"Janet" wrote in message
.. .
In article ,
says...

"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Christina Websell wrote:

"Gary Woods" wrote in message
. ..
For those who like to read of rescues, here's the Seed Saver's
Exchange
description of Blaby:

https://exchange.seedsavers.org/cata...spx?itm=137071

I'm growing a foliage turnip, Horpaczi Lila, that a friend got some
years
ago from the East German seed bank.

The mind boggles at what must be stashed at the Svalbard bank!


Exactly.
I sowed two Blaby tomatoes, one germinated. Huge plant, some massive
tomatoes. I got the seeds from my German friend who always sends me
interesting seeds from the Netherlands seed bank every Christmas for a
present, I have some rare beans, mainly French types waiting to be
sown.
Tried to swap runner beans seeds, but they don't do well there.
Because
when it's summer, it's hot for weeks and I don't think the continental
climate is suitable. French beans do well there.

Runner beans actually prefer higher temperatures than French! But
they require regular water and a higher humidity, so they often do
badly in hotter conditions. French beans are more tolerant of dry
conditions.

Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

I know all of that. You should be in the wilds of Germany and realise
how
the farmers have to pay for water

Maybe you don't realise how much farmers here have to pay for water.

Janet

But they have a quota over a couple of years there - so no matter how much
you pay you can't get any more. The diifficulty seemed to be "should I use
a lot of my quota now to save my crops and hope it will rain more next year?
or risk not watering enough to have some quota left"
Their climate is such that when it's summer, it's mega hot and stays like it
for weeks, it hardly rains at all. I went there once in August and nearly
fried.

In the wilds of lower Saxony, The Wendland, it's very hard to earn a living.
It looks similar to The Fens, acres of potatoes: a lot of the farmers grow
herbs, like parsley, chives etc ahere is a herb factory a couple of miles
away. Plus they have wild boar out every night digging the crops up. Every
field has a big wooden tower in so the farmers can get up there and shoot
them. At least they can have some pork ;-)

Oh. and then they have voles, not like our field voles. They seems to be a
sub-species of our water vole, they look the same, but they are a major
agricultural pest in the Wendland. They eat the roots off everything.

I did visit there the first time thinking it wouldn't be very different from
England. Maybe in the big cities it isn't, but out in the sticks there, it
is very different indeed.

Tina