Preparedness for when

GreyQueen

Bees don't seem to like the cooler, windier weather, do they? And we've had 48 hours of very strong winds here, with quite a lot of damage caused, which I'm sure would have had media coverage but for the E******* business.

My observations are than windless, very hot days seem to be favoured by the bees. Although the days are very long now, it is still only late spring, and getting pretty chilly at night. I hope to see a lot more bees in a month or so's time.

Feeling a bit frustrated with this cold, as started to get poorly last Saturday and still feeling pretty rough. Sun is shining and I desperately want to go to the lottie, but it's a round trip of 2.5 miles and I feel I'd be setting my recovery back if I did that and tried to garden as well. I will definately go tomorrow, if for nothing else than to water the courgette plants I started off in the shed last weekend.

My ultimate aim with the allotment is to be self-sufficient in veg and to have several different kinds of berry fruit. This happy state has been semi-achieved. I have about two more days' worth of hg spuds to eat. I could have kept more back (I shared with family) but they don't keep in brilliant condition so I gave them away at harvest. I still have some runner beans left in the freezer from last summer, plus leeks in the ground, plus beetroot perserved with Mrs LW's trusty recipe - a thousand thanks for that, my dear- and the last of the 2014 blackcurrants in the freezer.

Of the attempts to propogate more blackcurrant bushes by sticking 6 cut branches off the parent bush into the ground when pruning last autumn, I have a mixed report.

Blackcurrants are in bud with the next year's leaves before the old leaves fall, so all these branches were budded when I planted them, and I have been watching them closely by comparison with the parent bush nearby. Of the 6 prunings, only two seem to be alive. Their buds are slowly unfurling into leaves, but they are several weeks' behind Mama, whose leaves are fully opened and which is flowering. The other 4 prunings are unchanged from when transplanted, so I assume they didn't strike.

I intend to leave the other 4 for a few months before doing the scratch test, running a fingernail through the bark to see if the underlayer is green and alive. I have some feeble hope that they might just strike if I leave them a bit longer. They're not in the immediate way of anything, so I can spare them some time.

Of the two live prunings, I wasn't expecting them to do much this year or even next as they will have to grow a root system, so they'll be left to their own devices, with manure slung under them whenever I fetch a barrow-load from the common.

The strawbs are doing well, after a very poor year last year as transplants. I've come to the conclusion that I must organise the strawberries better, so that I move some plantlets out of the beds each season, in late summer/ early autumn, and initiate a new bed, so that they don't all need splitting up at once, leaving me with a pattern of 2 brilliant crops and one pitiful one, rinse and repeat.

I think the thing about gardening is an awareness of time, that you can't have a plan which is Oh, if the economy gets a bit worse/ I get a bit poorer/ I lose my job then I'll dig up the lawn or flowerbeds and grow veggies. Getting decent crops off ground which hasn't previously been a veg patch, or which has been neglected, requires several seasons' work and imputs, and you really want to start it before you absolutely need to.

I suppose that's the essence of prepping, really; doing it before it becomes a necessity, so you are ready for harder times. And with a certain party having a majority (although they lost seats, just lost 23 fewer than their nearest rival - sure to be trumpeted as a 'stunning victory' ) I fear that harder times are coming for many of us.

ivyleaf

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

Has anybody got bees in their gardens? I haven't seen any other than the odd bumblebee this year and that was earlier on in the warmer weather we had a couple of weeks ago. I'm very aware of NOT seeing bees at the moment, is it the same in other parts of the country?

On the edge of SE London here, seen a few bumblebees and some worker bees but certainly not a lot about atm

[Deleted User]

Oh yes GQ that IS the essence of prepping, being alert to any potential changes that will affect you and pre- empting them with actions before they become an urgent necessity. Looking out at what is happening throughout not only your local area, country and continent but also wider still across the world and acting on things that seem likely to disrupt any area that touches you as an individual. You can't see accurately 100% of things that are problematic but you'll never see beyond the tip of your nose if all you contemplate is your navel!!!

