How can I find my old pictures?

[Valkyrie]

Thanks for that - unfortunately I won't be seeing her for a while (no walking while the airshow is on - plays havoc with traffic) and it depends on whether she chooses to walk or not (or I may go off on a jolly with OH). But I'll let her know next time I do see her.

 

Here all the garden stuff has gone bonkers in a couple of days - courgettes aplenty. Mange tout/sugar snaps by the bus load, peas look ready too. Beans are forming but the purple ones are just looking lovely without flowers! The outside gherkins are struggling although the greenhouse ones are fruiting. Yay pickled gherkins! Tomatoes are forming well now (OH tells me his father has ones ready to eat - meh) so we will have toms. Peppers are also forming nicely. Blackcurrants are huge and sweet! Better pick them soon!

 

Thankfully having a bit of a rest from strawberries while the next lot are forming. Raspberries still about too.

[sjp]

just had a nice little evening treat very fresh cherries for the first time in a long while I've got to them before the birds it makes up for zero plums and apricots this year at least

[mullethunter]

The branch of the plum tree that had all but one of the plums on has just broken off. I'd bungeed it to the others, but I guess the weight of the plums combined with the windy weather was too much.

 

Absolutely gutted.

[Daphne]

Oh no were any of them anywhere near ripe - you could make jam, they should be under-ripe for that. Today I have picked 5lb of plums, far more than I suspected were on the trees. You might have a few more reveal themselves as they turn purple, fingers crossed.

 

I have to admit to some ignorance. A friend has just told me I have bush toms, which is why they are so small and still not a single one is ripe, tho there are some orange fruit. You have all beaten me to it I noted there were very few side shoots - is this a feature of bush toms?

 

I am chomping my through lettuces, I have noticed that mice or voles or something pick on the odd one and presumably chew through the root as you can go to bed with a full lettuce bed, but by next morning the odd, perfectly normal and healthy plant is completely wilted

 

The herbs are flowered and now tough and over, except the sage. Cherries finished a fortnight ago.

 

I do envy you the fruit and veg of early summer, nothing nicer than a rasp

[sjp]

The branch of the plum tree that had all but one of the plums on has just broken off. I'd bungeed it to the others, but I guess the weight of the plums combined with the windy weather was too much.

 

Absolutely gutted.

that's got to be a Victoria I lost to trees like that both less than 10 years old

[sjp]

Oh no were any of them anywhere near ripe - you could make jam, they should be under-ripe for that. Today I have picked 5lb of plums, far more than I suspected were on the trees. You might have a few more reveal themselves as they turn purple, fingers crossed. it's a bit early for plums in the UK

 

I have to admit to some ignorance. A friend has just told me I have bush toms, which is why they are so small and still not a single one is ripe, tho there are some orange fruit. You have all beaten me to it I noted there were very few side shoots - is this a feature of bush toms? no bush toms are as described shortish plants that throw up side shoots but don't have much of a growing tip but you normally leave the side shoots on through. they could be cordon toms that have stunted themselves I've got a couple of plants that have done that this year

 

I am chomping my through lettuces, I have noticed that mice or voles or something pick on the odd one and presumably chew through the root as you can go to bed with a full lettuce bed, but by next morning the odd, perfectly normal and healthy plant is completely wilted

 

The herbs are flowered and now tough and over, except the sage. Cherries finished a fortnight ago.

 

I do envy you the fruit and veg of early summer, nothing nicer than a rasp

yes but you get to grow oranges and lemons outside. can you get Raspberries canes from the UK sent to Portugal if so you could try Autumn fruiting ones they might just fruit earlier

[chickencam]

I was getting very demoralised this year, but we harvested loads of lovely fruit and veg the other night. Potatoes, carrots, turnips, courgettes and broad beans, along with some lovely raspberries. There is a growing wasp nest in the raspberry patch so it is a nervous business picking them, we went quite late in the evening just as they were going in for the night.

We have some lovely Lebanese courgettes this year, they are short fat and pale green, very tender with good flavour, they don't seem to have minded the wet weather. The Black Beauty courgettes are ok too, but the golden ones are funny shapes and rotting off again. I have only seen one tiny patty pan so far and the butternut plants are looking very unhappy which is a shame because they were the healthiest ones that I had ever planted when they went in.

[kopperdrake]

We're finally getting crops too - a lovely Italian spikey cucumber is a regular now, the raspberries and gooseberries are in full flow, and the new potatoes are ready too, after a late start. Globe artichokes are also continuing, and raised bed lettuce hasn't totally been eaten by slugs And we too also managed to get to a small cherry tree before the blackbird, though I suspect he was concentrating on the black currant bushes Squash and sweetcorn are still way behind where they are normally though.

[mullethunter]

Yes Victoria. I don't know how old but definitely less than 10.

 

Unfortunately the fruit are all still completely green and rock hard.

[sjp]

Yes Victoria. I don't know how old but definitely less than 10.

 

Unfortunately the fruit are all still completely green and rock hard.

the main problem with Victoria is that the branches can't cope with the weight of the fruit I've seen 3" dia branches snap older trees tend to recover from broken branches younger ones not always

[sjp]

lifted a root of Red Duke of York spuds yesterday have to say I've was pleasantly surprised a good number of tubers and a couple a medium sized ones to. surprised because the tops of most of my spuds are pathetic to mediocre at best and most are going over far to early. ground's been to wet for them I think which is slightly bore out by the fact that the spuds I boiled last night for tea fell apart far to quick even for RDY first time in about 3 years I've grown it and I pick a wet year but I couldn't pass up the best looking seed tubers of RDY I've seen in a decade

[Valkyrie]

Nom nom - wish we could do spuds.

