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Post by galina on Jul 30, 2010 15:08:34 GMT -5
Wishing you both courage and hope Linda will respond well to treatment. Stay positive.
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Post by galina on Jul 14, 2010 6:26:59 GMT -5
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Wando
Jul 14, 2010 4:59:53 GMT -5
Post by galina on Jul 14, 2010 4:59:53 GMT -5
Thank you Grunt. The taller of the two with the green seeds certainly has similarity with another of Laxton's peas, the Laxton Exquisite, although it is faring much better in the heat than 'Exquisite'. And the other type with the yellow seeds is much smaller than 'up to 30 inches'.
Short of confirmation of seed colour, it looks likely that Wando might be the taller variety with the green seeds.
I shan't offer seeds with this uncertainty over the cultivar, but will grow both of them for food.
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Post by galina on Jul 14, 2010 4:48:35 GMT -5
We are not usually afflicted by much hot weather either but ...
I agree with others, the 'reds' have it for lasting well into late summer (and as a bonus my slugs mostly leave them alone and munch the green ones instead) . I have only just planted out my Red Sail lettuces and the reddish lollo lettuce is doing well. For follow-on into autumn I have red and green loose-leaf Salad Bowl.
Also the icebergs (especially Reine de Glaces) and the cos (romaine) types. I grow a semi cos 'Bologna' and that is looking very good indeed. We have just been through a heatwave and an 8 week drought. Still no meaningful rainfall but the heat has gone. Bologna (from a February sowing) are only just starting to stretch in prepration for flowering and Lollo is not even doing that yet.
At my parents more southerly garden (hotter than here over summer) Red Sails and Reine de Glaces are the best, although I haven't tried Bologna or Lollo there yet.
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Post by galina on Jul 13, 2010 8:43:16 GMT -5
Will we ever know?
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Wando
Jul 13, 2010 5:07:40 GMT -5
Post by galina on Jul 13, 2010 5:07:40 GMT -5
I got Wando peas in a 'Seedy Saturday' type of exchange (donor unknown) and grew them for the first time this year. The peas inside the packet were about half yellow and half dull green, both about the same size. This did not surprise me, because some other peas (for example Magnum Bonum) have both colours too.
However, the yellow type grew fairly short plants, the green type grew to about 4 foot tall and had bigger pods too. The seeds I have just harvested also point to two different cultivars. My own yellow seeds come from the shorter plants with the smaller pods and they are smaller than my dull green ones.
Does anybody know please which colour the 'real' Wando pea seed is meant to be? I expect that one type in the packet is likely to be Wando.
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Post by galina on Jul 6, 2010 4:13:31 GMT -5
Karen, just imagine this: It is far too cold and sleety to go outside to do any gardening - and it has been for a while. When you do go out to pick some sprouts for dinner, you come back with frozen, painful fingers and they take forever to warm up. You feel chilled to the bones, because there are drafts coming through the windows and you need to keep the thermostat on the heating low, because of cost and because we have all been advised to use less oil and gas. You are wearing 2 pullovers and still feel like putting your coat on. Nothing seems to get you really warm and comfortable, apart perhaps your bed and the heater in your car. You feel far less active than during the summer months, maybe your mood is as grey as the leaden skies outside. You need electric lights on all day, because the short daylight hours with their weak light are not sufficient to work indoors. You go out to work in the dark and come back home from work in the dark and haven't really had a 'day' as such.
Ok, I exaggerate slightly and I am somewhat affected by SAD (seasonal affective disorder), but summer is just so much better than winter. A bright frosty day is no problem, but for most of the time at our latitude it is just cold, damp and grey.
