David Hare-Scott wrote:
songbird wrote:
David Hare-Scott wrote:

We have had a week of temperatures up to 24C, it is cooler today
with overcast and drizzle but not really cold.

Most of the deciduous plants are budding, I had to hurry and finish
pruning the roses before the rain. Now all I need is a nice frost
in the last week of August to knock off the buds.

Tell me why is it that people who like roses want you to grow them
but never volunteer to prune them? I consented to planting six (not
a lot I know) a couple of years ago. According to the vendor
information they were nice restrained cultivars that grow to 1.5m.
Lies, all lies! The bloody things grow 3m high or more and the
trimmings from each one fill a small wheelbarrow. I do so hate
getting caught up and impaled by rose thorns.

i used to consider it a sacrifice to beauty.
now i much prefer to not have them and since
the soil is so wrong for them in most of the
yard/gardens here i don't want to spend the
money or time on them again.


I can't use that excuse as clearly my soil is right for them... Maybe I can
discover some new improved fertiliser that will kill them.

heh. some things we do for love.

p.s. i never trust vendors or catalogs much
these days. i try to get plants i really care
about from the guy i know who actually does
get it right.


I still have tangelos, lemons and cumquats on the trees. The broad
beans are flowering well and covered in bees but no fruit set yet.
I am trying a spring planting of peas this year to try to avoid the
too-cold-to-flower-and-fruit blues.

i was going to go out today and turn
under the bolting lettuces and stick in
some peas hoping to get some pods before
the frosts come.

How long have you got til first frost?

mid to late september, cutting it close
i think, but the cover will be good enough
anyways.


i'm not sure it will
work out, but they would mainly be for
adding extra nitrogen to the soil as a
cover crop than anything. very humid
today, and i've been on the go for many
days so today is likely going to be a
day of reading and not much else.


I will be sowing my seed trays for all the transplantable summer
crops this week. We went to the local nursery to pick up a couple
of packets of seeds that I was missing and found they had no okra.
Bless his little cotton socks the owner dipped into his personal
stash of saved seeds and gave me some. Who said the days of
customer service were over.

how long are okra seeds viable?


I am not sure, I think these were from last season so they ought to be OK.
I will reveal the result in a month or so.

i'm aware of some left over okra seeds at a
hardware store and was curious if they would be
viable enough in the second year to make a
offer to take them off their hands... i'm sure
some would sprout next year, but if most of
them wouldn't then it wouldn't be worth it as
i can just wait and get newer seeds next spring.

my brother might have some direct experience
so i'll ask him too.


songbird