Strawberry Plant Surplus

New Strawberry Bed 

Old Strawberry Bed (still has lots of plants)

 Last month I transplanted 90+ strawberry plants to the new bed, a neighbour took 20 plants and I've still got more than I know what to do with. 

Despite the long cold winter and spring they're thriving and flowering. At this rate they'll take over the plot! 

Ever optimistic, I'm going to the 'Potato Day' tomorrow to buy this year's seed potatoes. Just four varieties this year, I think: 1st early possibly Duke of York, 2nd early definitely Nadine, Main Crop probably Maxine and Valor. I may change my mind.... but I've a little less space this year as I'm doing a three year rotation on my half plot.

Great Potato Disaster

The 'Great Potato Disaster' caused me to lose enthusiasm for keeping up this blog for a couple of months. Now that the days are visibly drawing out (not dark until after 5.00 pm last night!) my interest is returning. It also seems brighter because the snow that's covering everything outside my window reflects the light even more. The dark days of November and December made me feel lethargic but now.... I can believe that Spring is just around the corner. Whoopee!

Back to the 'Great Potato Disaster'. I stored my carefully nurtured harvest in hessian sacks in my old aluminium wheelbarrow in the garage; exactly as I had done last year. The potatoes were cool, dark and dry. I had five main crop varieties: Maxine, Argos, Desiree, Harmony and Valor. Careful watching for blight led to a good harvest and I was looking forward to eating my own potatoes for at least five months.

Some of my main crop harvest.

On 13th November I went out to the garage to choose a couple of potatoes to bake with our evening meal. I was thinking about which variety to have, it was such a luxury to have five varieties to choose from. As soon as I saw the chunks of chewed potato I knew - Ratty had been at the spuds! I was furious! There were chewed tubers, ones with what looked like a single bite taken out of them and bits of potato everywhere. A lot of tubers had escaped but the sacks were wet, with wee no doubt. I salvaged two untouched potatoes and cooked them and we ate them with no ill-effects. Apparently if Weil's Disease is present heat destroys it.

I washed all the whole potatoes but somehow, with the thought of the rat and the wee, neither myself nor my husband felt comfortable with the thought of eating any more of the crop. And I was not at all happy about feeding the potatoes to family and friends so, sadly, I tipped the lot into the wheelie bin and had a little cry.

Bye, bye my beauties.

Next year's harvest will be stored in our front porch. As for Ratty - I've taken steps........

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.