Poor Potatoes

 

I set my new potatoes in March and typically we had a dry Spring so although I had plenty on they were all small.
 I set my main crop in general in early May and since then we have had nothing but heavy rain giving the soil no time to get dry. To be honest anyone who has followed my Blog would see that I have many times posted photos of my garden standing in water. To be honest these last 2 years have been dreadfully wet here giving the ground no chance to recover.
 As we have had much rain lately last night I decided to dig up a root and to my horror found that the soil was like a bog and the potatoes had suffered, so I then dug up most of the potatoes at the top of the garden leaving those in raised beds presuming that they would be alright.
 As you can see I had to wash the potatoes and as it was getting dusk I didn't notice until this morning that about a quarter had been infected by eel worms, slugs to most people.
 This morning I decided to dig a root up from my raised bed. To be honest there was no difference at all to the ground but the potatoes had suffered worse. Some had rotted in the ground, many were small and quite a large proportion had been attacked by eel worm. I doubt if I will have sufficient to see me through till the end of September as I find more damaged potatoes every time I look.
 It doesn't stop there, for the first time I have had all of my marrows rot off just as they get the size of Courgettes, I also put this down to the very wet weather. I also checked my onion sets and several of those had rotted. My runner beans have not performed as I would have expected, so all in all I have had the poorest year in the garden I have ever had.
 I must admit the very wet weather has made the fruit trees grow and although I have had quite a few of my plums rot off I will certainly have more than enough for me.
The lad popped round to see his grapes and was pleasantly surprised at the progress they have made. I cut a bunch off for him , a large bunch and suggested he give his companion who is a lot worse than him a taste so he cut almost half of the bunch and told me he would give them to her and he would take the rest to work tomorrow. I also showed him the James Grieve apples telling him that within a fortnight there would be some ready for him to take to work, he loves James Grieve apples.
I have warned him the tomorrow morning I may not wave to him as he goes to catch the bus to work as I have an early appointment at the Surgery, just a routine appointment. More soon.

Summer Weather?

These first 2 photos show just how the grapes have ripened recently despite the lack of sun. There are far too many bunches on the vine but the lad from next door persuaded me to have so many on. He loves them so hopefully he will eat most of them. The good thing is that although they all seem to ripen at the same time, there are a few days difference in most of the bunches.

This photo is of my Czar plums they are covered with netting as the blackbirds peck at anything. I was surprised because I had originally ordered a Victoria plum and it was labelled as such but I knew it was a Czar plum. They are as far as I am concerned a better tasting plum and although it is not  known as a dessert plum it is a lot sweeter plum than most. It turns almost black when it is ready and I think within a week I will be eating some.

 With the weather being so poor, in fact over the last 3 days we here have seen about 4 hours of sun, yesterday we had persistant rain, some of it reasonably light interspersed with some heavier periods. With that in mind today I have decided to lift my old Weigela bush Bristol Ruby. I had taken a couple of cuttings earlier and they seem to have taken so an hour ago I decided to uplift the bush, it had been there for about 20 years and I thought it about time to get rid of it. The ground was very wet and so it made the digging up of the bush easier but I did find that the spade and indeed the garden fork soil clung to them. The bush is now no more but the bad thing is that with the ground being ever soaked this last 12 months I have lost many plants. Watching Gardeners World on Sunday morning one presenter mentioned that Lavender hated wet heavy soil so I now knew what I had suspected, the ground over these last 3 years has had a pounding and the plants have suffered. I lost nearly all of my tulips an awful lot of Scabious but I set some seeds so although most of the established plants have died, I do have some young plants. Not so the Lavender as most have died during the prolonged wet spell. At least I do have a Hardstoft Pink which my Best Pal's Daughter bred. It was me that took cuttings and saved the plant for his Family. Now to a rest as I am buggered. More soon.

