Hello, it’s been a long time since I had the time to sit down and let you know how the garden has been progressing through August.
We have been harvesting everyday in the vegetable patch. I can’t remember a year where we have had such a good potato crop, both early and main crops have grown very well and to date no blight. Carrots are abundant and no carrot fly, they have been well protected behind insect mesh along with our lovely crop of brassicas. We have managed to keep the dreaded white butterflies and local wood pigeons off with netting.
Runner beans are all in the freezer as are the surplus Victoria Plums and we are busy cooking and freezing the cooking apples to see us through the year.
The tomatoes have proved very abundant and all varieties have ripened well. They are being skinned and frozen in readiness for pasta sauce using all home grown garlic, basil and onions. This is then bottled for use throughout the year.
In the flower garden the baskets tubs and bedding are all full of colour. The large hardy fuchsia that has been in the garden for twenty years has been completely de-foliated by the biggest caterpillars of the beautiful Elephant Hawk Moth. Not a problem for the plant and a big boost for the moths.
I have had my hands in soil ever since I could crawl. I remember well going out into the garden and watching my Father double digging the vegetable plot and being shown how to pick caterpillars off the brassicas. You could say he was an early organic gardener. There was something nice about sneaking round behind the outhouse and pulling rhubarb and dipping it in sugar, picking raspberries and stuffing handfuls into my mouth. It is these memories of taste and smell that never leave you and make you want to grow your own fresh fruit and vegetables.
It has been something of a treat then, to find myself working for Thompson and Morgan for the past 13 years and being able to help customers to solve their gardening problems
We’ve had a bumper crop of beans this year, both runner and french. They’ve been absolutely delicious!
My Nadine were quite poor but the Cara potatoes are huge as normal!
When sowing carrots make sure the soil is warm enough, if it feels cool to the back of the hand it is too cool to sow. Warm up the ground using fleece or black plastic and cover with fleece or a cloche after sowing.
Hi I wonder if you are able to help me……These past few years about 6yrs I’ve had trouble growing carrots I was given a plot of land from a farmer and for the first 4yrs I grew carrots to die for but since then all I’ve managed to do is to get a couple of seeds to germinate at each end of the row. I’ve tried different parts of the plot, new seed,tilled the soil,sanded the drill and watered as and when it’s been needed I’m lost as to what else I can do seeing as the seeds germinate at each end of the rows and nothing in the middle. I look forward to seeing your reply…………..Thankyou