8th August, 2012

The aubergines are fruiting well, this has been the best year with >6 per plant.  I pinched the tops out when they were around 15cm high to get them to bush up.  I haven't done that before, so perhaps that is the key.

The potato bed looks bare but there are plenty of spuds in there.  However, they aren't very good quality, a lot of them have split which is due to a dry spell followed by a lot of rain causing uneven growth I suspect.  Well that was our weather.  What contributed was my awful soil which still clearly needs a heck of a lot of organic matter to retain water when dry and improve drainage when wet.

The fennel is growing well but I think it should be a lot bigger.  I got the plants from the plant swap I organise at work and they weren't that good when I got them, so this is a bit of an experiment and a bonus if I get anything.

The biggest disaster this year is the onions, the dry spell stopped their growth and they never recovered.  Again, my poor soil didn't help as it developed large cracks clearly indicative a lack of organic matter.

1st August, 2012

I still haven't picked a tomato and it's August.  However, the plants have reached the roof and there's plenty of fruit on the way.

There are some nice chillies that I could pick.

 

 The beans are flowering; both the runner beans.....

 and the dwarf beans

So I'm waiting for the first of those but in the meantime I am harvesting the kohlrabi and turnips.  The beetroot are ready too so I need to start the pickling; I'm still eating last year's and they are delicious, so definitely worth making again.  Also the blueberries are great this year.  I reckon this is because of the wet weather helping the fruit to swell  and then finally the sun and heat to ripen them.

But......that same wet weather with the heat is perfect for blight and that's what the spuds have.

The telltale black spots on the leaves are quite obvious, so I cut the leaves off and will leave the tubers in the ground for at least 2 weeks. This limits any spores being washed off the leaves into the soil to infect the tubers.  I dug up one plant and there was a nice haul of spuds of a range of sizes, so I should have a good harvest if the tubers remain free of blight.

16th July, 2012

I spent the weekend harvesting and processing the soft fruit.

I made gooseberry and redcurrant jam.  I then  made an apple and blackcurrant crumble using stewed apples from the freezer and that was very nice.  I must remember to freeze apples again for next year's blackcurrants, they go together so well.

More strawberry ice cream and smoothies were made and also there was enough strawberries left to make a couple of jars of jam with some gooseberry to help it set.  I also picked a few tayberries and froze them for next weekend when I can combine them with the strawberries for more jam.

The aubergines have several lovely flowers on each plant which I hope will translate into fruit, I've only managed one per plant in previous years.

I bought some supports for the climbing French beans and made a wigwam. They didn't take long to start wrapping themselves around the poles.

The dwarf beans have grown fast and so have the weeds that are a consequence of using home made compost as a mulch.  It's surprising how many are tomato plants.  They were easily dealt with by running  the hoe between the rows; they then dry out rapidly and I usually leave them there as a mulch.

The sweetcorn is shooting up and soon the gaps between the plants won't be so obvious.

The courgettes have flowers.  They look lovely in the morning sun.

Down by the blueberries I have cleared the area of wood I had stored to make another hedgehog house, and in its place are the fig tree (which has finally greened up - no figs though), two squash and two cucumbers plants in pots. A much better use of the area.The cracks between the slabs are a haven for dandelions though.  There's also the bay tree in the green bucket which is recovering after I had to prune it back hard following the harsh winter of 2010/11.

Not everything is rosy though, I do have failures.  The pear tree has got a bad rust infection again. Nearly every leaf looks like this.

In my problem area under the apple tree, very little will grow well due to the low light levels.  The kohlrabi are not swelling up and have aphids, yet the turnips seem OK, so maybe I'll just grow turnips there.

My onions are very bad too.   I doubt I'll have enough for a year's supply.

10th July, 2012

The harvest begins in earnest at last.

The first of the kohlrabi was pulled; they are still young and so they are lovely and tender.  I have successionally sown them so I won't have any old and woody ones which don't make good eating.

I also picked:

Peas which are really good this year, I guess it must be the wet weather keeping them nice and plump.
Beetroot which was also good and tender.
Onions: the overwintered ones had started to keel over and were not going to swell any more, it's not been a good year.
Broad beans: there are plenty of these with big, fat beans.  I've got so many that I have cooked them all, popped them ot of their leathery skins and froze them for later (stir fries are nice).
Strawberries: a lot have rotted on the wet ground despite the straw and they aren't overly sweet due to the lack of sun but they make delicious ice cream and smoothies.

The greenhouse is all set up for the summer now.  The aubergines and sweet peppers have been moved from the top to the middle shelf so that they won't touch the glass.  The tomatoes, cucumber and melon are all growing fast.

 

I managed to find two places to grow the leeks, they look neat an tidy in their holes.

 

25th June, 2012

I had a productive weekend planting out the plants that had been hardening off outside.

The sweetcorn went in easy enough since the soil was still wet and easy to dig with a trowel. Behind them are the runner beans which I grow up the fence.

I was going to try the climbing French beans for a change but I decided to stick with what works.  Now I have the dilemma of finding somewhere to put them, especially since I don't have a support frame.

I love runner beans so I also grow them up a wigwam and add plenty of compost in the planting hole and as a mulch.

I planted 2 courgettes and gave them plenty of space as they will get very big.  Let the glut begin, even from just 2 plants.

Also planted were four rows of Dwarf French beans again with plenty of compost.

Keeping with the bean theme, I started to harvest the broad beans.  Despite my misgivings, there are plenty!

The spuds look lush, the wet weather must be helping although blight might be just round the corner.

The flowers are lovely to look at, the purple ones confirm they are Kestrel.

Although the plum tree is bearing less fruit, it's in good health and the scar where the branch broke off is healing well.  The edges are healing over well.  I'm going to leave the branch that has grown from the base as this should feed the area and encourage recovery.

Plenty of peas coming.

In the greenhouse, I pinched out the tops of the aubergines.  I forget to do this normally, but they are bushing up nicely and making flowers.

 The tops of the sweet peppers were also pinched out.  The leaves are not looking good and on closer inspection were covered with aphids on the undersides.  I resorted to some localised bug spray.

 

I feel I'm on top of the jobs now and will be able to do more housekeeping jobs such as weeding and tidying up.