Plum and apple jam, apple and tomato chutney, both on the agenda for getting done next week.

The raccoons have taken all the grapes from the garden vines, and half the sweet corn. The grasshoppers are still everywhere. The cucumbers have started to produce, the beets are starting to come up and the tomatoes, sweet peppers and hot peppers are doing very well. We didn't get the okra in, maybe next year. Mom is getting three cases of peaches on Saturday so we'll be doing them soon.

Christinap, did you get your jams and chutneys done? We didn't get any plums this year but last years' jam turned out good. We don't do chutneys, what do you use them on? We make tomato preserves but as I'm not a huge tomato fan, I don't use it.

Rayven, I did get my jams and chutneys done thank you, and they seem to have turned out OK. We use the chutney on cold meats, cheese, as a relish with a pork pie, anything like that.

I found a book on food preservation and it mentions clamping. I've seen the basic principle under different names. Does anyone use this method? We occasionally get hard freezes so this may be something to do in the barn or garage?

I though I would resuscitate this thread, as spring has definitely sprung in my garden How is yours?
Here is a nice new orchid. Flowered from a cutting,
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g152/rensara/flars/flarsmisc002.jpg

Gorgeous, ren!

My tulips are beginning to fade, my roses are budding (but not yet ready to flower) and my rhododendron is just about to burst into bloom. I'm expecting a blaze of colour this year as it has finally got over the scrawny, scrappy look it's had ever since we moved here. My miniature azaelea is in full flower and my geraniums are thickening up after the winter, the japanese maple is a blaze of glorious red and my diverse succulents are in various stages: the yellow flowers are nearing their end, the pink ones are just about to blossom ...

Spring has definitely sprung, but another week or two of warm sunshine wouldn't go amiss about now.

At the moment we are being battered by fairly frequent rain and hail storms, but the blossom trees are looking lovely. My greenhouse and potting shed are bursting at the seams with stuff growing on ready to go out in another four or five weeks.

The last couple of years I have bought mail order plug plants for my bedding plants, and I really have been very pleased with the results. I currently have around 400 bedding plants growing on which cost me about £20 plus another fiver for the compost to pot them on.

Last year I put in a complete new bed of David Austin roses under the front window, and they are shooting beautifully at the moment. Loads of buds on them so I'm hopeful of a really good display from them this summer.

In the veg. garden. Broad beans ae growing well. Peas are just coming through. Tomatos are in the greenhouse and as soon as the soil warms up just a bit more the runner beans will go in, plus I'll sow the cucumbers that will go in the greenouse. The potatos are shooting well in the potato bags and the strawberry plants are looking good after winter and shooting nicely from the crowns.

All in all spring is definitely springing.

With the warm temperatures so early this year, we put the peas, carrots, parsnips, lettuce, beets and onions in two weeks ago. We'll put the rest in on Mother's day. Nothing coming up yet but we planted two more plum trees and an apricot tree. The old apricot tree has small apricots already! Everything has bloomed out, the rhubarb and the saskatoons came back so I'm very excited and hoping for a good year.

Christinap, what are potato bags?

Tulips are up, and buds just beginning to show on them, so should see flowers next week. Lots of budding on trees, and the willows are blooming. Hollyhocks are about three inches high. Green grass just beginning to poke through the dead stuff.

rayven, potato bags are a method of growing potatos other than in the ground. The bags are a sort of plasticised hessian, about 2ft 6in tall by a 18 inches wide. You put around 4 inches of compost in the bottom, plant about 5 seed potatos per bag, cover with two or three inches of compost. As they shoot and grow cover with compost, exactly as though you were earthing up in the ground, until you are a couple of inches below the top of the bag then let them grow on up, flower and die down and harvest as normal. We have very heavy clay soil here so root crops don't do well in it, which is why I use the bags. The other advantage is you get a very clean crop and being in the bag you don't get anything nibbled by various pests. At harvest time I just tip the whole bag out into a wheelbarrow, get the potatos out then tip the used compost onto the garden and dig it in. Wash the bag out and you can use it again next year. You can also grow asparagus and rhubarb in them, or completely fill them with compost and do carrot seeds - get lovely straight long carrots that way.

wow Agony. The weather must have been more kind where you are. I have two perennials that are "trying" to do something in the rock garden (south facing), but buds on trees? Nope. Tulips/Crocus? Absolutely not. And 6 inches of snow on the north side of the house (which is where my actual garden is, silly me lol.

Have just harvested our first potatoes of the year, yuummyyy!!!

Tomatoes are looking bad, though. All this rain and wet weather is bad for them and I'm expecting them to turn black any day now.

Rhubarb is doing well, as are the raspberries and all the herbs in the herb garden. Chilli peppers are coming along, as are the green and yellow beans, and the onions. The snails got to my lettuces, however, so I'll have to start over ...

In the flower bed the lavender's blooming, the roses too, and the geraniums.

My japanese maple is looking very sorry for itself these days, but I'm damned if I know why. I'd repot it only it's not the best season for that. Fingers crossed that it hangs in there until I find out what's upsetting it!

Same here Santana. Out of three potatoe bags I've got 20lb so far, and I have one bag yet to be emptied as it doesn't look quit ready yet. Strawberries have been brilliant this year, had a massive crop from them. Pikced the first peas this morning, lunch was chicken breats, home grown potatoes and home grown peas, with strawberries and ice cream to follow.

Runner beans are just starting to flower, broad beans should be ready to start picking in a few days. Like you though the tomatoes are not having a good year, just been too wet for them. Still if everything came right and we had one perfect season we'd have nothing to plan for for next year!

