What have you done in the garden today?

Oh, that was me - sorry

Dandelion wrote:I've been to visit the maturing comfrey liquid feed, which some of you DID tell me would smell 'interesting'. Bearing in mind the fact that I've got a streaming cold at the moment, which has completely taken away my sense of smell (I couldn't even smell Lush when we went past it in town yesterday!) yes, the bucket of stuff does smell strong. I'm thinking it's possibly similar to the mouth of a giant which is full of rotting teeth.....is this it, or does it get worse?

Is there a Lush in Hereford, then?

I always think Lush smells like the largest Glade air freshener in the world.

So do I, but I was just worried that I was being ignorant....

Debenhams in Worcester used too make me wheeze as I walked by the doors, there was so much perfume etc being sprayed around just inside!

CM can't abide the smell of synthetic perfumes....which is a happy chance for me

banged my head on a tree branch whilst mowing just now...head is really hurting OW OW OW

Compostwoman wrote:
Is there a Lush in Hereford, then?

No, we went to Cheltenham (my childhood home!) where there is a shopping precinct which boasts a Lush on one side, and a Body Shop opposite, so it's all-out war on your nostrils!!

I also think Lush is a bit OTT. Some Body Shop I can cope with. Prefer natuarl perfumes though. Try getting that through to OH without a hammer

Was't this the veg plot thread?
I noticed a few posts back Pol mention bad germination of lettuce seeds. They last 6 years if kept well. Too dry is the usual problem.

For me its the end of the planting out for this year except 10 kale plants and some lambs lettuce later in the year...that is it gone! Now on to weed control and harvesting, processing

Yes, sorry, we got a bit sidetracked talking about the smell of comfrey feed (or 'essence of halitosis' as it should be called!!)

Zoe wrote:Was't this the veg plot thread?
I noticed a few posts back Pol mention bad germination of lettuce seeds. They last 6 years if kept well. Too dry is the usual problem.

For me its the end of the planting out for this year except 10 kale plants and some lambs lettuce later in the year...that is it gone! Now on to weed control and harvesting, processing

Yes Zoe it IS the veg plot thread but as a mod for this section I am quite happy for a small amount of "other chat" to happen in here.

In threads where I am a moderator, I tend not to intervene if there are just a few comments which are off topic.

We are, after all, a group of friends in here and friends chat about "stuff" which may not be directly associated with the main thing they are chatting about.

Today I have given everything a really good watering, I have mowed the grass and have started to mulch the freshly watered ground, to keep in the precious moisture.

I have also planted out the last of the peas, and am going to get the leek plants and kale plants out tomorrow, either early morning or late evening.

Compostwoman wrote:Yes Zoe it IS the veg plot thread but as a mod for this section I am quite happy for a small amount of "other chat" to happen in here.

In threads where I am a moderator, I tend not to intervene if there are just a few comments which are off topic.

We are, after all, a group of friends in here and friends chat about "stuff" which may not be directly associated with the main thing they are chatting about.

Wow! ?????

Hot here!

This morning I have already been forced to hose down the floor of the PT at 11 am, because it was so hot in there... I had to do it from the doorway as I couldn't stand the heat inside...

all the salad leaves in the garden look a bit wilted, as do I from the heat....

Managed to pick some dwarf Runner Beans, a couple of broad beans & 4 tayberries, just off to pick some salad leaves.

Have to water tonight as I did not do it yesterday & gardening in pots has its downside.

Had to do some surgery on a cabbage to get to the useable bit - not sure if it was uneven watering/slug or other pests, but the heart had split, bits of it had gone slimy, and one side looked as if a layer had been cut off with a knife. (I try not to waste anything, so got to work with a sharp knife. There was more than enough for tea, and it tasted fine) The rest of that batch of cabbages all look similar, but the ones I planted more recently which haven't hearted up are very healthy looking.
Also picked the first broad beans (must go and spray the plants with soap against the black fly they're struggling with)
This is the time of year when I get a bit discouraged by the less-than perfect results, the weather conditions, the pests etc, but this is balanced up by picking things to eat. Thank goodness we don't have to abide by EU regs for fruit and veg!!

