By the way; 11/08 and the swallows are still here. Also - saw a swift this year, which is a first; noticeably bigger than the swallows, with more of a crescent shape to the wings.

Anyway, this is the harvest of the second earlies - not entirely sure what variety I put in (the purpose of this blog is to give me a point of reference, like a diary! Obviously I'm not exploiting that facility to its fullest). But they could be Kestrel.

I reckon we got approx. 120lb from 6 x 6 foot rows.

Not an awful lot of worm or slug damage - a few teeth marks on a couple, but overall a really good quality - especially pleased with the size of lots of spuds - really big bakers - that haven't split. The plants never really flowered but it was pretty obvious they needed picking because the foliage looked very sad.

sweet peas - very, very prolific this year on the left side of the pergola.

 

 

Finally, don't know what these are but they look good and last a good long time as cut flowers.



Back on the blog

It's been a very long while but I'm back on the blog. I thought it wise to start logging results and stuff as it's been such a successful season (compared to last year!).

So I have a few things to record but I'll start with this blackcurrant cordial recipe for future reference.

Black currants have been bumper this season. The bush that I inherited yielded nothing last year due to over zealous pruning, so this year it has doubled in girth but has produced, I reckon about 30lb of fruit.

Up to now this has been turned into jam to spread around the family, but the majority will go into the freezer.

But I kept some back to try some cordial. The following recipe has given me bang on 750ml of cordial.
1kg black currants.
500g sugar
550ml water
1 teaspoon of citric acid.

Simmer fruit sugar and water for 5 minutes, then add the citric acid and simmer for another 2 minutes. Strain and decant.

Ps the bottle was filled with malt whisky which was a leaving present from my last job - it is still giving pleasure.

A morning off work; A walk to the plot.

When I('m driving to work, I often drive past people who are just ambling along the road - obviously not on their way to work and on their own schedule.

It makes me think "it's a nice day, I think I'd like to be off work today as well."

Well, that's me today - wandering up to the plot on a sunny morning - no itinerary, no deadlines, just me to please. It was under the auspices of taking the covers off the frost-vulnerable plants, but the real reason was just to go out for a stroll.

Anyway - I took the covers off - we had some frost last week (about 23/05; so fairly late) and it wasn't even a cold morning, but it still hit the potatoes:

The worst of it was on the kestrel (2nd earlies) which practically died before my eyes whilst I was down on Saturday. They were standing up in the morning, but gradually darkened, wilted blackened & then shrivelled through the day.

 

The 1st earlies (Swift) faired better. They were bigger above the ground, so perhaps the frost was very low lying, but they have been affected to some degree as well.

 

I lost some runner beans though - luckily though, I've been successional planting so I have some replacements which are not far behind.

 

I've held back on a lot of the planting until June - ostensibly to avoid the worst of the frost, but to be honest, a lot of the seeds, such as pumpkins & dahlias are all about 3 weeks behind due to the Spring being so cold. Hopefully, there will be time at the end of the season for them to catch up.

 

The seedlings I have put in - courgettes mainly, have been diligently protected with cloches.

I've also had cloches over the later plantings of beans: note the impressively sturdy bean frame - it used to be the girl's swing, I discovered it at the back of the shed in a recent clearout.

Very pleasing but somewhat sparse is this year's crop of asparagus, I probably won't picjk any this year (year 2), but it will be interesting to see the yield that is produced.



 

Disappointingly, I've noticed a patch of long Mare's Tail at the fallow part at the back of the plots. It seems to be coming through from the cowfield at the back. This is the only time I will use spray; I'm using Round up to see how effective it is. I don't like to use the chemicals, but am worried about the voracity of Mare's Tail. Up to now I've been able to avoid it.

The light to the shade though, is the fact that, even though my frogspawn didn't make it (the spawn turned white - possibly after freezing in a very hard frost) I had some pre-hatched tadpoles donated by Sarah & Zak. They're doing well:

(they are there, honest - look hard and you'll see them!)

 

 

The blackcurrant bush that we inherited had a good first year, but after a hard pruning, yielded not a single berry last year. I'm hopeful of a good crop this year, though, because the branches are so heavy with blossom.



 

And this is the greenhouse - all chillies & tomatoes potted up and ready to get busy......

 

Right, to carry on with my day off, I'm off for a coffee.







Dining al fresco

Nice Enough to drag chair out of the shed and sit and have my lunch.

The salad leaf is a red mustard lettuce that was priced fresh. -really peppery.

Carrots

I did say last year that, due to carrot fly damage for the third year, "I'm not bloody growing carrots again"

So I didn't buy any seed.

I got some free seed with my order.

So, of course, I'm growing carrots again.

Under a fleece tunnel, planted 19/05 .

Lunch

Not a bad effort.....
I grew the rocket on the sandwich, grew and pickled the courgettes, and grew and made the tomato and chilli chutney.

New raspberries

.... So I went out and spent real money on some new canes - autumn gold - a yellow raspberry that supposed to crop as well as autumn bliss.
I've bedded them in fairly shallow into a raised bed that includes rotted manure and leaf mould. Hopefully they'll do better than the last lot.