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Post by Stuart@AmericaLane on Feb 7, 2016 18:50:43 GMT
Time was scarce this weekend but I managed to squeeze in a few urgent jobs. Plus at least now I have the feeling that things are beginning to get moving. Top of the list were the strawberries. This year I am starting with new plants. Not least because I would like to know what varieties I am growing and the lot I ripped out at the end of last year were undetermined. I'm using Scanyes Hill nursery mostly these days. They dont have a huge stock but I quite like it as it is just an old school garden centre selling plants and tools and compost rather then some of the others that are more like department stores these days. Anyway they didn't have a huge range of strawberries but I was determined to get some so I came back with two each of Pegasus and Rhapsody. I've looked them up and both are late croppers so I still need to get in some earlies. I planted them in a 1m sq bed, one in each quarter to which I added loads of compost. Four tiny plants won't amount to much fruit this year I guess but hopefully they will put out loads of runners and I will have plenty of plants for next year. I've mentioned before that the autumn plantings of garlic onions and shallots were looking decidedly unhealthy. The shallots are a goner I think. Just rotting away in the wet soil. The garlic and onions are hanging in there but I'm not confident they will amount to much. The garden centre didn't have any spring onion sets yet but I did get some garlic. Cristo described as strong flavour. I've put those in modules at home but left them outside. 
If Bailey doesn't decide to pull them up and bury them we might be ok. I pulled out the last of the leeks on the plot. Just enough for one last batch of soup. Back at home I've sown this years in a couple of pots. Musselburgh and Autumn Mammoth 2. Plus I've sown half a dozen each of broad beans The Sutton and Danko. Those are in the mini greenhouse that is back out into the garden. 
So small steps but progress none the less. |
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Post by wilbarra on Feb 8, 2016 8:33:10 GMT
got quite a lot of spare garlic in three inch pots.
will leave them on the top of your plot if you want them.
they are about six inches high and well hardened.
as for your strawberries suggest you give
FLORENCE a try
not only is it a very good cropper it dosnt suffer from the
normal strawberry ills.
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Post by Stuart@AmericaLane on Feb 8, 2016 9:29:57 GMT
If you can spare the garlic then yes please. It is something we always use so the more the better. Thanks for the strawberry advice. I've seen Florence in the catalogues. I'll get a few of those then to fill up the remaining space. By the way did you see the league table this morning? I'm not sure how I am going to cope if we get to six game to go and we still have a chance. I never thought that would be a problem I'd have to worry about supporting Spurs.
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Post by wilbarra on Feb 8, 2016 13:48:24 GMT
dont worry about the nerves i am old enough to remember when spurs used to
win things on a regular basis.
the only trouble with that is i can also remember the days when we at CHELSEA
used to celebrate if we stayed up.
still think spurs (next to Celtic) were the most exiting British team to win a
european trophy.
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Post by wilbarra on Feb 9, 2016 9:38:51 GMT
hi stuart,
if you want a strawberry for taste and not storage strength
try ELEGANCE its one of the newer varities has all the virus
resistant qualities of its newer counterparts and is better
tasting.
the trade dont like it because of its soft skin which is no
good for the supermarket shelf.
have found that elegance and florence are pretty easy to
cross fertilise.
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Post by murrayc on Feb 9, 2016 10:02:38 GMT
Touch wood my autumn-sown garlic and onions were looking very healthy, albeit in need of a hoeing, when I last saw them.
wilbarra - will follow up you suggestion of Elegance if I can because our runners are more than three years old now and need replacing.
Re Spurs, I imagine the team you have in mind was Brown, Baker, Henry, Blanchflower, Norman, Mackay, Jones, White, Smith, Greaves, Dyson. Ironically the most talented ballplayer of that era couldn't keep a regular place in the Spurs team and had a belated last hurrah with Chelsea's promotion side of 62/3. Quoting from his obituary "Then aged 34, he played just five times in the side which was promoted from the Second Division and three games the following season in the First. One of them, dramatically, in February 1964, was at Tottenham, where he took the Spurs defence to pieces. I retain an image of X, sitting waiflike on the ground, his stocking rolled down to the ankle, putting back his shin pad. There was nothing waiflike, however, about his performance, which inspired Chelsea to win 2-1. He was like a tiny, mobile signal box, guiding and switching the play. Both Chelsea's goals, by Bobby Tambling, came from X's passes, the first after only 35 seconds, an exquisite chip, to set Tambling free. Yet such skills brought X just one appearance for the England B team."
Can you name X?
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Post by Stuart@AmericaLane on Feb 9, 2016 12:33:24 GMT
I don't know the answer as my Spurs timeline only goes back to 1978 and the start of the Hoddle era. I could cheat but I won't. I'll wait to find out on here.
Back to the plot I've ordered some Florence. Plus I've ordered some new onions sets. Also something I've been meaning to try for a while now, some Zebrunne seeds - banana shallots. Although apparently strictly an onion rather than a shallot. Word on t'interweb is that they are easy to grow from seed and keep really well.
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Post by murrayc on Feb 9, 2016 13:37:54 GMT
I don't know the answer as my Spurs timeline only goes back to 1978 and the start of the Hoddle era. I could cheat but I won't. I'll wait to find out on here. Back to the plot I've ordered some Florence. Plus I've ordered some new onions sets. Also something I've been meaning to try for a while now, some Zebrunne seeds - banana shallots. Although apparently strictly an onion rather than a shallot. Word on t'interweb is that they are easy to grow from seed and keep really well. I shall watch very closely, Stuart  |
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