Bucket'o'spuds

So the spuds that are planted in the ground have seen their last. Their foliage is dying... which means it's time to dig them up.

Now normally, we do spuds in bags. In fact this year we have bags and buckets. I've already upturned a few bucket and found that the output was rather low. So I wasn't really expecting much from these. However as you can see, we've got a whole bucket of them. Certainly far more than I expected. So it would seem that the amount of spuds produced is in direct proportion to the size of the container... in this case the bed. But there is also a correlation to the amount of work necessary to obtain them. Bed spuds need careful digging. Buckets and bags can just be simply upturned.

So after the spuds were dug out I planted some of the pot bound tomatoes that were dying in the greenhouse. They were at the very back and as I didn't have any larger pots, they were decidedly sorry for themselves.

Mind you... it's still a jungle in there.

Yes, I know there may be blight issues since potatoes and tomatoes are the same plant family, but I suspect that this heat will keep the blight away by drying out the spores before they can set.

We're also expecting good things from the grapes this year as well.

And our Edamame (Soy beans) are now ready for harvest.

So today's harvest is thus (not including the bucket'o'spuds)

A typical Japanese snack is to have boiled salted edamame and a beer. Well, I don't drink beer, so I guess a Dandelion and Burdock will do instead. Cheers!

Too much sunshine

There has been a bit of a gap in the blog posts recently. There are a number of reasons for this. Firstly there is an issue of redundancy. I am currently in the process of going through redundancy consultations with my current employer which has taken my focus away from other things. Secondly there is a health matter. This hot weather has not done my asthma any favours and I had to go to hospital due to getting flu and restricted breathing problems.

Happy to say that both issues have now been resolved, and I can once again focus on the plot.

I have managed to feed the plot enough water that it has escaped the worst of the solar onslaught, however not all have remained unscathed. Firstly the turnips seemed to give up the ghost and just bolted straight to seed.

Rather than waste the bed, The Wife pulled them all and planted Cape Gooseberries in place.

Despite an earlier loss of some of the courgette plants, it seems that a couple of them survived and these, along with the replacements, are now starting to churn out the little marrows in great quantity. Now despite them all coming from the same seed stock, we have a variety of types being produced ranging from the normal greens, to yellows, to a yellow/green mix with strange ribs. Just goes to show that courgettes seeds don't always breed true.

The petunias are certainly putting on a good show though. Almost everybody who walks past the plot comments on them. But then, I suppose, that was the whole point of them being there.

The spud foliage (Maris Peers) is now starting to die down, which means it's time to dig them up, or empty the bags as appropriate.

It seems that the ones in the baskets and buckets have not done as well as those in the big bags. No idea about those in the ground as yet. They'll probably get dug up next weekend.

Now one thing that has been an experiment, which seems to have worked in this weather is the melons. These were seeds saved from a supermarket honeydew melon. We didn't really expect much from them, but yes, we do have a couple of melons growing in the greenhouse.

And finally, the sweetcorn is now starting to ripen. Whether we'll be able to actually eat any this year remains to be seen, but there is a marked difference between the two varieties that we are growing.

The ones on the left are an organic variety. The ones on the right are our standard "popcorn" variety that we've been growing for a few years now. Notice the difference in the heights of the plants. The popcorn's seem to have two or three cobs per plant compared to the organics only having one.


We're used to having oddities being found at the plot. But here is one I have never before seen. An albino garden spider. It was hiding in the red sun flowers, and it certainly knew how to hide. no sooner had I turned the leaf over than it scuttled off to hide again, so this is the best shot of it that I managed.

Still, I hope Spid survives. It's certainly got a better chance than I have in this heat. Garcon! Something cool and refreshing s'il vous plait.