Tuesday, 31st July

 Such a glorious day today I had to whip down to the allotment and hoe down those weeds in the hope they will wither and perish in the sunshine before any refreshing rain shows up to revive them. It was as I closed the gare that I saw the notices pleaing for cakes and white elephants. Let me explain. As you know, the 1st September is our annual show which we put on jointly with the Worthing Horticultural Society. Believe it or not, it costs money to put on the show so, to help defray costs, we are looking for you bakers to bake some cakes for us to sell and you house-clearers to donate any unwanted stuff for our White Elephant stall. Jacqui is in charge of cakes and Celia in charge of White Elephants. You can either contact them direct or signal your willingness to contribute by contacting me here. I promise I will eat no cakes and I probably have a few white elephants of my own to get rid of.

Saturday, 28th July

Well, I had to do a bit of gardening work today after yesterday's skive and there is a rumour it may rain again tomorrow so I did pop down to the allotment for a wee while with my wife. I was digging potatoes and have they loved this rain? Yes, they have - they're ginormous compared with last year's and more to a root. As fas as I can recall, I've done nothing different: planted them about 15"-18" apart on free horse manure, so it must be the rain, especially as last year was particularly hot. I just hope they don't get blight now as I know one or two others have suffered with it and it does like damp conditions. Time to pick raspberries as well while they are dry. They've grown well in the wet but I don't think the fruit keep well if picked wet - I have no proof of that. The runner beans and the rhubarb continue to enjoy the rain but I think the end of this month marks the end of the rhubarb-picking season if you don't want to weaken the plants. Cabbages doing well too but no matter how I try I can't stop them coming all at once so I'm sharing them around a bit. That's what allotmenting is all about.

Friday, 27th July

Did absolutely nothing of a horticultural nature today but instead spent most of the day with my wife and a couple of relations in the beautiful Hampshire village of Selborne. The village is perhaps best known because of its association with the 18th century naturalist, Gilbert White, whose grave can be seen in the local village churchyard. There's also a museum in the village dedicated to his work on plants and animals. But we were walking, a lovely stroll alongside a river through woods and fields in the morning, a satisfying pub lunch in the Queen's and then a climb up a hanger along a steepish zig-zag path in the afternoon. It appears the locals call the hills overlooking Selbourne "hangers", presumably because they hang over the village. Tell me if you know better. What I do know is that from the top you have lovely views including one looking right down into the centre of the village. A lovely day and it's only 35 miles from Worthing.

Top of Page

Wednesday, 25th July

Sorry if you've felt a bit abandoned these last few days but I've been up to my ears. Things seem to have come on with a bang, so in between showers I have been picking raspberries, runnerbeans, gooseberries and rhubarb and cutting cabbages and digging potatoes. Then there's been the constant mowing and weeding and cutting back big, overgrown shrubs and border perennials (no fun when they're all wet) and deadheading. Plus I have entered the front garden in the "Best Front Garden" competition and although I know it's not going to win I still don't want the judges laughting at my impertinence so I've had to do a bit of work on it. "Oh, come on," I hear you say, "What about when it's been raining?" Well there's still greenhouse where I have sown some old Phormium Tenax seeds my wife found in the fridge this week but a lot of my time has been invested in other parts of this site: I've updated the News page (lots more pictures of the Flower Show), added a couple of items to the Ramblings page, put some stuff in the Archives, updated the Forthcoming Events section and been replying to some of your e-mails. Yes, I do read and answer them all (although some bounce back!) and pass on your messages where necessary to the appropriate authorities. So I have not been idle - honest.

Sunday, 22nd July

Sunday. So I did what all we chaps do on Sunday - no, all right apart from washing the car and falling asleep in front of the telly - I mowed the lawn. Question of do it while you can really as it's not rained today but it's going to bucket it down all day tomorrow, or so they say. And the grass has certainly been growing (along with the weeds). Under these conditions you can easily be mowing twice a week but there is also the danger of all this rain leaching out all the nutrients in the soil so in fact you may have to feed the lawn. Now I know you're thinking that the last thing you need is something to make the grass grow even more but you can cheat and use Autumn lawn feed which contains less nitrogen. then you won't get fast growth but the grass will perk up and be healthier. Take it from someone who knows about these things. I did - I read it in an article in today's newspaper, written by Alan Titchmarsh.