We may have to try the potato bags. This year we are trying a method of planting potatoes in a tire. Dad found it and so far it seems to be doing well. The grasshoppers are back. It's been so dry that the birds took all the cherries and mulberries. Only two tomatoes and three cucumbers so far. My idea of planting things early didn't work so we still have beets, carrots and parsnips growing. If it weren't for the heat and the grasshoppers things would be lovely.

We won't have potatoes up here for at least two months. Have had lots of strawberries, cherry tomatoes and banana peppers so far to eat. Am afraid my peas and beans "drowned" (read: rotted in the mud). Rayven, I'd happily send you some rain (we're having a surplus) if I could, to help with those fires!

As predicted the tomatoes have not been good this year. On the other hand the runner beans have loved the weather we've been having and I have a massive crop. So far I've got two big bagfuls in the freezer for over winter ( about the size of a bag of beans you would buy from a supermarket) so that is good, and there are masses still setting. Went to the garden centre the other day and was given a freebie. Potatos to plant now to get new potatos in time for Christmas, so have planted those in the bags today to see how they go. New idea that, haven't seen those before. The garden centre were giving them away when you bought something else with a request that you report back to them on what sort of crop you get - I suppose to decide if they carry them for next year on a large scale.

Jakeroo, I'd be quite glad of some water. I hope your garden didn't drown.

We haven't had what you'd call measurable rain in quite a while, though the temperatures have gone down a bit so the tomatoes and peppers are trying to come back. Between our garden, the produce I brought back from vacation and various assorted friends and family we've stocked the jelly/jam cupboard with a nice variety and have a lot of zucchini, peaches, apples and raspberries, green beans and sweet corn in the freezer. The potatoes seem to be doing well and the popcorn has a lot of ears on it.
Although we replanted the carrots, parsnips and beets, only the beets really came up. We got one batch of pickled beets and one batch of beet jelly out of them, along with a couple saved to try a beet bread recipe I found.

How is everyone else doing?

Rayven: What didn't drown, got pelted into soup consistency from all the hailstorms.

I think I might have to move to a different neighbourhood - we seem to be in our own microclimate zone here LOL! After the weather office predicting a fabulously sunny Labour Day weekend (not that I ever believe them anyway) it's been drizzling rain since last night and is decidedly cool.

Although the plums and apples didn't escape the hail, the Evans cherries did (why, I have no idea) and I've made 2 pies and 12 tarts (although I had to add some blueberries and store-bought fresh bings to fill them completely) and so far the results were delicious. Froze them, in case hubby allows me to have company for dinner in the near future. I do have a small greenhouse (which is the home for most of my tomatoes/peppers) so have made about 10 pints of salsa, 5 pints of spaghetti sauce and have frozen about 25 romas whole for future use.

I'm still a bit peeved about the lost scarlet runner beans, as in past years I've made really (good) spicy bean pickles out of them - love their length - as they go great in tall Caesars! Oh well lol

I've had a massive runner bean crop this year, several bags in the freezer for winter and they are still cropping well. Tomatos have had a bit of a late surge, plenty of the small cherry ones but the normal size ones are still not ripening, might have to do a few batches of green tomato chutney to use them up. Mid season potatos cropped fairly well, in fact when I worked it out the other day I havn't bought any potatos in just over three months which isn't bad, and I have about another months worth in store. The late crop, which will be ready around November/December are coming on well, or at least the foliage is, can only hope on the tubers.

We seem to be having summer late. Wellies and jackets in June, shorts and T shirt in September with it forecast to last so flowers etc. are still blooming well. Currently collecting seed from a lot of the bedding plants for next year as well as letting some runner beans get to the save for seed stage. I have my spring bedding all growing away in the potting shed and it will be nicely ready to plant out in four or five weeks time, plus I've got most of my spring bulbs bought ready to plant out in a few weeks.

My garden grows fodder for the critters! I have given up on flower beds, so the deer and rabbits have to make do with grass, dandelions and daisies. Thinking of putting something in the cat run...after the little rabbits get too big to squeeze through the gaps in the gates!
We do well in the wild blackberry department...darn things take over, and there are too many for the squirrels, and the bears haven't shown their faces yet - thank goodness!

It is finally raining here. A bit too late as we harvested most of the popcorn and tomatoes last week. Mom wants to dig the potatoes next week. The peppers are doing well and we can't keep up with the raspberries. The raccoon's won't touch the popcorn but they took all the sweet corn and the sunflowers. We've still got a few carrots to dig and a zucchini or two. We may have gotten a pumpkin but the weeds have grown up in that patch so we'll have to check.

How is everyone else?

Put our garden in a couple weeks ago and so far so good (apart form forgetting to water it this morning oops ). Didn't go all out this year but have lots of tomatoes (8), capsicum, spinach, zuchinni and cucumber.

It's going to be stupid the amount of tomoatoes we will be getting by Christmas! Must start looking for recipes!

I have zillion apples on the ground after the windy day today - anyone want any? (she asks desperately lol)

I'll send you Florida Cane Sugar, you send me Alberta Apple Pies?

We are into autumn now and have had the first of the autumn storms. I've brought the last of the green tomatos indoors to ripen. Despite a bad start they didn't do too badly in the end. Runner beans have had a fantastic year and are still cropping well, although the first frost will stop them dead in their tracks. I spent two mornings stripping out the last of the summer bedding plants, collecting seeds and putting in the spring bedding and bulbs. Need to take out the tomato plants now and sow broad beans for next spring. Have potatos still growing, should be ready to harvest around November, apples are ready to pick and we have loads of blackberries all over the place. Overall though the wet weather through to early July didn't do any of the garden any favours - still, as always there were swings and roundabouts. Never had such a good strawberry crop as this year, have enough runner beans frozen down to easily last all winter, havn't had to buy any potatos for four months, so not too bad a year in the end.