[Tuppence2]

Hello, Yvonne.

Yes, I think I could still plant some late potatoes, i.e. maincrop, if I get them in quickly. I know people grow earlies in buckets in the greenhouse to use at Christmas.

It's still warm here, though not as blazingly sunny as the past couple of days. I've just been to Bath on the bus. I signed up to change to Sky TV from my present provider, so I can have the sports channels and watch some cricket. I'll miss the first Test as it won't be installed until after that.

I have a lot of lettuce of several sorts. Must pick some of the yellow mangetout today. Hope your weather is behaving itself.

p.s. Yvonne - Thanks for the good wishes regarding the rash - the swelling are itchy!

[Tuppence2]

This is the first flowering of a rose I grew from a cutting.

[oil painter]

Penny:

I have ecsema on my arms. I just developed it recently. The Doctor gave me cream but it didn't do much. The skin on my arms gets so itchy.and I get small red marks I read about nutmeg being good for it and I have been using that and it sure helps at taking away the redness and itch. It might be worth a try--can't hurt and might help.

Make a paste of nutmeg and warm water and rub it on--leave for a few minutes and rinse it off.

[telecom69]

Hi Ladies,I dont get much time for gardening on weekends,and what I had on Saturday was spent on cutting back some shrubs that were getting overgrown,generally tidying up and a bit of weeding...

They promised us some showers but they never arrived,and it got quite hot again in the afternoon,so have a lot of watering to do on Sunday ...

You asked about the Potato tops Penny,well it used to be discussed a lot at one time,the main thoughts about it was that if the spuds had blight or anything,they should not be composted,same would apply to digging in I suppose,it was a touchy subject especially amongst allotment holders, a lot of them burnt them on bonfires, frowned upon these days in back gardens,around here anyway....depends really on how many you have I suppose,if it were me I think they would end up in the recycle bin, like everything else.....

I watched the last day of the cricket yesterday,and in the end it got very boring,it was just a practice match with nothing at stake,and I turned it off long before it finished,just glad its over and now they can get down to some real cricket starting Wednesday .....


Looking down the back garden from the house .....



Shot with DSC-W35 at 2009-07-04


Looking up the front border towards the house,its longer than it looks from the photo, things are starting to bloom now ....note the Nasturtiums climbing up the fence ....



Shot with DSC-W35 at 2009-07-04

Hardy Fuchsia Maganellica growing in the ground,only just starting into bloom ....



Shot with DSC-W35 at 2009-07-04

Its very peaceful and quiet outside not a breath of wind and pleasantly warm,not a sound except for the distant cooing of a Wood Pigeon,not even the dawn chorus of birdsong either which is strange,if only it would stay like this all day..... but of course its only 5.45 am.I love this time of day in the Summertime,for me its the best time of the day ....
Take care everyone and have a good weekend

[Tuppence2]

Thanks, Myrna, for the advice about the nutmeg. I'll get one next time I'm in the supermarket.

Love the photos, Bob. Your garden looks easier to manage than mine, with it's hard landscaping.

Thanks for the thoughts about disposing of the potato tops.

I'm having trouble with my Yahoo email address and have had to change it, now no one will be able to write to me unless I let them all know, and I'm trying to remember their addresses.

[oil painter]

Hi All:

Bob
lovely photos. your garden is gorgeous. I agree with Penny hardscaping makes things look neater and must be easier to manage. Hardscaping around here is hard to keep. Our frost goes so deep and the clay just humps and heaves everything. You have to dig down 6 feet and fill with sand to install and then you still have to fix things.

I love that pinky purple flower you have edging the front border--What is it? Are your nasturtiums the climbing variety? They sure look like they may be. If they're not what variety are they to climb like that? I have only ever seen the yellow climbing one and I just discovered it this year.

Penny:
If your potatoes are free from scab or other fungal diseases you can compost the tops. If there's the least sign of anything though I'd get rid of them like Bob says. We do compost ours but keep a close eye out for things. If you have a fungal problem and compost them you will be putting the spores back into the ground.

Don't plant potatoes or any of it's relatives in the same ground next year--tomato, eggplant, sweet potatoes or peppers. In fact with your raised beds I would rotate all the vegetables one bed over. It foils(at least a little) any bugs that fed on your plants this year as well as any disease. We try to do that in our garden, but I think it would be easier with raised beds.

[oil painter]

Penny:
Did you cjhange your server or just get a new address from Yahoo. If it's still the same server your addresses should still be there.

Unless you emptied the recycle bin. You should be able to restore deleted E-Mails and that would get you some addresses. If you know someone who e-mails a lot of the same people you could have them send the addresses. I did that for my sister when her computer crashed.

[Tuppence2]

Hello, everyone.

Thanks, Myrna, for the advice about the potato tops. I'll dispose of them and not compost them.