 

Been eating mange tout/sugar snaps and sometimes they just don't get to the kitchen! Have made chocolate courgette cake and I still have loads in the fridge. Sungolds are just beginning to turn colour. Peppers are forming nicely and so are the gherkins. Outside is good - we've had our first harvest from the French beans and the purple French beans are flowering too.

[mullethunter]

I had to take the tops of all my potatoes last week - second earlier and main crop - because they were starting to go with blight. I'm going away for three weeks next Monday. Should I lift the main crops or leave them in the ground?

[sjp]

they need to stay in the ground for 2 weeks after cutting the tops off to set the skins before lifting then if it was blight then they need lifting and any blighted tubers ( they'll be the soft mushy and smelly ones) binning if the grounds dry and it's not going to rain for the 3 weeks your away then the can be left but it's a risk if the tubers have got blight

[mullethunter]

Thank-you

[Valkyrie]

One blackcurrant bush gave us well over a kilo of berries. Overall with the other bushes hubby has made many, many, many jars of jam that should see us clear for the next 5 years! I think we may be giving some away!!! Strangely the chickens were not interested in them at all - although they did scoff all the redcurrants with the help of some sparrows!

[Daphne]

I do like a tart jam My birds excavated quite a large dusting bowl under our blackcurrant bush which seemed to do it no harm, but like yours they never ate the berries. Probably because they were lining up to scoff the rasps which grew all around the currant bush

 

Ate my first home grown tom yesterday Very sweet, but not particularly tomatoey, absolutely no idea of the variety.

[sjp]

Strangely the chickens were not interested in them at all - although they did scoff all the redcurrants with the help of some sparrows!

mine are the other way around they eat the blackcurrants as soon as the fruit has set but don't even wait for it to ripen don't like the redcurrants

[chickencam]

I had a light Sussex who had a serious blackberry habit, she would end up purple, the first time I saw her like it, I had no idea what had happened maybe that was the secret of her longevity.

[Valkyrie]

I'm worried about our blueberries now - Squirt has developed a big taste for them and we have 4 bushes in tubs!!!

 

Courgettes coming out of our ears and the Blue Lake beans are very prolific - picked loads yesterday and froze them. Also frozen were loads of sugar snaps. Thought we'd picked them all but this evening picked enough for dinner!!!

 

The early onions have now been harvested and we are using them as we need them. The main crop onions are bulking up very nicely too. Runner beans are only just flowering and the climbing French beans with purple flowers are just setting with tiny beans that I thought would be purple but they are green.

 

I think there is blight in the greenhouse so I've been dumping the tomatoes that look iffy.

[mullethunter]

On holiday for three weeks from today, so had to do some hasty harvesting.

 

Lifted the maincrop potatoes (Kestrel and Setanta) because they were getting blight. Yield not too bad considering they haven't really had all that long in the ground, but not great either. Harvested half the red onions too and put to dry. Also had the first lot of runner beans.

 

Have a feeling the runners, tomatoes and cucumbers will all come into their own once I'm away

[sjp]

Kestrel's a 2nd early not a main crop

I'm surprised Setanta has got blighted so early as it's got a reasonable resistance to blight

[Valkyrie]

Beans anyone? I've lost track of the amount of beans we've frozen! Runners flowering like crazy some are beginning to set. Only one lot of beans has blackfly - they suddenly appeared in a couple of days. Found some ladybird larvae and put them on the leaves. Tucked in right away. The toms must have had a virus or insect attack on the leaves - there is no blight and all is looking nice. Still have blossom end rot on one of the tomato plants - I have no idea why - they haven't been neglected. All the others look lovely now. Even the Tigerellas are looking rather plump and stripey. Black Russians are getting huge. Some San Marzanos are OK (it's one of those with the constant BER). I won't be growing those next year. Neither will I be using the freebie toms from the magazine, although they are just beginning to recover from whatever was ailing them. None of the other plants seem to have had their problem. Sungolds are fantastic this year. Peppers are getting quite a nice size now. Considering I left them late, they've done better than previous years. The onions are ready to harvest - been lifting them as needed. All in all not too bad so far.

[sjp]

blossom end rot is caused by irregular watering, it could be that one of the San Marzanos plants has a dry patch of soil under it. San Marzanos is one of the varieties I only grow if I get given the seeds or an odd plant

[Valkyrie]

I know. They've all had plenty of watering. I let it sink in from the top so I know that there is plenty of moisture there and then fill up the trays beneath. The others have had the same treatment - just this one plant. It also shares a tray with 2 others. I never let it dry out. The tray is on the level so the water isn't going down one side either. Which is rather weird to say the least. The roots are out at the bottom of the tray so it's not as if they haven't gone down. The leaves have looked great. The current fruits have only just formed and one of those has also got the black end already. I've stuck my fingers down into the pot to see if there are dry spots and there aren't. I have very muddy fingernails!!! After the initial issues I've been monitoring it - must be something going on that I can't see, short of removing the plant. Which I'm considering and letting Sungold cuttings take it's place. I think even if I floated it in a lake it would still be a pernickety plant!