It is the nature of allotments that both inputs and outputs are almost always little and often rather than big, one off events. Ideal for blogging if you’re into all the minutiae, not so much if you’re not.
My Kestrel potatoes now have blight and I will take the tops off in preparation for lifting them. Shame really, another week and I’d have had a better yield of baking size spuds, which as far as the other half is concerned is all they’re fit for. They break up if you boil them. The maincrop Sarpo Axona are clean as a whistle and will stay in for some time yet.
My onions are the best I’ve ever grown; at least that’s how they look, but they’re not bulbing up as enthusiastically as I’d like and my sister rang yesterday because hers were looking great but have gone down with mildew. I’m cautiously optimistic about mine.
My runners are now flowering freely, though I’ve yet to see a bean. Can’t go wrong with runners though, or can you? I didn’t do very well last year. Peas are fantastic, my Greenshaft have the biggest pods I’ve ever seen. Hope there’s room in the freezer.
Sweet corn was a disaster; I’m inclined to blame leatherjackets as the stems seem to have been gnawed just below ground. I’m not too fussed, they can be replaced with winter cabbage. Corn is a lot of faff for not much return I reckon.
Salad leaves have been mixed; lettuce, which I was expecting to get mauled by slugs, has done well. Flea beetle rendered mustard and mizuna useless. Enviromesh or in pots in my tunnel next year.
Now that it’s a bit drier the slugs have diminished as a problem and their options for daytime hiding places are far fewer. Mostly they’re hiding under the same plants they’re feeding on.
garden ruminations 