{"id":7055,"date":"2022-08-07T11:29:35","date_gmt":"2022-08-07T10:29:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ossettweather.com\/gardening2022\/?p=7055"},"modified":"2022-08-08T09:57:45","modified_gmt":"2022-08-08T08:57:45","slug":"small-but-perfectly-formed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ossettweather.com\/gardening2022\/susan\/small-but-perfectly-formed\/","title":{"rendered":"Better than expected"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Well isn’t it a difficult year for gardeners and farmers? Any rain that is falling just wets any bare earth as it isn’t heavy enough to penetrate any plant top-growth. To deliver moisture to plant roots we have to rely on the watering can.<\/p>

\"\"<\/p>

One crop being prioritised is a couple of rows of peas. Pods have set and I want to give them every chance that I can to swell. I gave the bed at least ten cans of water. This was delivered without the rose directly to the roots.<\/p>

\"\"<\/p>

The potato crop has, through necessity,\u00a0 been neglected when it comes to watering. In some ways, the potatoes have been advantaged by the weather. The early shoots didn’t suffer from any late frosts and the dry conditions meant that neither blight nor slugs have been a problem. All these advantages, however, have been negated by the severe lack of water. No sooner had the tops of the potatoes started to grow than they began to struggle and die down. As the tops feed the tubers below ground, it was with some trepidation that, Martyn started to lift the potatoes.<\/p>

So far he has lifted seven varieties of potato. The yields were very variable and many of the tubers were very small but will still be usable,<\/p>

Heidi Red and Alouette were this year’s trial potatoes. The Heidi Red seed potatoes were poor so we only planted about four of them. The roots had grown lots of tubers but they were very small.\u00a0 Despite that, they were interesting as they have pinkish flesh and we will grow them again next year. This year hadn\u2019t really been a fair test.<\/p>

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\"\"<\/p>

So far Rudolf has produced the best results. The small number of Charlotte potatoes were from a rogue root growing amongst the row of Nadine.<\/p>

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The variable results underline the advantage of growing several different varieties. Martyn has posted a video showing the lifting of some of the potatoes here<\/a>.<\/p>

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So far the carrots that we have lifted have been very small, however as they are undamaged, we don’t need to peel them and they are delicious eaten as baby carrots.<\/p>

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The shallots hardly produced any tops and many of the bulbs are tiny. I’ve been wondering what will happen if I was to plant the tiny bulbs. There are, however, some decent sized bulbs, with the Longor variety producing the larger bulbs.<\/p>

As well as harvesting and, of course watering, we have done some tidying, I tidied up the strawberry plants that were planted from last year’s runners. They haven’t done much growing but had still managed to produce a tangle of runners. These were trimmed off. The more established plants will have the runners removed later.\u00a0<\/p>

The strawberry bed was treated to fourteen cans of water which I hope will give the plants a boost.<\/p>

\"\"<\/p>

As a bonus, I found a punnet’s worth of delicious strawberries.<\/p>

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I also tidied the leek and onion bed. The onions are going to produce smaller bulbs than usual this year.<\/p>

\"\"<\/p>

We have been very busy harvesting.<\/p>

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1 August – Potatoes, plums, French beans, strawberries, raspberries, a tomato and a couple of accidentally harvested onions.<\/figcaption><\/figure>

We didn’t expect to have many plums this year, so were pleasantly surprised to have more than we had anticipated.<\/p>

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2 August – French beans, courgettes, beetroot, baby carrots, tomatoes, sweet peas and pathetic garlic<\/figcaption><\/figure>

The later planted garlic was a disaster so it’s as well that the autumn planted garlic did well.<\/p>

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5 August – French beans, peas, raspberries, blackberries, a sprinkling of blueberries, dahlias, sweet peas, courgettes, shallots and some dried peas harvested for next year’s seeds.<\/figcaption><\/figure>

The pea seeds that were harvested are a couple of varieties gifted to us by Bill and Val.<\/a> One is a mangetout.<\/p>

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6 August – Potatoes, tomatoes, French beans. baby carrots and strawberries.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
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7 August – Potatoes, shallots, cabbage, cauliflower, tomatoes, peas, French beans, blackberries, raspberries, courgettes and sweet peas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Tomatoes are now ripening in both our garden and allotment greenhouses. The varieties come in all sorts of sizes.<\/p>

\"\"<\/p>

More details of our harvests are posted here<\/a>.<\/p>

As you might expect courgettes featured in many of last week’s meals.<\/p>

I made some mini turkey and vegetable meat loaves<\/a>. These used some of our courgettes and onion and were served with freshly harvested cabbage and potatoes. If I made these again I wouldn’t make them in muffin tins. My tins are loose bottomed but even then the meat loaves were tricky to remove.<\/p>

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I made a chicken and courgette korma<\/a> which used more courgettes, onions and homegrown coriander. This was served with some of my homemade courgette and onion bhajis.<\/p>

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I also made a sort of orzo risotto<\/a> which used more courgettes and home grown garlic.<\/p>

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My post wouldn’t be complete without the obligatory cygnets photo.<\/p>

\"\"<\/p>

Finally, guess who photo-bombed my shot of the lake at Nostell.<\/p>

\"\"As always ’til next time stay safe and well.<\/p>

Once again I am linking to Dave’s Harvest Monday<\/a> post over at his Our Happy Acres blog.<\/p>

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Well isn’t it a difficult year for gardeners and farmers? Any rain that is falling just wets any bare earth as it isn’t heavy enough to penetrate any plant top-growth. To deliver moisture to plant roots we have to rely on the watering can. One crop being prioritised is a couple of rows of peas. 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