio since March. none of it has germinated .... damn ...

 

[StoneRoad]

Idaho - chop them spuds down, unless you've already treated for blight.

friendofdorothy - parsley is notorious for slow & patchy germination, I usually buy plants to grow on.

 

[two sheds]

I had blight above ground the year I grew potatoes - I dug them up and the potatoes themselves were all fine.

 

[Idaho]

Best result I've ever had with the carrots:

 

[Callie]

why can't I get parsley to germinate? I've been trying to grow it in various covered containers in batches on my sunny sheltered patio since March. none of it has germinated .... damn ...

Sunny windowsil inside??

 

[heinous seamus]

I took the netting off my sprouts and broccoli on Friday as they were getting too big for it. Some fucker has been at them already!

I had some peas growing in pots which I've now planted out. I expect they'll be gone by the morning

 

[andysays]

View attachment 277921Harvested the first potatoes this evening. Just some random spuds I planted in a window box.
They look lush. Corned beef hash shortly.

Look great. I also had my first home grown potatoes of the season at the weekend.

No photo, though. I was in too much of a hurry to eat them

 

[friendofdorothy]

Sunny windowsil inside??

No - victorian flat not much space and no window sills inside - ok for window boxes outside - geraniums look great.

 

[StoneRoad]

After a bit of a tidy up around the front door - my rambling rose has had a growth spurt ! I had a general look around, followed by a quick race around with the lawn mower tonight - done all but the "back" patch of grass. Piled up on the compost heap.
Then it went a bit too midgey before I had a chance to do a few other jobs.

Tomorrow is supposed to be nice, so I'll sit out and intersperse periods of sunbathing with some weeding, dead-heading and so on. Although I'll try and cut the last patch of "grass" before it gets really sunny.

 

[Artaxerxes]

A day of sunshine and the toms are changing colour.

Beets and kale are going strong even if everything else got eaten to hell last couple of months

 

[Little Piranha]

Just found these pretty gross looking maggots in some standing water at the allotment- are they hover fly? I was going to pour it away as it's full of mosquito larvae as well but maybe I should leave it?

 

[Callie]

Just found these pretty gross looking maggots in some standing water at the allotment- are they hover fly? I was going to pour it away as it's full of mosquito larvae as well but maybe I should leave it?
View attachment 278615View attachment 278616

Yes! Hoverflies

 

[Little Piranha]

Yes! Hoverflies

Great! My mum's been going on at me to set up a hoverfly lagoon and I had one all along (due to my lazy failure to drill holes in the drum my bamboo canes are in).

Shame about the bastard mosquitos though...