sime42

Yeah, I reckon a new thread on the preserving of home grown produce might well be a goer. It is a subject that's popped up a few times on Arbtalk, on this and the Cooking thread for example. I always make chutney/pickle with the inevitable glut of courgettes, the ones that "get away" and turn into behemoths seemingly overnight. Keeps me in tasty cheese sandwiches for the year if I'm lucky. As Openspaceman mentioned, Sauerkraut is good, and very easy to make if there's an excess of cabbage. All it needs is salt and a bit of spice or herbs like full seeds.

Of course, any magnetic would do it. I only mentioned the Wera tool as I have one. Not something I'd normally go and buy; I inherited this one. Anyway, my preferred source of strong magnets is from bust laptops. They're very slim and the strength to weight ratio is incredible. Neodymium I presume. Where do you find them within microwaves?

I think Wera tools are very good. High quality German engineering. I've got some of their screwdrivers; they just "feel" right as well. Wera do a tool for magnetising screwdrivers and drill driver bits.

I saw a group of saplings all with the same curved trunk once, when doing a thinning job. The forestry guy I was working for said that they were most likely all siblings, i.e. all seeds from the same mother tree. That obviously supports the genetic theory but I don't understand how a curved trunk can be an evolutionary advantage. Though saying that genetic traits aren't necessarily advantageous so it's probably a moot point.

I reckon your plan stands a very good chance of succeeding, judging by the impressive lot of stuff you're producing. You mentioned jarring things, is that in vinegar? How else do you store things?

I reckon only a fool would be choosy about a beer in this weather, a cold beer is a cold beer!

All set for the summer now. These were taken a couple weeks ago so everything has grown a bit since. I was away on holiday for a week so decided to deploy the capillary matting for the tomatoes. It works really well. Not looking forward to the next few days; the garden is going to need hours of watering.

Well I thought it was going to take about 20 minutes, as that's how long we normally bake fish in the oven for. But it needed a bit longer, probably 30 - 35 minutes in the end. Worth the wait though, bloody lovely. Trout is the best fish for home smoking IMO.

Smoked trout this evening.

Maybe they're after the slugs. I'm always surprised to see slime trails and sometimes the filth themselves high up in trees. Didn't see that hypothesis mentioned in the article actually.

Funny looking buggers aren't they?

I think Rishi Sunak summed up the whole sorry saga of the last few years quite nicely in his resignation letter. "However, the public rightly expect government to be conducted properly, competently and seriously. I recognise this may be my last ministerial job, but I believe these standards are worth fighting for and that is why I am resigning."

Nope, never heard of achocha or Fat Baby. I like the sound of "staggering yields" even outside though so some seeds will be on the list for next year to try. Acocha, courgette’s cute little cousin | Gardening advice | The Guardian WWW.THEGUARDIAN.COM Ridiculously easy to grow, these pretty green plants come into their own when fried, sautéed or baked, says James Wong

That looks like good stuff, I'll try some next year. It looks just like Sea Spinach. I can't be arsed with normal spinach as it's always too keen to bolt as soon as you get it in the ground.

I think they're worthy of the space. I grow them every year and we all love them. You can graze straight off the plant, (my three year olds preference), or add them to salads if they make it into the house. Grape sized is about right to pick them. They'll go a bit bigger, damson sized, but get somewhat sour and tougher. They're funny plants; slow to start as you say but once they get going they can be proper rampant! It's a job to keep up with the fruit if there's a couple of plants or more. I think they like it hot, that might explain the slow start

I'd guess "yes". But with no-one on it.

Déjà vu. So you didn't actually find anything slightly credible.

I've had a couple of similar kits. One was coffee grounds, one was some kind of grain. Both were quite productive. Though I feel they would have liked a higher humidity really, even with the spraying. Not really suited to Centrally Heated homes.

Bee keepers paradise.

Nice. Maybe the mushrooms came in with the manure, from spores ingested by the horses. Or are you saying that mushroom compost is composed of horse manure? I don't get the salt though, what was the thinking behind that? Wouldn't have thought that would be condusive to anything much growing.

I think they do. You can get spent mushroom compost to use on the garden but you can't use it for everything as it's quite high pH.

Even better, so they're addressing the climate crisis as well. Genius.

So now they're burning money to keep us all warm, that's a novel way to address the cost of living crisis.

Oh yeah, good points, you've got me there! I forgot about that. My parents put in a clump of it and within years it had spread like stink around the whole of what was a large garden.

Some good info on using coffee there. I don't have access to a lot of it, just what we consume at home, so I tend to put it around ericaceous plants like the Blueberries. I'd love to get into growing and using comfrey but not really got the space for it. Never heard anything but positives about it. I might go out and harvest some nettles next year if I can be bothered. I do use seaweed fertiliser, that's pretty good stuff. I've got a 5ltr drum of it, when hugely diluted as recommended it works out pretty cheap. Yeah, bees love blue flowers. I think they're more noticeable to them for some reason; something to do with the way their eyes work. I'm not familiar with anise hyssop, (I'll be looking out for some now, cheers), but they sure love common hyssop. And Echiums, they go mad for them, buzzing from dawn until dusk. They're members of the borage family as well. I do try and encourage as many solitary bees as possible, the hives have been fairly hectic these last few weeks. I've raised a load of French Marigolds this year, to use as companion plants amoungst the vegetables. For pest management; doesn't seem much need for encouraging pollination as the veg patch is alongside the ornamental garden anyway.