To continue

With the lad coming round we had dinner then we went round to his place to see his garden. To be honest he wanted to make sure his cabbage plants were covered so that the cabbage white butterflies couldn't get to them and lay their eggs. I have found though that they manage to get in somehow.
 We went round and the first thing was to get the dead broad bean plants into the compost bin. We then did a bit of weeding of the onion sets, they look good we then managed to cover up with hoops the cabbage plants. We then went into the greenhouse, the first thing I looked at was the cabbage plants he had sown there, I immediately said to him that this was a cauliflower plant and there was a cauliflower ready. I then went to where he had the shallots drying. I showed him how to take the dried leaves off and as I had given him a couple of nets, one being small for the shallots and the other large one for the onions. I then told him to save about 5 shallots for the setting next March but the rest he could give to his carer to eat as soon as they wished.
 The next thing was to look at his tomatoes and immediately let him know that as soon as the tomatoes turned red they were ready. Last year the carers Husband had set a cherry tomato which was yellow so the lad didn't know when they were ripe enough to eat. I told him to gently squeeze them and if they were soft they were ready to eat. He was doing the same with the tomatoes this year so I told him this was not necessary. He understood

so all should be well.
 As you can see this morning I picked another 2 cucumbers off the plant, the first one I gave to the neighbours and this one will go to the carer next door. It measured just 16" or 40 cm. At least the plant will not collapse because of the weight. I will try to catch the lad as he arrives home from the bus. I do not want to wait outside because it is raining, at least it will do the gardens good especially the runner beans which they love the water, it is gradually getting less humid. More soon.

Chemist

This morning I went to the Chemist to pick up my prescription. The pharmacist served me and I explained what had happened. She agreed that it was up to the Surgery to send the prescriptions to be completed by them. She went to look for the package and I did tell her that it would be a large bag, she shouted almost immediately that she had found it.
 I left there and went to the Newsagents to buy my weekly T.V magazine then it was off to Lidl. As I arrived well before 9.00.am. it was not that busy but on arriving at the checkout there was a queue of at least 8 people waiting to get their goods paid for. As usual there were many moaning about this and the Lady in front of me said that as soon as Aldi was open in Skegness she would shop there adding that she liked Aldi at Louth. I did remark that the parking was brilliant at Louth. With that the announcement came over the tannoy that another till was open so this Lady and me went to the counter. Of course it was several minutes before another announcement was made for an operator to go to the checkout. This Lady then told me that LIdl was built but she did not know when it was to open. I informed her that according to my mate it was supposed to open in September.
 I eventually managed to get served and made my way home.
  I went out in the greenhouse to water the plants, as you can see the cucumbers are exceptional. I have had 7 off the plant so far and although if one looks carefully there are 5 growing but in fact there are 6.
 As I arrived home next door, the on with the dual car was outside, his Wife was going to catch the bus, he shouted to me that the cucumber that I had given him was lovely, I naturally let him know that there would be another one soon.
 On Saturday the lad came round, I had to send him an e-mail to tell him to come round. I told him that he could come round at any time in the morning as he was going to have a meal. As I had expected he was playing on his XBox. When he came round, it was soon after I sent him the e-mail, I asked him if he would like sausage and chips followed by blackcurrant and apple pie with Ice cream. He naturally told me he would like that.
 We then went outside first to pick the odd raspberry and strawberry, then after looking at the garden we got the pressure washer out and I told him that we would clean the polytunnel. No sooner had we done that when it started to rain, not a lot at all but we went back indoors and I prepared dinner which didn't take long. With the Airfryer it takes 20 minutes to cook the chips, after 10 minutes drop the sausage in and they are cooked at the same time. The trouble is that with the grease from the sausages it means that I have to clean the Airfryer, if I use just chips, I have got it to a fine art that I don't have to wash the machine for I use just enough oil to the chips so that no oil passes through.
 After we had a meal we went round to his garden but more of that another day. More soon.

