Polytunnel and garden in August

So, August. Hmmm. Supposed to be warm, dry and sunny, normally. But here in the UK we have had yet more gloom, lack of sun and lots of rain.

I have given up with Carrots in the veg garden - I know I could probably get a last gasp sowing of an early variety like Nantes in the soil, but after the total failure of 6 different sowings of multiple rows of carrots ( not one carrot!) I have given up. I have sown seed in pots in the polytunnel and that will have to do.

Peas, likewise I have abandoned. I had a few handfuls of Mange Tout  in July and that is all and the plants were again smashed to bits in the last downpour at the start of August.

We have harvested the Onions as the stems were bending over and wilting - the harvest this year is down from the usual 60 lbs or more to about 30 lbs. They are drying in the polytunnel at the moment. The Shallot harvest was pathetic - about 3 lbs of shallots are stored.

I have finally got a  couple of Courgette plants going outside and am beginning to harvest one or two courgettes from them. The Pumpkins however are dead - again overwhelmed by water from the sky I think.

The Leeks are doing well, as are the Parsnips. I have had no Dwarf French Beans from the plants yet, although the plants themselves are doing OK.

I AM now harvesting Climbing French Beans (hurrah!) and the Blue Lake are looking good and I hope to get a good crop to freeze.

 I do not know if the Celeriac ( under the long white mesh tunnel) will do well - the plants are still very small.

In the netted raised beds the Kale and Calabrese plants are doing well - small heads have formed on the Calabrese. The PSB plants are hanging in there - if I can keep the Cabbage White butterflies away they should be OK.

The Spinach ( under the white mesh) is good as well.

 


Our potato harvest is well down on last year - but at least we managed to cut off the haulms before the blight damaged the actual spuds in the ground, so we have about 60 lb of stored potatoes to eat from now on. Normally we store about 150 lbs to eat over the winter so I guess we will be buying them this year.

Unfortunately the blight has got inside the Polytunnel for the very first year since we have lived here. We are surrounded by blighted potato fields here and have been so for about a month so I am not surprised, but I AM saddened.  My poor tomato plants :-(

You can see the blighted foliage on the tomato plants - I cannot move the peppers outside so I suspect they will get it next.

But I am eating Kale from the polytunnel plants already and have all sorts of green leafy stuff growing for the autumn.

I stripped all the tomatoes off the plants and brought them inside - hopefully some will ripen and I suspect I will be making a lot of tomato based chutneys!

I will be cutting down the blighted tomato plants and putting the foliage in the HotBin.

How is your garden growing? has the weather affected you?

Plant order from Rocket Gardens

As you all know we have had some very wet weather here. A lot of plants have been smashed to bits by the torrential rain, or just didn't even germinate at all this year.

I had little success with my courgette plants - the two in the polytunnel are doing ok, but the four I planted outside got smashed in the last downpour which also flooded the garden and polytunnel.

I have also had a complete failure of dwarf french beans and the latest set of pea plants. I have planted loads more seeds in the polytunnel, I tried looking on Freecycle, I have asked around friends and I have looked in my local garden centres for organic plants but with no joy - I guess growers are suffering the same way and what few plants are in the shops are snapped up quite quickly!

So I decided to buy in some plants online and thought I would see what Rocket Gardens plants were like. I have heard good things about them from various friends and from reviews in the media  Rocket Gardens, say on their website

All of our seeds are sourced from Soil Association approved organic seed suppliers.
The compost we use to grow the seedlings in is approved for use in Organic systems by the Soil Association.
Our plants are grown naturally under a fully organic regime.

 
So, I decided to order some courgette plants, some peas and dwarf french beans as well as some more spinach as I have been having trouble with growing seedlings and I wanted a back up in case of any more losses! I also ordered some late strawberry plants and some herb plants. When I ordered there was 25 % off all orders so I did buy a few more plants than I originally intended (cough!)


The cardboard box came promptly and the plants were packed in layers of hay ( organic, I later found out on checking :-) )

The herbs were very good plants, I have brought the Lemongrass plants inside ( after listening to what Jekka McVicar had to say!)

The mint was to replace a variety which died in the very cold weather last year.

I also planted up a herb planter with some of the other herbs I bought. All were a good size and very healthy looking.

The strawberry plants were quite the best looking ones I have ever bought and I will be planting up a strawberry tower with them in the next day or so.

I shall pot on the beans, peas, spinach and  and courgette plants into individual containers and let them get a little larger before planting them out, but they were a good size also. I just want to make sure they do not get drowned or bashed to bits outside (especially as it is raining here AGAIN!)

Also had a very nice chat to a lady on the other end of the phone, when I called them about the hay, so all in all am impressed with their service and their plants. The prices are pretty good, also ( especially with a further 25 % off...)

Will keep you all updated :-)

July?

Hmm. July. Isn't it supposed to be sunny?

Today , as I write this, it is not raining. Dull, yes. Overcast, yes. But not actually raining.

It did, of course , rain all day yesterday and all night - to add to the already sodden ground overburden of water.

I have been out inspecting the veg plot and an not terribly happy with what I can see.

The outside courgettes have gone - smashed into oblivion by the sheer volume of water descending from the skies in recent weeks. I am going to plant a couple of seeds and see if we get an "Indian summer" autumn - we might get a late harvest from them if so. I do have 2 courgette plants inside the polytunnel so we do have some courgettes to eat, but not the huge quantity we normally rely on.

Beans are still alive but a long way behind where they should be at this time of year - we are normally picking the first ones by now.

 

Pumpkins are ...ok. ish.


Potatoes - well I keep expecting to see blight, due to the humid air - so far we have escaped!  But the potatoes are still too small to eat and the yield is poor. The only ones we have been eating are those I planted inside the polytunnel!

Peas. Well. Enough said I think. - have lost 4 separate sowings so far and these are all that struggled through the poor weather. Will try one more sowing 




Carrots. Ditto.  Will re sow fresh carrot seed and try once more.

 


 Onions and Leeks are ok.

  Taking advantage of the sunshine to tidy up a bit

  A very waterlogged wheelbarrow of weeds!

Pears

 Pretty potato blossom

  Parsnips - are doing really well!