Saturday, 3 July 2010

Blue skies and lots of sunshine

My peas are ready for picking - got loads of them, not sure what I'll do with them yet. Maybe some of Simon Hopkinson's pea jelly !

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This is the first of my Turks Turbans - so far so good ...

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haha, I have no idea what this fella is, but he is pretty healthy ... maybe he's a winter festival.

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he heh .... courgettes need no introduction ! OH is looking forward to Nigella's courgette & chick pea pie next week :)

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Hopefully these are borlotti beans ... my labelling, which started out fantastically, ended up in it's usual chaos when the sun bleached the ink from the labels ! Anyway whatever they are, they are looking great.

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I picked 1.25kg of strawberries this afternoon, they are currently in the fridge covered in 1kg of jam sugar .... guess what I'm making tomorrow ! Yum

OH's face lit up when he saw the raspberries that I brought home. They were almost engulfed in bindweed. I've ripped out as much as I could. Bloody stuff.

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The sweetcorn is developing tassels already - I might give then some chicken poo water tomorrow .. mmmm yum ! Must remember peg for my nose haha.

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Despite my careful weeding I still have loads of baby teasels popping up - this one has made a break for it. I'm sure I'll regret it later as it is so close to the path, but it is too pretty to dig up.

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Ladybirds are a few and far between this year ...

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... which may account for this situation ! Looks like I need to make some garlic spray to keep the bugs away.

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I've had some other visitors today who were more welcome - they weren't bothered by me at all - infact that's my leg that they are resting on. The pond is very busy at the moment with damsel flies and loads and loads of teeny tiny frogs hopping around.

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This one kept landing on my camera hand !

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I tried to do some digging today, but the ground is rock hard, so I think I'll give up on that idea :)

5 comments:

  1. Wow, Ducky! You've got food to eat and the prospect exotic produce to come, and wildlife to enjoy(except for the blackfly) Life's good!

    Blackfly seems to be a common complaint this year. Various people have already accepted defeat already on the sweetcorn. I accept I'm too far north to even try. And as for weeds, total eradication is never going to happen, - as long as the veg gets ahead of them. And the odd teasel is insect friendly and so dramatic...

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  2. isn't it funny how variable everything is - fellow allotmenters on my site have been cropping marrow sized courgettes for over a week and mine are still babies !

    I usually struggle with pollination of sweetcorn - my kernels are sometimes a bit patchy.

    Spied my very first ripe blueberry today !

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  3. Those are definitely borlottis, and they look very good - mine have only just started to flower in the past 24 hours. Our sweetcorn is going great guns, but our first early potatoes were total rubbish. Win some, lose some, I suppose.

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  4. We've just got back from holiday and I wondered whether the tassles on the sweetcorn was a good or bad thing as it's the first year I've grown them so you've put my mind at rest - thankyou!

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  5. My son the bug expert has identified your big ladybird for you. It's one of the Harlequin type and is called Harmonia axyridis conspicua and can be found here www.harlequin-survey.org/recognition_and_distinction.htm# . In London we've also been having lots of bug problems, not just blackfly but greenfly too. Thankfully Lady bird numbers seem to be catching up with the bad guys at last.

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