Wednesday 15 June 2016

It never rains, but it pours



We might be heading for the wettest June on record, but it's kick started the garden into life.

The courgettes I planted outside a couple of weeks back were just coming into flower a few days back. This morning, I saw the first proper fruit. They're even catching up with the plant in the polytunnel.



Raspberries are going right off on one as well, these are Autumn Bliss, so hopeful of a good crop although I'll take advice on whether they need pruning, because I'm worried they're getting a little bit too dense.

I'm probably going to dig the canes out at the end of the season and start again on another part of the plot. I'm thinking fruit for a few seasons on the beds where the onions have been struck down with the dreaded lurgy.

The first of the potatoes are also coming into flower. Slightly worrying is I dug one of the Duke of York plants last weekend to see what was underneath and the answer was nothing - not a single, measly spludly.

While the foliage has put on a distinct growth spurt over the last week or so, they're still a lot later thsan last year, when we were well into our new potatoes by now.

The worry now is that  this incredible wet spell is going to bring on the blight.
Mini-munch cucumbers, which I've never grown before, look slightly better in the greenhouse.

They're in a kind of ring culture, with 6ins or so of well-rotted manure, topped with 6ins or so of compost, with the plants in those special watering pots which keep the stems dry.

So far, things are looking good with plenty of fruits and flowers on the vines.

But I've been there before with cucumbers, all's going well, the plants start fruiting and then disaster in the form of mosaic virus or stem rot strikes.