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Daphne

So how is the season so far?

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Perhaps you could have a try at grafting the poor old tree with some good shoots higher up and unaffected and insert them below the troubled part - or just attempt to propagate from the cuttings alone? Not really done anything like that myself, but it would be a shame to lose the tree.

 

Sounds like DH has winning ways with MrsNastyNeighbour. Good job she's OK. :D Hope she sorts out her hubby.

 

Here, I've picked the last of the tomatoes. Need to get them out of the greenhouse now and let the girls do their stuff! Loosely translated = make a mess all over the place.

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carrot, cabbage, swede, beetroot, Tomatoes and the odd grape

the last 3 varieties of Apples should get picked today

Leeks and parsnips are going to be late this year the hot weather last month and the warm start early this month stopped the leeks growing. the parsnips were just slow to germinate and then to get going

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:lol: Love seeing the exotic harvesting thrown in between. :mrgreen:

 

Beetroots, but this year they weren't really much, some big some small. They were supposed to be the golf ball sized quick growing minis but I left them in because they seemed to be just leaf! Chard is looking good and the sprouts are forming nicely.

 

Still have peppers in the greenhouse but I think this weekend I'll be clearing those out and freezing whatever is left. I have one pepper that is half orange/yellow and the other side is green. :roll: Need more sun to finish it off. They've been nice though, quite thick walled and juicy.

 

We may have had the last of our raspberries on Sunday.

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those mini beetroot only stay mini if you pick them when small otherwise they just grow the same as any other beetroot

I'd called them something else in a verbal conversation

I pick a few of my over size beetroot last week for a display I did over the weekend, I cut one of each in 2 to show the different colors inside half expecting them to be woody and got a surplice as to how tender they were. the Choggia was really nice to eat raw and sweet as well I now know why the Italians like it so much

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We have harvested some leeks but they are very poor quality full of rust and the burrowing thing that gets them these days. They were fine a couple of weeks back. They are not a bad size though, we normally do ok in this area with them if we get them in early enough. :(

mine are full of rust and have only just started to grown I think it was to hot for them September

Allium Leaf miner only cure is to net them by the end of August and from March to mid June if you plant them out early

don't compost them the crystalist can survive a good number of years in the compost/ soil

leeks and onions are affected and ornamental Alliums harbor them but aren't always affected by them

infestations should be reported to DEFRA

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Started digging last weekend(nearly a month earlier than normal) now half way through the fist bed this one I'm having to add wood chip to both part composted and completely composted as I've got to raise the depth of this one and the next one to try to improve the drainage and undo the damage done by previous plot holders who's idea of weeding was to scalp a couple of inch of soil off to remove the weeds. anyway I can't get over how much moisture has come out of the ground in a little over 3 weeks since I dug the last of the spuds out the bed was soaking wet then now it's drier than it's been all year just about right if it was planting time just need the big lumps of clay to brake up over winter at the moment I've raised the level by about 10-12 inches but I think that will halve over winter

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I've only really been down to the lottie to harvest bits and bobs. I've covered the carrots in straw and fleece, taken the cages off the sprouts and cut down all the raspberry canes. One of the plot holders works at a mushroom farm, so gave me several bales of spent compost. That has all been spread around the raspberries and a couple of other beds for next year. :D

 

I really need to repaint the shed, but running out of time and it's been so wet.

Onions are all dry and stored in boxes in the conservatory. Beetroot in soil in boxes too, but not doing too well. I might roast, then freeze them.

 

The deer that have raided the allotments have finally found my little corner plot and ate all my chard. The hens won't be happy this winter :lol: but I've covered it with plastic cloches and it's reshooting, so hopefully it'll be ok.

 

The turnips and swedes weren't touched and are doing well. Parnsips (all 5 of them :roll: ) are ok!

 

Need to plan for next year now *excitedly gets the seed catalogues out*

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I know some of the varieties I want next year

Onions should be :- Golden Bear, Globo ,Long red Florence and I think Red Barron plus at least one more white

Shallot :- Zebrune might try Matador as well

Carrot :- Eskimo, Flakke and Yellowstone plus I think there's still some sweet candle and Creampac seed left from this year plus I want a purple and another white variety as well

Swede :- I'll give Ruby ago again next year I've done really well with it this year biggest ones I've ever grown

Peas :- Hurst Greenshaft as I've still got seed from this year plus it's about the only one I do any good with

