Tuesday, 20 July 2021

Veg update

The tomatoes have been a complete failure this year.  The wet, cool weather did them in, they got blight.  The situation was not helped by the fact that I planted marigolds along the rows to keep the bugs off.  But I got the seeds mixed up and planted tall African marigolds instead of the short French ones.  The result:  The tomato foliage peeking above the marigolds looked fine, but the bases in the stagnant air were thoroughly rotted, so I had to take them all out.  I've sprayed the potatoes with a copper fungicide (bouilli bordelaise) in the hope that they will stay clear of it.

I planted florence fennel, and have had some good plants.  However, the good ones are coming from randomly-scattered self-seedings, not the ones I planted.  Oh well, they taste good.

If you leave a courgette for a day or so without noticing it, you get a marrow.   You can't take your eyes off them for a moment.

The French beans (purple variety) have been a great success; they must have loved the weather.   I only planted three one-metre-long rows, and I have been picking enough for two servings, every day for the last several weeks.   There's a lot still in the freezer, and plenty more on the plants

Potatoes didn"t do especially well.   I have a crop, but mostly small ones.  I'm hoping that if I leave the plants alone they will get bigger, but the foliage is starting to die back.

I have good beet root and plenty of carrots.  


I planted climbing French beans alongside the sweet corn when that latter was bout 6 inches high.  4 beans per corn if I remember rightly.   The beans are now weighing down the corn leaves, but I am hoping the corn will produce as normal.  No beans yet from those plants.

Looking forward, the squash look like they will be productive come the Autumn, the parsnips are growing well, and maybe I will get some green peppers.  The aubergines in the greenhouse look like they will produce too, not sure about the ones outside.

One lives and learns.

2 comments:

  1. I am a little South of you (Deux Sevres).

    I agree that the root crops are wonderful this year. No problem with the tomatoes. Onions (both the onion blanche and regular)are growing well. I use the onions blanches as pickled onions. I have experimented with various types and these have proved best (I long to get hold of some English shallots - the French kind are no use).

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  2. It looks like a tasty harvest :-)

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