Po-tay-toes

Boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew... lovely big golden chips . . .

(Samwise Gamgee)

Think we might be doing all that as it's been a good potato harvest this year - at any rate we won't go hungry!

In addition to the main crop, we also found some stray pink fir apples from last year, and planted those up too.

They have also done quite well, although they do produce some rather  strange looking specimens!

Autumn Harvest

So as the growing season comes to the end, we've been harvesting the last of the produce from the garden . . .

A small selection here of the apples from our two trees.

Add to that the last tomatoes from the greenhouses, and potatoes and green beans from the veg plots.






The potatoes ('pink fir apple') after a slow start, did particularly well, although they wouldn't win any beauty contests!










Cue lots of peeling, chopping, par-boiling, and freezing . . .

Garden Bounty

Alongside everything else that is going on, the garden is continuing to yield its bounty - here we have potatoes, rhubarb and courgettes (on the cusp of marrowdom):

The tomatoes are coming along too, although the strawberries are proving disappointing - they don't seem to have really got going after last year's major weeding exercise, and the slugs are getting to what fruit there is before we do!

Potato Harvest

Dug up the potatoes today - two varieties - Desiree and King Edward (plus a third 'unknown').

Reasonable haul, cleaned up nicely - so some should keep.

The rest will be mashed for the freezer - packaged up a basic mash (no milk or butter) freezes well enough  - ready for use when required . . .

Not Exactly Small Potatoes

Not a bad potato crop this year - including some absolute monsters (egg shown for scale):

Kept a quantity of the smaller / better specimens for ongoing use - and spent a happy few hours peeling, chopping, boiling, ricing and packaging the rest for the freezer. Should keep us in ready-to-use mash for a good 12 months at least!

Green Stuff - One Month On . .

Time for an update on the Green Stuff . . .

The greenhouses have both been planted up now - here we have the main greenhouse, replete with plum and beefsteak tomatoes, cucumbers and some very small aubergine plants (hopefully they'll pick up over the next few weeks).




The small greenhouse (as well as the vine) has the cherry tomatoes and a few more aubergines . . .





Progress in the main veg plot has been mixed - the potatoes are on their way up, but the courgettes and butternut squash haven't really come on much - fed them today so hoping for better things to come.




Also planted up some green beans, a week or so ago, hoping they'll get going soon too . . . (decided against peas this year after last year's less than impressive harvest).





The onions (and stray potatoes leftover from last year!) are doing ok in the smaller veg plot, and there are some leeks to plant out in due course as well.



Finally we have the broad beans, which are doing very nicely thank you, despite a bit of a battering from the strong winds.

 A bit of sunshine and we should also have our first strawberries sometime very soon!

Green Stuff

Time for a garden update  . . .

We've rotovated the main veg plot now, and planted out the courgettes and butternut squash - waiting for the green beans to come on a bit before they go out.  Potatoes have gone in both the veg plot and some pots.

The tomatoes aren't too far off being ready for planting on as well - the peppers and aubergines are still at an early stage though - sorting out the greenhouses has to be one of the next tasks on the list.






The fruit cage pretty much takes care of itself - the raspberries and strawberries are promising a bumper harvest anyway.



Still considering potential approaches to keeping the mice out mind you - there are plenty of strawberries to go round if only they finished one before starting another!

The biggest success story thus far is probably the broad beans - although Martin's Dad did the initial work of bringing these on - that said they seem to be doing very nicely thank you in one of the raise beds, safely tucked away from the bunnies behind a chicken-wire fence!

Bank Holiday Bonanza

Bank Holiday Monday was harvest day for at least some of our two major crops . . .

Firstly the onions - some were mega-specimens (like this one) - others that had been rather shaded didn't grow that big at all.  We did however harvest a fair quantity - here seen drying in the sun:







Next up - the potatoes - which I rather thought had 'blight'.





I'm informed however, that they do actually also 'die-back' in this way, so the yellow stalks and dried brown leaves weren't necessarily signs of anything very dire . . .

Had already started digging them up by then, so decided to lift half the plot, and leave the rest for now - even so this yielded an unfeasibly large quantity of potatoes!

We've stored some of the better specimens in a dark cool place, but the majority (which seem to have the rather unpalatable sounding common scab) are being peeled, turned into mash, and frozen.

Blight!

Just realised what's hit all our tomato plants this year - it looks very much as though we have 'blight' in the greenhouse.  Ironically we'd put the 'mould' down to lack of air circulation, but opening the door is probably what let it in in the first place!





We are still harvesting tomatoes, as noted in the previous post - some of them are rather weird looking specimens mind you  . . .

Bit worried now that some of the potatoes in the adjacent veg patch may also be showing signs of blight - but they were in the process of dying back anyway.  Will just have to harvest soon and make batches of mash for the already far too full freezer!

Moving On Up

Things are moving on the vegetable front . . .

Finally moved the peas out of their guttering yesterday and into position in the garden. They seem to have survived the transplantation process, and have now been joined by two new rows which we planted directly into the ground. We planted these new rows quite deep, and have covered them over with some clear plastic to provide some initial protection from potential pea predators. Fingers crossed we'll get a reasonable showing anyway.

