Sweet Potato Harvest 2012

Digging up sweet potatoes takes the care of an archeological dig. Using a spade, as with 'ordinary' potatoes, can easily cut through the swollen roots that twist and turn beneath the plant in unpredictable ways. I scraped away with my little fork and found a worthwhile harvest.

Foliage that was beginning to show signs of dying off and the effects of the cold weather indicated that it was time to digs up the roots.

The sweet potatoes varied in size, there were a few large ones, several medium sized ones and a number of smaller 'sausages'. 

The smaller roots can be scrubbed and steamed whole and make an interesting, tasty side dish.

Sweet Potatoes and Radishes

These are the first sweet potatoes I've harvested this year. I think they look like lobsters. The skin scrapes off very easily and they are a deep orange colour underneath. They cook quickly and taste delicious - so far I've steamed them and mashed them with butter and also put them into a green Thai curry.

The sweet potato plant is a type of bindweed with the typically shaped, pretty flowers.

I forgot about these radishes and they've become giants. 

Three Sisters in August

Flowering Sweetcorn in the 'Three Sisters' bed.

'Crusader' runner bean from the Thompson and Morgan 'Heritage Collection' growing up  and supported by sweetcorn.

'Uchiki Kuri' Winter Squash shaded by sweetcorn.

'Crusader' runner beans among the sweetcorn plants.

There are dwarf runner bean plants growing beneath the sweetcorn plants too. I had intended just to grow these but when I saw the 'Heritage Collection' runner bean seeds I decided to pop a 'Crusader' seed into the ground beside each sweetcorn plant and see what happened. 

Three Sisters Update

Three Sisters Bed

The sweetcorn, dwarf runner beans and winter squashes are growing nicely. There are plenty of flowers on the beans. I've also planted a few ordinary runner bean seeds right beside the corn plants, so that they can grow up them. I'm hoping it will all look pretty spectacular when the corn is a full height.

A scattering of bird-friendly slug pellets seems to be keeping the 'enemy' at bay.

Radish and Fennel

Radishes holding their own against the weeds. 

This variety is called 'Sparkler 3'. Radishes give me indigestion but other members of the family like them - and it's nice to sow something that's really quick growing. 

Fennel - Di Firenze

I'm trying Florence Fennel this year. It's quite expensive in the shops so it will be nice to have home-grown - especially as the seed was a freebie with a magazine. Florence Fennel is lovely with pork and last Christmas I cooked a delicious fennel gratin as a side dish. I found the recipe on Simply Recipes, Elise Bauer's family food blog - full of fab food ideas.

Help! How do I Cope with Pea Weevils?

Something is eating my Kelvedon Wonder Peas...

and Pea Weevils are eating my Sugarsnap Peas.

I looked for something to stop the Pea Weevils but the only product I found was dangerous to bees! So I didn't buy it.

Does anyone know of anything that is safe for bees that I can use?

There are so many stones on my plot I'm thinking of building a cairn! The carrots are growing well but I'm pretty sure they'll be odd shapes from encounters with stones.

Strawed Strawberries

To protect the strawberry bed from cheeky birds I erected a netting 'tent' - using canes to make a framework and stretching the netting over. I then secured the netting to the ground with pegs and stood back to admire my handywork - only to see a blackbird hop out from under the netting and scamper away across the allotment! Not bird-proof enough, then?? Now it is!!!

First Strawberry of the Year

In view of the wet weather we've been having I have, for the first time in my life, put straw under my strawberries. Hopefully this will prevent the fruit from resting on muddy soil and also deter greedy slugs, by being uncomfortable to crawl over. I'll be checking this later today. 

Greyhounds Up and Running

Greyhound Cabbages thriving in a fine mesh tunnel. I'm looking forward to enjoying this variety again this year. I used seed from last year's packet and every seed germinated! I had to give half the plants away as I'd sown twice as many as I needed - expecting poorer germination results. 

One thing I'll do is start cutting them earlier. Last year I waited until good hearts developed but then some cabbages 'went over' before we could eat them all.

What they say on 'Grow Your Own'.

Onions and Leeks

Onions and Shallots

The onions and shallots are growing well. I planted Stuttgarter Giant and  Hi-Tech onions and Red Sun shallots. A couple of days ago I put on a top dressing of horse manure and mushroom compost which I'm hoping will boost growth even further.

Bulgarian Giant Leek

I'm growing two types of leek this year, Bulgarian Giant and Musselburgh. I planted out the Bulgarian Giants today.

Home-Made Cloche

I cut lengths of garden hose and  strengthened them with fence wire to make hoops for home-made cloches.

