We have two 210 ltr water butts and it is even not enough for our weather now! We would be good to get two weeks worth of watering with cans. We don't have drip as we don't want to rely on mains water. It has been raining since September after months and months of drought here in London and SE England. Even now our hose pipe ban is still in effect. We do use water treatment in our butts so it doesn't get too rank But even in the summer. when it did rain a bit we had all the buckets out collecting water.
Not sure where you live in California but i checked LA and San Diego to compare temps and it is warmer here then there on Thursday! So Crazy!
We were away the last week of Oct in the Isle of Wight, to carry on clearing my late mother in laws house. We luckily was on the ferry mid break from the thunderstorms. It is so much colder (2-3c difference) but it is more exposed. It was absolutely chucking it down. Was cool so see the lighting from the conservatory roof but also scary. On a good you are lucky to get 1 4g bar and sometimes you get a "welcome to France" texts! lol Trying to upload my short videos reminds of trying to upload to my space, without the triggering modem noises! lol
We managed to go to The Garlic Farm there. So lovely to visit even just the shop and see the chickens, etc out back. During Apr – Jul they have free walks through the farm and it is surrounded by flowers. There's an Inn and a restaurant too but just visiting the shop is an experience!
Second year of growing garlic and was really disappointed with my Suttons 6 week delayed order and the quality, so was determined to go to the shop to hand pick our own "seeds".
For anyone that wants to visit, it is currently £3 per bulb or 4 for £10 and you can mix and match. There are paper bags and pens to label them. I took photos of the varieties we got also, so i didn't forget. I originally chose Suttons as i thought it was based in Sutton, Greater London but it is Cornwall way. Comparing postage and also the Royal mail strikes, i thought it would have been better to go with Suttons as they would be quicker being on the main land and they also sourced stuff from the IOW anyway. Not a big fan for anything i ordered like asparagus crowns and seeds etc.
The Garlic farm shop was great though. Elephant garlic is £3 per clove. I really want to plant it but it is too big for interplanting with tomatoes in our current setup. We usually do 3 x 4 of tomatoes and 9 x 4 of garlic.
The bulbs compared to what i was sent last year, doesn't even compare. They gave us more but even the good cloves were really small and alot had been damaged. We were also just given 1 x 3 hard neck x soft neck as they were out of stock of the even 2×2 to test what worked.
We got 2×2 of hard neck and 2×2 of soft neck bulbs. They look so much bigger and healthier than what we were sent. I am more hopeful that we will get the 36 cloves to plant and we can preserve the rest. Talking of preserves, they have a massive section in the shop and also earthen ware utensils and things, books and tourist kids stuff.
When you already do canning and "the family" inherits an undiscovered proper metal canning funnel, you know that you have struck gold! My brother in law isn't into cooking as we are. He thought that it was odd that my Mother in law left her lingerie in the kitchen. It was a strainer for preserved condiment jelly…. I also found the frame that he thought was a plant holder stand!
Anyway, going back to the garlic, it's in our fridge now until mid Dec. We get too much rain and with the warm temps it just comes up right away. Just like the spring bulbs i had tossed aside for later, they have been coming up since Aug. Do it top them?
We also have confused June strawberries. No runners as these are runners from last year, but the original "mother" decided to fruit again??? What on earth?! Only just a handful on one plant. The biggest is about a thumb size. Will they even ripen?
Coming back after the rain and thunderstorms, those tomato cuttings i wanted to take to over winter and didn't think they would have enough water to last the trip away. They all died from blight! All 12 tomato plants! Even with highs of 22c and lows of 14c last week of Oct, if it pours down, they won't survive. As broken as i was, we cut them out and made batches of red and green tomato soup.
Hopefully the next couple of days, a) i have time and b) it's nor pouring down enough.
Collect the wet straw from the blight potatoes to feed my box of oyster mushrooms indoors. (i am so dumb as i thought oyster mushrooms were about shape not taste. 2nd batch tasted more like seafood like fleshy prawns.)
Measure our the new frame structure that i have the green light to plan and buy. See how much of the damp mortar is still reusable on the repurposed "crazy paving slabs" that surround the bed to make it less wobbly to stand on. Metal panels to protect our fences from rodents and weeds.
Hubby was so sad about his lawn, so will showcase him a different type of hardy lawn, that will help the area, whilst renewing the space. But Shh it's not UK grass.
Also, why i US grass so thick like a door mat? I need to stop thinking about gardening lol!
I’m also here I’d SoCal. Do you know where to get an affordable rain barrel kit? I checked Amazon and Home Depot and just a barrel can cost around $200 (for a glorified garbage can)!
7 Comments
You guys are so cute!! I live in south Florida where it rains all the time!! Enjoy while you’ve got it.
Love how excited you both are in the rain. That rain barrel was smart decision.
You two crack me up. Only us Californians understand the giddiness of rain!
