Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Farway

Wet here, just drizzle really but starting to brighten up, the Ventusky shows all the clouds are further south, in the Channel, so I've got the dregs here, with zero chance of me seeing the Aurora YBE. And just spotted a webcam link there, a sunny day in Nice but dull & grey in Truro & Dublin BTW

Hours of time-wasting ahead!

I like the hour glass runner growing idea 2P, unfortunately my garden layout does not have the space to do that, so teepee in pots it will remain

Not much to report garden wise, but the yellow plum tom is looking good, could be tom feast day this weekend, all three I have ready, plus another runner spotted, only the one which is hardly a meal, but given price of runners in shops maybe I could swap it for a lump of mature Cheddar?

Tried for photos of my cabbage whites, very fluttery creatures, so failed. Plenty of eggs on the nasturtiums and was hoping for lewd pic of them at it, but no chance

LessImpecunious

Thought I ought to contribute, rather than just silently liking all the photos, so, on topic, the drunkards actually got it right here, almost, with several hours of steady, rather than forecast heavy, rain yesterday afternoon and evening. Perfect weather for planting out winter brassicas (if a bit later than I would have liked), and gardening clothes still spread around house drying off this morning...yet to look and see whether they've all been eaten by slugs overnight...

The hourglass bean support makes perfect sense, and hopefully next year will solve the problem of mass growth at the top flopping everywhere. Funny how we keep doing the same things every year even when they don't work very well... though am trying sweet peas this year (following advice from somewhere, maybe Beechgrove?) not on tipis as usual, but with a column of supports, similar idea. Growth has been so slow with dry followed by cool that they've not yet demonstrated that this is a better method, but, like the hourglasses, seems obvious once thought about!

YoungBlueEyes

Aye it’s good fun Farway! I’m not sure how much use there is in all the things it can do but it’s nice to know it’s there Zero chance for aurora here too but it’s unknown to come down this far very very occasionally. 

I’ve never grown beans but it sounds like our old rhubarb situation. Mum loved it so Daddy grew a huge clump of it for her. Then for years after she passed I’d still pull it and give it to the auld woman up the road who’d bake crumbles/pies with it and sell them for her church. Then when I spotted the price of it in our greengrocers I realised I have literally given away a fortune Cest la vie *shrug*

Less I suggest you ring the papers - if you’ve got clothes-eating slugs that’s your fortune right there Sweet pea supports - I’m very low church here - mine are growing up lengths of string that I’ve stapled to some slats of wood that are nailed onto the fence, with an extra bit of string across the top to keep them from drooping. Good and secure, and strong enough to tuck wilty glads into ha haa! I’ve just stapled some string round my saggy thistles too, very effective  

YoungBlueEyes

Pods harvested, waiting on second flush - 

And another glad is opening :smi:smile:

LessImpecunious

YoungBlueEyes said:

Less I suggest you ring the papers - if you’ve got clothes-eating slugs that’s your fortune right there

My sweet pea supports are much less elaborate than they sound, and not a patch on your nifty DIY ... just three or four sticks with a bit of string tied round, as usual, just not pulled in at the top!

ArbitraryRandom

YoungBlueEyes said:

I like the idea of doing swopsies, I'm not sure what I could contribute but I'm sure I've something. Sweetpeas.. toms (!)... lupins have gone over now so I need to get their pods snipped off. Same as the not-called-cystitis bushes, they're all pods now. 

On this topic, I've bought a number of different packets of seeds for things I'd like to try next year - but I'm probably only going to be trying to grow one or two of each of the veg, meaning I'm going to have a ton of various seeds looking for a home in the spring. 

YoungBlueEyes

Same here really. I’ve got a tray with all kinds of packets of seeds that I didn’t get round to sowing in time… we’re in danger of all ending up with the same garden 😆

Farway

YoungBlueEyes said:

Same here really. I’ve got a tray with all kinds of packets of seeds that I didn’t get round to sowing in time… we’re in danger of all ending up with the same garden 😆

OT, but just yesterday I heard how new young drivers end up with the same car model.

It's insurance & social media. 

Due to cost of new driver insurance they all ask each other on TikTok or whatever is the cheapest car to insure, all get same answer, all buy same car

All many have a crash, all that models insurance premiums increase, rinse & repeat

YoungBlueEyes

Jeez isn’t that interesting? Understandable how it happens though, insurance prices for young’uns are horrifying! Just wants the car manufacturers to get in on it to be the ‘best car this year’. Wouldn’t surprise me if they already did… 

Anyway. I only came on to say I’ve given all my toms a good haircut again, and there’s summat going on with them 🤨 I’ve Duck’d images of blight and it’s not that thank god, but I don’t know what it is. My pics are of different plants, well apart from each other. Can anyone advise..? 

The brown bobbles are only on that bit of the plant. The streaky toms are all the same in that bucket apart from the baby ones. 

ArbitraryRandom

Hmm... I think those stretchmarks on the toms are the warning signs of splitting. The risk being that if they actually split then they'll go rotten, so might be worth picking them early and hoping they'll ripen in the house?

I think that's caused by the heat followed by the wet causing them to kind of shrink and then swell.