Daydream thread continues.....

Itismehonest

Have a great day, Rhiwie & here's :beer: to many more :cool::D

RAS

Happy B'day rhiwie :beer:

Davesnave wrote: »

Lots of apple blossom out here now, but still very few bees.

I am fed up of being a imitiation bee! Our real ones are as active as they can be when it is warm enough but the colonies are still small.

But more than half the time the weather is too cold or wet for them to fly. Saturday was vile; barely got to be lighter than dusk all day, very cold and only stopped raining in the afternoon. Sunday was about 15 degrees C warmer.

So I am busy with the paint bush transferring pollen from little tree to tree on the plot and then coming home to do the same in the garden. The C trees are finally coming out but in order to pollinate the bigger trees I need to import pollen from the plot. The amount of blossom is amazing however, pillars of pink.

Just saw another plot holder's beans; three long double rows of saddness. He must have planted them out at the end of last week (have seen the greenhouse full previously). They are battered, shrivelled and showing signs of having been too cold at some stage. Some may recover but they do look awful.

ferretkeeper

Happy Birthday Rhiw, hope it's a good day!

Well done Alfie on the dog rescue, and thanks for the link!

CTC yes will definitely be doing Ffairfach, I want some hatching eggs, runner ducks ideally! And yes will also go to the pig sale, I need to check my spreadsheet, see where I am with stock for the coming weeks...getting thru some serious feed at the mo but have found a bulk supplier, 600kg bag for £165, equiv of £5.50 per 20kg compared to pig nuts £8-9 per sack. Remind me to give you the details for when you have all the little mouths to feed!

I got some gorgeous girls Sunday (2 Tamworth gilts) and picking up two Tamworth weaners from Liz Shankland tomorrow all being well!

And I've got hubby home today so he'll be getting dragged round everywhere this time, like it or not, he's been out of the loop on all the latest developments so time to get involved me thinks!

I hope it doesn't rain this weekend, but will make the most of the dry week, got some indoor stuff to do if it does rain, spare room is a tip and garage isn't much better!

COOLTRIKERCHICK

cool see you there, we will be looking for one of those big water containers..and other stuff too,

Also every time we have been to the pig auction they have had tamworths there;)

Alexelisey

Happy Birthday Rhiwie!:beer:

Thanks everyone for your fingers crossed and everything over the weekend, we have an offer on the house. So now we'll see where we go from here.

Itismehonest

Alexelisey wrote: »

Happy Birthday Rhiwie!:beer:

Thanks everyone for your fingers crossed and everything over the weekend, we have an offer on the house. So now we'll see where we go from here.

:j I'm really chuffed for you, Alex.:T I'll keep my fingers strongly crossed for a smooth transaction.

lucielle

Hippy Birdie Rhiwie and well done Alex!!
L

rhiwfield

Good news Alex :j

RAS, I decided not to hand pollinate this year, I want to see how well things do without assistance. Certainly the soft fruit seems to be doing ok. Mind, there are rumours of more frosts to come!

Big fat cq in post from a sale, all helps to pay the bills

RAS

thanks Rhiw

One of the issue at home is that one of the two big trees which has produce prodigious amounts for the last two years has gone biennial. So virtually no blossom. The other tree is a B flowerer which started 2 weeks ago and because of the weather none of the C were in bloom until yesterday and then not producing pollen.

I know that the gardens here do not attract a lot of pollinators even from the allotments for long experience. That's why I introduce the other varieties.

The three later ones should pollinate each other though based on how the blossom looks now. Normally the Cs would had done the job on the B, as you know.

rozeepozee

RAS wrote: »

rozeepozee

I inherited a plot over 15 years ago and basically it was all a££e about face.

All the permanent planting is on the south end of the plot so the north end is open to the winds from the north, east and west winds and the other end is extremely sheltered. Since t'ctte got busy enforcing a (not yet adopted) Council rule on not growing trees that do not bear fruit and re-instated some paths (which meant ripping out the fruit bushes that had been planted on the edge of plots) it has become even more exposed.

In June I can literally go from sweltering in a strappy vest/Tshirt at the south end to putting on a long-T as a walk back up the path and need a fleece to work the north end where the wind is blowing.

I am starting to plant trees and fruit bushes at the north end where they will give me some shelter and when they grow will rip out the old ones at the other end. I am also holding on to a couple of strips of useless raspberry canes which filter the wind a bit.

I seem to remember that your field is south-ish facing and the house is near the lower part of the field? If you are going to put in any sort of orchard or soft fruit, place that at the north end of your field near the hedge, with the fruit bushes south of the trees. You mentioned that it is rather wet? If so put apples on MM106 as that copes better with wet ground.

Might be worth checking whether the land near the south hedge is a frost pocket? Also the land behind the house (north side) has limited use as food growing space so stick things like sheds in there? Any greenhouse/tunnel needs to be fairly near the house not tucked in the shadow of the house of trees.

Interesting... BTW you have a good memory, Rum!

The prevailing wind comes mainly from the South, but we're on the more sheltered, side of the hill (it's a shallow slope into the North). The "orchard" (about 5 apple trees, half laying on their sides) is/was in the North side. Apart from the land closest to the house, and now the static which we put next to the house on the North side, there is quite a lot of sun gets to the long triangle of garden on the North side because it's not much in the shadow of the house due to its length, although it is borderedby mature trees which offer dappled shade. The house and trees do give a lot of shelter though, so this is probably why the old fella (bless him) had his fruit trees in this area and I think also his veggie patch in a long strip that's about 4 ft x 125 ft down the East side of this triangle. (Am I really confusing/boring people?) Because the rest of the land around the house is going to be a building site for the rest of the growing season, this is my enforced grwoing area this year. We'll see how it goes then.

The aspect of the house is going to change with the building of the extension which will be South facing with exit points onto the rear (East-ish facing and bordered by huge trees). We've put one of the main storage sheds there and will probably site the polytunnel in this vicinity too. It benefits from the early morning sun, and sun for most of the day and the previous owner sited the greenhouse there (which is now mainly glass free and needs demolishing!) so it probably works...?

Going to post this now as this is my third attempt and i keep getting interrupted. I don't think there will be a frost pocket in the field edge as the wind probably blows the cold air down - not sure about this... In any case, that edge is a five minute walk up the hill, so I doubt I'll be doing much gardening up there. What were you thinking of, Rummer?