Chitchat thread #24

[Snoop Puss]

Fingers crossed all OK for Mr GF. Sounds like more soup for the next few days, then! And judging by the cooking tonight thread, he won't be sorry. I love home-made soup. Looking forward to the cold weather just to have more of it. Good for the soul, soup is.

Wow! You had a busy day, Flo. That's a lot of pastry.

The Lidl 'hobnobs' are very sweet, Nicos. Not sure if that's because I haven't eaten biscuits for quite some time or if they really are sweet. I looked at their Jaffa cakes, but I know we'd eat a packet in one sitting so resisted... Wish I'd bought them now. And I beg to differ: cream biscuits are the absolute pits, as far as I'm concerned. If it was a cream biscuit, especially a custard cream, or no biscuit, I'd go for no biscuit every time. On a positive note, the Lidl liquorice pieces are quite soft but extremely tasty. I've had two so far and I'll be polishing my badge for willpower if it stays at two for the rest of the day.

Glad you had a nice time with family, Jay.

[greenishfing]

Mr GF has obviously suffered no serious after effects from his surgery as he has just decided he's going to have a croissant and strawberry jam for supper as he missed his elevenses today.

Does it fall into the category of soft food........Yes, according to him.

[Nicos]

Glad yr hubby is sorted gf….its been a really long day for you both.
The taxi was clearly a brill call.
Speedy recovery xx

You've got me fancying soup now soon. Pity we have tomorrow nights supper already sorted.

Talking of biscuits, when we were in the uk I had a sudden urge to buy some garibaldi biscuits …so I did. Not eaten them yet, but I just fancied having some in stock.

[bramble]

Good night all.
GF, so pleased to hear Mr GF is home safe and sound k I bet you are relieved.

Snoop, looking at your forecast, it's looking like rain is going your way.

Browsing through seed today in hardware shop I came across a packet of Cape Gooseberry seed
I am going to grow these in th greenhouse next year in place of the peppers.
Just looking to try something different, also contemplating one of the short season melons.

Not a lot else on the agenda so have a good night all.

[Snoop Puss]

Snoop, looking at your forecast, it's looking like rain is going your way.

Browsing through seed today in hardware shop I came across a packet of Cape Gooseberry seed
I am going to grow these in th greenhouse next year in place of the peppers.
Just looking to try something different, also contemplating one of the short season melons.

Really hope the rain reaches us here, Bramble. Yes. Some places relatively close to us have had very heavy rains, more in a very short space of time than anyone would want. At the moment, the forecast for us is 3 cm over two days.

Big thumbs up from me for Emir and Arava melons. If you search for them on here, you might find a few other people have liked them too. Penellype, do you have any views? I remember Baldy grew Emir and had good success with them. ameno, have you grown either of these? For some reason I remember you mentioning at least one of these.

[lottie dolly]

evening ,pleased MR is ok GF,does he need to be mindfull of the seeds getting stuck in the wound,owch,not looking forwards to a lot of rain,son has some outdoor jobs that he wants to do,good night every one sleep tight

[ameno]

Browsing through seed today in hardware shop I came across a packet of Cape Gooseberry seed
I am going to grow these in th greenhouse next year in place of the peppers.

Fair warning for cape gooseberries, they are not always the easiest to get going.
The seeds have a very short life, and as a result I find packet seeds often have very low germination rates. The seedling also grow very slowly until they reach about 3-4 inches tall, at which point they rocket away and grow very fast indeed.
They also need starting nice and early or else they won't ripen up before frosts hit (although growing in a greenhouse will help that; I grow mine outdoors).
The plants are also very, very bushy, and given the chance will grow up to a metre in all directions. I grew two of mine this year in the same large raised bed as some pepper plants. Big mistake, as they have completely smothered the peppers.

I don't want to put you off, though. I grow them every year. They are very tasty, and very heavy cropping as long as you can get them in early enough for them to ripen.

If you decide you want to grow them year on year then you will want to save seed yourself. Saved seed will have a far better germination rate, plus it's cheap and easy.

It's taken me a few years to get the hang of growing them reliably outdoors. I've found the trick for me is not to sow any myself and to overwinter young plants to get a head start next year.
Like tomatoes, the seeds survive the composting process and germinate in large number in the compost the following year. I always leave a few to grow, and come late summer they have formed plants a foot or two tall (they can be pruned shorter if they are too tall; they soon grow back). I dig them up at this point and pot them into 1 litre pots, then overwinter them in my conservatory, to plant out the following May. I also usually take cuttings from these overwintered plants in late March to swell the stock. They root fairly easily in water.

Big thumbs up from me for Emir and Arava melons. If you search for them on here, you might find a few other people have liked them too. Penellype, do you have any views? I remember Baldy grew Emir and had good success with them. ameno, have you grown either of these? For some reason I remember you mentioning at least one of these.

I grow Emir every year outdoors through black plastic, yes.
They never seem to give a massive crop (although I feel that has more to do with the way I grow them (probably too close together), and possibly also my soil, as all cucurbits seem annoyingly prone to root rots for me), but they do always fruit and always ripen reliably outdoors, producing very tasty, fragrant and sweet melons around 800-1000g each.

I'll be picking the last of mine this year in the coming days, and that's unusually late. Usually they are all done by early September.

[greenishfing]

Good morning all.

Another grey one, but with a promise of sun for this afternoon. I've been in bed for 9 hours, but only asleep for about 6½ of them. Wide awake at 4am again......doing sudokus.

