Dispatches from the new netbook! I could be sitting in the garden with it, but it’s getting a bit chilly now.
Unfortunately, with too much time spent at work in the last few weeks, the garden has been a little neglected. But: a new, second compost bin has been procured and installed, much reducing the number of bags of stuff sitting around because it didn’t fit in the one-and-only. The first one is now left to rot down completely and be used, probably quite soon. Also found a bag of ready leaf-mould, most likely from 3 years ago.
Fruit and veg status:
- Tomatoes: Sungold picking regularly; the ones near the big toms have much more blight than the ones in a different bed. They also need to be much further apart next time. Two of the big ones have had to be scrapped already, although Black Kryms are ripening on the window sill, while the Purple Russians are rotting from blight.
- Just finished picking the first row of carrots, some slightly affected by carrot fly, but pretty good considering they had no protection at all. Fly Away doing its job.
- Beetroot has been great, somehow still too much of it, even with one tiny row. We’ve been eating it raw as salad with cream and garlic, as well as making borsch
- Purple beans have cropped well too, although they are more difficult to pick than the climbing ones, and they kind of flop over lots, and are more vulnerable to slugs. And the climbing ones do give so much more crop from the same area of ground. Runners just starting, although black fly has found them of late.
- Cucumbers: the remaining Crystal apple have wasted no time in filling up all the space, but have produced relatively few actual new cucumbers out of it. Maybe I am just impatient. The salted ones didn’t have nearly enough salt, but were quite nice anyway, and lost all bitterness; they are also very cute as they are so dinky. A bit like the netbook…
- Purple sprouting has fallen victim to caterpillars, despite my best efforts at netting them
- Kale seedlings are doing well, although I have had to regularly pick off butterfly eggs from them, and the ones I miss hatch and start eating incredibly quickly
- Hardly any lettuce sprouted. Herbs and strawberry seedlings are doing ok.
- Strawberry grow-bag has provided good picking of late; needs religious watering.
- Raspberries seem to be recovering on the magnesium diet. Have had bowls of enormous Polka’s.
- Of the direct sowings, everything probably germinated, but only the spinach survived the ravages of slugs, despite constant sprinklings of pellets
- Have eaten one of the two figs today, it was delicious. Sadly missed the first one, the ants and wasps had already got to it.
- Apples are coming on, not a very heavy crop, and quite a few slightly damaged ones are falling early.
Have dried some basil.