Post your Gardening photos

[CelticRambler]

I'm getting great satisfaction put of this gardening lark this year.

More power to you! But any chance you could not post photos of red tomatoes? So far this year, I've lost all of mine to blight. Beautiful big tomatoes - best crop ever - that tease me their green lushness and the promise that this bunch will be different ... and they turn brown and rotten like all the others before them.

[765489]

Do you grow your tomatoes outdoors in sunny France ? I had a problem with blight one year but there was a lot of spuds sown around the place.

If they were outdoors I'd have to spray them.

[CelticRambler]

Do you grow your tomatoes outdoors in sunny France ?

Where is this place you speak of?

We had our summer in February this year - more than enough of it to burn the drought-plagued tomato seedlings to a crisp, so I'm still planting rooted laterals to try to make up for the early losses.

I had some blight last year, but got on top of it once the weather dried up in August. We haven't had a dry week this year since March - just constant rain and wind, interspersed with tantalising outbreaks of sunshine.

To answer your question: yes - have always grown them outdoors, moved from plot to plot each year. And - for no logical reason - there's no significant blight on the potatoes this year.

[silverbirch]

Someone's been enjoying my cabbages!
Straight to the compost with the lot of them it looks like.

[765489]

Crop protection mesh Silverbirch. .7 mm. Keep them Cabbage white butterflies from massacring your brassicas.

[silverbirch]

Crop protection mesh Silverbirch. .7 mm. Keep them Cabbage white butterflies from massacring your brassicas.

I used a mesh alright but they were attacked from below, not above. Twas the snails that got them!

[765489]

Sunflowers. This is the first year they haven't been eaten earlier in the year by rabbits. Will leave them for the birds over the winter.

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They are ignoring me. Amazing how the follow the sun.

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[notfromhere]

There lovely, do the birds eat the seeds.

[765489]

There lovely, do the birds eat the seeds.

I'm hoping they will notfromhere. The seeds haven't developed on them yet. They will eventually fall on the ground but they'll be there for whatever wants them.. Most of them are not out yet.

[notfromhere]

Can you keep some seeds for planting next year.

[765489]

I've never tried that. They are late enough coming into flower so not sure if the seeds will develop enough to be any good. I get the seed from Fruit Hill Farm in Cork. They sell it as a summer cover crop. You can get bulk amounts there.

[CelticRambler]

Nothing like a field of sunflowers to brighten a dull day! Did you sow them by hand or by machine?

[765489]

Nothing like a field of sunflowers to brighten a dull day! Did you sow them by hand or by machine?

I prepared the beds with a tractor and rotovator but I sowed them by hand in lines made from the edge of a rake and covered in same rake and hand rolled. I sowed it fairly heavy as to take into account slug and rabbit damage.
I put a crop protection mesh over the whole lot for a couple of weeks until they were about about 4 - 5 inches high.. just so as to prevent the rabbits from completely cutting them down when they are at the early stage.

[CelticRambler]

Janey, that's a lot of work! You wouldn't catch the farmers round here doing any of that - harrow, sow, forgetaboutit till the heads turn black. Might send the drone down the lane tomorrow to take a pic of their field.

As mentioned on another thread, I saved last year's seed from a few heads and had way more than I needed for this year. I'd actually thought about using it as an addition to bread and other recipes but never got around to it. There's a local boulangère who makes a lovely corn (maize) loaf.

[765489]

Would be great to see them. The combines will be in soon so

[CelticRambler]

Think the unexpected sun got to me earlier ... one doesn't normally make use sunflower seeds to make maize flour!

But I do use a locally milled mixed cereal flour to make my "Irish" brown soda bread, which includes sunflower seeds.

[765489]

Think the unexpected sun got to me earlier ... one doesn't normally make use sunflower seeds to make maize flour!

But I do use a locally milled mixed cereal flour to make my "Irish" brown soda bread, which includes sunflower seeds.

Sounds good. Great to be able to get local flour. Myself and brother have this idea that we talk about every so often of milling our own flour.. he has the expertise with regards to growing and harvesting wheat.. I just like tractors and combines but nothing has come of it yet... both of us haven't got the time for it at the moment

[CelticRambler]

Would be great to see them. The combines will be in soon so

Here ya go:



(A day later than planned, coz I sent the drone off yesterday with no SD card in the slot. )

[765489]

You could be nothing but happy walking through a field like that.

[765489]

Can't get rid of the tomatoes quick enough. The black tomatoes taste lovely. The variety is called Midnight Snack if anyone is interested. I'm impressed by the vigour of the plants and volume of the fruit on the trusses. Leaves are very healthy looking. They've hit the roof at this stage.

[765489]

Might put down a load of these next year for the craic. Chuffed that they haven't fallen over yet.

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[kadman]

So, I just came across these in a sheltered part of my garden. So what are they and are they edible,
or would this do me more harm than any vaccine booster.

[CelticRambler]

So, I just came across these in a sheltered part of my garden. So what are they and are they edible,
or would this do me more harm than any vaccine booster.

They're mushrooms and ... ... ...

that's about the extent of what I can tell you, since I gave a really great step-by-step mushroom identification book back to the library ten years ago and the library drove off with it and never came back.

[CelticRambler]

Not too bad a harvest, considering an early frost, and even earlier heatwave, and the usual rodent activity left me with just ten seed spuds of this variety (Mona Lisa), which then had to cope with being planted in ground that spent three months imitating wet concrete, and this last month imitating dry concrete.



It took me nearly an hour to lift those this evening. I have six more drills in that part of the garden, each twice as long as this one. Think I'll be using the digger on those (just knew that fork/rake attachment would come in handy one day!)

[765489]

It took me nearly an hour to lift those this evening. I have six more drills in that part of the garden, each twice as long as this one. Think I'll be using the digger on those (just knew that fork/rake attachment would come in handy one day!)

And then use the fork to actually find the potatoes you dig out with the digger ?