Saturday, 21st July

A bitty day really, daren't do anything for very long for fear of the next shower so a day for doing little jobs. I started off removing sideshoots from my tomatoes, not for the first time of course. The little devils seem to appear while your back is turned and if you're not careful, by the time you know it you've got a rival tomato stem. Then I did a bit of weeding which is when I noticed that my gourmet slugs also have a taste for celeriac - but I promise to stop going on about slugs now as it's getting a bit boring even for me, although not before thanking Serena who e-mailed in with a suggestion for keeping the slimey pests off my courgettes. Anyway, it's not all bad news: I picked a load of runner beans and a few raspberries - there would have been more than a few except I dropped the container I was cacrrying them in then walked on a few. Well sqidgey. And tomorrow I hope to pick my dessert gooseberries (Whinham's Industry, dark red).

Top of Page

Friday, 20th July

Bit busy yesterday so I didn't get to the allotment until the evening. To think, I watered the runner beans because they looked a bit dry! But what I really went down for was to try out my new strimmer. I've been going to get one for a while especially since the lawnmower complained about the uneven terrain and fell to bits. I bought one on recommendation and I had seen the guy using it. It runs on a battery and is a lot lighter than the petrol types and quieter so ideal. It lasted 10 minutes then the battery went flat so today I have been recharging the battery. The rest of the day has been a bit of a wash-out really although I have potted up a few things: 2 reserve sqaush to replace the savaged ones, some peppers in the greenhouse and about half a dozen remaining tobacco plants because the slugs ate ALL the 2 trays full I planted out earlier. To protect my plants I have placed them on our patio table - much to the delight of my wife - and covered the cabage plants with an old net curtain to keep the butterflies off. (See picture below)

Our patio table serving as a haven from all the beasties for my little plants

Wednesday, 18th July

Yesterday I was squidging caterpillars. Not the prettiest of sights I confess but if you don't want to use chemicals you can't be squeamish when it comes to disposing of things like caterpillars and black aphids on runner beans. The caterpilllars were on my little cabbage plants (winter) which I haven't even put in the ground yet. My methods are not 100% successful though - I haven't had one courgette. Three plants have been eaten and all the courgettes or flowers eaten off the others. So far not one courgette has made it past little finger size. The birds and hedgehogs are really letting me down. If it weren't for the hedgehogs I might be tempted to resort to the little blue pellets and the birds seem more interested in my apples than slugs and snails, especially the blackbirds. Still, musn't grumble - picked some more raspberries today and some runner beans as well as digging a load of potatoes off just one root. BUT if you have any answer to my courgette-devouring snail and slug problem, please let me know.

Blackbird Damage

Top of Page

Monday, 16th July

I eventually got round to putting in the last of my leeks. Bit of a shock though. I went to do as I always do, dibble a hole and drop them in, but it was really hard work. In some places the soil was like concrete and although I have a pretty impressive dibber I wasn't making much headway and in the end had to resort to using a mallet. I know we've not had as much rain as our compatriots up North but it was still a bit of a surprise to find the ground so hard. Unless it rains tonight I shall have to get serious about watering, I think.

 Sunday, 15th July

Another lovely day again today but not the day for walking down to the postbox as I discovered not long after setting off, for today was Flying Ant Day. Now as we all know, ants spend most of the time underground making horrible little lumps in the lawn, except when they come into the house looking for food. You also find thousands of them if you have cause to lift a paving slab but most of the time we don't see them. Most are worker ants (sterile females) but there are also fertile males and queens (fertile females). The flying ants are the reproductive males and females. These mating ants have wings and surface on a warm, sunny Summer's day, usually around the middle of July here, and engage in a nuptial swarming flight during which mating takes place. The males then die and the would-be new queens bite their own wings off and seek out new nest sites where they can start colonies of their own in the Spring. So, as I walk down the street, the pavement is strewn with winged and wingless ants and the air is full of flying ants. Now what I want to know is: why they find the back of my neck so attractive?

Friday, 13th July

Friday the 13th - unlucky for some! But not me, well not so far. It's been a smashing day apart from a return trip to the dentist's this morning to finish off Monday's little job. Shame it wasn't so lovely yesterday evening when a group of us went for a walk along Ferring Rife. It wasn't raining and it wasn't cold but it wasn't sunny either and there was a little breeze. We still enjoyed the walk though and were lucky enough to see 2 egrets although not at the same time, so it could have been the same one as I find it difficult to tell the individuals apart. Bit like babies. It is lovely down there; there are further pictures on the Durrington Walkers website but here's one to be getting on with.

Then today I dug up some more potatoes and cut another cabbage. I've cut 2 so far and they've both weighed over 4lb so I halve them and share them with neighbours. Won't be long before they start hiding inside when they see me coming and pretending to be out. "Oh, no, it's Ned again with another ruddy cabbage!"

