Penellype's 2016 Garden Diary

[Containergardener]

What makes a good potato yr pene? Hotter weather ?

I'm just getting flowers on my teepee beans. Lovely colour.

[Penellype]

I wouldn't think that last year was particularly hot. I think this year there was a very sharp frost (-2C) on 29th April (it nipped some of my Charlottes badly even though they were in a blowaway greenhouse at the time) and I think that could have come at a critical time, affecting the yield. The plants were quite big at the time. Direct comparison is not easy because I didn't do exactly the same thing both years, but the nearest would be as follows (2nd hand compost refers to compost which has been used for at least 1 previous crop, but not potatoes/tomatoes in the previous year unless specifically mentioned).

2015
20th March planted 3 Charlottes in a bag of 2nd hand compost with bfb and vermiculite added and put it straight outside in its final position next to a north facing wall. The bag was only about 3/4 full due to having to lift it into a 3ft high compost bin and wedge it in. Covered with fleece when cold weather was forecast, and very shaded by other potatoes I was growing in an old dustbin (which was disintegrating and has since been thrown away). The bag was standing on a bucket lid to prevent through drainage but not in a water tray. Watered regularly once growing. Harvested 11th July for 1.4kg potatoes.

21st March planted 3 Charlottes in a bucket in my friend's greenhouse in new compost + vermiculite. Watered as required. Moved outside onto soil 9th May and harvested 18th July for 2.6kg potatoes.
Last mention of significant frost forecast 26th April, but not as cold as -2C.

2016
11th March planted 3 Charlottes in a bucket in the garage using 2nd hand compost with bfb added (but no vermiculite this year). Moved outside into the growhouse 13th April and kept watered. These were not the plants visibly damaged by the frost. Moved onto soil on the raised bed behind the north facing wall on 15th May. By 10th July most of the foliage had died down and the bucket was harvested for 1kg potatoes.

12th March planted 3 Charlottes in a bucket in my friend's greenhouse using 2nd hand compost that grew healthy tomatoes last year with bfb added. Moved outside 15th May. Bucket harvested on 26th June as the foliage had died down. I didn't have my scales with me but from looking at the yield there was around 1kg of potatoes, and none of the big ones that there were last year.

Observations:
1. Although last frost dates were not significantly different, the last frost this year was much sharper than last year, which was probably just above 0C.
2. The lack of vermiculite in the compost is unlikely to have been particularly significant in a year where the main problem has been too much rather than too little water.
3. Using old compost rather than new could have accounted for the difference at my friend's, but not at home.
4. I would have expected a bigger yield this year from plants in more compost (a full bucket versus 3/4 bag) and better light for a while in the growhouse. Direct comparison of bag vs bucket last year suggested the bucket was better.

I think the above evidence, although not in any way scientific, points to this year being a worse year for potatoes than last. Most of my other evidence is based on the other 2 buckets of Charlotte at my friends, which have died down and been harvested a month or so earlier than last year's crops for disappointing yields, and Lady C versus Rocket, which is probably unfair because Rocket is well know for being high yielding (at the expense of flavour).

[Penellype]

Yesterday was not a good day. I don't often get thoroughly fed up and disenchanted with gardening, but I was almost ready to throw in the towel yesterday. Or maybe that should be throw in the trowel.

I started off by wandering out to inspect my calabrese, which is nearly ready to harvest. It has been in the carrot cage, which is not the most accessible place so I planned to move the biggest one to the fruit cage. There have been slight signs of slug damage on the leaves where they have been touching the netting, but I was totally unprepared to find a big, thick slime trail right across the centre of the head. I was unable to find the culprit, so he is still lurking in there somewhere. Not a good start.

Having moved the calabrese the next job was to harvest 2 buckets of Charlotte potatoes whose foliage had died down. These will provide empty buckets for the new batch of Charlottes which are due to arrive by post any time now. The plan was to store them to eat later. The first bucket wasn't too bad at 1.05kg, but a lot of the potatoes have quite bad scab and are not going to keep well. The 2nd bucket, one of the ones that was badly damaged by frost, yielded only 0.45kg. Both buckets contained 3 seed potatoes. To put this in context, last year's average for Charlotte was just over 0.5kg per seed potato.