Just watered everything again , then mulched around with grass clippings

Also planted out sugar snap pea plants and picked broad beans, courgettes, peas, salads, spuds and cucumbers.

CM planted out 50 leek plants, the rest will go in tomorrow morning but it got too dark to see what he was doing , tonight!

mmm I love this time of year

CM now planting out the rest of the leek plants and I am about to scrub down various outside things, including the Eglu.

Also washing yet more pots, am nearly up to date with this, as I empty them I am washing them, for the first time in years...

so that will be one less job to do in January!

Washing pots was the one job I could face yesterday in the heat - remind me to let you have a pile of flowerpots, CW, for your teaching ventures etc.

Ooh yes please DL! That would be really great!

Today CM finished the leeks, I scrubbed the Eglu, a load more pots, the staging, all the seed trays etc and put them out to dry ( and sterilise) in the sunshine

I also planted out more kale and moved the (chicken run now turned into an anti pigeon net) brassica cage to its final resting place.

Also tidied up the barn and composted a load of stuff, and moved a lot of wood to be sawn up or burned.

Tomorrow I will be digging out a huge heap of ashes from the last 10 years of bonfires and bagging it all up...I have had the wood ash from the pile to use for hens and garden and this is assorted stuff which I cannot find a use for, so it will go to fill in holes in various places or be used under the new drive...but I need to bag it up and move it now.

Emptied one of my potato buckets were the green had died & there were no flowers, suprise just over 1lb of lovely new potatoes.

Picked enough tayberries for me to have them for pud with some cream, so well pleased & a lot more to come.

That's interesting Pol - I've been putting off investigating any of the potatoes in bags and in the ground because there were no flowers. I got the fork out this afternoon to dig up a potato plant which had gone yellow (assuming it had died in the heat) and there was a whole clutch of spuds! (But why do I always manage to spear the best one on the fork???)

Did some clearing up, a slow job for me but I will get there in the, or by the end of the summer.

Had a HUGE bonfire ( CM did most of it!) BURNING A LOAD of twiggy stuff which was too small to shred, make a log pile out of or use for some other purpose....so I shalll use the ash for something, instead.

Dug up a root of spuds ( avoiding spearing any! Yes DL I usually do as well!)

and prevailed on 2, 9 yr olds to help me pick broad beans
Cut some courgettes and salad

watered everything ( again! it takes me nearly 2 hours to do it all!) and then added more grass clippings to the mulch.

Put a load of compostibles onto the bins.

Am finding it too hot to do much in the garden tbh..have things waiting to be planted out but lack the energy to do so , when it is cool enough....

So, it's too hot on your side of the channel too?
This morning I managed to put in the ground a clump of oregano that someone gave me, and pick a couple of courgettes, but that will be all for today, as it is now 32°C and still climbing, in the shade under my prunus - where the plastic furniture lives.

It's been quite good having a couple of days off sick (well, it hasn't been good being sick...) but I have slowly pottered about outside and done a few things which I really didn't have the energy to do when it was hot. Now I've started digging up potatoes I'll soon have room for the veg which are living (lingering? Surviving?) in modules at the moment, and not looking too happy about it!

Just picked another helping of tayberries for my tea.

Planted some leeks out in the space the potatoes were taking up. This year I've grown the leeks in modules (usually I use a 'nursery bed' - it's an old Ikea storage box with holes drilled in the bottom, and because it's deep they're quite happy in it until planting time) Not happy with my leeks in modules though: despite daily watering, and seaweed feed they are the worst, most pitiful leeks I've ever grown. They're not 'pencil thickness' - they're not really even cocktail stick thickness! They're never going to be thick enough to wrap in ham and cover with cheese sauce.