Apart from helping my brother in law with some paperwork and getting him some bits of shopping there's nothing else I must do today. I've just got the car insurance renewal through. It's exorbitant! I must do some shopping around.

Trying to decide now what "soft food" to make Mr GF today.

[Snoop Puss]

Thanks for posting, ameno. I must admit, I didn't much like Cape gooseberries the one year I grew them. Maybe I didn't start them off early enough so they never ripened properly.

You get decent-sized melons by the sound of it using your system. Sometimes fewer but bigger are actually more useful. I grow two plants to a station, about a metre apart, with a lot of mulch around them. I also hand pollinate, which is a bit of a palaver as the flowers are so small, as well as close to the ground. I know I get hotter temperatures in the summer than in the UK, but we still have quite a short season, so I start them off about six weeks before our last frost date.

[Bren In Pots]

Morning

Glad to hear Mr GF fine after yesterdays hospital visit. Soup, scrambles eggs, mashed potatoes or rice pud would be nice and soft to eat.

Its my turn for the dentist today it seems a few of us have been lately.

Hope you get your rain Snoop.

[Snoop Puss]

Morning all.

No rain... Mr Snoop says that suits him. But it does not suit me. Only a little tomorrow too. Pah! Clearly crossing fingers, arms, legs and eyes is ineffective, as I would surely have had a bit more rain by now if it were.

Missy has at last fallen asleep in what we now term 'her' pile of laundry. Her mad spells are lasting longer. Amazing the difference just a few days make. Mr Snoop has taken a photo, but she looks rather pitiful in it, like a starving waif when she is getting the best diet we've ever given a kitten in our lives. Anyway, it's out of focus but that does capture her inability to stay still.



On the cards for today, bit of work, bit of admin and then out in the garden to start planting out my rather ambitious plug plant purchase.

Have a great day, everyone.

[Bren In Pots]

Missy is a cute looking kitty

[Penellype]

Browsing through seed today in hardware shop I came across a packet of Cape Gooseberry seed
I am going to grow these in th greenhouse next year in place of the peppers.
Just looking to try something different, also contemplating one of the short season melons.

Not grown cape gooseberries ( not keen on them) but I do grow melons. I have tried 3 outdoor varieties - Emir, Magenta and Alvaro.

I have had all the melons under glass this year, either in the greenhouse or in my growhouse at the allotment, and I think this has compounded the weather problems by restricting insect access. They are hard to pollinate by hand - although the flowers are not particularly small, the pollen is invisible. I have tried removing the petals from a male flower and rubbing it on the female stigma, with limited success. Pollination is definitely better outdoors. I tend to grow my outdoor melons in a hotbed, but the temperature difference is small by the time they are planted. I do think they like the nutrients from the manure though.

Alvaro was probably the least successful of the 3 and after several years, some of which were a complete failure, I prefer the other 2 varieties. It produced some melons, but they were generally smaller than Magenta and Emir.

Magenta is my favourite as far as flavour goes - it is absolutely stunning. It will grow outside and in the hot summers of 2018 and 2022 it produced several really decent sized melons plus some smaller ones. In cooler years you have to put up with fewer fruit, and this year it is struggling to produce any (but as the courgettes are proving difficult enough, I am not surprised).

Emir is the easiest to grow, and the only variety that has produced fruit for me this year, 1 in the greenhouse and 2 in the growhouse, although none are ripe yet. Results are variable from year to year - in 2020 there were 10 melons on one outdoor plant, half of them a very decent size. Unlike Alvaro and Magenta, which have round fruit, Emir are oval shaped. The flavour is not as good as Magenta but is perfectly nice.

It took me 2 years of failure to learn how to grow melons. Sow them in late April or early May, preferably in the house and grow them under lights until they are about a foot long - they will be developing flower buds. Like all cucurbits they grow very quickly. Harden off and plant out protected from slugs, which can completely destroy them. I use a copper ring and a sprinkling of slug gone wool pellets. Cover the young plants if there is any risk of frost. Allow at least 1 sq metre per plant - they will outgrow this area, but it doesn't matter if they encroach on other plants. I like to give them something to climb through - I use a layer of a blowaway greenhouse shelving. They will grow up through the mesh shelves which can act as supports. Melons left lying on the ground will rot, so I use the sort of bags that citrus fruit come in, suspended from the shelves with string.



Melon Emir in a hotbed, 1st September 2020.

I hope this helps.

[Penellype]

Big thumbs up from me for Emir and Arava melons. If you search for them on here, you might find a few other people have liked them too. Penellype, do you have any views? I remember Baldy grew Emir and had good success with them. ameno, have you grown either of these? For some reason I remember you mentioning at least one of these.

Views as above - I don't know how to quote 2 posts in the same reply.

[Nicos]

Mornin n’alln’all

Awww!…..you’ve well and truly put a smile on my face this morning Snoop!
What a pretty looking kitten - I love her markings!
Give her a cuddle from me ( not that you need an excuse) if she stays still long enough!
Thanks for sharing x

Another sunny start to the day here- but it’s certainly cooler even though the gusty wind has gone.
No dentist for me…but a six month check up at the GP this morning.

Have fun at the dentist Bren…* leans over to get another “ I’ve been brave at the dentist today “ badge
One for GF too for yesterday…(always horrible worrying about your OH )

Best get a wiggle on…fingers crossed for more rain Snoop- you really do deserve your fair share after so long! ( what’s your well situation like?)

Enjoy your day peeps.