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Post by Voy on May 19, 2016 14:36:22 GMT 2
we are going thru a time of "severe weather" - summer weather for sure. day before yesterday a town near us got 11,28 inches of rain in 24 hours... damn near a foot - about 1/3 meter...WITH a zillion lightening strikes AND hail AND (nearby) 3 torandoes. Right here we have only had violent thunder storms... whew.
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Post by auntieannie on May 19, 2016 23:08:16 GMT 2
more sunshine and light rain today.
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Post by Scrubb on May 20, 2016 1:47:38 GMT 2
I must remember to go water my plot this evening. There was a teensy bit of rain Tuesday, and there may be more Saturday, but I probably should have been giving it a bit every day.
This weekend we will put in the tomatoes!! I finally chose all the varieties I'll plant. I have a yellow one, 4 orange/golden ones, 4 red, one that's striped (yellow & red I think), a green/purple one, and a few purple/black ones.
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Post by sophie on May 20, 2016 2:34:54 GMT 2
And we are now enjoying fresh cilantro from our garden!
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Post by rikita on May 20, 2016 8:13:59 GMT 2
supposed to get warm and we aren't here over teh weekend, but if mr. r. (who only joins us saturday morning) waters everything friday evening i suppose we are fine until sunday evening ...
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Post by happytraveller on May 20, 2016 8:58:58 GMT 2
My miniature cucumber seeds are sprouting yay!
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Post by Voy on May 20, 2016 14:41:38 GMT 2
I wanna come to a buffet of nothing but Scrubb's tomatoes. aside from delish, it will be lovely to look at!
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Post by lumi on May 20, 2016 18:31:21 GMT 2
apparently, slug pellets kill hedgehogs. poor hedgehogs! The ones I have purchased don't. The packet says that they are safe for pets and wildlife.
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Post by Baz Faz on May 20, 2016 19:32:45 GMT 2
I wonder how our tomato plant is doing and is it being watered from the sky? Are the slugs circling? I don't think tomatoes do very well outdoors in England but I would like to be proved wrong. The tomato plant was a gift from Waitrose (as many things are).
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Post by pizzawheel on May 21, 2016 1:48:17 GMT 2
A basking hot long weekend in Toronto. I will be (motor)biking all over!!!
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Post by Scrubb on May 21, 2016 4:38:54 GMT 2
I wanna come to a buffet of nothing but Scrubb's tomatoes. aside from delish, it will be lovely to look at! This is from last year or the year before: Planting this year's seedlings on Sunday!
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Post by shrjeff on May 21, 2016 5:44:12 GMT 2
black tomatoes, both cherry and large, are in vogue around here lately...
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Post by Scrubb on May 21, 2016 6:25:22 GMT 2
The black cherry tomatoes are absolutely delicious. This is my 4th year of growing heirloom tomatoes and I've tried 27 different varieties (7 more new ones this year); I've had the black cherries every year because they are so good. The only other one I've had every year is called "Oaxacan Jewel" - it's gold & orange (many of the ones in the photo above are them).
This year I'm growing a yellow cherry too - it's a quick producer, should have fruit a couple or even 3 weeks before the black cherry does.
There are other kinds of black cherry tomatoes too and they'll all taste a bit different, but this one called just plain "black cherry" is amazing.
I've grown 7 larger kinds of black tomatoes too - I really liked the flavour of some of them. Most of them, actually. The best one, I'm growing again this year - it's called Carbon.
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Post by shrjeff on May 21, 2016 7:18:57 GMT 2
what is nice is that we get the black tomatoes in the regular supermarket produce section...
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Post by lumi on May 21, 2016 9:23:52 GMT 2
I've never heard of black tomatoes before.
We had quite a lot of rain last night and it seems to have knocked over some of my spinach. I'll go out to see the extent of the damage once I have my PJs off but I think it is only minimal. My chives are now growing strong so it's only the lemon balm that doesn't seem to be doing well.