Next task was to mow the lawns. Got out the lawn mower and mowed the rear lawn. It promptly started to rain, so I had to abort mowing the front lawn as I have an electric mower. The forecast had said it would be dry until 6pm, it was just 1pm when it rained. I have managed to do the front lawn today.

Potted up some cabbages and washed a few plant pots while it was raining - I don't wash them every time, but I like them to be clean before I put them away in my storage trunk.

Then it was time to pick some veg for dinner. I went to cut the last cabbage, but it was full of holes and I couldn't face it so I left it for later. Decided to have bacon and egg for dinner instead of the stir fry I had planned, throwing in a few fried potatoes as the only contribution from the garden - almost unheard of.

Then the icing on the cake. Picked some strawberries. Strawberries are one of the few things that are pretty much pest free providing you can keep slugs and birds off them. So I was (to put it mildly) devastated to find a small brown maggot emerging from one of the fruit. Closer inspection revealed several further small holes, mostly around the stalk end of the fruit. I think this is a recently arrived asian fruit fly, drosophila suzukii which feeds on ripe fruit and has been reported in Yorkshire. The worse news is that as well as strawberries, this pest also feeds on blueberries. Bladdy marvellous

So I went out to water my plants and found that it was getting quite windy and the peas were in imminent danger of blowing over. I added another post and hopefully they will be ok, but it is now a major trek through the jungle to get at my courgettes.

I decided to walk round the garden to cheer myself up.

Out of the back door - on the right strawberries (+ maggots). On the left tomatoes - they seem to be growing well. Past the wiegela bush there is a courgette, pathetically small and yellow for some unknown reason. Then there is the white currant ready to pick. Then the apple, which appears to be developing ominous looking spots on the fruit which could be bitter pit like it got last year. The sungold tomatoes are developing into a pleasing thicket, but the fruit are still well short of ripening.

Through the archway (with the badly wilted clematis) and my sarpo mira potatoes are looking distinctly spotty and unhappy. The meteor peas are ok - they have only just been planted out, but the onions are really small still. Tomatoes, carrots and swedes in the quadgrow are too small to have much trouble yet, but the strawberries next to them probably have maggots. The lettuces have aphids and slugs, and the chives appear to be dying (pot is probably too small). At least the peas are doing well (apart from falling over). The runner beans have shredded leaves and the courgettes have mildew.

The cabbage behind the fruit cage looks like lace, at least on the outside. The french bean plant on the fence looks like a piece of chewed string. The potatoes are starting to die back and are a shambles. The strawberries on the shelving were very poor this year with some plants having no flowers at all, although the Buddy (perpetuals) are producing another lot of flowers. Underneath the brokali and kohlrabi are getting slowly nibbled by slugs. In the fruit cage are the blueberries (not ripe yet) and more strawberries, plus carrots (doing well) and the slimy calabrese.

Under the nets we have gooseberry (1 fruit) and blackcurrant (0 fruits - new bush but it did have one truss of flowers, which fell off). Then we have more carrots (ok as far as I can tell), parsnips (ditto) and calabrese (with added slugs). In the growhouse we have 2 balconi tomatoes which have nearly finished, and a cucumber (needing pollinating) with only female flowers, which are all falling off. Luckily I have proper all-female cucumbers in my friend's greenhouse, which are doing really well. There are also the 2 self watering pots with tomatoes, fuchsia berries and leeks in, which are doing ok (although the cat has decided chewing the leek foliage is good fun).

I finished the inspection feeling very depressed indeed, but decided not to write about it until I had calmed down a bit.

Today I have proved just how unimportant all of these pests are. I had some lovely indoor grown tomatoes for lunch, and I did that stir fry for tea. The cabbage wasn't all that bad once I got past the outer leaves and I added to it an onion (from last year), a red pepper, a handful of peas (with some left over to freeze), 8 small french beans, a courgette and some more tomatoes. I didn't even need to use a carrot. It can't be THAT bad!

