Harvesting the fruit!

We have a couple of gooseberry bushes, one dessert, one for cooking, a couple of blackcurrent bushes and one redcurrent bush...and this year we have had a mixed crop.

The gooseberries were ok but not many on the bushes.

The blackcurrent bushes...one has none, the other is loaded...and the redcurrant bush is also laden.

Compostman rigged up a fruit cage over the redcurrant bush again this year ( no prizes for working out what it was in a former life!) ...as the birds really love the redcurrent and leave the blackcurrents alone in preference...



























SO...jam, jelly and chutney on the way I guess!

Summer in the garden.

It is SO wonderful this time of year!

The polytunnel is full of plants all starting to produce fruit (aubergines, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, melons and various herbs and salads as well as the blueberries and strawberries








Here is a wire cover compostman made to keep the squirrels out of the polytunnel as they had started to invade and eat the crops...not content with stripping bare 2 apple trees and 2 pear trees of ALL the fruit..grrr....

Lettuce leaf Basil..mmm wonderful in salads or with tomatos and mozarrella drizzled with olive oil..mmm


The last few blueberries left on the bush...we have eaten all the rest!











And the last two photos were what I went and picked/dug for our lunch a few days ago, beans, potatos, carrots, salad and fruit ....all fresh .....from "plot to plate" in less than 5 mins...along with home made bread and butter and boiled eggs laid by the hens....mmm food feet, not miles!!

And that is the way it SHOULD be...

The Hens move in!

Today we prepared the new hen house for occupancy. I sprinkled "Barrier" Louse and Red Mite powder ( mmm smells lovely...Lavender and Tea Tree oils!) around in the house, and Compostman lined the bottom with plastic sheet so I can clean out the droppings more easily. .
I then put a good thick layer of Easybed in the bottome of the house ..this is certified Organic by OFG , so I am hoping it doesn't contain any nasty herbicides!!




I did the same in the nest boxes, and filled them with clean straw.





Once that was done Henny and Ginger were VERY keen to see what was going on,





so I have left them shut in the run this afternoon to get used to their new home

100% ORGANIC ?

A friend has made the point that the manure she bought ( which has caused her tomatos to "go wrong") had the words 100% ORGANIC in big red letters emblazoned across the front of the bag

Well, according to the reply I got from the "Organic PF compost" manufacturer I emailed , that seems to mean zilch...

As far as I can make out, UNLESS it has a recognised organic symbol on it, the word just means "we decided to make the compost with organic nutrients, rather than chemical ones" or somesuch I guess.............

I am now going to research what is in these home grass treatment thingies that some people buy..cos I sort of have a nasty feeling about it...

Will post what I find out.

An update on the contaminated manure issue.

An update on the contaminated manure issue.

For those who didn't read back a bit, this has arisen where animals eat (or are bedded down on) grass/silage/hay originating from farms where the hormone-based herbicide aminopyralid ( and some others apparently) has been sprayed on fields,...and the manure becomes contaminated. Crops grown in this manure become deformed and fail to thrive, even after the manure has been cstacked for a number of months.
See the RHS page on this
See the Observer article from 29th June 2008

What the Observer article doesn't mention is that apparently some people are also getting the same problem from bought in compost....apparently made from such stuff as composted hay. ( which presumably was sprayed with the same stuff!)

There is more on the PSD ( Pesticides Safety Directorate) site

I can't help feeling this has big implications for composting in general. Who knows where this stuff has been sprayed? I KNOW ( because I emailed them to ask!) at least one Peat Free Compost manufacturer makes their bagged compost from composted timber, composted Park waste and composted Household Waste Site green waste. I don't know if Council Parks departments use it.

All I know is I am watching my plants for signs of this terrible problem and keeping my fingers crossed I have used enough of my home made compost , to have avoided it!

A good link to an allotment group who have got affected plants is here
and their blog is at
http://glallotments.blogspot.com/

Hmm time to make EVEN more compost at home I guess!