Peasgood

I am surprised at the "bad year" comments. I do this stuff on a large scale as a living and in a big poly tunnel for fun. I thought it had been a pretty good year in all. Soft fruit did well and is still doing so. Raspberries are still picking but the recent wind has knocked them about a bit. Strawberry main crop had good weather which is also good for sales. Apples have started, lighter crop than I would like to see but still looking acceptable so far. Can do without hail though! Don't grow so much veg through the summer, runner bean crop is pleasing and quality is very good. Did have some establishment issues with leatherjackets and had to replant some. Actually worked out well as it showed that timing can be a bit later and gave some sort of succession to the cropping. Still going strong and picking 400lbs every other day. Sales could be better at times but doing OK. As for my tunnel, everything has done very well in there this year. I am lucky to have the space for a big tunnel, something like 25x6 yards in size. Haven't really made proper use of the size but had some lovely new potatoes, carrots, peas, cucumber, tomatoes, red onions and salad onions as well as various herbs. Some of these crops don't need to be in a tunnel but I have the space so why not. In a bad year weatherwise it would be a big advantage but not so this year as it has been very nice weather so far. Surprisingly little insect damage in the tunnel with little or no chemicals, disease is very slight too. Only real issue I have had has been due to very hot days and lack of water. I even double cropped some of my growbags. Had a crop of strawberries, ripped the plants out and replaced with peas. the peas are now finished and I was thinking to get lettuce in there now. I am on my second crop of peas this year and even though I have grown a good few of them, not one single pea has left the tunnel. I stand there, pick them and eat every last one.

Hire a big fan for in the opening and wear a CO alarm around your neck.

Carbaryl? Not seen that for some years now. (might well be true of the others too)

Same here mate. I don't think summer has quite gone yet, we have had a damned good one so far as far as weather is concerned. June and July can be two of the wettest months in recent years and it has been a nice change that they were dry this year. July was a belting month last year too. I think there were only a couple of days it failed to reach 25C

If/when you do actually achieve this wildflower meadow you wish for, you still have to spend a lot of time managing it one way or another. The ground will produce a crop that needs removing, the Olde Worlde meadows that come to mind are a product of management by man, otherwise they would revert to woodland. The way the nutrients were removed back then was by fattening cattle, the cattle took the nutrients with them when they went off to slaughter. Probably took many many generations to get to that point too. In my experience you have a few choices. You can invest in some bigger machinery to manage the growth, ie cut and remove the grass. You can buy a bigger machine just to top and mulch the growth without removing it. You can plough deep and sow flowers, these will of course revert to stinging nettles, thistles, ragwort and docks in a very short time. Or you can use stock to manage it, either yours or someone elses. If someone elses you probably have to reckon on it being rent free, no point paying rent if you can't fertilise type of view. Land management is rarely a sit back and enjoy the view kind of thing, it involves a fair bit of work from somebody.

I have a weather station in my garden that measures and keeps a record of the temperatures. This week is not much different that the same week last year. August isn't as hot as July sometimes.

A quick way to reduce fertility and a recognised way of establishing a wildflower meadow is to plough it very deep. This puts the fertile topsoil under a layer of less fertile subsoil. You would have to know the depth of topsoil in order to know how deep to plough it. Wouldn't be possible if subsoil is solid rock. I considered making a wildflower meadow out of a spare field of mine and having looked into it the above would be my approach. It will take ages just by removing the grass by cutting each year, in fact on my particular field I am far from convinced you would ever reach that point. My field has had no fertiliser for more than a decade, possibly two (time goes by very quick) and having had hay and silage off it the field still grows strong grass. Only flowers are hogweed, plantains and a patch of vetch type stuff. I changed my plans and installed 20 geese, much more fun. When I am rich and famous I plan to have 200 of them.

About 50 geese might just about do it as long as you stop with the fertiliser.

I get all that Agg, but pre-teens and chainsaws? I won't ever understand that one.

Beats the Hell out of me why any parent would put their kids in harms way.

I nearly lit the fire in my living room last night, it was cold enough. Big fire in the kitchen was lit.

A couple of years ago I called in at a fuel station in Oz. This station was just a shed in the middle of nowhere with a couple of fuel pumps out in the yard. These fuel stations are about a couple of hours apart with nothing in between. You fill up at every one because you don't know how far the next one will be. As I was filling up there was an old boy on a motorbike filling at the other pump. I said hello and asked where he was off to. Not many bikes around in those parts, too remote and too many kangaroos to jump on you. He said he was going home. He was on his way back to Brisbane after visiting Ayers Rock for his 75th birthday! That is a 6000km round trip and although I would like to go myself the 6 day drive through some pretty bleak country puts me off, and that would be in a 4 wheeled vehicle. I wished him a safe trip and said "Go carefully". He said he would definitely be going carefully as otherwise he might not be able to do it again next year. Pretty cool dude I thought.

Poplar and willow are hardwoods. I know the burn but not as good as leylandii. Turns out I do have some hardwoods after all.

It's not very often I burn hardwood, mostly because I haven't got any! I do have abundant softwood (leylandii) and all heating,DHW and cooking in a 6 bed house. I also have a 10 acre plot of mature Larch that whenever I look into having it felled the best offer I ever get is we will fell it as long as we can have the wood for free. What's that all about?

I looked into it because of this thread. As far as I can make out it is not illegal to undertake on a motorway but it is frowned upon, in my own opinion there are dangers involved. They key bit seems to be the wording "should not" rather than "must not". If you are seen deliberately weaving all over the place to overtake/undertake you are likely to be charged with dangerous driving if the police see you. I have to admit, I always thought it was illegal, apparently not.

I've never heard of him, so no. Just looked him up and he isn't far away. Just shows how much interest I pay towards tractors.

I don't know what you mean so I guess not.

I looked at some pics, it is 110 not 130

I do it sometimes but it sure isn't legal and not very sensible either really. I even got pulled for it once many years ago.

We did have an excellent local dealer but he ditched them in favour of "posher" makes because he wasn't able to sell enough of them. A bit affluent and snobby in places around here. We have a 90 widened out to 80" and a 130 (I think. great big 6 cylinder thing that just purrs along all day). Now I wouldn't do it myself but Uncle mows a bank we have that is summat like 45 degrees. He mows across the bank with them too!!

SAME is cheap and cheerful, you get a lot of tractor for the money. A lot of farmers don't like them because they want to impress their neighbours with JD's or Fendts etc. We don't care about such things and have been running a fleet of SAME for more than 20 years I guess. Last non SAME we bought was a new IH784 so that puts some sort of date on it. I snapped a gear lever off once but it was a long long time ago and hasn't happened since on any of them. Can't think of any special faults other than dissolving bodywork on the sprayer tractors, probably due to the sprays. Had a couple of them self combust due to wiring faults, that is about the worst thing I can think of. Still got 5 of them on the place at the mo.

Tring? Is that near the Bucks boundary?

Thank you both. I thought it was but not experienced enough to be sure. I can eat it then if i so wish, not sure that I do though. It is my tree in my field, no targets but my geese would be proper upset if it fell on them.

On a mature oak that is starting to hollow. Not the first time I have seen it inside this tree.