28th June 2022 - Potatoes, peas and too many pumpkins

 

First early 'Ulster Chieftain'

I harvested my first early potatoes yesterday, a somewhat meagre yield of 2.1 kg from 6 plants. This year I planted a variety I’ve never grown ‘Ulster Chieftain’, tried the no-dig method, and we’ve had what seems like one of the driest springs/summers since I started seriously gardening about 10 years ago. It makes it hard to pinpoint exactly what went wrong but I noticed a few things:

There were lots of very tiny potatoes that hadn’t developed, I suspect this is due to lack of water.

Some of the potatoes are showing signs of scab, but its very minimal. Maybe it’s not such a robust variety?

The potatoes had only formed in the compost that I had used to make my no-dig patch. The soil beneath was rock solid. I’m not sure if this meant that they lacked adequate space or if they just grew more tightly clustered around the seed potato than normal.

I could have watered more but with the water butts empty I’m reluctant to use too much mains water. Come on rain!

My purple flowered golden mangetout peas have sprouted in the front garden. I’m growing them up a decorative obelisk we already had, and four of the eight have germinated and are growing well.

Only two of my four dwarf early peas ‘Oskar’ have germinated. This year I experimented with sowing peas and beans in toilet rolls. I don’t think I’ll bother again. I found they dried out much quicker than similar sized pots, and the birds seem to like pecking the soil out or knocking the tubes off and then eating the beans/peas. If anyone has any tips on making this kind of growing work, let me know!

I’ve been watching episodes of Alys Fowler’s ‘The Edible Garden’. I also have the book and just find the natural approach so beautiful and inspiring. Her ‘Peas and Beans’ episode suggests sowing dried peas, the cheap kind from a supermarket, and using the shoots in salads. I love pea shoots and they are ludicrously expensive in the shop for something that’s pretty easy to grow (providing my opportunistic birds don’t get there first).

Finally, pumpkins and squashes. I sowed a lot as the seed was old, four varieties, plus courgette, and two pattypan squashes. Not many germinated, but that gave me about the right about. However, slowly, lying around in the pots which I forgot to empty, most of the remaining seeds have now germinated. It’s a nice problem to have. But there’s another problem. The writing washes off all my labels, and I now have no idea what varieties they are. Fortunately, the courgettes have more pointed/divided leaves, and the pumpkins rounder, so at least I will be somewhat informed. The rest will just be a nice surprise when they finally set fruit!

Anyone else sometimes feel that things start off so well and then life gets in the way of meticulous label writing and potting on and planting out, or am I just a lazy gardener?

Yesterday I repotted lots of things that were looking a bit sad and planted out tomatoes into a spare bit of ground. My cucumbers are growing, flowering a fruiting well but looking awfully mildewed. Today I need to sow a lot of things I should have sown already, like winter leeks, radishes, rocket, cauliflower…the list is too long. I’m hoping that the warm weather, and the longer growing season in the southeast, will speed things up a bit and with diligent watering I might still manage a decent harvest. They definitely won’t grow if I leave them in the packet!

Happy gardening.

Heather