The Cabbage Patch

We had a bit of tidy-up at the patch this afternoon.

The Choy Sum seedlings are growing on nicely and I sowed some more seeds to complete a full row of this Chinese flowering broccoli. The Spring Cabbage seedlings are also growing strongly in amongst the red clover and these will now need to be thinned out to 9" between plants. They will be thinned out again in March as 'Spring Greens', leaving the remainder to heart up.

The cabbages in the brassica cage have been attacked by the Large White butterfly caterpillars. Heather has been inside to pick most of them off, but we really need to devote another afternoon to tidying-up inside.

The same caterpillars have also attacked the foliage on the Swedes, but this has not affected the roots which are growing to monster proportions !

Most of the potatoes have now been lifted and the ground prepared for our aliums : We have already sown two rows of Onion Senshyu Yellow seed and the seedlings will be thinned out in Spring.

We are clearing out the last of the carrots from the area that was supposed to be protected from carrot root fly. We have some more carrots growing under fleece and another row of Flyaway which have been sown late in the hope that it will avoide the ravages of this little pest !

Jumbo Pink Banana

We were given the seeds for this monster squash by Beth and Mark and we planted the seedlings with other squash varieties in our 'Three Sisters' plot.

This one has arrived a bit earlier than expected as the anticipated harvest date was September.

It's Showtime !

This was the second year running that we have entered our produce in the Farncombe Village Show.

Last year our Cara potatoes won first prize. This year only half a row has been lifted, so there was only a limited amount of spuds to choose from and we were pleased to win Second Prize. We also entered five of the Desiree potatoes, but they didn't win any prizes.

We entered both Red Baron and Setton varieties in the Onions Over 250g Class. As you can see, the Setton's won Second Prize. It was a shame that the Red Baron bulbs weighed in at just over 250g, because they could have won a prize in the lower weight class.

The Galina tomatoes from our garden won Third Prize in the Cherry Tomato Class :

In addition, Heather gained a Second Prize for her scones and a Most Commended for her themed flower arrangement 'Bouquet of Barbed Wire'.

Heather also entered flowers arranged in an enamel watering can. They looked really good, but were dismissed by the judges for not being arranged in a vase !

Psila rosae

That's Carrot Root Fly to you and me pal !

We thought we had taken all possible steps to prevent this little bugger from infecting our crops. Alas, we failed !!

All of the carrots grown behind the enviromesh screen have been infected and we are now dissecting our carrots to find sufficient for the pot.

However, we will not be beaten.

A row of Flyaway F1 has been sown today (yes, I know it maybe too late) and we are hoping that an Indian Summer will provide sufficient warmth to give us a carrot crop in the Autumn.

We are holding our breath.

Our desirable ones...

We had planned to lift the Desiree potatoes in September, but we need space to sow two rows of onions later this month.

So the Desiree were lifted, our compost heap moved and a bed prepared for Senshyu Yellow onion seed to be sown and left to overwinter.

The crop of potatoes was very good. Again we had one or two with rot, quite a few with scab and some that I put my spade through, but we have two bags of good 'uns for storing and another bag to use up as soon as possible.

One potato, two potato

This weekend we cleared one complete row of International Kidney spuds. Some had scab, one or two had rot and a few were speared when digging them up... but the remainder were excellent and the yields were fantastic.

Because they were left in late, the tubers had grown beyond what we expect as typical small 'Jersey Royal' salad potatoes. They looked more like a maincrop. I have placed the potatoes in layers of newspaper to dry them out a bit and will then store them in paper sacks.

The larger spuds are quite floury and, although not usually recommended, should be good roasted or baked. The small ones will be steamed and used in warm salads.

We will next be harvesting the one remaining row of International Kidney and the last row of Anya, which have also performed exceptionally well, producing good quantities of the small, knobbly tubers.

This will leave our maincrops (Desiree and Cara) to harvest in September.

The Caulies flower !

Here's a nice pair missus !

As you can see, the cauliflowers have gone berserk after this week of sun 'n rain... so it looks like we'll be having cauliflower cheese all this week !!!

This is the first time we have ever grown caulies and chose the variety F1 Candid Charm which we grew as seedlings in a nursery bed and transplanted in May.

We now need to figure out how to grow in succession to avoid another glut next year.