My Yahoo address got into all sorts of problems and was blocked by Yahoo. I set up a new one as I wanted to email people. I have got the old one back but will go on using the new one. Thanks for the advice on that, too. I had to wait 12 hours before I could use the address again and I needed to email before that.

No rain today. I had cabbage and Swiss chard, along with broad beans, from the garden today.

I also pruned back long new growth on my rambler, "Bobbie James".

[telecom69]

Hi all, Myrna ...The pinky purple flower is the Bronze Leafed Begonia,you can get them with red or white flowers,although they are supposed to be perennials I find they are best treated as half hardy annuals as Ive not found them to over winter very well ...I usually buy them as tiny seedlings in March and grow them on,they can be difficult in the early stages as they are very prone to damping off,best to buy more than you need really,some years Ive had more than a third of them damp off,but once they get going there is no problem,they rquire no maintainence whatsoever and flower all summer long through till the frosts,which will cut them back immediately ...apart from edging borders they look superb in containers,I have no problem with pests on them at all ...for me they are a 5 star plant ...

Here is what they look like in close up ....


Shot with DSC-W35 at 2009-07-05


And yes the Nasturtiums are the climbing variety, they come in all the shades of red from orange to pale yellow,a mixed packet of seeds gives you all this,those in the photo are self sown from last year,there were hundreds of them in all, I just weeded out most and left just a few to climb .....

[telecom69]

Hi all, As no rain was forecast for yesterday, I decided to water the garden both back and front,before that however I washed the car and guess what ? the heavens opened,I got wetter than the car did it only lasted about 4 minutes but it was very heavy, there was no further rain all day,so yes I did water the gardens,with nothing else to do I watched cricket all day,Im getting lazy

Raspberry Ripple Geranium ......


Shot with DSC-W35 at 2009-07-05


Non Stop Begonia ....



Shot with DSC-W35 at 2009-07-05


The Runner Beans just now showing tiny beans so it wont be long ....



Shot with DSC-W35 at 2009-07-05


And of course the ever dependable French Marigold ....



Shot with DSC-W35 at 2009-07-05


Finally a plant id if possible please,Ive had this forever, it looks a bit like Ivy but it doesnt cling,in my case its ground cover but it will go upwards if supported ....there are no flowers just the foliage, I have never known its name ....its evergreen but looks its best in the Summer,it also grows rapidly ....


Shot with DSC-W35 at 2009-07-05

[Bush Lady]

Just picked this up from (it was dated July 4th.

FreezingCanning-n-recipes@yahoogroups.com" <FreezingCanning-n-recipes@yahoogroups.com

Tomatoes hit by Disease
Posted by: "Kat" kathyc22@yahoo.com kathyc22
Fri Jul 3, 2009 3:49 pm (PDT)


Here is an article about tomatoes being hit by their equivalent of the bubonic plague:

PLANT DISEASE HIT EATERN VEGGIES EARLY AND HARD - Yahoo Article

Tomato plants have been removed from stores in half a dozen states as a destructive and infectious plant disease makes its earliest and most widespread appearance ever in the eastern United States.

Late blight — the same disease that caused the Irish Potato Famine in the 1840s — occurs sporadically in the Northeast, but this year's outbreak is more severe for two reasons: infected plants have been widely distributed by big-box retail stores and rainy weather has hastened the spores' airborne spread.

The disease, which is not harmful to humans, is extremely contagious and experts say it most likely spread on garden center shelves to plants not involved in the initial infection. It also can spread once plants reach their final destination, putting tomato and potato plants in both home gardens and commercial fields at risk.

Meg McGrath, professor of plant pathology at Cornell University, calls late blight "worse than the Bubonic Plague for plants."

"People need to realize this is probably one of the worst diseases we have in the vegetable world," she said. "It's certain death for a tomato plant."

Tomato plants have been removed from Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Lowe's and Kmart stores in all six New England states, plus New York. Late blight also has been identified in all other East Coast states except Georgia, as well as Alabama, West Virginia and Ohio, McGrath said.

It is too early in the season to know whether infected plants will taint large crops or negatively affect commercial growers. But if that happens, growers could be forced to raise prices to cover costs associated with combating the disease.

Agriculture officials in the various states still are trying to determine where the outbreak started. One major grower, Alabama-based Bonnie Plants, supplies most of the tomato plants to big-box stores, but it is unclear whether the plants were infected before or after leaving the supplier's multiple greenhouses.

"There's no way in the world you can pin this on one plant company, but we just happen to be the biggest," said Dennis Thomas, the company's general manager.

The company has regularly inspected greenhouses in 38 states, including Maine, New Hampshire and New York. Its most recent inspections — in New Jersey and Pennsylvania — found no evidence of disease.

"We've not been written up one time for any late blight disease that was confirmed," Thomas said, noting that Bonnie Plants sprays seedlings before shipping them to stores, but that doesn't happen after the plants arrive. He said the company was proactive in removing plants once the outbreak occurred.

