Harvest time
I must have been doing most things right this year - been digging up lots of goodies recently!
Potatoes - Edzel Blue - very nice tatties - bright purple skin and pure white inside, purple colour disappears on cooking though, bit of a disappointment there). Pink Fir Apples - so knobbly they look like Jerusalem artichokes, but lovely salad potato. (And still to dig up the main crop of Maris Pier.)
Onions - all the over wintered onions are now dug up, white, red and yellow (as I can't remember their names)
Garlic - got a mix of elephant and normal (welsh?) this year - all dug up also
Broccoli - not much left of this either now, but been a good crop, small but very tasty (my nephew Liam says)
Cauliflower - forgot I planted two small rows of this - the broccoli and Brussels sprouts covered them totally. Small but perfectly formed heads and no slug/snail or other beastie attacks to be seen!
Strawberries - lots of greenery and a few tasty fruits but left them too late to pick so slugs got most of them (next year I must invest in straw to see if it makes a difference)
Raspberries - oodles of the canes from last year are covered with fruit and the new ones this year look healthy for next year's fruits too
Blueberries - a couple of handfuls from the one bush and nothing ripe yet on the second one.
Black currants - got about 8 pounds of fruit so boiled it down to jelly for my toast in the mornings (and any time at the weekend - yummy)
Red currants - bit of a disaster here, lots of healthy greenery but no fruit
Radish - think anyone could grow this, mine was up and eaten as soon as it rained
Beetroot - just starting to harvest now, looks a bit bedraggled with the recent rain though
Turnips - Milan purple tops again this year, and I am harvesting them small to get more eaten this year
Swedes - look like they will be big and bountiful too - rain and sun and weeding around them does make a big difference to last year, or maybe it is the place I am growing them in?
Sweetcorn - never started growing really and other allotmenteers in the area have similar story to tell
Carrots - after a bumper crop last year, think I have 3 carrots this year from 3 rows!
Other non-starters this year are:
chard, celeriac, parsnips, chives, basil, courgettes, asparagus (2nd year in so it is not dead yet!)
On a brighter note, the tomato plants at my front door, that were started off in a portable greenhouse are growing up roof now - 10 tomatoes from 4 plants, all loving the Aberdeen weather. Is it normal for the plants to need so much water? I give them a bucket between them every day, and more at the weekends as I see them getting dry.
Well must try to write in here more often, next time I'll update the pictures as well.
Potatoes - Edzel Blue - very nice tatties - bright purple skin and pure white inside, purple colour disappears on cooking though, bit of a disappointment there). Pink Fir Apples - so knobbly they look like Jerusalem artichokes, but lovely salad potato. (And still to dig up the main crop of Maris Pier.)
Onions - all the over wintered onions are now dug up, white, red and yellow (as I can't remember their names)
Garlic - got a mix of elephant and normal (welsh?) this year - all dug up also
Broccoli - not much left of this either now, but been a good crop, small but very tasty (my nephew Liam says)
Cauliflower - forgot I planted two small rows of this - the broccoli and Brussels sprouts covered them totally. Small but perfectly formed heads and no slug/snail or other beastie attacks to be seen!
Strawberries - lots of greenery and a few tasty fruits but left them too late to pick so slugs got most of them (next year I must invest in straw to see if it makes a difference)
Raspberries - oodles of the canes from last year are covered with fruit and the new ones this year look healthy for next year's fruits too
Blueberries - a couple of handfuls from the one bush and nothing ripe yet on the second one.
Black currants - got about 8 pounds of fruit so boiled it down to jelly for my toast in the mornings (and any time at the weekend - yummy)
Red currants - bit of a disaster here, lots of healthy greenery but no fruit
Radish - think anyone could grow this, mine was up and eaten as soon as it rained
Beetroot - just starting to harvest now, looks a bit bedraggled with the recent rain though
Turnips - Milan purple tops again this year, and I am harvesting them small to get more eaten this year
Swedes - look like they will be big and bountiful too - rain and sun and weeding around them does make a big difference to last year, or maybe it is the place I am growing them in?
Sweetcorn - never started growing really and other allotmenteers in the area have similar story to tell
Carrots - after a bumper crop last year, think I have 3 carrots this year from 3 rows!
Other non-starters this year are:
chard, celeriac, parsnips, chives, basil, courgettes, asparagus (2nd year in so it is not dead yet!)
On a brighter note, the tomato plants at my front door, that were started off in a portable greenhouse are growing up roof now - 10 tomatoes from 4 plants, all loving the Aberdeen weather. Is it normal for the plants to need so much water? I give them a bucket between them every day, and more at the weekends as I see them getting dry.
Well must try to write in here more often, next time I'll update the pictures as well.
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