The birds have started at the sunflowers...

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... that I planted along the driveway.

Don't have enough cloth bags so I cut the heads of and are leaving to dry in the sun.

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Piccalilli 2019

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I learnt a lot making the practice run of piccalilli las t year ( read here ).  This year it's full steam ahead, with much more output. Mostly veg I've grown my self and local apple cider vinegar. I'm beginning to experiment a bit with  the recipe. Adding more veg, trying different things with the mustard.
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The caterpillars were out of control!

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The thing about gardening, is that you never know what the environment is going to throw at you. A problem arises, you fix it, and learn something while you're doing it. I don’t know that you can ever have everything ‘under control’. This year I thought I had tomatoes 'sussed'. A bumper crop was packing out the raised gardens, Then a few holes started appearing in leaves. 'not a prob' I thought. Like last year, must be a couple of caterpillars lurking amongst the leaves. This week holy armageddon was unleashed up at one end of the bed. I could almost hear the munching rising up from the plants. Day by day, it was definitely working its way down the lenght of the garden. Up until now, I’ve been squash’n them between fingertips. One at a time, search and destroy. In the past I’d feel a bit sorry for them, as some would pop fully formed, straight out of their skins. Last week I was over it. After the last couple of years of battle I’m immune to empat...
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STIHL Electric chipper (in depth)

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