30th September, 2013

The outdoor tomatoes got blight! So I picked off all the trusses and dug up the plants.  I took a risk and kept most of the tomatoes but there were the tell tale signs of damage caused by the blight and so I was expecting to have to throw most away, which as it turned is what I had to do.  However, there were some that were OK and I made some tasty passata with them.

The sweetcorn has not been discovered by the badgers this year yet and they are some of the juiciest and sweetest I've had.  I'm really pleased with the result.

 

But..... the aubergines are a complete disaster....again.  The result is just one shrivelled fruit, rubbish.  I'm not going to grow them anymore.

 

I planted 2 rows of garlic but I'm not going to plant over wintering onions.  I'm going to grow from seed as I got good results using that method this year.  I continue to harvest large courgettes and beetroot.  The soft fruit is also very good, there are plenty of blackberries and raspberries.  I'm just about on the last of the plums but they are getting over ripe now.  I will be picking the apples in the next few weeks.

2nd September, 2013

It's been a while since the last blog; part of that time was a nice holiday. It's always a nervous time leaving the veg just when the harvest is about to arrive.  Will I come back to a mess of overripe tomatoes and dried up beans?  Fortunately neither, it must have rained on and off and the watering system in the greenhouse did it's job.

The biggest harvest has to have been the french beans.  I must have got several kilos.  This is just a fraction of them.

I like them curried or cooked with cherry tomatoes.

I had a small amount of the morello cherries, just enough to cook with sugar for one person.

The beetroot have grown very large this year.

I got nearly 2 bags of kestrel spuds which is a moderate yield. I think I can improve on that with better soil.  No blight this year.

The onions are also a good size.  That's quite good given I grew these from seed.

 

The parsnips have been good and tasty too despite the cabbage white caterpillars stripping the leaves, fortunately they did this after the turnips had grown to a good size.

The downside of big harvests though is for the second year the plum tree has cracked a branch under the weight of fruit.  I must learn to not be so greedy and do some thinning.