We have two 210 ltr water butts and it is even not enough for our weather now! We would be good to get two weeks worth of watering with cans. We don't have drip as we don't want to rely on mains water. It has been raining since September after months and months of drought here in London and SE England. Even now our hose pipe ban is still in effect. We do use water treatment in our butts so it doesn't get too rank But even in the summer. when it did rain a bit we had all the buckets out collecting water.
Not sure where you live in California but i checked LA and San Diego to compare temps and it is warmer here then there on Thursday! So Crazy!
We were away the last week of Oct in the Isle of Wight, to carry on clearing my late mother in laws house. We luckily was on the ferry mid break from the thunderstorms. It is so much colder (2-3c difference) but it is more exposed. It was absolutely chucking it down. Was cool so see the lighting from the conservatory roof but also scary. On a good you are lucky to get 1 4g bar and sometimes you get a "welcome to France" texts! lol Trying to upload my short videos reminds of trying to upload to my space, without the triggering modem noises! lol
We managed to go to The Garlic Farm there. So lovely to visit even just the shop and see the chickens, etc out back. During Apr – Jul they have free walks through the farm and it is surrounded by flowers. There's an Inn and a restaurant too but just visiting the shop is an experience!
Second year of growing garlic and was really disappointed with my Suttons 6 week delayed order and the quality, so was determined to go to the shop to hand pick our own "seeds".
For anyone that wants to visit, it is currently £3 per bulb or 4 for £10 and you can mix and match. There are paper bags and pens to label them. I took photos of the varieties we got also, so i didn't forget. I originally chose Suttons as i thought it was based in Sutton, Greater London but it is Cornwall way. Comparing postage and also the Royal mail strikes, i thought it would have been better to go with Suttons as they would be quicker being on the main land and they also sourced stuff from the IOW anyway. Not a big fan for anything i ordered like asparagus crowns and seeds etc.
The Garlic farm shop was great though. Elephant garlic is £3 per clove. I really want to plant it but it is too big for interplanting with tomatoes in our current setup. We usually do 3 x 4 of tomatoes and 9 x 4 of garlic.
The bulbs compared to what i was sent last year, doesn't even compare. They gave us more but even the good cloves were really small and alot had been damaged. We were also just given 1 x 3 hard neck x soft neck as they were out of stock of the even 2×2 to test what worked.
We got 2×2 of hard neck and 2×2 of soft neck bulbs. They look so much bigger and healthier than what we were sent. I am more hopeful that we will get the 36 cloves to plant and we can preserve the rest. Talking of preserves, they have a massive section in the shop and also earthen ware utensils and things, books and tourist kids stuff.
When you already do canning and "the family" inherits an undiscovered proper metal canning funnel, you know that you have struck gold! My brother in law isn't into cooking as we are. He thought that it was odd that my Mother in law left her lingerie in the kitchen. It was a strainer for preserved condiment jelly…. I also found the frame that he thought was a plant holder stand!
Anyway, going back to the garlic, it's in our fridge now until mid Dec. We get too much rain and with the warm temps it just comes up right away. Just like the spring bulbs i had tossed aside for later, they have been coming up since Aug. Do it top them?
We also have confused June strawberries. No runners as these are runners from last year, but the original "mother" decided to fruit again??? What on earth?! Only just a handful on one plant. The biggest is about a thumb size. Will they even ripen?
Coming back after the rain and thunderstorms, those tomato cuttings i wanted to take to over winter and didn't think they would have enough water to last the trip away. They all died from blight! All 12 tomato plants! Even with highs of 22c and lows of 14c last week of Oct, if it pours down, they won't survive. As broken as i was, we cut them out and made batches of red and green tomato soup.
Hopefully the next couple of days, a) i have time and b) it's nor pouring down enough.
Collect the wet straw from the blight potatoes to feed my box of oyster mushrooms indoors. (i am so dumb as i thought oyster mushrooms were about shape not taste. 2nd batch tasted more like seafood like fleshy prawns.)
Measure our the new frame structure that i have the green light to plan and buy. See how much of the damp mortar is still reusable on the repurposed "crazy paving slabs" that surround the bed to make it less wobbly to stand on. Metal panels to protect our fences from rodents and weeds.
Hubby was so sad about his lawn, so will showcase him a different type of hardy lawn, that will help the area, whilst renewing the space. But Shh it's not UK grass.
Also, why i US grass so thick like a door mat? I need to stop thinking about gardening lol!
I’m also here I’d SoCal. Do you know where to get an affordable rain barrel kit? I checked Amazon and Home Depot and just a barrel can cost around $200 (for a glorified garbage can)!
Your exitement is soooo contagious! 😄 I can fully understand how you feel about rain. 🌧🌧🌧🌧
I live in socal too and was so excited for rain. 🎉 seeds everywhere!!!