Early Potatoes

We have dug some Charlotte, Accent and Foremost potatoes. This picture compares the crop from one plant each of Accent and Foremost (we've eaten the Charlotte!). They are grown in exactly the same way, in the same bed and each were chitted. You can see Foremost did not thrive here (they may well do elsewhere).

Foremost potatoes on left, Accent on right

Busy time

This is much more a time of year for being in the garden rather than writing about it, it was even more busy for us, as we took part in the village Open Gardens Day, so we had to do some tidying beyond what we'd normally bother with - we like the natural "lived-in" look! As it happened, it really poured down on the day, though quite a few hardy people still visited - maybe it was Mrs Soggy's cakes that attracted them - probably much more so than my rows of veggies.

At this time of year I am busy succession sowing, even so, I think I may have got the timing wrong on the lettuces - with the outdoor ones not coming on as fast as I thought - we are having strange weather at the minute - feels more like winter - it was down to 6C last night.

Recent sowings:
CARROT Amsterdam Forcing (That was to make up for lots of gaps where something has been eating my carrot seedlings at the 2 leaf stage).
CAULIFLOWER Medaillon F1
CAULIFLOWER Snowball
LAMBS LETTUCE Valerianella Locusta
LETTUCE Amorina
LETTUCE Belize
LETTUCE Mixed
LETTUCE Lollo Rossa
LETTUCE Red Salad Bowl
LETTUCE Valmaine
PAK CHOI China Choi


I also push in extra beans and peas just to get some succession with them too. We have been eating sugar snap and mange tout for a while, but nothing but flowers on some of the climbing beans yet.
BEAN CLIMBING Borlotta Lingua di Fuoco
BEAN CLIMBING Fasold
BEAN CLIMBING Neckar Queen


BEAN, Broad. Aquadulce Claudia (We have been eating and freezing these, delicious)


PEA Asparagus (The flowers look very nice on these)
PEA Mange Tout Norli
PEA Early Onward
PEA Rapido Petit Pois
PEA Sugar Ann
PEA Sugar Snap LARGE


Finally, the bank along the edge of the veggie patch is looking very good now with the trees cut down, lots more light. I sowed two packets of mixed wild flower seeds there, one of annuals, the other of perennials - both from Little Groves nursery. The bees are loving the flowers.

Cottage Flower garden on Open Day - summerhouse full!

Open Day again - see the rain in my compost tray!

The bank, with trees taken down and wild flowers thriving

More of a very soggy Open Day