I'm now off out to pick some white currants and brave the strawberry maggots...

[craftymarie]

I can really feel your frustration through your post, Penellype

So glad that you started to see the positive side of things at the end. You're such an inspiration. I love reading your posts, I'm sure many people do, and seeing what is possible to be accomplished with a lot of hard work, time and determination.

Some things are sent to try us. But you got your stir fry anyway

[vixylix]

Ah P I've been feeling disheartened this year too, but it makes me feel better knowing that everyone else is having issues this year too (not that I want anyone else to have issues you understand!)

If it makes you feel better we've had an infestation of the fruit flies in our office (!) goodness only knows how they've got there! I havent dared check my strawberries yet

[Penellype]

I think this year is just poor for various (vaguely related) reasons. Warm wet winter followed by cool wet spring and summer is not a good combination. All we can do is go with the flow and hope for better next year.

We are due a mini heatwave after the weekend, for a couple of days, but it is likely to end in a big bang followed by back to cooler conditions. The description of the British summer as 3 fine days and a thunderstorm looks to be accurate this year.

[Penellype]

Right, having had a nice walk round watering in the sunshine this evening I have taken some photos of things that ARE going to plan.

1. The blight resistant tomato experiment:



At the back left, 3x Ferline. Back right 3x Mountain Magic.
Front left 2x Roma (control - not blight resistant), front right 1x Legend.
It will be interesting to see what happens if the blight arrives.

2. The Sungold tomatoes:



Hard to see but tomatoes are coming along nicely and there are loads of flowers.
A few other things in this picture that are new.
The begonias on the fence above the concrete posts have been overwintered and are growing well (some flower buds visible). I've not tried this before.
The other plants in the pots on the fence are osteospermums and geraniums. Instead of planting these in the 5" pots I have left them in their original small pots. In the 5" pots are a piece of plastic bag lining the bottom and a gel "water slice" to act as a water reservoir. The plants are rooting through the bottoms of their little pots into the water slices and I'm feeding them along with the watering. Happy with this so far.
The calendula Apricot Pygmy is a much better size than Art Shades mix and I'm pleased with the flowers at the moment.

3. Peas and beans.



The Hurst Greenshaft peas are fantastic, with lots of long, full pods. The runner beans are perking up and starting to flower.

4. Replanted Lady C potatoes.



Plenty of greenery surviving on these and I am hopeful of a 2nd crop. The Desiree above are also doing ok (I hope).

5. Fuchsia berries, tomatoes and leeks



Mountain Magic (left) and Sungold are loving the quadgrow planter, as are the fuchsia berries (compare these with the plants in the bucket on the far left of photo 2).
The leeks are the best I have ever grown at this stage of proceedings, when they normally resemble grass.

[Penellype]

6. Snackbite peppers



From left, orange, red and yellow. I've just made a ratatouille using one of each.

7. Shirley tomatoes



A slightly odd angle because of the bright sunshine, but coming along nicely.


And finally:



I do seem to have grown a very nice ginger cat!

[Containergardener]

All looking good even the Moggie

[Penellype]

Hot, hot, hot.

Trying to remember what I did at the weekend...

At my friend's
Harvested the Desiree potatoes - all 3 buckets, because the foliage had died down. Total of 3kg potatoes, some of them very scabby and needing using straight away. Disappointing.
Planted 3 of last year's Charlotte potatoes in one of the buckets and used the compost from the rest to build up a small raised bed for a calabrese plant I have waiting at home.
Made a mesh cover for the raised bed - nothing spectacular, just a bit of mesh over some hoops.
Tied in the tomato plants and cucumbers in the greenhouse.
Weeding, watering and more watering.

