5th August, 2009

I seem to have been busy for the last few weekends and have not got around to taking pictures of the garden. There's been a lot of wet weather which has promoted the veg growth and I'm getting huge yields.

The downside to the wet weather is that there is more likely to be blight and I think my spuds have got some.



I should have been digging these spuds up earlier but I've left them until I need to eat them. I decided to dig the first two rows up which I think are International Kidney, as they are the worst affected. I think I have caught them early enough as the spuds themselves seem unaffected. I'm not sure of the variety since my records were lost when my laptop crashed. So, two lessons learned; one it's very easy to forget what and where you planted things and second make copies.

The second sowing of kohlrabi are ready.



For once I seem to be getting a decent pumpkin this year. All my previous efforts have failed.



The runner beans are very productive too. I didn't even prepare a trench; must be down to the wet weather again. I froze a lot for later use.



The asparagus has thrown up a lot of new shoots which bodes well for next year when I can harvest some for the first time.



I planted out some purple sprouting broccoli and covered them with environmesh. I left this a bit late perhaps but then I didn't have any space. These filled in the gap left by the peas, turnips and overwintered onions.



For the same reasons I have planted the parsnips very late. They did very poorly in the toilet rolls, not sure why. Let's hope they pick up now they are in the ground.



The courgettes are just crazy. What to do with them? I have given most away, there are just too many. But today I read from Skippy's blog that you can freeze grated courgette for subsequent baking. So that should work for the courgette cake I make.



The sweetcorn is now 7 foot tall and finally showing the male flowers...., well on the normal sweetcorn plants. The mini(!?) sweetcorn is the tallest but yet to flower.



The spring sown onions are ripening and they will be pulled soon. I planted them closely and they have still swelled to a good size.



The sprouts are under the builder's netting that I acquired and I just haven't had time to make a permanent cage. It seems to be keeping the butterflies off.



Finally some greenhouse pictures. The tomatoes have hit the roof and I have pinched the tops out. I think there is too much in there and as usual the cucumbers are not making fruit which I put down to the competition for light with the tomatoes.



Opposite the tomatoes though, the chillis are making lots of green fruits.