Garden Blogs

Saturday, 8 August 2009

Rain & Cherry Plums

Rain, rain, rain, rain, rain….. Well, that’s July over with then! Absolute slug heaven in the veg plot, have been out daily cutting the little beggers in half with scissors (beardy weirdy v upset until was able to convince him was NOT using kitchen scissors!) But still they come….. On the plus side, have had a bumper crop of cherry plums this year. Hubby spent (the only) dry afternoon picking them all, ending up with 4 bucket loads! Have made cherry plum & walnut chutney, also cherry plum compote, but this very sweet & am now not sure about it at all Which is a bit of a bummer as I was going to give it to family as part of their Christmas presents as it is such a beautiful red colour. Will give it another taste when I am not quite so totally fed up with cherry plums…. Apart from CP’s, am currently picking leaf beet, courgettes, runner beans & French beans every other day, which is just enough for the two of us. Am mega impressed with squashes, which we are growing for the first time this year, 2 different varieties, one a lovely dark green with a lighter green stripe which I think is Burgess Buttercup, & one a beautiful mellow yellow which I think is Uchiki Kuri - that is I know that they’ve got to be one or the other but as usual I got the labels mixed up! The yellow ones are just the most funny things I’ve seen , it’s like growing boobs in the garden!! The yellow courgettes that I grew from seed are not doing as well as the green one that I bought off a chap at a boot sale, which is a bit of a disappointment. & the toms are doing OK, still a long way from ripe, but it is starting to be clear that F1 hybrids definitely give a better yield than the heritage varieties so far. Will have to give that a bit of thought for next year. My heart is with the heritage, but my head is saying stick with the hybrids if I want to get the most out of the space we’ve got. However, one successful comparison is between the beds that I mulched heavily with our own home made compost & those I didn’t - the growth rate in the composted beds are markedly more impressive. A last word on the carrots - complete failure! I think I’ve got one plant left & I’m just blanking it frankly!