God I love growing our own

[JamezF]

My broad beans were also removed this week, as well as the last of the peas now the pods are nicely dry for seed to sow next year. And I've also planted out sprouts and savoy cabbages under mesh to keep the flea beetle and butterflies off. Sowed a last batch of carrots in some of the free space too. Feels a bit odd planting veg for eating this coming winter already. This year seems to have absolutely rocketed past so far and I'm not really ready to be contemplating winter just yet.

Not much doing outside today as it's been solidly raining since before 10am, but as you say the ground is still very dry so we really need it. Instead (before making the carrot juice) I put some of my spare jalapeno plants into larger pots. I'll keep them in the greenhouse now I'm finally starting to see a bit of free space. I'd have done other peppers too, but ran out of compost. I planted the pineapple plants we've grown in the remaining space in Frankenstein's Greenhouse. If they survive and even produce fruit that's great and if they don't then such is life. It's been fun just getting them to grow in the first place.

Assuming the rain does actually stop tomorrow I have inspections to do in the afternoon, but I'm going to try to get the next batch of lettuces and beetroot and some kale and PSB in the ground first.

Tonight we're having moules frites for dinner with chips made from some of the Charlotte potatoes I lifted last weekend

James

 

[JamezF]

I've been doing more thinking on the carrot juice

I found a carrot margarita recipe online that is quite tempting to try, but I've also remembered that years back when he was a bit of an "underground" thing and we could afford the prices my wife and I ate at Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck a few times (in fact the first time we went Gary Rhodes was eating at the next table). On one occasion we had a dish that involved a kind of "lollipop" made from the juice of red peppers. If I can remember the details perhaps something similar is worth trying with carrot juice.

(As an aside, the whole "cheffy thing" went a bit mental in the late 1990s and it all got a bit silly, Heston included, but the meals we had at the Fat Duck before he became well-known were some of the most amazing ones I've ever eaten.)

James

 

[pargyle]

Better day today weatherwise .. but the plot is just like a jungle ! You quickly forget what it was like just a few months ago !

 

[pargyle]

I found this growing in the corner of the (currently unoccupied) hen run. Looks like a blackberry - I have a few thornless cultivated blackberries and as it's thornless I think it might be a self setter from a berry - the hens obviously kept it in check because there was a decent root on it .. so, I dug it up put it in a pot and we'll see what comes of it ... I know, it's a weed - but you never know !

 

[Erichalfbee]

Mice have eaten every single pea on the plants overnight! Luckily there are flowers left and the undergrowth is now dotted with inhumane traps. Never had devastation like that.

 

[JamezF]

Mice have eaten every single pea on the plants overnight! Luckily there are flowers left and the undergrowth is now dotted with inhumane traps. Never had devastation like that.

So frustrating when that sort of thing happens to a crop you've invested a lot of time and effort in. One year we had partridges that kept turning up in the plot eating the pea plants. By the time I'd got them growing successfully it was like Fort Knox. In season the birds would probably have ended up in the freezer. This year deer have been a bit of a problem on various plants though they seem particularly partial to beetroot leaves. I reckon they might also have been responsible for eating some of the sweet corn shoots and courgette leaves soon after I planted them out. I know someone locally who is into shooting his own venison and it's been quite tempting to give him a call with an offer to share a carcass or two. I also lost my entire first sowing of carrots to slugs. I ended up resorting to organic slug pellets for that because they were under fleece and the slugs were effectively protected from predators. Blackbirds got most of the cherries and then gooseberries too. Don't think I can do much about the cherries other than see if providing easy access to water is an acceptable alternative, but the gooseberries will also be in Fort Knox next year.

The one pest I've not had much trouble with so far this year is butterflies. Large Whites seem to have been very uncommon. I suspect they were hit quite hard last year by a parasitic wasp (I think). Small Whites have caused a bit of trouble in the greenhouse, laying eggs on brassica seedlings, but that's fairly easy to spot. The only brassicas out in the main plot that aren't covered now are ones that will soon be eaten, and some red summer cabbages that they seem to ignore. There often seems to be a second generation of butterflies towards the end of the summer. I think those will be the ones that I really need to look out for.