Dentist

This afternoon I went to the Dental Surgeon, I had requested an appointment because my bottom set of dentures were not what I desired as they didn't fit as I wished although the original Dental Surgeon had informed me that there was nothing wrong with them and I had to get used to them.
 While I was waiting there is a scroll giving you information and it started with this"We are having great difficulty due to staffing problems". Further along was this notice. "Remember only 1 problem per visit." In other words if you had 2 problems you had to pick the one which was worse.
 I had to wait a little but not too long, as soon as I walked in the Romanian Lady smiled and said it was nice to see me. I told her that I had tried to get used to these dentures but to no avail but I asked her if she would do me a favour. Naturally she asked me what it was so I told her that although it would cost me money I would like her to do another impression of the lower set. She immediately agreed to do this and let me know it would be now.  I had wanted a 20 minute appointment but the receptionist informed me that if I wished 20 minutes it would be towards August so I decided to go for a 10 minute appointment knowing that 10 minutes would not be enough. So I was happy that she did the impression there and then.
 Her assistant made the mixture up while she was on the Computer and as soon as she had the mixture made she then made an impression of my lower mouth. On completing this she gave the top set to her assistant so that they had  a template of both sets.
 After a few minutes she then let me know that normally a bottom set would cost £240 but she had contacted NHS and explained what had happened and managed to get the sum reduced to £73.20. She told me that this was all I had to pay. I was well satisfied with this news. She did tell me that the next appointment would be in 2 weeks but further appointments would have to be made. This of course I had expected.
 There has to be a downside and it is this> I put my repeat prescription in very early on Tuesday expecting it to be delivered on Wednesday or Thursday. It is sods law, the delivery man came while I was out at the Dentist so I will have to go to the Chemist next week to pick the prescription up myself.
 My mate called on Wednesday and after the recent rain I decided to dig one of my Cherry Tress up and although it was not up completely it was near enough. In fact when my mate went home I managed to take the tree up within a few minutes.
 Anyway I just told him what I was doing and also reminded him that he didn't like cherries which he readily agreed but then let me know his Partner loved them. This surprised me because if I had known for a few years he could have picked some off the tree for his Partner. We, in fact did pick most of the cherries off the tree but to be honest they were not the best as I had not bothered with them, besides the tree was beginning to wilt. If I have some cherries over when he calls next year we will pick a few for his Partner, these will be better quality cherries. More soon.

Appointment

Yesterday my Best Pal rung up to see if I was available later that day. I, naturally told him I was so he duly called in the afternoon.
 It is always nice to see him as time marches on, he is well into his 80s and I have just attained that age, it is obvious that we will not be seeing one another as often as we did.
 We had a long old gossip, we both forget names and we both get exasperated because we forget things but we still have a good laugh.
 On Sunday I sent the lad an e-mail telling him to call to see me as the butterflies were attacking his cabbage plants and although I had given him some netting he didn't manage to lift the netting sufficiently for the butterflies to be unable to lay their eggs.
 I had hoped he would come round yesterday afternoon but obviously he noticed the car and new my Pal was here so he didn't call. It was disappointing as my Pal would have loved to see his little garden, which to be honest he has weeded well and his broad beans were better than mine. Also I told him to be careful with the greenhouse door for he had set 3 cabbage plants and they look fantastic but I had warned him that the butterflies would go in the greenhouse if the door was open and lay their eggs. I did notice that the greenhouse door was closed.
 This morning I went to Lidl and when I had finished shopping I went further down the road to make an appointment with the Dental Surgeon. I have tried for about 3 weeks to see if I could get used to these dentures but to be honest they have never been any good from day 1. I will ask her if she is willing to make a further impression to see if this impression is different to the dentures that the previous Dental Surgeon gave me.
 We will wait and see what happens, I will obviously have to pay for this operation but I am prepared to pay for this. If it fails then as I told my Best Pal all I will do is cancel any appointments and that will save me about £42 a year.
 last night, well  about 6.00.pm to be more precise we did have a heavy shower filling up the water butts. This morning it was cloudy but mainly dry. At lunchtime we had some light rain but the forecasters warned that there would be rain at times. I thought we had got away with it but about an hour ago it started to rain, steady most of the time but occasionally sharp bursts of rain. At least the ground once more is getting a decent amount of rain, not that it has helped much as I have lost nearly all my lavender, a lot of pinks besides plenty of scabious. In the vegetable portion I have had failures with carrots, the worst year for garden peas and I have decided to dig up, with the help of the lad, one of the cherry trees. The main reason being that I get fed up of picking them only to give them away. At least it will be one job less to do.
 I did give my Best Pal some cherries, potatoes some beetroot and 1/2 a cucumber for him to take to his Wife, we then picked some Rhubarb which she loves. I don't mind giving him stuff as he always brings me a newspaper to read. More soon.