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Post by galina on Jul 6, 2010 3:53:23 GMT -5
I did not know you can ripen them, I threw , I think , 20 kilos away Welcome Ostara. When the first stem blight appears (not just leaves) on tomatoes, I fetch all fruit indoors. I leave them open on trays. In the first few days some fruits may show signs of blight, but most will be fine. They will ripen gradually. The ones that ripen first are usually quite nice tasting, the ones that ripen later are good for cooking. Green tomatoes are also good as a vegetable in their own right, sliced and added to casseroles. There are many recipes for green tomato chutney on the internet. But yes, we all hope for a really good summer. I can't remember the last time that tomatoes were actually killed by frost. Here they always get killed by late blight. Your house in the snow looks nice.
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Post by galina on Jul 3, 2010 18:34:09 GMT -5
Alan, I don't see them in your catalog. Do you have any to spare? I could drive down and get them, if you do. Pugs We are unfortunately not allowed to send any bulbils to the USA without phytosanitary certificates and bureaucracy, because they are live plant material. I will have quite a number of top bulbils this year if anybody in Europe wants some. Anybody from overseas who can arrange to collect from a UK address is also welcome. According to the Plants for a Future database, they are hardy to zone 6. www.pfaf.org/database/plants.php?Allium+ampeloprasum+babbingtonii
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Post by galina on Jul 3, 2010 18:14:12 GMT -5
Deer flies? - what? Rudolph already??? ---- sorry, couldn't resist.
I have just spotted on a UK website that they are selling Citronella soap. Citronella oil is supposed to be a brilliant insect repellent. And they claim that using this soap keeps all sorts of insects off. Maybe something similar to this exists in Canada as well and might do the trick for you? Or you could mix a few drops of Citronella oil into a light body moisturising cream and apply before going out.
Good luck with the land search.
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Post by galina on Jun 30, 2010 10:04:01 GMT -5
This one has me guessing. Purple turnip? No, the top looks not quite right - such lush white leaf midribs? Some agricultural root for animal fodder? Looks too good to be fed to the pigs. Like the tops and the root would be used for different dishes altogether. Definitely not Swede. Got to be turnip ......
What is it? Please put me out of my misery.
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Post by galina on Jun 27, 2010 15:08:23 GMT -5
I know that you specifically asked whether flowering affects flavour (it does not in my experience), but it does affect how readily the bulbs will try to flower rather than multiplying vegetatively in the future.
I cut any flower scapes off to prevent the shallots using energy on unnecessary flowering rather than multiply and bulb. And I do not use shallots that have tried to flower for seed shallots next year.
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Post by galina on Jun 27, 2010 12:02:04 GMT -5
I used to plant softneck and hardneck garlic in early spring and it was ok, but gardening friends from the USA urged me to try October planting. I tried both the following year and it made only a small difference to the softneck varieties and a bigger difference to hardnecks. We are winter hardiness zone 8. The last two winters were unusually cold and snowy and this really benefited the hardnecks and the elephant garlics. For the first time ever in 2009 I had hardnecks bulbs similar in size to softnecks and 2010 ones look big too but are not yet dug up.
My conclusion for UK/zone 8. Hardnecks need as much chilling as they can get and benefit from planting in October to get their full quota (and preferably a cold winter on top of that), softnecks are not critical.
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Post by galina on Jun 25, 2010 7:13:40 GMT -5
I garden at 52 North and do a lot too at my parent's garden at 46 North. In my garden no flowers, at the more southerly location flowers develop frequently.
Both were grown from topsets from the same parent plant.
Could this be a latitude thing?
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Wha?
Jun 15, 2010 5:22:34 GMT -5
Post by galina on Jun 15, 2010 5:22:34 GMT -5
I was surprised to hear that and see that video. They allow such a pesticide load into cola in India? By chance I spoke to an employee at a local production plant and he told us that they start off with clean water, treat is in loads of ways to make it into generic 'water' including demineralising it. The reason given for this was because otherwise the drink could possibly taste slightly different from place to place.
There is a meat tenderising side effect of cola. Presumably due to its high acidity as Robert said. Is that what does the 'pests' in? Makes you wonder what it does to our insides and teeth.
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