Welcome to Silver Bunny, glad you could join me.
Went out to view the very wet garden this morning and came across this happy chappy – made my DB. Cheered me up no end I can tell you. Isn't he sweet.
I did go outside to do some gardening but it is just too wet after the storm of last night. More are forecast for today and 2 days ago, we had 3 successive ones which knocked out our satellite television for quite a while. So much for East Anglia being one of the driest in the country! Mind you, the frogs in the back dustbin pond are enjoying life no end. Their pond receives the overflow from the water butts and it is often like a mini waterfall in there. Was weeding around it the other day removing some of the shuttlecock ferns to replant around the front pond. Two huge frogs jumped out onto both my bare feet, cooled them down no end!
Managed to pick some blueberries which so far, fingers cross are okay in my soil despite it not being what they like. The gooseberries and raspberries however are very sick. Not the best photographs unfortunately but you can see what I mean.
The gooseberry got attacked by sawfly which I did manage to control and up until a couple of weeks ago, had some nice green leaves on it – not anymore.
The raspberries are poorly to say the least. These are Autumn Bliss and should just be coming into their stride. Despite feeding with seaweed and iron, blood fish and bone they are on their way out.
Guess I'll have to decide if I want to grow them and if so, get some more. My beetroot which are normally quite a decent size are like marbles. The beans however are happy, as are my tomatillo's which are beginning to develop their husks to house the fruits.
The chilli and bell peppers are happy to be in the conservatory despite temperature swings from 20C - 40C. The two off cut tomatoes are doing well and setting flowers. A little leggy but they normally are when grown in here.
My gooseberries have been poor every year. Despite pruning into a goblet shape and thinning they have had mildew every year so they are going to be dug up and binned, and the strawberry patch will be moved into the space they have occupied. The 2 courgette plants that survived the slug attack have now been attacked by rats, so there'll be no freezer full of courgette soup for me this year :(
ReplyDeleteOurs are Invicta, anything else I try gets mildew. Maybe they just need changing. I'm surprised the strawberries are still 'well' after being drowned twice. Although it is their first year I am taking a baby off each when available just in case.
DeleteI had a lovely crop of gooseberries, until I forgot to cover them.....still the birds had a treat as they did with my raspberries and blackcurrants! At least I got most of the strawberries (well those that my sons left!) xxx
ReplyDeleteIt is so annoying isn't it. That is why I am glad we invested in a fruit cage. It is so nice to sit in there and know the birds can't get in. It is just unfortunate that the rain kept coming and I think that is why the fruit isn't so good.
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