Karmacat

GQ, loving what you've done with the blackcurrant! When did you take the cuttings, can you remember? I have a huge blackcurrant bush at the end of the garden, pruned it for the first time last year instead of just leaving it, it definitely needs pruning at the end of this season, so I could try that.

GreyQueen

Karmacat wrote: »

GQ, loving what you've done with the blackcurrant! When did you take the cuttings, can you remember? I have a huge blackcurrant bush at the end of the garden, pruned it for the first time last year instead of just leaving it, it definitely needs pruning at the end of this season, so I could try that.

Heck, I'm lucky if I can remember what I was doing 24 hours ago, but I have a diary. I cut the branches off the Mama bush on 06/12/14, according to my diary. I act on whim, apparently you can prune blackcurrants as soon as they've finished fruiting, I tend to forget that.

Only 2 out of 6 are definately alive, so please don't count me as some kind of master gardener, because I'm not. I've just been bumbling around gardening since toddlerdom (there is photographic evidence) and learn a few tricks each year.

Cuttings might imply that I was doing something a bit more involved than taking off the 6 most inconveniently-placed branches and shoving them in the ground a few meters away from Mama.

Karmacat

I like it

I'm experimenting in the same way with some witchhazel twigs (you get your own antiseptic by boiling twigs, apparently) and figs too - they grow wild down here, as you probably know, so I collected a few fallen ones and stuck them in a couple of pots. We'll see in a couple of years ...

GreyQueen

I think it's important to retain, or refind, the spirit of playfulness we had as youngsters, the I wonder what will happen if I ............?

Obvs, we're adults, we're not going to be poking screwdrivers into the leccy sockets or such foolishness, but there are many non-harmful forms of experimentation open to all of us. My observations of the natural world is that everything tries to live, from the tiniest little critter to the loftiest plant.

Everything's trying. Not everything is succeeding, for which we might give hourly thanks, or we'd be awash in plankton, or something. All you can do as a gardener is to mitigate the obvious restrictions and let the plant get on with fulfilling its destiny.

Commonsense will tell you that whilst you can grow cress on plates with paper kitchen towels, your carrots will require a minimum of a really deep pot of bucket with holes in the bottom.

:D I have never ever lost the childhood sense of wonder at seeing stuff poke up out of the soil. I don't really feel that I grow things because things just grow, anyway. I see myself more as a facilitor, or perhaps even a caretaker, removing the carp so that the veggie patch runs smoothly. Just like housework but with more fresh air and exercise, lol.

nuatha

GreyQueen wrote: »

I think it's important to retain, or refind, the spirit of playfulness we had as youngsters, the I wonder what will happen if I ............?

Obvs, we're adults, we're not going to be poking screwdrivers into the leccy sockets or such foolishness,

We aren't? That's what I spent a fair chunk of yesterday doing - and got paid for it.
And the only thing that's definitely adult about me is my clothes sizes.

Haven't you heard of microveg? I reckon you could do micro carrots in tumbler
More seriously, your sense of wonder and fun brightens up my day on a regular basis. Thank you.


Having spent the morning at the beck and call of NHS inefficiencies (when it works its wonderful, but when it makes serial fe!!ups ...) I have a few sockets to poke and a pile of puters to fix, back to the grindstone.

mardatha

Wee bit miffed cos 2 out of the 3 buddleias I got on ebay have kicked the bucket already after 2 weeks. Got half my tatties in - and that's on 3 hours sleep

[Deleted User]

People say I'm very trying too!!! I'm never ever going to grow up, grown ups don't have any fun because they are frightened of looking silly...... me? I always look silly and don't give a damn my dears!!! Don't you think that the day you get up and don't wonder what is going to be exciting or make you smile or make you feel warm inside or learn something new and wonderful is the day you start to slip down the slope into mundanity and being everyone else? I don't want to be anyone else, it's much to much fun being me!!! One lifetime isn't beginning to be long enough to see all the wonders there are to see, I hope there's reincarnation!!!