Harvest time

The lottie was always going to take second place in my work schedule this year. The netting completed in the Spring has been a boon. The little birds fly in and out of the netting unhindered so I have had no trouble with caterpillars or green or black fly. The pigeons sit on the fencing eyeing the broccoli.

I went for low maintenance plants this year. The last part of the lottie came into production this year so I had a full lottie to utilise. Blight is a problem so I chose Cara for main crop and International kidney for the earlies. Cara was good as usual but the crop was down mainly due to the very dry spell in July and the relatively poor soil condition. I still got four bags from 14 sixteen foot rows. The International Kidney cropped well be the taste was disappointing. They also suffered from scab. My neighbours grew Charlottes which looked fanastic, so they will be my earlies for next year. The baby sweet corn grew well but came into fruit during the hot spell when I was no one was around. The standard sweet corn were great but the plants were on the small side. I can tell when its time to harvest them because the mice start eating them.

Cauliflower were great except they all came on at once, as did the Hispi cabbage. We had some and gave the rest away. The white onions were excellent this year with the Red Barons a little way behind. Good taste but smaller in size.

Broad Beans are the stars this year. They grow robustly and beans are lovely to eat especially as a "Pate". I am on the third planting. The peas grew well but bolted in the hot two weeks. The mice must have had a field day as there was not a single pea to be found on the ground.

I planted 20 gherkin plants. It turned out I planted far too many. You also need to pick just at the right time. They grew well though.

The root crops have gone well. Swede and Turnips grew well as did the parsnips. Carrots were a pain again but I think this due to the very cold start and then a very hot spell. I have two lots still in but it remains to be seen how big the second sowing grows. The leeks look majestic and does the sprouting broccoli. The second sowing of Hispi, Red Cabbage and Caulis's are going well despite the weeds.

I have just got to get some proper weeding done and then broad cast the green manure. The heavy rain we have had recently has pulverised the soil washing it away. I have deep gutters dug at the side of my beds so they are now full of the wash off. At least it is doing it is job.

Two weeks in July

The early part of July was taken up with the usual diary of events; work, daughter to school, gardening at home, gardening at the lottie. Then I had two weeks off the normal routine. I set about re-fitting the kitchen at home. In order to refit you must first strip the old kitchem out. My wife and I had carefully planned that she would go on her usual weeks walking holiday and the daughter would go on holidays to relatives. This left me in the house on my own. My Dad volunteered for the first week to help me fit the kitchen. We got through a pile of work with other trades coming and going and after a week we had a new floor, new base units, wall plastered, new wiring [lights and power]. The next week saw my Dad go home and my wife return. This week went slower as the electrics were finished, the wall units fitted and all the miriade of small finishing touches were completed. After an over sight in ordering the floor covering the covering went down two weeks later. I was then able to fit the kick boards. All done and the wife is very happy.

The full two weeks was a bit like camping as normal kitchen arrangement were unavailable. I have told H that I don't have another kitchen in me. She has promised that she does not want to move house. In all our previous homes H has decded to move just as I put the down my tools having finished the last job.

Where have you been?

It been about ten weeks since the last blog. So what has been going on?

Here a list of the highlights:
Sweating
Weeding
Fitted a new kitchen at home
Sea fishing
Harvested the lottie
Planted winter greens
Weeding
At war with Rabbits
Pickling
Weeding
Various parties
Jam making
Collecting Apples
Pressing 800lbs of apples
Weeding

The weather during July was amazing. 30C degrees plus every day. Then like a switch the sun went behind the clouds for August and September. The temperature was still in the high 20's together with lots of cloud bursts the weeds were in heaven. Hence "weeding" features often in the list. The Statues Fair has come to town this weekend [second weekend in September] as is tradition and is normally marked by wind and rain, the taste of the winter to come. However the thermometer is reading 21c each day and folk are still wandering around in their summer clothes.

What out for the blogs to come which will catch up the past ten weeks.