At home:
Collected my autumn seed potatoes from the post office as they had managed to arrive when I was out for half an hour on Friday. Put them to chit on the cloakroom windowsill as they had no shoots showing at all (better now)
Potted up the Balconi yellow tomato that was still indoors into a balconniere planter and put it on the patio.
Tried and failed to find a sensible place to put my last lot of runner beans. I'd thought of putting them next to the quadgrow planter near the hedge, but realized that they would shade the tomatoes too much.
Put the drip trays back under all the carrots in the carrot cage so they don't dry out in the heat. Moved the bigger calabrese plants to the fruit cage for harvesting.
Mowed the lawn.

Yesterday I decided to cut the roadside hedge before it got too hot. I'd done about 15 minutes and was seriously wilting when the man who cuts the tops for me turned up. I've been planning to have a couple of feet taken off the hedges so I can reach them from the ground, so I gladly handed the job to him. Cutting the last 2 bits (front and side, about 30ft in all) should now be much easier

Today I've been taking it slowly as I don't do hot temperatures well and I burn easily in the sun.
Found a home for the runner beans by stuffing a bucket behind the pieris near the fence. The pieris isn't looking too well anyway and I pruned off a lot of dead wood. It tends to get frosted just after it produces its new leaves every spring, which leaves it browned and sad looking. I think I will remove it later in the year. I haven't planted the beans in the bucket yet - I thought they might not like being transplanted at 30C.
Made an improvised shade for the growhouse out of a green fleece pot cover as the cucumber plant was completely wilted - it has now recovered.
Finished off the first lot of Hurst Greenshaft peas for lunch and removed them to let the 2nd row have more light.
Also harvested tomatoes (indoors), red pepper (indoors), spinach that is rapidly bolting and some lettuce (ditto) for lunch. Noticed one of the onions has a flower spike so pulled it for tea, along with a couple of carrots to add to the remains of the peas and some calabrese. Not sure a pasta bake is quite the right tea for this weather but it fits the available ingredients. Strawberries and ice cream will go down well after

[Penellype]

A bit of catching up from last week, when it was far too hot for me, making me tired, lethargic and irritable.

Cut the remaining 2 hedges - much easier now they are only about 7ft high. No more messing about with ladders.
Planted out the beans into their bucket as they were falling over.
Decided that the spare tomato (Shirley) that I'd put (in its pot) in a small gap next to the archway was not going to survive where it was as it was looking very burnt and dry, so put it in the growhouse (on a self watering tray), displacing one of the balconi tomatoes.
Removed the bolted spinach from one of the big square pots. Transplanted the swedes from the quadgrow planter to the square pot as I can't easily net them in the quadgrow (bad planning!)
Planted the displaced balconi tomato in the quadgrow.
Potted up the other balconi yellow tomato (which was cooking on the spare room windowsill) into a balconniere planter and put it on the patio.
Loads of weeding, deadheading and watering

[Penellype]

This weekend:

At my friend's
Lots of tying in tomatoes and removing sideshoots (as usual I am trying to keep on top of this and failing miserably)
Planted out some winter cabbages and mulched them with strulch. Hopefully they will survive the slug onslaught.
Lots of weeding, cutting back nettles and brambles.
Harvested a summer cabbage, cucumbers, lettuce and the first 3 french beans, and tasted the first of the Terrain peas (nice) which are supposed to be resistant to mildew.
Removed the early peas which have finished.

At home
Having harvested the main heads of my 2 calabrese plants, which were threatening to bolt in the heat, it was time for another major rearrangement.
One calabrese plant out of fruit cage into carrot cage.
One recently germinated pot of carrots off patio into carrot cage.
2 smaller calabrese out of carrot cage and put under own net near carrot cage (one of them potted up into its final bucket)
2 trays of strawberries out of fruit cage (finished) onto net near carrot cage.
Self watering tray with brassica seedlings out of net near carrot cage into fruit cage.
4 cabbage seedlings sent to my friend's garden
4 cabbage Pixie potted up into trough in fruit cage
6 pots of florence fennel out of grow light garden onto self watering tray in fruit cage
6 lettuce Relic potted up into balconniere trough planter, on shelf in fruit cage
Harvested the last bucket of Charlotte potatoes for a bitterly disappointing 0.65kg. This was not one of the pots that got visibly damaged by frost, but I suspect the frost was at least partly responsible.
Trimmed dead leaves and fruit stems off strawberries. Loads of small, hard, undeveloped fruit - I suspect this was due to frost too.
Sowed swede in paper rolls to go to my friend's garden later.
Deadheading, weeding and watering.
Harvested loads of peas, courgettes (starting to produce well despite the mildew), indoor tomatoes, snackbite peppers, lettuce, strawberries (more maggots) and white currants which have produced huge amounts of fruit for a double cordon. First blueberries are starting to turn blue.