James

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Mice have eaten every single pea on the plants overnight! Luckily there are flowers left and the undergrowth is now dotted with inhumane traps. Never had devastation like that.

big issues with rodents this year, I'm just getting wave after wave in the garden, usually once one lot is 'dealt with' I get at least a month or two respite, now, no sooner than one lot hoes, another bunch turns up!!

 

[Erichalfbee]

We’ve dealt with twelve squirrels and there are two left we can’t seem to catch. The good news is that there are a pair of wagtails on their second brood in our field shelter and a spotted flycatcher nest in a clematis in the garden.
The barn owls have three youngsters.

 

[JamezF]

We have a few squirrels that I'd like to "deal with". Last year they stripped our walnut tree bare and given half a chance they'll eat lots of the raspberries too.

James

 

[Erichalfbee]

They strip birds nests too. I have seen so many nests torn apart it's heartbreaking. Three years ago we managed to feed the buzzards with eight and we found working nests all over the place. This year the birds weren't so lucky so we went hunting.

 

[JamezF]

Had the first Ceremony of the Lowering of the Strings in the polytunnel this afternoon. Some of the tomato plants are over two and a half metres tall and getting close to touching the top of the tunnel. I reckon they'll need to come down again fairly soon. They're growing at an astonishing rate.

There are some oddities with the tomatoes this year. Quite a few plants (not all of the same variety) have continued growth from the spur bearing the flowers, like another side-shoot. I've seen that before, but not in such large numbers. There are also shoots forming from the top faces of some of the leaves, along the central stem of the leaf. That's something I can't recall ever seeing before. No idea why unless it's some sort of response to being watered from a can rather than a leaky pipe.

James

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Quite a few plants (not all of the same variety) have continued growth from the spur bearing the flowers,

seen that quite often over the years, especially with cherry tomatoes and Italian varieties

 

[Erichalfbee]

Had the first Ceremony of the Lowering of the Strings in the polytunnel this afternoon. Some of the tomato plants are over two and a half metres tall and getting close to touching the top of the tunnel. I reckon they'll need to come down again fairly soon. They're growing at an astonishing rate.

There are some oddities with the tomatoes this year. Quite a few plants (not all of the same variety) have continued growth from the spur bearing the flowers, like another side-shoot. I've seen that before, but not in such large numbers. There are also shoots forming from the top faces of some of the leaves, along the central stem of the leaf. That's something I can't recall ever seeing before. No idea why unless it's some sort of response to being watered from a can rather than a leaky pipe.

James

Somebody gave me seeds called Brad’s Atomic Grape. They have all done that.

 

[Erichalfbee]

The barn owls have three youngsters.

No!
We have four!

View attachment 07220014.mov

 

[enrico]

We have a few squirrels that I'd like to "deal with". Last year they stripped our walnut tree bare and given half a chance they'll eat lots of the raspberries too.

James

I have to cull them, get at least one a month but also get walnuts!

 

[Amari]

Mice have eaten every single pea on the plants overnight! Luckily there are flowers left and the undergrowth is now dotted with inhumane traps. Never had devastation like that.

We've had the same: mange-tout peas netted against the pigeons and squirrels nevertheless lose their growing tips. Most of our allotment beds have numerous tunnels and previous traps showed that the culprits are field voles (small ears and short tails, quite different from mice). I wonder if that explains why we struggle to grow asparagus?

 

[Erichalfbee]

culprits are field voles

These guys are making a bit of an inroad.

View attachment 07200001.mov

 

[Amari]

These guys are making a bit of an inroad.

View attachment 37082

Envy++. I placed a barn owl box on a large oak in my apiary 6-8 years ago. Ditto a neighbour on a similar oak. No success so far.

 

[enrico]

Envy++. I placed a barn owl box on a large oak in my apiary 6-8 years ago. Ditto a neighbour on a similar oak. No success so far.

The only thing i get in my owl boxes is jackdaws.

 

[JamezF]

Spent a while in the garden planting out lettuces, beetroot and leeks today. I still have some spring onions, chicory, kale and PSB to go out, but after that there's not actually too much left in the propagation greenhouse -- mostly left-over tomatoes and peppers that I didn't have room for, but if the greenhouse is otherwise empty I might put the peppers into bigger pots and leave them there.

I found what's probably a couple of metres worth of carrot seeds that I didn't know I had, so if I can find the space I might as well sow them. It's not like the seed keeps that well. Other than that I think it's probably time to go through the seed box and check if there's anything I've missed.

James