I have a tenacious pest I've never really worried about in the garden before- it started plucking the red flowers off the runner bean, then moved onto the baby beets; it stripped these down to the sprig more voraciously than any slug. Sparrows. They're attacking everything and quite shamelessly.

Nibbled alders should grow bushy now' If they have survived. 

Yes- good idea; so what do you serve with sparrow?

Forgotten Foods say melted butter.  Or if fried a hot sauce...... 

Just had a thought.... you could serve the shallots as lamb chops!  

Another thought... if they gave the shallots a short back and sides, they probably thought it was a baa-ber shop. 

Ok. I'll stop thinking and I'll get me coat!  

Not quite gardening, but I reckoned as it's about growing food it might go in here rather than starting a new thread ...

I was talking to a local farmer yesterday and he has already started cutting his barley, which is a couple of weeks early. The heat wave of a week ago just dried it up, and last week's rain was too late to revive it and put some extra substance into the grain.

His wheat, on the other hand was still a bit green and responded well to the same weather. Just hope it doesn't get flattened by tomorrow's (i.e. Thursday's) forecast storms.

Just came across this load of tosh (headline) which made me splutter in my coffee. 

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/britains-most-toxic-plant-reportedly-spreading-across-uk-after-heatwave/ar-BBDU0EE?li=AAnZ9Ug&ocid=mailsignout

Britain's most toxic plant reportedly spreading across UK after heatwave...

To say it's 'spreading' after the heatwave is a tad misleading.

The article makes it sound like the plant grows and spreads like the clappers in the heat when most likely it's more to do with the fact more people venture into areas where the plant is growing when the weather is good. It's been a menace for as long as I can remember. The headline writers should have known better but then perhaps not. 

The giant hogweeds were introduced into Britain and Europe from the Caucasus Mountains in the nineteenth century. The earliest documented reference to their introduction into Britain that has been traced is from the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew Seed List of 1817 where giant hogweed, under the name of Heracleum giganteum was listed among seeds supplied to Kew by the Russian Gorenki Botanic Gardens. They were soon introduced into the horticultural trade and being aesthetically impressive plants, were widely planted in ornamental gardens throughout Britain.  Unfortunately they quickly escaped from cultivation with the first naturalised (‘wild’) population recorded in Cambridgeshire in 1828, and are now widely naturalised as invasive species throughout much of Britain and Europe.

Nick

I sowed some of this giant hogweed in our garden 50-odd years ago before it became illegal to do so. You could only really appreciate the flower by going up to the bedroom and looking down.

I got some (quite unjustified) grief from my wife when at a party I took one of the neighbours' wives up to the bedroom "to look at the gin=ant hogweed"!

Planted a small Goji berry this year .Probably in the wrong place. This thing is about four foot with drooping stems even with some help from tied bamboo supports. Should I clip the drooping stems back? Or do any of you guys know of a solution?.
I don't want to chance a relocation at this time of the year, but am concerned about it's spread in a small area and any affect on fruiting if I do prune?. I have researched some sites and get mixed responses. So if anyone who might have experience in growing Goji's can offer some advice it would be much appreciated..

At least you never said come up and see my etchings of Heracleum giganteum. That could have caused some grief.

Blackfly are back, all over the nasturtiums and now that I've cleared the broads, they've found the runners and the corn.

All soft fruits now harvested except a few slow tayberries. Have eaten a few ripe tomatoes and the high summer specials- the peppers and aubergines- are setting. But there's not a single tomatillo fruit set despite weeks and weeks of flowering. Funny game, this.

Just counted my flowering runner bean and can see all on  --9-- beans beginning to take shape. My chillies in the growing room are growing well. I do hope for flowers and produce from them ....  

Next years Muscari - Grape Hyacinths are already in groups with leaves about 4ins long. 

Yes the runner beans continue to do very well. Bess trained them up the front of the conservatory and now some of the beans are 12 feet up- that'll be fun to watch, me trying to harvest them.

Our chillies do better outside once its mild enough- insect pollination increases the fruiting. Two that overwintered in the conservatory are tough little capsicums now and producing long, green, slender fingers.

Does anybody have any magic cure for duckweed in a pond? It's beginning to multiply and I can see it covering the surface soon if I do nothing. It seems to have colonised it naturally as I certainly didn't introduce it(though I don't know how it got there as we're a long way from any other pond/water). I cannot see myself managing to remove every single leaf by hand but unless I do that, it's bound to return. So is it simply a chore which I will have to do for the foreseeable future every few weeks or is there some other remedy? Obviously, I could dump weedkiller/chemicals into the pond but I've got other plants in it and tadpoles(and presumably other little creatures) so I don't want to do that. Or should I just accept duckweed as being a natural coloniser? Does it do any harm to other plants or to tadpoles/frogs? 

Other than waiting for the cold weather to do the trick also every scrap has to be removed. Cold try a fountain in the pond to keep the water moving. Lilies also help. 

Pond algae solutions Getting Rid of Pond Duckweed without chemicals have a build it yourself gizmo like a paint brush roller with spikes which may help.  

If you don't want to use chemicals, be persistant and remove it by hand or a net on a bamboo shoot.(the kind used for catching pinkeens).
Had that problem with a small garden pond and the above worked.
Keep at it Lionel it can be removed. Lillies as Art mentioned do help but it might be a bit late in the year and they can become invasive also but are easier to control.

Good luck.

It can be done.

Thanks for the replies. I actually have lilies in the pond so perhaps they will prevent a complete takeover. I didn't realise that cold weather could kill duckweed so it might be a matter of doing all I can to keep down the weed and hoping for a freeze over the winter. Better get started....

Plucked some runner beans today. Plenty to come yet.  Planted  6 heathers at the bottom of what is left of the Hebe bush this afternoon, it was rather bare there....

Major slug explosion over the last week; it's as if all their anticipation through July was bottled up. I also note with surprise woodlice in droves in the centre of all my cucumber flowers- apparently munching on the pollen!

Glad that I watered all my pots and troughs yesterday.. It Has been raining a lot today.. Water bucket is well full.

It's proving to be a quirky gardening year. This is our third full flush of rhubarb and the walnut tree is looking its healthiest for years- very little viral symptom; but although the cherry tomatoes are producing a bumper harvest, the plums tomatoes are struggling to ripen. Have had to clear blighty leaves off all plants.

The sparrows continue to peck the flowers off the runner beans but those that have managed to set are growing so quickly they're almost seed stock before I can harvest them!