We visited the local garden centre this weekend after they announced it was their annual Potato Day, which is when we usually stock up for the growing season ahead. Alongside the usual bags of seed potatoes, as usual, they also sell individual tubers – ideal for us, as we enjoy trying out new varieties without committing to a full bag.
This year we chose four we haven’t grown before: Harry, Jacky, Caesar, and Mozart, buying five tubers of each. It’s always fun experimenting with different potatoes to see how they grow and, of course, how they taste. Any favourites may well make it onto our general growing list in future years.
The potatoes are now home and ready for chitting. We’re looking forward to planting them out – once the ground finally (if ever) dries out – and hopefully enjoying a great harvest later in the year.
We also chose four different varieties of onion sets, as growing a range gives us a better chance of a successful harvest. We deliberately selected varieties that produce round rather than flattened onions, as we prefer these. We don’t grow red onions from sets, as they never seem to perform well for us, so we raise them from seed instead, along with our shallots. In addition, we picked up some extra garlic to add to the cloves already in the ground. These will provide a useful backup in case the earlier plantings don’t live up to expectations.
One of our hazel bushes was due for a cut back this year, and we’d been hanging on for a dry day that wasn’t too cold. Sunday fitted the bill perfectly, so we headed down to the allotment and got stuck in.
As a bonus, we ended up with plenty of fresh pea sticks and bean poles.
I also cut back another buddleia bush – only one more left to go.
I noticed that one of our sprout plants had finally produced a few sprouts that were actually a decent size. For some reason, we haven’t had much luck with sprouts over the past few years, so I dug the whole plant up and brought it home with us, hoping we might be able to pick off a few usable sprouts.
Martyn lifted some leeks, and then we packed up and headed home.
During a drizzly walk at Temple Newsam on Monday, we spotted two egrets, a grey heron, and a goosander, but all were too far away to capture a decent photo. Each time we tried to edge a little closer to the egrets, they took off and flew to the opposite end of the lake, staying just out of reach.
A couple of weeks ago we noticed that an area of the walled garden had been fenced off and began speculating about what was being planned. Were pigs going to be moved in to root out the weeds that take hold as the season progresses? Last week, when gardeners were working in the area, I asked what was happening and was told they were creating a pumpkin patch. They were busy reinforcing the wooden fence with wire fencing to keep Peter Rabbit out.
On Wednesday, when we set off for a walk in the park, the sun was shining, but as we got closer, it became very misty. A brief glimpse of the sun was all we were treated to on that day.
After all the rain over the last few months, it was hardly surprising that the temporary winter lakes at Nostell are growing in size.
The grounds staff have been carrying out tree work, and as a by-product, wood chippings were piled along the path beside the lake. These chippings were being spread, providing a drier walking surface. This path is replenished most years.
Water was pounding over the lake’s overflow.
It looked comical, as if in order to keep their feet dry, even some of the ducks were taking advantage of a plank of wood as they took a nap.
We resigned ourselves to coming home with a very muddy little dog, but as usual, Ruby did a great job of navigating around the worst of the mud and puddles, and her feet were surprisingly clean – well relatively clean – by the end of the walk.
That’s all for this week so as always until next time, stay safe, stay well, stay dry and stay warm.
I need to buy my seed potatoes and onion sets too. I noticed they have them now in the garden centre.
Now it’s a case of looking after them until time to plant Margaret
Don’t spoil the hopes of those gardeners, but I sincerely doubt they’ll keep Peter Rabbit out of a Pumpkin Patch! You’ve taken some lovely, atmospheric photos there, but those photos of the ducks prove one thing . . . you’ve got your ducks in a row!
I should have asked if one of the gardeners wes called Mr McGregor, Debbie
Well done for getting out and to the allotment, those hazel sticks look perfect.
We also visited a potato day, but your selection is much larger than ours, though I don’t recognise any of those varieties. Interesting to see how they do.
The rain is certainly persistent, perhaps even the ducks are fed up with it now!
Your misty tree photos are great.
They have dozens of varieties if potatoes, Belinda many new ones. They cook some to taste at certain times over the weekend but we don’t bother with that.