The maincrop potatoes are also finally on their way up - almost all of them are now showing some sign of life above ground, and hopefully now the weather has warmed up they'll soon put on some real growth.

The onions are coming along a treat as well - I've got a little more confidence now that they'll actually turn into proper onions in due course.

We've also planted out the courgettes - next up planting up the green beans, and sorting out the greenhouses.

Fruit and Two Veg

We've had some lovely sunny weather over the last few weeks (see future post - will link in due course) although most days have had a slight chill in the air. As such we've held off doing too much with the vegetable patches - other than digging them over a couple of times.

The soft fruit is coming along nicely though - the raspberry canes are coming up all over the place this year, and the gooseberry, blackcurrant and blueberry bushes are all in flower. The strawberries are looking healthy enough, and should provide a bumper crop in due course.

The only issue is keeping some of the local wildlife out. As you may remember something had all the blueberries last year, and there are ominous small holes indicating that mice (? or similar) are burrowing in under the base boards. Did some re-fortification works last weekend, tying down the netting in all the places that a squirrel may have found its way in . . .

Made the most of the last of the really sunny weather yesterday to finally get some planting done in the garden - notably starting to populate the two veg plots. Martin got the maincrop potatoes (Maris Piper) planted up in the smaller of the two plots (the one we had sweetcorn, courgettes, and left-over peas in last year).

I cleared out the last of the weeds and old netting from the frame in the main veg plot, and dug in some fertiliser, before planting up my onion seedlings, some of which are beginning to look like spring onions at least!

Finally, this morning, as the rain finally returned, we planted up some peas. Mindful of last year's poor showing, we're trying a new approach. Using some of the old guttering (which we replaced last year) we've planted up our first row in the garage - once this is through and sufficiently established to ensure that the birds can't do much damage we'll transplant back into the main veg plot. Hopefully this strategy will work!

Got a few more things to plant up still - the tomatoes and peppers and chillies are coming on now, but not ready for planting on yet - and we've got cucumbers and spinach and some salad veggies to plant as well as green beans. In the meantime, at least the potatoes and onions will appreciate a little rain . . .

Growing Under Glass

Haven't blogged the garden for ages so here is an update on where we are with the fruit and veg - starting with the greenhouses . . .

Back in April the big greenhouse was full of seedlings, and the small greenhouse was hosting our potato pots. A month later in early May we were planting on the seedlings - kitting out the big greenhouse as tomato central - while the small greenhouse was practically bursting with potato foliage:

In fact we should probably have moved the potatoes out at this point - they did put on rather too much in the way of foliage - it was a right jungle in there by the end of May when we finally got around to moving them (by which time this was no easy task). At this point we planted on the chilli plants and peppers into the small greenhouse, and strategically positioned the cucumbers in the more accessible corners of both.

So where are we now? The tomatoes have established themselves well - we put in a mixture of cherry, plum and beefsteak, and apart from the plum (which were a later addition) they've all got fruit, although nothing is actually ripe yet:

The chillis and peppers are also coming on - flowering anyway, so hope to see 'fruits' appearing soon. The cucumbers are doing particularly well, and are already providing a steady supply for the table.

The vine we planted in the corner of the small greenhouse last year (and which produced all of two leaves throughout the last growing season) has also shown signs of life, although nothing in the way of grapes this year - fingers crossed for better results there in 2010.

Finally, although not strictly greenhouse produce any more, we are now harvesting from the potato pots - this (plus the other 8 or so large specimens we ate for tea yesterday) is one potsworth - three remain to be plundered.

Potting On

Our growing season actually started a while back - 8 March to be precise - when the first tranche of potatoes went into three of the big pots we'd bought, and the tomato (plum and cherry), broccoli, chilli, pepper, sweetcorn, butternut squash and cucumber seeds went into trays on the kitchen windowsills.

Now, we're at the stage where most of the young seedlings have been potted on, into the large greenhouse, and the second tranche of potatoes have been planted up into the other three pots (as of the 21 March) in the small greenhouse (soon to be moved to the outside world).

The first potatoes are actually on their way up - time for another layer of compost from the looks of this photo - the idea being that as they grow we layer upwards until we get to the top of the pot. Hopefully this will give us our first crop of potatoes in early June, with the second tranche following a couple of weeks later, then the later crop from the veg plot itself, which as yet remains unplanted (just making sure we miss any late frosts).

Still pondering where some of the stuff is going - and the possibilities of a fruit cage remain a matter of debate - we've only changed our minds three times thus far. More updates to follow . . .

Garden Update

Vegetable garden that is. We've pulled up a lot of the main veg crop now - as you can see in this photo we're down to the onions (which we'll probably pull any day now), and the broccoli, which is cropping nicely - there are also a couple of courgette plants in there. We've got some sprouts and perpetual cabbage to plant out, and the swede to sow.

The carrot and beetroot plants seem to be doing ok in one of the raised beds as well, and we've still got courgettes sprouting all over the place. Had a fair harvest of potatoes (see below), but the peas were the real success story, we had at least three of these baskets.