Garden Update 2014

So I posted they pics earlier on G+ but with out explanation. I am rather please with how well every thing seems to be going and since I took the photo many of the plants have grown considerably.

 I have to admit I have that I have a problem, I can not stop buying plants..... I don't go around buying everything I see but if I do see something exotic or unusual I really can not help myself. Hence in the picture to my right 4 Chilean Guava plants and 2 Goji Berry plants. I have never eaten a Guava berry in my life but I could not help myself, however they were an absolute bargain, I got 6 potted plants for £10 on the Dobies website, follow the link here if you want some. I actually thought I was buying 3 plants so gave 2 to my neighbour. The Goji berry came from Morrison's supermarket at the very reasonable price of £2 a plant. I also came home with 2 Gooseberry bushes. All are intended to be grown in pots for now.












To the left I have some Nasturtium Empress of India in my tin can hanger, they are very easy to grow add a bit of colour with the added bonus of having edible flowers. They do attract the cabbage white butterfly though so you have to be quick to get some before the caterpillars have their fill.













I have gone tomato mad this year, it being my first year with a proper greenhouse. I love tomatoes but I think everyone I know will be sick of them come the end of the season. I have about 5 varieties on the go the one in the picture is called Latah and promises to yield fruit in late June and early July. Fingers crossed it does. I bought the seed for this from Realseeds.co.uk








Because of the greenhouse I have also got Melon Madness..... I think I have 4 or 5 Melon varieties, to the left we have Minnesota Midget again from realseeds.co.uk. The small seedlings are Cucamelons not true melons but more like little cucumbers that look like watermelons. I got the seed for these from Russia. But i have seen therm everywhere after I bought them.













After a very successful harvest last year of sweetcorn, I have I have trebles the amount at least of plants for this year. Sticking with the same variety called Double Standard. The Sweetcorn is planned to be part of a Three Sisters planting scheme with peas, French beans and and courgette. I have added a few other plants too such as sunflowers broadbeans and I think I might try a melon or cucumber in there as well.








An there is one of the courgettes, this one will be from in the pot, its actually been hit by the frost a bit but I think it will survive.

















Last year I wanted to grow enough spuds to last me all year, and I did. This year I have growing even more and more varieties too. My main crop here in the pic is Mayan Gold.I have had my potatoes in this barrel for since the start of March which was a little risky but the weather has been kind. The are soiled up to about two thirds of the barrel. The crop in the beds is just getting going now.






Ahh the Rhubarb seems to have taken well after being moved for the second year in a row. I wont be moving them for the foreseeable future/ Still I will only take a little from it this year just to make sure they get established.








Finally the Garlic, the picture really can do them justice, they are so well established from over wintering. I will always over winter from now on. The varieties are Elephant Garlic and White Solent. I have mulched them and the onions for the first time too.

Potato Choices 2014

Last year I grew only 2 varieties of Potato, King Edward and Rocket. I was especially happy with the taste and abundance of Rocket, made the best new potatoes I have ever had. The King Edwards however grew plentifully but were scabby and disintegrated far to easily when boiled (See post Potato Harvest 2013). So in all likelihood I wont be growing them again any time soon. For 2014 I thought I would try three new varieties after all half the fun is trying something new. I have two earlies, a first and a second and one main crop variety.

The first early is called Winston, its has white skin and flesh and looks like a naked potato when cleaned up!

Winston First Early

My second early is Salad Blue, which I have seen advertised as a Main Crop but when I bought these advertised as a second early, so maybe I have an option with these to leave them in longer if I like. The are as the name suggests blue skinned but also blue fleshed which stays when cooked.

Salad Blue, Second Early/Main Crop

Finally the Main crop spud is Mayan Gold, a good roaster with a nutty yet creamy flavour, I am most excited by this one!

Mayan Gold Main Crop

I am happy with my choices, yet there is always going to be those other ones you wanted!! For me I had my heart set on Purple Majesty as my Main Crop but it had sold out already! And I saw another one called Yukon Gold but was but could not seem to find any in the UK.

The Potato Harvest 2013

A few days ago I harvested my potato's and was very happy with the amount I had grown. From a 12x5 foot bed I got 2 large sacks of King Edward potato's. The two bags are essential to this post and for all the wrong reasons. The reason being one of the bags is full of spuds with some sort of disease! Here is a particularly bad example of one....

Half of my crop has these 'scabs' all over them, which is really annoying! Though they look abit black in the picture, fresh out of the ground they were brown in colour. At first I thought I might have had blight though having never had any diseased potatoes of any kind I was not sure! So On to the RHS website I went to confirm my fears that it was blight. 

As it turns out the most likely candidate was not blight but Potato Scab!And whats worse it was probably my fault. The RHS says....

Common scab is caused by Streptomyces scabies and powdery scab by Spongospora subterranea f. sp. subterranea. Both are pathogenic micro-organisms and cause rough, scabby patches. Scabs appear during summer and persist on harvested tubers throughout storage.

It turns out the above diseases are at there worst through dry periods in the summer and I have to say I was not watering them enough. We had the hottest and dryest summers I can remember for a long time and certainly since I have been gardening and I was watering at the same levels as last year where we had a far wetter summer. So I have lived and learnt from this experience.

The spuds though won't go to waste, the most scabby ones have been boiled up as mash and fed the the chickens, they love it, Others with minor scabbing will be eaten first and hopefully the good bag will store well for winter. As a small back up I have some Nadine potato's growing in a tub for some Christmas new potatoes.