Cabbage & Sprouts :- TBD

Sweetcorn :- Indian Summer now I've found a supplier for it

Tomatoes :- TBD

Potatoes :- Cara, Red King Edward :pray: , PFA , Carolus plus any new varieties that are out and others still TBD

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I forgot to say all the onions and shallots will be from seed I've not grown red baron from seed before only sets but never done very well with them so I thought I'd have a change next year from North Holland and Red Brunswick which I do OK with Long red I've done well with in the past but haven't been able to get for a couple of years but one of the seed company's I use have again

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I didn't think I'd be writing anything else here, but the most exciting thing has just happened. A couple of neighbours have just dropped by with 4l of olive oil from our own trees 8) We've stayed later here in Portugal than normal and harvested our own olives, rather than letting our neighbours have them. It was great fun, and as I suspected it has been a bumper year, the olives are numerous and full of oil. I feel quite pleased with myself that I could work this out without being told, just through observation over the past few years, which I know sounds rather smug but it makes me feel more in touch with the land and cultivation here in Portugal. Anyway, the more serious growers have all sorts of contraptions for shaking the trees, the idea is that you spread out large nets under the trees (we improvised with sheets) and the olives fall down. Then you get up a ladder with a wide toothed comb type thing and pull it towards you which brings the olives down. What I failed to realise is that you can chop off any tall/high branches which are groaning with fruit and pick the olives off whilst the branch is on the ground. This has the double advantage of pruning the tree and ensuring you get every last olive. We picked 36kg for pressing and a further 10kg for eating. Not bad from 5 trees! The oil was pressed yesterday, its extremely viscous and needs to settle. Its very green (most of the oil round here is quite yellow so that's a bit surprising, perhaps it changes with age and it has a strong, fruity taste). We are so enamoured of the whole thing that we now want to buy an olive grove :D

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Well, I've been glued to the internet doing some research on olives and oil. Apparently the colour has no bearing on the quality, its to do with the variety of olive. Most of the olives round here are a variety grown in Spain, which should give a yellowish oil so I am a bit bemused. We have mills in every last tiny village and in the middle of nowhere, on rivers. Most are closed now, but we do have one in our village, its open for 10 days a year! They all use what I now read is old fashioned technology, where the olives are squashed on circular mats (I have found lots of these abandoned, just out on walks, they are just thin woven mats about 2 ft in diameter). This is seen as less good than the modern centrifugal machines, as bits of last years crop and pressings sticks to the mats! The results are pure and simple, first pressing (they only do one round here) extra virgin olive oil. I have to say I am still absolutely thrilled to bits with the whole thing and count myself as extremely lucky :D

 

To give you an idea of how small scale we are, our neighbours took 400kg to the mill :shock: I suspect we might have gained a good percentage of oil to olive this year, because the crop was so good everywhere. Having said that, next time I know we could harvest more for oil and less to eat :D

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I've finally got the first bed (next seasons cabbage bed) wood-chipped composted and roughly dug I'm now officially 3 weeks a head of the digging game :dance: I just need to get another 20 odd barrows of wood chip from the communal pile around to my plot and I can start on bed 2 Boxing day

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8)8)8) With regard to olive oil! Wonderful. Maybe your variety is an old Portuguese one that wasn't replaced with the Spanish varieties. Nice to be different!

 

Sounds like you are doing really well sjp!

 

Our leeks look weedy and not bulked up at all. I know they usually romp away when everything starts growing again and they are great - but this year they've done nothing. They've just stayed pretty much as they were. Methinks it's time for a change of compost and a change of bed. Although they are in a 4 year rotation! Meh. Never mind. The sprouts are looking pretty good - must make sure the pigeons keep off. Chard is fine - no deer. Well they've been in the front but not out the back. Looking out now and we have another deluge in progress. :roll:

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my leeks are the same I put it down to the drawn out warm spell we had in September after the hot weather in July and August as soon as We had a couple of cool nights late September mine started to grow well one variety did the other just starting to fill out but their to soft and are just bending over

I think I'll have to give Musselburgh or one of the other mid season ones a go again

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I think Musselburgh is the variety that exhibition growers grow, perhaps you should have a go :D

no it's not, well at least not for a very long time

growing exhibition leeks and onions holds no interest for me plus it's to costly of a hobby with gas and paraffin then there's the poly tunnels the 5 or 6 different sizes of pots compost fertilizers plus the soil for the raised beds in the tunnels. My mate's about to pot his leeks up for the third time since he planted the 'grass' in late September about 160 plants He'll plant out about half of them come April to show at about 5 if he only doe's one competition 4 if the onions don't do any good again next year

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