Cherry Disaster

This is a very despondant post, as it deals with a total crop failure. Our fan trained cherry tree flowered really well this year, and there was a large number of green cherries. These began to turn red mid June, but as they are black cherries, Sunburst, they were not due to ripen completely until mid to late July. We waited impatiently, watching the luscious bunches of cheeries deepen in colour, and a couple of weeks ago, I decided some looked ripe enough to try. Imagine my horror when I realised those delicious deep red clusters concealed a horrific secret. They were welded together and inside a horrible caterpillar had been busy munching away.

A truly disgusting discovery, and I set too, separating the bunches, squashing caterpillars, and picking off the damaged fruit. There wasn't many left, and they were still a bit tart, so we decided to leave them for another week.

Well, the wasps then moved in, during the last weeek of school, they had an end of term feast, and ate most of the remaining cherries down to the stones! I took 3 perfect ones to my Mum for her birthday, and we had 5 each. Even then, my 5 were not perfect, I had to cut bits out of them!

I am not sure on the policy for next year, I found an article that said Kent growers did not produce organic cherries because of the need to spray in spring against caterpillars, but the article did not give any details. I do try to be organic, but to be honest, as Vicky said, she would prefer to have the cherries with a little bit of poison, than no cherries at all. If I could find out what is used, and if it is available to home growers, I could do some research and make an informed decision.

As far as the wasps are concerned, I am determined they will not get the plums. There is not many, and I don't want to lose them too!

What I picked this week

Things have been very hectic in my life recently, so I'm afraid this blog has been a bit neglected, but I thought it more important to keep the plants alive!

This week I've been picking the Meteor peas that Amanda gave me. The ones at the allotment garden aren't doing too well, but those in the garden are lovely. I've also been picking dwarf beans from the plants Peter gave me, as well as the first ones from the climbers. The ones in the greenhouse have been cropping for a while now, so the bean season is underway.

I'm not sure about the benefit of the early tomato sowing. Although I picked the first one on the 1st June, I've not had many since, and they have been small as well. However, the kohl rabi in the patio gro trays has been doing well, and we've been self sufficient in lettuce and salad leaves for a couple of months now. The garlic is safely pulled, and drying off in the garage.

I pulled the first white beetrooot today. It does look strange, but I've been impressed with the leaves. I don't like the red ones, but these are much more like spinach, so a dual crop.

The fruit has been doing well too. I've picked several bowls of raspberries, and the blackcurrants have been picked and frozen, ready to make into jam when I get time. The cherries are lovely tasting, but still red, so I'm risking leaving them fro a few more days. If we do get rain it might cause them to split though. Apparently it's the rain on the skins, that causes the problems.

Flowers!

Believe it or not, I do manage to fit in a few flowers, and this year I've already enjoyed some beauties. It started with the bulbs, then my alpine clematis, the camellias and the rhododendron in its pot. My Gertrude Jekyll rose was flowering its heart out, then down came the rain, and spoilt a lot of the flowers. However the recent dry spell has spare the later ones, and the scent is amazing. Vicky's Ice Cream rose, a white hybrid tea, is now in full flower and despite a few aphids, looks lovely.

The hardy carnations are a bit tardy, covered with buds, but we are still waiting for the blooms to open. Not so with the sweet peas. Air warden looks great, although it's companion was supposed to be blue, not pink. The packet definitely show blue flowers, but every one is pink. Luckily the red does not clash, as I planted them to climb together. Although the beans are technically veg, I am looking forward to their contribution to the colour in the garden having chosen varieties with white and mauve flowers. I've also put snapdragons between the celeriac, so brighten up the view.

Home Veg Garden Update

Where to start? The fruit is looking promising this year, I've raspberrries, blackcurrants, blueberries, cherries and plums, although I might lose some to the June drop yet. The blackcurrants are beginning to colour though, and I swear they were darker tonight than this morning after the sunshine we had. The cobnut trees have a good number of nut clusters, considering they are still only about 4 ft tall, and the apple tree that was broken in the post managed to set 4 apples so far, although again, they might not all make it.I never did get a replacement, but perhaps they meant next season! I won't get so many grapes this year though, as one of the main rods died back, and the fruiting shoots are less. I have got 10 cuttings taken from last year's prunings, so I'm taking them to the Strawberry Fayre next week, where the Garden Club is having a table.

On June 1st I picked my first tomato, Tigerella, from the Dec 27th sowing. I've had 2 more since then, and another colouring up, but I haven't tasted one yet as the girls have had them. The other varieties are nowhere near ready yet. I have been picking chillies for a couple of weeks. The purple jalapenos are much hotter ripe, but the hot lemon are pretty tastless so far, so I'm hoping they develop. As far as the peppers go, I've a ripe Canape, and the 2 orange bell are showing streaks of colour. All are still living in 6 inch pots on the kitchen window sill!

Lettuce and salad leaves abound at the moment, but I've had to resort to washing them with my reading glasses on. I remember Mum serving up greenfly with the salad, and I'm in danger of doing the same.

The cucumbers in the greenhouse are looking good, and I've some fruit set on the cape gooseberries, Little Lanterns. Takae said they are lovely when ripe, so I'm looking forward to later in the year. Vicky is really pleased we didn't lose a single kohl rabi to the slugs, and she's now enjoying them raw, munching on them when chatting away on MSN. The carrots have been really slow considering I planted them in January. We've had a few, and they are lovely, but I don't know they are worth the effort of such an early sowing.

