Thursday, July 07, 2011
Still no crop!
With all the variations in rainfall and temperature, there is still little to show for in the way of crops, except the spuds (starting to hit the second earlies, orangey-red Rosabelles). I have dug up the garlic and echalotes which are drying in the shed, and on the next sunny day I can start to bring up the onions, their stalks are bent and many are already dried. The onion crop looks set to be excellent, good sized bulbs. The echalote was OK, most crowns had at least 6 echalotes of a fair size. Last years were bigger though, I think they too suffered from the unpredictable weather.
The squash is rampant, there is a fair sized Turk's Turban alredy on the vine and many other smaller fruit. I have pinched out one of the growing tips of the Atlantic Giant, I haven't found all the others yet!!!
The kale is doing very well, as are the Brussel Sprouts. The courgettes are finally showing tiny fruit, and the melons also have a couple of babies on them. Still nothing on the cucumbers but the vines are growing well.
The tomatoes are thick with foliage and flowers - there are several fruit forming now, I can see the distinctive stripes on the Tigerella fruit and the elongated shape of an Italian plum tomato. The Gardener's Delight are full of flowers and green fruit so won't be long now. I have beautiful purple flowers on some of the aubergines too. I feel they are the prettiest flowers of the cropping plants. A couple of tiny peppers can also be seen on the sweet pepper plants.
Yesterday in an hour, I did quite a lot of work, digging up spuds, garlic, echalote, watering a little, I even managed to do some sowing, filling in some holes in the French beans with Cobra and Fin de Bagnols beans, the last lot of carrots (Early nantes and Autumn King), and beetroot (I WILL get some this year if it kills me!) - both Cheltenham and Monorubra although for the former it is a tad late. And also some scarole lettuce (Cornet d'Anjou) and red scarole which is in quite a protected spot and I am hoping I have sowed at the right time. When the warm weather returns I will fleece that to protect it.
Now, I just need for the strawberries to start giving again and I will start to gain faith back!
The squash is rampant, there is a fair sized Turk's Turban alredy on the vine and many other smaller fruit. I have pinched out one of the growing tips of the Atlantic Giant, I haven't found all the others yet!!!
The kale is doing very well, as are the Brussel Sprouts. The courgettes are finally showing tiny fruit, and the melons also have a couple of babies on them. Still nothing on the cucumbers but the vines are growing well.
The tomatoes are thick with foliage and flowers - there are several fruit forming now, I can see the distinctive stripes on the Tigerella fruit and the elongated shape of an Italian plum tomato. The Gardener's Delight are full of flowers and green fruit so won't be long now. I have beautiful purple flowers on some of the aubergines too. I feel they are the prettiest flowers of the cropping plants. A couple of tiny peppers can also be seen on the sweet pepper plants.
Yesterday in an hour, I did quite a lot of work, digging up spuds, garlic, echalote, watering a little, I even managed to do some sowing, filling in some holes in the French beans with Cobra and Fin de Bagnols beans, the last lot of carrots (Early nantes and Autumn King), and beetroot (I WILL get some this year if it kills me!) - both Cheltenham and Monorubra although for the former it is a tad late. And also some scarole lettuce (Cornet d'Anjou) and red scarole which is in quite a protected spot and I am hoping I have sowed at the right time. When the warm weather returns I will fleece that to protect it.
Now, I just need for the strawberries to start giving again and I will start to gain faith back!
Labels: aubergine, beans, beetroot, carrots, echalote, potato, squash, summer, tomatoes
# posted by antipodesgirl @ 11:13 AM 
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