Gardening/Allotmenting

[wafter]

@wafter - not sure which thread you asked for an update on my pears, but...

They're ripening! They didn't last year and neighbours said that they never had. Apparently this year has been a good one for pears and there's certainly more fruit than last year and they're larger. They look much like Conference pears. I put net fruit bags over the fruit to keep birds and wasps off and have left them on the tree until they dropped into the bag. I've then brought them into the house planning to cook them at some point but noticed they were starting to feel ripe. I've got to catch them quick before they go mushy but the ones I've eaten have been really nice.

So the tree can stay.

Great news - I admire your dedication to the cause and am glad to hear they're not going to waste

Conversely I've had barely any fruit this year; a few nice plums that were mostly given away, a smattering of cooking apples that ended up uncollected and rotting on the lawn and nothing at all from the other apple tree after a massive crop last year. Not that I'm complaining as I've had a lot on so the absent obligation to collect and redistribute all the fruit was welcome.

The garden has seen next to no attention and is starting to look messy; the very end in particular (that's not actually mine) has lost most of the lawn to moss as it's pretty heavily shaded.

I did score a free second compost bin that matches the original and was all of two minutes walk up the road, which was a result. I'm half-arsedly planning to level the borders at the shady end, better-arrange the compost bins (which are on the borders) and try to establish some ferns in these areas. The lawn can stay moss as I quite like it and I'm buggered if I'm going to put a lot of time in maintaining something that's not mine.

I want to lay some slabs in one bit of the lawn so I can stick a shed up; however all this requires predictably more thought, decisiveness, commitment and effort than I can typically muster so this can will be kicked into the long grass until spring on account of the weather - at which point I'll have to find another excuse.

 

[biggs682]

Just harvested the last potato plant and picked the last of the tomatoes.

Also covered the soil on the raised beds with cut of branches from some of our bushes to try and stop all the neighborhood cats cr@pping in it 😡

 

[Dogtrousers]

I may or may not have mentioned I worked in commercial horticulture for 44 years. The ornamentals sector. There is much I don't know, much I've forgotten but the one thing that remains is an appreciation of a quality plant. This year I bought my garlic and Elephant garlic corms from the Garlic Farm on the Isle of Wight. They arrived a few days ago. The quality is outstanding, by far and away the best I've seen and beats all the seed companies in to a cocked hat. The product isn't cheap but to my mind is worth every penny. So if you grow garlic it could be worth trying them. I'm looking forward to next year's crop results.

Your recommendation came a bit late for me. I've just planted out some garlic I got from Fothergill's. Looked good to me. Let's see how it goes.

 

[Elybazza61]

Partially cleared out the leaf mould bin/cage this afternoon, was a bit annoying as showers were flowing through so gave in in the end although it's now been sunny and dry for a while.

Did manage to get some rough stuff spread around the borders and sieved some fine stuff out for potting, bottom of the heap was dry but not a surprise after the summer.

Will carry on when we get back after the week-end and start collecting some from the trees on the green.