Potato rust?

I mentioned potato rust in a previous blog but didn't show you clearly what I meant.  I am not sure what it is but looks more like rust than blight.  It had affected the leaves of the row of Charlottes that I have just finished harvesting but the potatoes were perfect.  It is also infecting the leaves of the middle row of Estima.  This photo is of them.  Estima will have had the markings longer when I come to harvest them so it will be interesting to see if it has any effect on the tubers.

My third row and my all time favourite spud, International Kidney, is utterly unblemished.  I can't recommend these enough - they have been successful every year, including a blight year.  No wonder they are grown commercially - these are Jersey Royals but the name can't be used outside Jersey! They must be the best new potato bar none, but the surprise is that  they go on and on.  The end of my harvest will yield many good size potatoes often weighing around  half a pound each (225 g) and in perfect nick.

Picking peas and bean the easy way

This is my favourite way to pick beans and peas - rip the plants up and sit down to pluck them.  I have cleared out the pea and broad bean plants  as they have come to the end of their production.  I had a decent crop from both lots and have frozen a few packets of two-portion size legumes.  They may get 'converted' to other things such as risotto or soup or in pasta.  Frozen isn't quite as good as fresh but they are still my own!

The emptied half a box is a bit of an experiment - I have sown some dwarf French beans, aptly named 'Speedy',  which I know is probably too late.  The truth is I am not fond of them so I don't care too much; I just want to see what happens.  I also bought some spinach seeds in hopes we can get some of that for our plate before we decamp at the end of October.  I have left some space in hopes we find some fast maturing calabrese plants I can put in - unlikely but who knows.  If not I may just shove in some carrot seeds and see if they do in time.

Anyone else who is here for the winter would be putting in their various brassicas but it it a waste of time for me.  I don't think there is anything I can plant to overwinter and give me some veg in April.  Please let me know if you know of anything.

Fed up with rhubarb crumble?

I spent ages moaning that the rhubarb was looking rubbish, then all of a sudden it sprang into life and looks great.  I have been very naughty and picked some!  You aren't supposed to pick at at the end of July and/or the first year you plant it.  It needs to bulk up and get its feet down properly to release the sugars properly.  If you pick too late in the season it doesn't get a chance to do this and you will get a smaller crop next year than you would do if you leave it. Plus the rhubarb won't be as sweet.   I broke both rules and picked just one pudding's worth.  How can you not when you have grown it and it looks like this?

Off to try a new pudding recipe with it.

Next day:  Nom, nom - excellent recipe - see the recipe tab at the top.  The top of the pudding isn't cracked, they are supposed to be sort of seven 'cobbles'. I think it serves six properly, four generously or two piggerly.  There's only two of us here - what can you do?  

Using up spring onions

As always we end up with an excess of something or other and this time it is spring onions.  I grew a variety called Furio and, like everything else, it has done brilliantly.  This box of good size onions is destined for an experiment.  I am going to use them like shallots and put them in a beef in red wine casserole. 

Next day:  delicious - they are as good if not better than shallots.  Have a look in the recipe section (tab at the top) if you want to see what I did with them.

Land cress - treat it mean

These are four land cress plants I transplanted to their own trough and they have done very well - too well it seems.

Whenever I have grown this it has been grown from seed and not thinned out so it has always been crammed in a pot or the garden and the ensuing masses and masses of small leaves have been delicious.

This began its life in the same way - crammed in a seed tray and we ate all the small leaves as they appeared, mixed in our salad leaves or on sandwiches and they were lovely.  Mean while I gave four plants the recommended space needed thinking they would be so much better. The leaves are huge and therefore a bit tougher.  To get them on a sandwich or in a salad they need chopping up.  There is no improvement in flavour and they send up flower shoots every five minutes so I have to keep removing those.  Moral of this tale - treat your land cress mean.

Strawberry runners

The strawberries were overrun with runners when we got back from a few days away.

I suppose if you grew these in a field you could let them do their own thing and wander and root at will.  Works really well on a steep slope.  Clearly this isn't an option for the average gardener.

You shouldn't let them produce more than four or five runners if you do want to make new plants from them, as it weakens the parent plant too much.  

The usual way to do this is to peg down the runners at each little plantlet so they are in contact with the soil and when you can see they are growing (and have roots) you cut the stem between them and the mother plants and move the baby either to a pot or to a new planting area.

You can also put small pots of soil around the plants and pin a plantlet attached to a runner into that and, again, when it is self-sufficient cut it away from its mom.

My method flies in the face of received wisdom but, so far, it has worked just fine.

I clean up all the bed by removing all the runners and, as quickly as I can, I choose the biggest plantlets and poke them in a pot. I need five so have rooted ten.

Strawberry plants will produce fruit for up to six years but after their second year they get less and less productive so it is wise to renew them every three or four years.  I have five plants along each side of the bed (four sides!) so I intend to begin at the front and work around the bed clockwise renewing one side each year.  Eventually I will have a mix of new plants and one, two and three year old plants in the bed each year.

This is a photo of the cleaned up bed.  We are waiting for the next batch of strawberries - there is  enough fruit and flower to do us a couple of decent puddings.  They are supposed to produce a pound of fruit per plant so twenty plants equals twenty pounds of strawberries by my reckoning when they get going properly next year. I do like these ever-bearers for living up to their name.

I have no idea if they are Albion or Calypso or a mix of both.  I had both in pots before they went to the lotty and - you guessed it - I never labelled them because I knew which was which.

Lucifer's back in town

This is one of my most favourite plants in the garden and brings my front garden to life every year.  Crocosmia Lucifer - just love it.  Have a look at the Garden album if you want to see it in action.

This is my (now) nine foot thalictrum.  It is the prettiest and daintiest flower against a blue sky.  Again it is the garden album if you want to visit it.

Last, but not least, meet Fred, Albert and Mary.  They seem to be here all day, every day - they love the Bowles mauve.  One was even cheeky enough to land on my finger when I had taken the picture.  They are the small common tortoiseshell  (I looked it up to be sure).  The large tortoiseshell is considered extinct now in the British Isles but there is evidence it has begun to re-appear.  Sadly I can't remember who was asking to be notified if you see one but I doubt at 53 degrees North that's very likely.  Here is Gauardian article if you want to know more.