Multiveg's plot ramblings on

Potatoes have still been good, even though the foliage didn’t look great, and there have been a few holes in the spuds. Carrots, the maincrop late sown ones, have been excellent. Very little carrot root fly.
Runner beans have been doing well, as have the marrows & pumpkins (though the pumpkins aren’t as big as last year).
Onions have been good from seed this year although a couple had split at the base (probably due to the heavy rains). Sets also did well. A book I have just finished reading, Forgotten Fruits by Christopher Stocks – one of the HSL varieties of onions I have is mentioned in this book, as another name for Bedfordshire Champion. The book is well worth a read.
French beans are doing well, we are letting them mature for drying.
Leeks look good too.
I visited my mother last month and saw tons of fruit on her tomatoes. The plants themselves don’t look as healthy as the ones I have in my “greenhouse”, but they are certainly cropping well, with fruits of all colours and sizes. Her peppers, both chilli and sweet are far more advanced than mine (which unfortunately, have greenfly…).
Got fed up of fruity pies/crumble! Next year…!!!! the currants on our second plot should do even better (planted in 2008) – ideas please for what to do with currants – what would go nicely with them in jams & jellies, or drinks (I’ve put some fruit in alcohol….)
Have already ordered some seeds for next year!!

Harvesting has continued. Potato foliage may have a touch of blight. We’ve had a few “full smith periods” – ideal conditions for blight. We have had some good spuds though.

Some onions needed to be harvested – the leaves had gone yellow or disappeared. White Ebenezer had even started to get some sort of rot/mildew in the top couple of layers near the neck – I’m not sure if the affected area was on the predominantly wind/rain facing side – perhaps that’s a factor. Other onions, apart from some Tondo Musona sown onions that are about the size of “sets”, look fine.

Shallots also have started to be harvested. Some are a fair size, though I have not been wowed this year by Topper. Pikant (late buy!) and Yellow Moon have done better.

Runner beans are cropping, and are still covered in pretty red flowers. The climbing french beans are also doing well – pretty variegated pods. All the french beans we have are also suitable for drying. Broad beans and peas have filled the freezer (well, almost!). Got 4 bags of broad beans to deal with from this week – no (or little) blackfly, and chocolate spot appeared relatively late on.

Early sown carrots – Amsterdam forcing look more like those expensive “baby carrots” sold in supermarkets but even smaller – some weren’t even an inch long or a centimetre thick (though still tasty!!)!  Cleaning was done using a new (but cheap) toothbrush (we did at one time have a vegetable brush with the handle looking like half a spud). Some root fly damage too. Later sown carrots are doing better, including a white carrot.

My mother phoned me today to say she was eating a lovely red cherry tomato. Her tomatoes and peppers (which she had sown, but I potted on for her) are doing a lot better than mine.  She has fat peppers, thin but long peppers, large peppers, red tomatoes, yellow tomatoes, ….. She came to visit us for the week and laughed at my “pathetic” looking peppers and tomatoes. I haven’t even got any tomatoes turning colour. She lives in Lincolnshire and the weather is generally better there. There are both tomatoes inside the greenhouse and outside. Mine are inside a “greenhouse.”

Soft fruit has done exceedingly well. Not sure really what to do with it all. We have redcurrant jams & jelly, blackcurrant jelly, whitecurrant jam (perhaps a bit overcooked, but not burnt), eaten various fruity pies & crumbles. I’ve also put fruit in alcohol too.

Greengage is doing well. Fruit are yellow and are almost all ready. Yummy. Tree was bought from Morrison’s supermarket – though I can’t remember which variety they are.

Thinking of having more fruity trees. Not sure what yet, or what would do any good – more plums perhaps. We had an apple tree but it split in the wind. A second tree is doing ok.  There is also a cherry tree (Stella, perhaps) and a pear tree.

In the garden, we had a cherry tree (Sunburst) we had 4 cherries (first year).