[Penellype]

Much cooler today and far more pleasant to work in, both indoors and out.

Noticed that the swedes are germinating - less than 48hrs after I sowed them!
Cut my poor clematis Miss Bateman down to the ground as it was suffering badly from clematis wilt. I may do the same with the alpina, which is now bare to about 4ft high. The alpina varieties tend to do this, which is why I planted Miss Bateman next to it in the first place. I think Nelly Moser, the other side of the archway may also have wilt, so I could end up with no clematis at all
Removed the old lettuce Relic from the saladgrow as it is bolting.
Harvested the last of the 2nd lot of Hurst Greenshaft peas and removed those. Took down some of the pea mesh and made room for a saladgrow, in which I sowed pak choi and spinach. I know this is a slightly odd combination but both dislike transplanting, want some shade, need netting and are likely to be finished before winter. The spinach is a new (to me) variety, Banjo, which it says on the packet can be planted through the summer until September and is resistant to bolting. We shall see.
Dug some compost out from the bottom of the hotbin and planted 5 buckets of Charlotte potatoes (3 in each bucket).

The buckets have presented me with a slight problem that I have not had before. I have 43 of the things, all of which look identical, and I can't possibly use new compost for all of them as it would cost a fortune and I would soon disappear under a mountain of the stuff. However I don't want to plant potatoes in compost that has just grown potatoes, particularly when the Lady C ones had blackleg. I have therefore assigned a number to each bucket and made a list of where the compost in it came from. This is quite a task, and I have started to paint the numbers on the buckets using tipp-ex. Sometimes I think I really am becoming somewhat deranged. No idea what the neighbours think...

[Penellype]

A busy week combined with intermittent rain meant I didn't have much time for gardening until the weekend.

At my friend's
Mostly weeding, tying in tomatoes and pinching out sideshoots.
Harvested calabrese, the first ripe tomatoes from the greenhouse (slug damaged Shirley), cucumber, peas (Terrain) and 2 runner beans.

At home
Cut down the clematis alpina as large parts of it were bare or dying.
Harvested the last of the Douce Provence peas and removed them and the support mesh. These have been disappointing.
Moved the parsnips out of the carrot cage as they were getting too tall and put them on one of the raised beds.
Removed the rest of the lettuces (mix and lollo rossa) from the saladgrow ready for winter brassicas.
Potted up the last Shirley armpit cutting into a 3 litre pot and put it on the sitting room windowsill, replacing one of the January sown plants that had finished fruiting.
Weeding, deadheading and cut back saxifrage that was getting far too enthusiastic.
Trimmed old fruit stalks and dead leaves off the strawberries.
Harvested tomatoes, white currants, courgettes, french beans, calabrese, lettuce, peppers and carrots as well as the peas.
And one blueberry

My poor, poor strawberries. First the frost, then the rain causing them to rot, then the maggots. And if that wasn't enough, any survivors are now being eaten by wasps. I can't get at them to pick them for fear of being stung. I can't move them into the fruit cage (insect mesh) because the perpetuals need ongoing pollination, so as with the autumn fruiting raspberries (which I removed because I couldn't get to the fruit due to wasps), I'm completely stuck.

[Jungle Jane]

Could you put the strawberries somewhere out of your way,maybe near other flowers to distract the wasps or to just keep them out of your way they're not very friendly to work alongside?