Sunday 8 August 2010

The beginning and the end


Today I picked my first tomato, it was a 'Latah' which is an early ripening variety from Real Seeds, warmed from the sun it was delicious. Sadly today was also the end of my tomato bed because all the plants are showing the dreaded signs of blight, I had hoped that evening waterings and the blistering hot heat would delay the inevitable but sadly not. The are plenty of also ripe and unripe fruits which will be turned into sauces and chutneys; the bed will be used for some over-wintering kale and next year I will be growing blight resistant varieties.

The hot and wet weather should hopefully provide perfect seed germination conditions so I have sown Pak Choi, Mizuna, Fennel, Swede, Endive and Mispoona to hopefully provide crops in the coming months and over winter.

The new potatoes are continuing to delight, 'Charlotte' has proved to be an excellent masher so we are enjoying plenty of potatoes in all forms. The courgettes have started to go mad, I returned home today with 1 marrow, 1 very borderline marrow and a baby courgette as well as 6 cucumbers and another pot of raspberries. Now I'm off to dig out my stash of courgette recipes to turn these beauties into something truly delicious.

Enjoy your plots.

4 comments:

meemsnyc said...

Sorry to hear about the blight. That is a bummer. Our tomatoes this summer have been plagued with blossom end rot. So annoying!

Damo said...

Oh no sorry to hear that, haven't had signs here yet, am now going out to check again after reading your posts. The first two years I've grown outdoor toms all got blight and we ended up with loads of chutney which is still going! I was hoping it would be third time lucky. I have heard fleece may help as a barrier and would also slow growth rate which would help stop blossom end rot I believe. Not tried fleece yet myself but if the blight hits again I'll give anything a try!

Amy said...

Such a shame you've lost all your tomato plants but I hope the red fruits that you've managed to salvage were super-tasty and the green ones can be put to good use too.

Lucy @ Smallest Smallholding said...

I think I must be the only veg grower who doesn't grow or like courgettes and marrows. My boyfriend and mother both tell me I'm missing out, but I just can't see it. I've tried homegrown courgettes and marrows (touted as superior to supermarket bland produce of course!) but I don't understand! What *am* I missing? :)