PWEW!...what a summer it’s been there hasn’t been enough hours in the day to do it all so I
apologise to you all for my lack of
updates over this period, but I am back now and there is lots to tell……
One Quick thing I would like to say before I go on is the Olympics over the summer what a fantastic showcase, working at a hotel next to an Airport close to London I was privileged to meet a lot of the volunteers and even some of the Olympians and they were very inspirational one lady in particular stays with me her name was Jessy she was from Australia and had come over to the UK to help volunteer during the Games she was fantastic and if all were like her then we truly hosted the best games ever…..
Well down on the allotment its been all go, last year was my first year as an allotment holder and I thought that was hard work due to the lack of rain all year, but this year has been even harder, rain rain and more rain most of the summer then nothing until today has made most crops struggle.
Take my tomatoes I only had my first ripe tomato 2 weeks ago and as for the cabbages and cauliflowers down the plot they just didn’t get going.
There has been some good stories though my green beans that were on the verge of disaster have produced a MASSIVE BUMPER crop and they are delicious and the pumpkins & squash have just run riot and have taken over the plot!
I dug up my main crop spuds over the weekend and I was a little disappointed but pleasantly surprised in the same breath. My santé that I grew with great results last year were a disaster this year but here are the results
As you can see the soil was like rock, I nearly went out and hired a pneumatic drill!
Potato Yeild
Maxine 3.4KG
Majestic 10.8KG
Sante 3.5KG
Ryecroft purple 6.8KG
Lady Balfour 16.7KG
Maxine: only had 5 seed potatoes left over after the frosts got to them so not a bad result all the potatoes were good size and no real scabs or evidence of any wireworm
Majestic: a good crop of potato and really please with it they were a little inconsistent in size but overall really good and will grow them again
Sante: very disappointed with this crop this year this cropped very heavy last year but this year nothing but the potatoes that it did produce were VERY big
Ryecroft Purple: this is the most pleasing crop, only had 5 tubers left after the frosts but they cropped really well and as they were one of the oldest varieties so was very interested in eating them. I had some last night as roast potatoes they were amazing crisp on the outside and light and fluffy on the inside. I am going to save these just for roast potatoes
Lady Balfour: the last minute crop saves the day I only brought these as I lost so many due to the frosts in Feb and what a crop really good size the only down fall was they had a bit of wireworm so I lost about 6kg due to that so it would have been over 20kg if there were none.
So overall not to bad should be enough to keep my little family going until the New Year. Next year I am going to go back to growing just 3 different variety’s but I have some thinking to do as to which ones……..
Have a great week readers…………..
Don’t forget to check out my Facebook page for more pictures and you can also follow me on twitter@plot58