The hoops pushed into the soil through slits in the weed suppressing fabric. On the fabric - some home-made wire pegs.

Protective fleece stretched over the hoops, tied at the ends and secured with the home-made pegs.

This Winter Squash plant should be cosy and safe from late frosts for the next couple of weeks.

Sweet Potato Growing

Today I planted out four sweet potato plants.

I dug the soil over and mounded it up slightly.

Then I pegged down black plastic to suppress weeds and, importantly, warm the soil. Last year I just popped two plants directly into the soil, totally unprotected - it was considerably warmer. It was an experiment, I'd bought the plants late and just thought I'd try them out. When I dug them up, in the company of my grand daughter, we were thrilled to find some small sweet potatoes. This year I'm going for it!

After cutting crosses in the black plastic I planted four Beauregarde sweet potato plants into the soil through the plastic. The recommended distance to leave between plants was 12 inches but I left 18 inches - as they are under a cloche I'm hoping they'll get really big!

I had to search for wooden stakes to peg down the plastic as I'd run out of bought pegs. I love this view inside the cloche!

Bricks were necessary to hold down the sides of the thin, plastic cloche. It was windy - not the best conditions under which to single-handedly deal with plastic sheeting! But it did give me an idea of how the cloche would react to wind and it should now be secure.

There's a bit of space left at one end of the cloche so I'm thinking about what I might plant there. Any suggestions?

Early Potatoes Appearing

An Early Potato Plant puts in an Appearance!

The early potatoes are beginning to push up through the soil and, as they appear, I cover them over with more soil. I am so looking forward to eating them come June. I've got six varieties of earlies to try and, later on, six varieties of main crop.

I've drawn a plan of the position of each variety but until all the earlies come up and I can see where they all are, it's hard to know which variety is in the photo. It might be Yukon Gold. I'd also forgotten where all the rhubarb was and plants are pushing up among the potatoes!

Strawberries

Potted up Strawberry runners from plants in my garden waiting to go into my allotment strawberry bed.

The few strawberry plants we planted on the allotment last year have multiplied.

Part of the new strawberry bed. I've left plenty of room between the plants for the runners they'll send out this year. 

Ten plants are Elsanta which I got through mail order. I have no idea what varieties the other plants are!

First Pea Shoots

The first Kelvedon Wonder pea shoots!

The other seedlings are 'gallant soldiers' preparing to fight this year's campaign. The heavy April showers (unlike last year's drought) are not just watering the crops.

Super Rhubarb

This is my...

...wonderfully massive...

...rhubarb.

This particular clump of rhubarb is producing enough long, thick stalks for us, family and friends. I have no idea what variety it is, having inherited it with the half allotment. How fortunate that I got the half with the super rhubarb growing in  it! It makes fab crumble - am going to try rhubarb fool next.

First Asparagus

If you look very carefully...

...you can just see a baby asparagus spear (pink).

The very first spear of the year!

I've protected it with stones and bricks so we don't trample on it.

Last year I planted four asparagus crowns (I think) so in this second year I'll only harvest a few spears. This is so that the plants can continue to develop and become strong and productive. From next year onwards the real harvesting will begin. 

I have no idea how many crowns are needed for a small, continuous crop for four people.

About Asparagus.

Cauliflowers!

What a wonderful...

...surprise!

Look what I found when I went to pull up my unsuccessful cauliflowers! Thanks to the recent rain I had two wonderful cauliflowers. One of the joys of tending my plot is surprises like this. 

Tonight we'll be having cauliflower cheese and for the first time in my life I'll be eating a cauliflower that I've grown myself!! I'm so happy!

The rain is pouring down now and so I'm leaving the other plants in the ground to see if any of the other flowers develop as well. This means that I've had to rethink the main crop potato plot as I intended to dig over the area where the cauliflowers are today...

With the help of my daughter the potato plot is now de-weeded and manured.

Weedy potato plot before...

...and after.

Another job done....

Spring Greens

An update...

...on my Spring Hero...

...cabbages.

The hearts are developing nicely in these cabbages but I'm not going to make the mistake I made with the Greyhound cabbages last Spring. I waited until they were fully grown but then we could not use them all before they 'went over' and split.

I've cut three Heroes already, even though they are not fully developed. They make lovely spring greens and hopefully none will be wasted this time. 

This purple sprouting broccoli cooks very quickly and is sweetly delicious. One of my five plants has been badly affected by whitefly but the other four have produced plenty of spears - enough to share.

This male blackbird was enjoying a puddle in the tarpaulin, while a female made visit after visit to my plot to fill her beak with grubs and caterpillars, before flying off to a nearby garden.