Good and bad and curious

Today's harvest, white turnips, carrots, 3 tomatoes and the tiny potatoes are from our main crop of Kerr's Pinks pops. I know they should not be lifted until September but these are the ones that were sprayed for blight and as a last resort the stalks were cut down to prevent the blight from travelling down to the tubers. I could not wait until Sept, my curiosity got the better of me so I dug out one just to see if they were OK and they are! Thank you Bluestone and of course Zwena for the advice!

Teasel heads, beautiful but prickly!

I wondered what these enormous plants were, they are in an overgrown patch at the side of the communal greenhouse. I found out they are Teasels. The heads were dried and used to lift the pile on fabric and were used in the textile industry long ago,or dried and used by florists and are often seen in dried flower arrangements at Christmas sprayed silver!

This gives some idea of the damage done to the gooseberry bushes. The leaves have been stripped bare and these remaining few are curled and brown. I opened one curled leaf and a small green pest fell out, it was like a miniature caterpillar! I have been told they are actually sawfly which can decimate a bush in one weekend!They have now been dug out and consigned to the dump as I noticed some holes in the leaves of the blackcurrant bush next to it. I think we planted the fruit bushes too close together, very easy to do when they are small! When digging out the bushes I was surprised at the length of some of the roots after only 2 years. I also dug out the remaining strawberry plants so the bed is now clear apart from the raspberry canes and blueberry bushes.

We will give the whole bed a good mulch of horse manure for the winter and move these remaining bushes to give them more space next year. Great Plans!

Some, actually most of our tomato crop in the greenhouse, these are a good size and just starting to turn red. There is a smaller tomato to the side and we have already had a few from that.

The afternoon turned out sunny and warm if a bit windy so Ed and myself took ourselves down to B&Q to get some treated timber to make a frame for the asparagus bed. It is going to be a permanent bed for the next few years so I think it needs some protection. Daughter Linda and her two boys brought back the first consignment of seaweed from the beach, it is a winter mulch for the asparagus. This is Ed using the very technical method of measuring by pacing the length!