However the broad beans are another story. I've finished picking the first crop planted in November, with some frozen for later, as Takae and I are the only ones who liked them. I've some more coming on, and the earlier sowings escape the blackfly. The globe artichokes have been attacked though, that is one thing Takae didn't take to.

I sowed some of the white beetroot seed I got from a Grape when we visited Wisley, and the roots look around an inch across, so they are on their way, but the radish have been poor, probably because I didn't keep them watered enough in the dry spell. My garlic leaves are looking a bit tired now, but I think it will still be a few weeks before its time to get them up, and the shallots will of course be later, although it looks as if most sets have split into 4 or 5 at least.

It looks as if I will get a few successes this year, but I think a lot will depend on how the weather behaves over the summer!

Update on the Allotment Garden

Well it's been a while again, but as I'm now back at work full time it's hard to find time to do everything I need to do, let alone the things I want to do!

Anyway, where are we with the new garden? Having resorted to weedkiller, my sister dug a lot of it for me, and cleared the thistles and the nettles. Vicky and Takae planted the vegetables I've grown at home, and Daniel mulched the whole lot with well rotted manure. Thanks to all those people, the garden now looks like a veg plot.

The tomatoes do not look well, I'm not sure why, they have been watered well and mulched, but the leaves are small and purple. I've got flowers and a couple of tomatoes set, but I'll be surprised if we get anything much from them.

I bought in some cabbage and cauliflowers, and they are looking well, even though something, maybe the pigeons that live in the conifer, have had a bit of a nibble. The butterflies have not found them yet!

I've climbing French and runner beans. planted in a couple of weeks ago by Takae, but they look a bit yellow, despite the bokashi put under them, and the mulch around them. However, today when I went to check, some are beginning to find the canes, and the soil is still nice and damp underneath the mulch. The weeds are making it through though, so it isn't quite thick enough!

The Cavili courgettes are romping away, and I've planted in another 3 today, as it would be good to freeze enough to see us through the winter. The Black Beauty and Parthenon are not so good. Takae did not put the labels to them, so I can't say which is which, but I've lost one, and another looks decidedly iffy. The peas are not as green as when I planted them out, but there are the first flowers appearing, so that is the main thing. However the 2 pumpkins look very well. I don't know what they are, the label didn't give a name when I bought them, but they are green, and showing the promise of flower buds.

Today, besides the courgettes, I put in 2 Wilkos butternut squash, and 3 Hunter ones from the Digg It campaign, all grown from seed. It will be interesting to see what I get, if anything. I also planted 2 Green fingers cucumber plants, to grow up the 2 bean canes who have lost their tenants, and 4 marketmore cucumbers, up a wigwam of canes. The marketmore cucumbers were from ancient seeds, which I did not expect to grow, but they germinated well in the heated propagator a few weeks ago. The cucumbers did not get much soil prep, as the well rotted compost from home was too heavy for me to lift, and I just dug the bit I needed. They are looking good at the moment, so fingers crossed for a good harvest.

I was still hoping to get beetroot, sprouts and more cabbage plants in, besides sowing some seeds, but with all the cucurbits, space is again running out! Pictures will be added soon!

Oh, and I forgot the celeriac, it's looking good, smaller of course than the ones I planted out at home, but I'm hopeful we will get a crop, especially if I leave it to last for harvesting.

Sorry It's been so long

What with one thing and another, keeping my blog up to date seems to have fallen by the way, and yet I have been as busy as ever in the garden. Today I picked my first broad beans from and autumn sowing of aquadulce claudia in the greenhouse and planted out in Feb I believe. The pods are long, containing up to six beans each or so, and tasting delicious. I also cut my globe artichoke, determined not to leave it too long this time. Takae wasn't certain, despite me telling her it was a delicacy, but it means I get the next one to myself!
Having spent 3 days in Portsmouth courtesy of Daniel, it was surprising what a little bit of rain will achieve. The Romaine lettuce are hearting up, so I picked one to see how it was. The outer leaves were enormous, and still edible. Slugs had managed to broach the copper defences, through bridges made by other leaves, but generally well grown. The water cress is trying desperately to flower, but I just keep cutting it, and the rate the church salad boxes are growing, we might need to eat them before 20th!
With a bit of help, I've cleared enough of our allotmet to plant tomatoes, celeriac, cabbages and cauli. I have pumpkins, squash, courgettes, peas and beans waiting the wings, so tomorow Vicky, Takae and I will try to get most of the stuff in. It's odd we've not even had it a month yet, and there have been a few surprises,.

New Garden

I am totally amazed. A while ago I registered on the Channel 4 landshare scheme, and last weekend I had a contact passed to me. To cut a long story short, I now have a new garden to plant more fruit and veg in.

As you can see, there are a far few weeds, dandelions, thistles, bindweed and cleavers are the main ones. We got a whole bucket of bindweed roots out of a very small space. Although I will be putting in a compost bin, the present weeds will need to got to the tip, as I do not want the the seeds and perenial roots.

The trees need to stay, otherwise I have a free hand. At the bottom the owner is putting in a new shed for himself, and once that is donw he is going to let me have space in the old one.