Gardner's delight

Photograph Quiz:

Photo no 36:- Which race is this? How far was it? How much did I win by?

Dear Blog,

                On Tuesday I went for my trudge over the country. Amazingly one of the fields I crossed was being harvested. Harvest in early July?? The combined harvester was hard at work reaping the barley, by Wednesday evening when I passed that way again, the crop was safely gathered in and the farmer was carting the bales away. I have never known such an early harvest, have you Blog??. Having said that, my garden crops are also well forward. Usually, round about the time of the bonkie bonkie at Wimbledon, our strawberries are beginning to yield a sizable crop. This year, the strawberry crop had been in full swing for over three weeks by the time the first ball bonked into  the net. And the crop was prolific, the fruit particularly large. I don’t know if you are a television viewer of the garden programmes, Blog, but the programmes never show gardens / allotments that reflect reality  .... weeds, nowhere  .... pests, no way  .... crop struggling, no such thing ... over grown lawn, bowling green ... bursting shed in need of t.l.c., joking. Get real Mr Bbcman. I could do a yearlong video diary which would be of more benefit to the average gardener than your Chelsea Flower wotsits. Do you ever experiment with crops on your garden estate, Blog? I do. Try starving broad beans of water, let them really struggle for a few weeks, then flood them. Result => bumper crop on multiple stems. Try starving Brussels in a pot until December, keep them spindly and pot bound. Plant out on a reasonable day => Brussels  sprouts in June!!!! You don’t see tips like that on the garden box, do you? If you have got a rabbit problem, there is a weed you can grow (name unknown) which alleviates the difficulty. Let the weed grow all around the garden => rabbits prefer the weed and leave your crops alone!!! True. Would I lie?? On Thursday I did one of my Genetic Training sessions for a change (I’ll explain the training session to you when I write next, Blog). Friday was spent, reaping and freezing the broad beans, French beans and the peas. What a faff. Too tired to even trudge! The sad thing is the lack of apples and plums this year. The estate is in a bit of a hollow and we often get a frost inversion, like in Brazil where they grow the coffee. The frost we had in the first few week of June did for the fruit flowers. The pears survived the potatoes were burnt a little, the runner beans completely Kaput!  

A treat for you trudge. An extra photograph gratis ....

This young athlete was closest to guessing my London Marathon trudge time, thereby winning my London Marathon medal, is seen here being congratulated by club mate and some time world record holder for 5000m. Not only is she a very capable athlete but she is also smokey on the bike and pretty hot in the water!!! A tri-athlete to watch. Well done Sian.

                         Colin.