Wednesday 29 August 2007

Last spud harvest 26.08.07

Well, this was the last of my maincrop spuds (v. King Edward), which were plucked from the earth on Sunday morning.
This has been a really good crop, and I cant wait to get planting again, ready for the next crop which will be around christmas - all being well.





AS you can see in the foreground of this image, the maincrop spud bed has now been cleared / weeded as required.
As mentioned previously, I will be planting Earlies ( v. Maris Piper) for a Christmas harvest.
A longer growing season is the order of the day i.e. It will take the new planting approx 30 days longer to mature, as the daylight available is now much less. I will plant 5 seeds in this bed, and cover in a black mulch fabric to keep the weeds down.


I finally managed to plant out the Curly Leaf Kale, but alas had to liberally sprinkle around the seedlings with slug pellets, as the offending critters seem to be booming in number, after the recent damp weather. I'll keep you posted on the progress here, as it's an experimental growing for me.


My runner bean crop is going very well, and despite heavy rainfall of late, I continue to water around the base of the plants on a daily basis.
As a result, I am picking beans virtually everyday, and still some are going to waste.
I have been collecting seed for the last 2 months, and this will continue for the next 2 months - at least. The reason : I want to see next year which seeds germinate and produce best crops - i.e. is it dependent on when the seeds are harvested ?
As you can imagine, I will have a large seed collection, and if you want some, I will gladly post out to you - wherever you are. I already have one request from France which I will post free of charge. Any further requests I will have to ask for P&P contribution!

New growth is now appearing in the form of germinating Beetroot ( v. Boltardy ) shoots. I planted 2 further rows as a catch crop, just 2 weeks ago.

I also planted a single row of Radish ( v. French Breakfast ) which although now showing as seedlings, are still too small to photograph.

Thats about it for this weeks update. Sorry it's a couple of days late getting to you, but I've been busy as you know, and time is getting harder to find.

I'm finally trying to give up smoking (again) and four days in all is going well. Wish me luck!

Hope you have enjoyed this update. Please bookmark me and pop back soon.

TTFN.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I have enjoyed that update. Your garden is thriving.
When will you plant your Christmas pots?
Do you let the runners mature before you collect the seed? The runner beans in the photo look good, so we would like to order some seeds please.

Many thanks

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