There are several crosses between gooseberries and blackcurrants, one of which is the Jostaberry. We had a great specimen, planted winter before last and due to bear its first modest crop this year. However, it has been badly damaged by the most problematic pest of gooseberries, the larvae of the gooseberry sawfly. Their favoured feed… Continue reading Jostaberry attacked by sawfly
Month: April 2014
Sowing this week
There was little time for sowing this week, but we did plenty of planting out. One has to be careful with tender plants like tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers. We usually plant these in the glasshouses and polytunnel around the first week of May. The weather has been mild, though, and the temperature has not dropped… Continue reading Sowing this week
New watering system for the polytunnel
We have several automatic watering systems in the kitchen garden: a network of soaker hoses in the two large glasshouses and two serving the polytunnel borders, along with micro irrigation for the chillies growing in the smaller glasshouse. These are attached to timers that turn on the water supply at set times and for set… Continue reading New watering system for the polytunnel
Planting out the orchard
It was many weeks ago when the last of our orchard trees arrived. As the planting site was not ready and the weather was poor, we healed them in, in one of the vegetable beds. Before we ordered the trees we had found somebody to give us a hand preparing the planting sites, as this… Continue reading Planting out the orchard
Out with the new and in with the old
It is no secret that I tend to favour old varieties of fruit and vegetables, many of which have been around for hundreds of years. They hail from a time when breeding was not concerned unduly with shelf life, robustness for transport, uniformity, suitability for mechanical harvesting, and other rather meaningless traits as far as… Continue reading Out with the new and in with the old
Pinching out the fan trained peaches
Some weeks ago I wrote about disbudding the peach bush growing in our polytunnel. At the time I mentioned that those in the glasshouse would need doing soon and that I would show what was needed for fan trained specimens. Well, I pinched out the unwanted shoots a few weeks ago and was only reminded… Continue reading Pinching out the fan trained peaches
Sowing this week
This week we had limited time for sowing as we finally started planting up the orchard. We did, though, tend to three timely tasks: the parsnip bed, Jerusalem artichokes, and a second potato bed. Parsnips benefit from a long growing season and sowing as early as February is sometimes recommended. However, such early sowings, when… Continue reading Sowing this week
Replacement peppers
I recently wrote about the poor germination from some of our peppers. I contacted one of the seed merchants who had found a problem with one of the varieties and sent replacements. This has come too late, though, for a further sowing. New seed from a different supplier sown in the second batch has germinated… Continue reading Replacement peppers
Sowing this week
This week we started sowing more of the tender crops. We started with French bean Beurre de Rocquencourt, a dwarf wax bean bearing pale yellow pods. Whilst the outdoor crop of climbing French and runner beans will provide a heavy crop over a long period, they take some time to develop. A dwarf bean will… Continue reading Sowing this week
First hive inspection of the year
Although the bees have been flying now for quite some weeks, the weather has not really been warm enough to open the hives until now. Opening the hives when it is cold is not just bad for the bees, the beekeeper is quite likely to meet with some angry ladies. This week, though, was warm… Continue reading First hive inspection of the year