In the meantime, plant experts are warning gardeners to be on the lookout for the disease and to take quick action if it crops up. The first sign is often brown spots on plant stems, followed by nickel-sized olive-green or brown spots on the tops of leaves and fuzzy white fungal growth underneath. Tomato fruit will show firm, brown spots.

Spraying with fungicides can control late blight if begun before symptoms appear, but many plant experts recommend removing and destroying the plants instead to prevent spores from traveling.

Donald Flannery, executive director of the Maine Potato Board, said the state's potato farmers are concerned, but not in crisis mode.

"It's pretty easy to make our growers aware of it, that's the simple part. But what we've started to do is really reach out to home gardeners throughout Maine to ask them to be very diligent about checking their tomato plants or potato plants," he said.

Hilary Chapman of Hopkinton, N.H., hasn't yet seen any signs of blight on her four tomato plants — two she planted from seed and two purchased from a small local greenhouse.

"I have one plant that has two tomatoes on it, and everything looks good," she said, "but I'll be watching."

chat later,

Kathy Cushman
kathyc22@yahoo. com

[ymfoster]

That's a lovely rose Penny,

I have a red one I struck from a cutting of Mum's 40 years ago, it was an old bush then & has been identified as Crimson Glory & has a beautiful perfume, but is not as strong growing as the mother bush was, probably because it's not grafted onto stronger stock.

Your garden is looking beautiful Bob, you have put a lot of work into it & it's rewarding all your good efforts, love all the flower pics. Your ivy look alike does look like a variegated ivy I used to have, mine had large leaves & did cover the fence, but can't remember if I trained it to.

Hi Myrna,

we also have clay soil & it develops large cracks in the hot dry summers here that cause movement in the foundations & cracking in our walls.

Bush Lady that is bad news about the Late Blight hitting the tomatoes & related plants, hope they manage to contain it fairly well.

Woke to a sunny morning & thought it would be a good day to prune the roses, but then it clouded over & has been drizzling, so that was that for another day

[Tuppence2]

Hello, everyone.

Don't think your lazy, Bob. Your in a position now to enjoy the cricket, so I hope you do. I'm looking forward to it. Will have to listen to the first test as Sky won't be installed until the end of the month.

It is a pretty rose, Yvonne, my pale pink one. Your mum's red one sounds lovely, especially with a strong scent.

What a great nuisance that tomato blight must be. Hope it doesn't get as far as here, Myrna.

Thanks for more info about potato tops and what you do with yours, Bob. I haven't seen any blight, only yellow of leaves as they age, which I think is normal.

You are lucky to have had rain. It's dry and windy here. We seem to be in a "pocket" and miss a lot of the rain that falls in the area. It will rain in the next village or town but not in Trowbridge. As you know, I'd like it to rain.

I enjoyed your latest photos.

[Tuppence2]

I grew these geraniums from cuttings and I managed to photograph the goldfinch through the glass of the kitchen window. It's unusual to have them coming into the garden so I'm pleased to see it. They have distinctive red, white and black markings on their heads and yellow on their wings - you can't really see the red in this shot.

[oil painter]

Hi Everyone:

I haven't been doing much outside lately. Not that there is much to do but a little deadheading and pull the odd weed that crops up. I do that on my daily walk around the flower beds in early morning. I did see a couple of plants that I will have to move because I planted them too close to perennials that have grown bigger than expected. I'll do that tomorrow. Our weather has been great for the plants but not so people. We have had half a day of rain and half a day of sun, since the beginning of the weekend.

Yvonne--
I didn't realize that in hot dry weather you could have just as much trouble with clay as we do with the frost. Clay has it's uses but I sure would like a clay free yard. The garden and my flower beds have good layers of organic matter on top of the clay and that's good for planting, It's hardscape that suffers.
I didn't say that I liked your last photos, quite remiss of me. It's nice to have flowers all winter long. We have a few months of enjoyable gardening and the rest we sit and dream and pour through seed catalogues.

Erika;
I won't worry about late blight, it comes with infected seed and plants and we use seed potatoes or our own potatoes, and I buy all my seed from good seed companies.
It does not live in the soil like so many fungal diseases, it only lives in the seed and plants that are infected and once they are distroyed it is gone. It also comes with excessively wet rainy weather, which we sure haven't had. I can see how it would devistate commercial growers though. They would lose everything for that year.

Bob:
That is probably why your allotment growers were discussing getting rid of the potato tops.

I like your non-stop It looks to be the same color as mine. What variety of African marigolds do you grow. Those look much like the bolero in size and color. I don't know what your plant is but I tend to agree with Yvonne that it's a variagated ivy of some variety.

Penny:
Your goldfinch is different than the ones we get here. Most of ours have much more gold color than that. Your geraniums have done well. I remember when you said you planted the cuttings. Are you putting them ouitside or keeping them inside?

Well guess that's it. Take care.