Weekend 20th July

I had just a few hours on Saturday to do what was needed at the lottie. Miss L coming back from her sojourn to Cornwall at some point on Saturday. As it happened it was seven in the evening when we went to collect her. Miss L was off to Manchester to stay with Gran and Grandad for the week starting on the Sunday so I only had the morning to do lottie. It was a very busy week at work but managed to get a look in at the lottie during the week and see my buddy Steve to get the orders for watering the plants whilst he is on holiday.

I was was the on the trailer run so was up fairly early. The weather was not helping my timetable, heavy showers were blowing in and out at various speeds. At one stage in the morning whilst working at lottie, a shower blew in and by the time I got to the car it had blown over but I was soaked. I dug up a row of Charlotte's and a row of White Duke of York spuds. The Broad Beans are shoulder high and the cabbages are full flow. The weather has been perfect, warm and wet which has made the spuds bulk up without me having to kill myself watering. On returning the trailer I took a dinners worth of Spuds and some Broad Beans for Chris & Angie. Since I was going up to Manchester I made up two baskets both with two varieties of spuds. One baskets had a cabbage [Candissa] bottle of home cider and a bottle of the demon Damson wine, the another soft fruits from the garden and some small cauliflowers. Mum and Dad got the fruit basket, Uncy Derk the basket with the fortified refreshment. Even sharing the bounty I still had more than enough to do the week.

Digging the spuds was relatively easy work so long as you do not have too many to dig at once! Despite all the rain the soil was just moist. The spuds had sucked up all the water. The Duke of Yorks are great croppers and I intend to leave them in as long as I dare. They make great roasting spuds being large and the insides fluffy when cooked. Here is a picture of the harvest from one of the plants.

I planted ten seed potatoes in each row, not more than a pound in weight for the row and this year they have returned, on average two pounds of spuds per plant. Not bad going.

I even got round to placing stakes behind the vines and tieing them in. The Vines are just about up to the first cross wire which is at about hip height. They might make it to the shoulder height cross wire by the end of the season. Another wait and see.

The only disappointment is the French climbing and dwarf French Beans. They are not doing well at all. I think it is the wind that is chilling them. They just don't like the cold. On the other hand the Pumpkin is making a bid to dominate the whole lottie. I can fell a pinching out session coming on.