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Post by pizzawheel on May 21, 2016 15:04:27 GMT 2
Reminds me my chives need transplanting!
Wonder if it's too late to plant some tomato seeds?
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Post by lumi on May 21, 2016 16:41:05 GMT 2
Upon closer inspection I can see why my lemon balm isn't doing well - it has some kind of insect all over it. There are little green insects on the top leaves which look like aphids/lice (I had to google for that - never seen it before) and the lower leaves have these minute white things on them that don't really seem to move (they're also all over the soil beneath the plant). The white things are NOT round so not sure if that means they are not eggs of aphids. ALl I know is that I need to get rid of them fast as I noticed a couple on the lower leaves of my mint which grows nearby. Definitely off to the garden centre tomorrow for some buy spray (have found an organic one that says it is multi-purpose for bugs so will hopefully kill whatever it is that I have). I would go now but we have someone coming over to do our curtains.
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Post by Scrubb on May 21, 2016 20:47:07 GMT 2
Reminds me my chives need transplanting! Wonder if it's too late to plant some tomato seeds? Kinda... I think my friend plants his seeds in early April, and then they're ready to put in the garden by late May. You could still try but I don't think they'd be ready to eat till very very late.
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Post by pizzawheel on May 27, 2016 2:54:48 GMT 2
it's definitely going to rain here in, oh, about 6 months... Time to knit a brolly! Too Hot here the last couple days.
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Post by lumi on May 28, 2016 23:21:49 GMT 2
My organic treatment of the aphids on the lemon balm has been successful. The plat once again looks healthy and is growing again when last week it looked to be on its last legs. I've been enjoying eating the kale, lambs lettuce, coriander, mint and parsley all week and anxiously await the time when I can pick some carrots! I'm going to use the choves and spring onions for the first time tomorrow...
Has anyone got experience growing broccoli? My broccoli are quite large but still haven't developed heads. I'm wondering how long that usually takes as it has been almost 2 months now so I would have expected to see at least the start. Have tried googling but can't find an answer.
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Post by Baz Faz on May 28, 2016 23:30:19 GMT 2
Rather worryingly my allotment vegetable garden has been moved to the middle of a roundabout in Birmingham. Here I am in France so how do I know? Mrs Faz dreamt it.
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Post by Scrubb on May 29, 2016 2:00:39 GMT 2
My tomatoes are in the ground and all of them look like they're doing ok! Peas are up, and I think one cucumber is too. No beans yet.
unfortunately, the basil I put in a pot in the yard isn't very happy at all. I don't know if it's going to make it. The parsley and mint are doing well, though.
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Post by Scrubb on May 29, 2016 2:01:12 GMT 2
Baz, having to go to Birmingham every time you need to water the garden is going to be inconvenient!
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Post by OnlyMark on May 29, 2016 8:33:53 GMT 2
You'd have to have a really long hosepipe as well.
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Post by rikita on May 29, 2016 9:31:54 GMT 2
a. ate our first forest strawberry yesterday. it was relatively big and nicely red, while all the other ones are still tiny and green.
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Post by Baz Faz on May 29, 2016 10:10:06 GMT 2
Baz, having to go to Birmingham every time you need to water the garden is going to be inconvenient! But more convenient than if it was Birmingham in the USA.
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Post by pizzawheel on May 29, 2016 12:51:44 GMT 2
You'd have to have a really long hosepipe as well. I don't think that's ever been in doubt.
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Post by Voy on May 29, 2016 13:48:44 GMT 2
back to the mundane -- broccoli , yes, I used to grow it - and it does take some time to start.. then it goes gangbusters, takes a break in the summer heat, and starts up again as it gets cooler. ( after the big "head" it puts out lots of little ones on side branches) Come fall you can use Purple Sprouting - which we can't as our winters are too cold.
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Post by auntieannie on May 29, 2016 13:59:22 GMT 2
interesting, Voy, purple sprouting broccoli seems to appear early in the calendar year here.
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Post by pizzawheel on May 29, 2016 14:50:03 GMT 2
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