Home again, home again, jiggity jig

I will have been back in Bury one week tomorrow and there is so much to do it is frightening.  I am dreadful for wanting it all done immediately - as if it matters!

I had a quiet moment just before we left the States to order (most of) my veg from Thompson and Morgan.... they had a couple of days with free postage.

My three six foot by six foot lotty boxes will be planted as follows:

International Kidney

Box one - just potatoes.  I have chosen International Kidney because they have been the best of the six varieties I have grown these past three years.  No blight and they go right through our stay here. They start as small new potatoes and grow on to some really nice, good size spuds that you can pretty much do anything with.  They were scab free, smooth and thin-skinned - all round good.

Fulton's Strawberry Surprise

Box two - will be a pretty much permanent bed.  It will have rhubarb in the middle. I have settled on Fulton's Strawberry Surprise.  I did a lot of reading around on varieties and hope I have chosen a good one.  I grew Timperley but I was never happy with it.  It has gone on to another's care where it might do better.  I was heading towards the traditional Victoria but my childhood memory of it is that it was pretty sour and could be tough.  Maybe my grown-up taste buds would think differently?  

Now this is where this blog could be useful if other folk who grow stuff up here around Bury (and anyone else!)  would share anything with us that works.  Is anyone having great success with rhubarb?  What variety is it?  How do you grow it? 

Appropriately, it has strawberry in its name and I shall be growing strawberries around it.  I have some ever-bearers that have done quite well in pots and I am hoping they will really come into their stride when they can escape in the ground and take a deep breath..... always think pots work like corsets!  I haven't included a photo as I had three varieties - Albion, Calypso and Elsanta and now I have no idea which is what.  I will do my best to identify them as they grow and fruit.  Apologies for sloppy gardening.


Box three - will be the one which swaps around with the potato bed each year and will grow my runner beans and peas etc.  Right now I have on order:
Runner Bean 'Scarlett Empire'
Radish 'French Breakfast'
Salad Leaves 'All seasons'
Pea 'Hurst Green Shaft' (second early)

There will be enough space left to shove in anything that catches my eye.  Maybe ONE courgette plant!  I learned very quickly two people don't need six of those.

Hurst Green Shaft

Here comes my next question - how do you support your peas?  I know you should use the old (pea stick) trimmings from pruning your hazels but, as I don't own a country estate, that won't be happening.  So far I have only grown dwarf varieties of peas and have just scrabbled them through a mish-mash of canes and strings.  This won't work on a larger scale.

I can't wait to get started, but I think I will probably hold off until the middle of the month.  There is a meeting for the lotty users on

10th April at 6.30 pm

Brandlesholme Library (next to the shops)

Won't it be great if we have gardening weather with us by then.

Come back tomorrow when I hope to do an update on the bulbs I had from Spaldings.