Unusual

 ON Tuesday I had to go to Grantham to ASDA to pick up my spectacles. Late on Wednesday evening a Guy rung up just before 8.00.pm. to let me know they were ready. So I arranged to go over on Tuesday first checking to see that my Sister and her Husband would be in.
 I left home soon after 7.30.am. and had one of the nicest journeys of recent times with little traffic problems.
 I arrived at ASDA soon after 9.00.am. and went to the Opticians department. All went smoothly and after doing a little shopping arrived at my Sisters before 10.00am. We had about 30 minutes before I told her I must go because I had a letter the afternoon before stating that I must take the letter to the Surgery, if I did not reply an second letter would follow, if I failed to reply to that I would no longer be eligible for treatment for I presume Diabetes.
 Anyway I set off home and a couple of unusual things happened. Nothing untoward happened until I was passing Revesby when all of a sudden a small Derr suddenly appeared from nowhere and ran across the road a few yards in front of me. About 5 miles later, following a large lorry and a car suddenly the lorry stopped. I wondered what he ahd stopped for. He was there for about a minute then gradually started to pull away. As I approached I could see the problem. there must have been at least 30 geese, they were in various stages of age for some were mature but there were also some very young ones and some not quite adult. I could see however that one of the geese had been killed but not recently as the dead goose had been flattened quite some time ago. From there to the Surgery was uneventful and I arrived at about Noo.
 To be honest I find the receptionists and Nurses very helpful. The trouble is that you never seem to get the same receptionist. Anyway this receptionist asked me if she could help me. I looked at her and told her I was sure she could help me. I showed her the letter and sure enough it was stating that I was due for an Annual Diabetes check and review. I informed her that I had this don e in March for the Nurse had told me I was due for a diabetes check. With that she looked up and found that I was correct and also told me who the Nurse was. I concurred and told her she was a mature Nurse but very nice. She then told me she would go and check that all was O.K. but I told her that I wished  to have a foot inspection, a urine test  and a Blood Pressure check. This she readily agreed to my request  and let me know that the same Nurse that had done the Diabetes check would do the tests but not before the end of the Month. Anyway that is sorted out.  More soon.

Tour de France

This next 3 weeks I will be watching the Tour de France, I don't know how I got into watching cycling but I really do enjoy it.
 last weekend the lad asked me to help him so naturally I said I would so on Saturday morning he came to mine. Before we went round to his we had a tour of my garden especially where the soft fruits are. He has 99% of the strawberries and almost the same of raspberries. He really loves raspberries. After he has picked the strawberries, I pick most of the raspberries as he is not so nimble with his hands. We then, after he has eaten the fruit go to the greenhouse and polytunnel to see how my plants are faring. Then it was off to his place. I first told him that we would check the broad beans as he told me some were ready, I was surprised that he had so many ready to be picked so I told him to go and get a bag so that we could pick the broad beans. He was gone for a minute or so and came back with a bag, with this the Guy appeared I asked him if they were racing and he told me they were but it was only a short race. We then started to pick the broad beans, I supervised him to make sure he didn't pick those that were not quite ready. To be honest he did quite well and we soon had a bag full. The Lady appeared so I told her that there was more than enough for a meal but if placed in the bottom of the fridge they would last at least a week. She then siad they would have ham and broad beans.
Soon after the lad asked me if I would make a sort of frame with netting to stop the cabbage white butterflies from laying their eggs on the broccoli plants I had given him. This took about 45 minutes and to be honest I was beginning to feel tired but I had to look in his greenhouse where he had set 3 cabbage plants, he had set a few outside but the wood pigeons had made a mess of them. He told me that they had been eaten and as soon as I saw them I told him that it was the wood pigeons. I told him that the plants in the greenhouse were fantastic but warned him not to leave the door open as the butterflies would lay their eggs and ruin the plants. He does not like to touch anything like caterpillars.
 By the time I had finished it was just before 1.00.pm. and I had then to get back home to start my dinner but at least I had sorted him out. He was pleased that he had picked plenty of broad beans and kept saying he had done very well, which he had really. At least it gives him something to do beside play on his XBox. He will often say that after we have finished doing the work he will go and play on his XBox or with his cars. He seems happy enough though and as long as I wave to him in the mornings when he goes to catch the bus he is happy. More soon.