25th December

Unquantifiable Hazards

 

Common or shaggy?

Shaggy ink cap mushrooms are a tasty autumn treat. Common ink cap mushrooms can give you a heart attack if eaten within a day or two, or before drinking alcohol, giving them their nickname of 'tippler's bane'. Best to let these ones be.

On Ballard Down

  

On Ballard Down, where the chalk hills meet the English Channel, Swanage Bay to the west. 

  

Straight ahead, it looks like the path leads into the sea. 

Around the corner, facing east, the cliffs losing battle with the sea.

megalithic.co.uk

Boxed

Roots up

Beet time

Squashed

Coned

Dalliance

Cosmic

Heads up

Ooh me plums

Cynara cardunculus

Late arrivals

As with most crops this year, the courgettes are about three weeks late due to the cold spring.

Root tips

 

At last, after years of trying, successful carrots. Usually they get attacked by carrot root fly that can supposedly smell a carrot from half a mile away and burrow beneath the soil into the carrot to lay their eggs. They don't fly very high above ground level, so having raised beds can help, as can horticultural fleece. Another remedy is to confuse the little blighters by putting mint and lavender between the rows - especially after you've pulled a few carrots up and disturbed the soil - and it's best to harvest or thin them on a windy or wet day, when they'll probably not be flying. Even if the fly doesn't get them, the badgers might.

I'm Dill the dog ...

http://www.davethewave.co.uk/theherbs/

Legumes

 

Handfast Point

listen to ‘Handfast Point’ on Audioboo

Allium cepa

Sandwich Filler

Berry busy

Producing

Garden grows

Fruity

 

Regrow

Back from a six month blog sabbatical and a late cold winter that went on and on. Now, eventually, it's warmed up, the most reluctant seeds have germinated and for the first time in several years, slugs and snails have not been a major problem.