Thursday, 12th July

Took a couple of deals off there for a little sortie "up North", well up Midlands actually. As you do, while there I had a look round an allotment site and was quite impressed with the crops. To say they're 200 miles further North I couldn't really say there were behind us here on the South coast. OK, maybe the onions weren't quite as advanced but they were digging heavy potato crops and picking courgettes and soft fruit and the parsnips looked really good and healthy. On the other hand they have had a great deal of the wet stuff and there was evidence of blight on some potatoes and tomatoes. Price of plots was similar to here and they too now have waiting lists. It's nice to see that allotmenting is so popular; let's just hope it is due to real gardening passion and not a passing fashion of the yuppie brigade (see Ramblings: Posh allotments from Harrods).

Top of Page

Monday, 9th July

Not a scrap of gardening done today - it was one of those days. For a start I had to go shopping and I hate shopping. Still at least it wasn't clothes shopping though I will admit to having a look in the charity shops for a pair of gardening shoes but no luck. My wife has a theory you don't find many men's shoes in charity shops because men don't throw their shoes away until they fall to bits. On today's evidence she could be right. Then I had to go to the dentist's for a "deep filling" (bit like Mr Kipling's apple pies then). No chewing for 24 hours! Then it chucked it down with rain. By this stage I had lost the will to live and gave up on the rest of the day.

Sunday, 8th July

Another glorious day so I whipped down to the allotment again with my new(ish) push lawnmower to mow the grass paths I had trimmed yesterday. All went well until we hit a bump and the lawnmower fell to bits. I still can't find one washer. I don't know, you just don't get the workmanship these days. I hope I can repair it well enough to mow the lawn back home. And back home things are looking quite good as the rain has produced some rather lush growth and the sun has brought out some colourful flowers. I might make the front garden competition yet.

Back garden colour

Top of Page

Saturday, 7th July

Make hay while the sun shines - or, in my case - trim the grass bordering your allotment. Yes, a little bit of sunshine transformed me into a hive of activity, clipping the grass, mowing the lawn and a host of other jobs I'd been storing up. Why, I even washed the car for the first time in months. And grass isn't the only thing that's been growing, so I charmed my wife into giving me a hand on the allotment while I did some more handweeding of the onions; sticking the hoe through is always a risky venture with onions. So why haven't the squash appreciated this bit of wet we had? They do look in a sorry state and one of them has given up the ghost altogether. This time last year they were roaming halfway across the allotment. Perhaps I put them out too early to fend for themselves so I'm not taking any chances with my winter cabbage; I've potted them on till they get a bit bigger and more able to look after themselves when nature flings its worst at them and even then I shall cover them with fleece to keep the cabbage white butterflies and the pigeons at bay.

                
              Sorry squash                                        Very, very sorry squash                           Young cabbage plants

Got my show schedule today and they're now available from the Stores. (There's even a beginners' show guide inside which I might get round to putting in the Ramblings section of this site.) It's rock cakes for the men's cookery competition this year. Maybe I'll have a go but for some reason the judges just didn't appreciate the rustic subtlety of my flapjacks last year. Wait till they taste my genuine rocks this year!

Wednesday, 4th July

I found out today that this rain has actually done a bit of good. I went down to the allotment this morning to do a bit of tidying up as much as anything else but while I was down there I noticed my neighbour lifting some of his potatoes. I didn't grow any earlies this year but thought I might as well lift a root of Desiree to see how they were doing. What a pleasant surprise! I don't think I've ever dug them this early before but as you can see from the picture they were very respectable. I'll get digging them in earnest now before they start to rot or get blight or those little black slugs get them. And I must persuade the wife to stop buying them in Tesco's.

I went along to an Association Committee meeting last night and we were discussing the children's marigold competition. You don't have to be a member to enter so have a look at the details in the Plotholder section of this site and give your kids something to do over the holiday. Also, if you're interested in joining the committee and revealing your talents get in touch - but for that you do have to be a member.

Top of Page

Monday, 2nd July

Bit of a suprprise the fine weather today so I hotfooted it to the allotment for a couple of hours this morning. Lovely and peaceful it was, just me and the songbirds and the occasional police car siren. I took a big fork with me for some serious weeding; the area where I grew my runner beans last year was carpeted with weeds so I must have put some good stuff in there. A mere one and a half hours later I had cleared it. I know they say you shouldn't work the soil when it's a tad wet but those docks, bindweed and thistles come out a lot easier than when the spoil's baked dry like concrete. Weeding isn't much good for your back though and after that I started picking raspberries and gooseberries and some of them are a bit low too. I like raspberries; I think I prefer them to strawberries which is just as well given my pathetic strawberry crop this year. But they're not as friendly; they have a habit of hiding their fruit UNDER the leaves so you really have to bend down to spot them. And they're prickly - I didn't get scratched at all by the gooseberries but a silly little raspberry prickle got stuck under my fingermnail, owch! But, brave as ever, once I had put on my glasses at home I managed to remove it with the tweezers.