It all comes at once...

    I beat the rain and I have lifted the Desiree potatoes. A good crop.  Yet more rain but it came at the right time. My transplanted beetroot, variety Sanquina, are now well established after what could have been a very poor start. All the melons are well set and swelling. Picking lots of courgettes, cucumbers, and french beans. Started to pick tomatoes in earnest. The sweet peppers are now looking good and I am very hopeful for a useful crop. My earlier fears of a total disaster have not been realised. Just shows that rain, sun, rain, sun really does keep things moving along. The aubergines can now be picked and I have managed to grow some Rosi de Trento lettuce without the chickens destroying them! Yeah!

Rosi de Trento lettuce

Clutch of three aubergines

  The cucumbers are producing well, generally one or two a day! I have dug up the red onions and they are drying in the poly tunnel. I also pulled a number of small Spanish onions. They have not done so well this year. The haricot vert have also done well with several kilos picked. The runner beans are coming on and should be producing close to when the haricot vert finish. Result! The white onion variety Rynsburger are looking good and the leaves have yet to die back. They should swell a little more.  The dwarf pea, Hatif d'Annonay has now finished and the giant pea vine (up to 7 feet!) Champion of England is growing madly. Courgettes. Umm, courgettes. Currently picking two or three a day! We are getting fed up with courgettes!!
   Melons. Well what can one say about the melons. I have three varieties (Petit Gris and Troubadour) and water melons. They are just fantastic! There are over 30 melons on the Petit Gris vines and at least seven water melons. I have not counted the Troubadour but there are lots! I picked a Petit Gris melon but it was not quite ripe.

Clutch of 10 Troubadour melons

   The Hundredweight pumpkins are just as amazing! Currently there are four with one more coming along but the four are enormous already and still lots of growing time to go.
   Most be just about time to start to harvest the sweet corn. It is looking good and the cobs are quite well formed. Need to try one!
   In the poly tunnel I have planted potatoes for Christmas. This time I will be looking after them real well. I am determined to have Christmas spuds this year! Lettuce and sweet peppers look good, the toms I am very disappointed with. Tomitillios look good but are not producing yet. Lettuce is ok and the cucumber exceptional once more.
   Preparation for winter and the hungry gap has begun. Swede, turnip, carrot, fennel, spinach all sown and germinated or established plants.Celeriac, celery, parsnips, leeks, beetroot and Orbis (root parsley) already growing well. Plenty of jobs still to do.

Humming the desert song..........

   ...and it thunders and rains! The Belle de Fontenay main crop potatoes have been lifted. Man, that was a job and a half! I must have perspired a pint. Nice looking potato and a good crop though and very little bug damage. Lifted a few Vitelotte purple potatoes. Very strange having a purple potato on you plate especially when you cut it in half and it is purple all through!
  There has been a thunder storm and a light to heavy rain fall. I reckon about half an inch over a couple of hours. This has refreshed everything and I am sure everything (that means the grass as well) will grow. I took the opportunity to weed and fork the ex-shallot bed which brings that plot back into probable use. I have beetroot and swede growing in modules that will need a home soon. Now I need to lift the main crop of Desiree potatoes! 

Violette (purple) potatoes in flower

   The first lot of sweet corn has come in flower, if that is what you call it and cobs are forming on the plants.  There is a cucumber on the La Diva plant. This is an outside cucumber and looks like a large courgette when ready to eat. The rain will have help it for sure. The courgettes are becoming productive with a second lot picked. How long before a pate pan squash appears I wonder? Found one on the 23rd July. Melons are beginning to set. Could be a good year for melons. Started to pick the dwarf peas, variety Hatif d'Annonay.
   Sanguira beetroot, grown in modules, has been transplanted to an outside bed. I fear it will be too hot and I will loose a lot of them. Another row of carrots, Long Lisse de Meaux, a good storer, has been sown. Rosi de Trento, a smooth leaf lettuce, has been transplanted to an outside plot and the chicks found them! Darn. The Champion of England pea has finally germinated well. Once I started to water them they started to appear. I will need to keep up the watering to make sure the achieve their full height (6 to 7 feet!). No need. It has rained frequently!!! More Great Lakes lettuce has been transplanted to pots and I have had to resow the Minidor yellow dwarf french beans. Only a few germinated. The replacement celeriac has been transplanted and I keep my fingers crossed for these. They may not have enough time to fully grow.  In  the poly tunnel Great Lakes and Little Gem lettuce are growing well. The sweet peppers are looking good with peppers setting. The cauliflowers are looking a little sad as are the tomatoes. The leaf mould on the toms in the poly tunnel is really starting to have an affect although I am still hopeful for a reasonable crop but not the bumper one that I was expecting. Broad leaf and curly parsley is slowing growing, cucumbers and basil are doing well. No sign of of salad bowl lettuce or corriander yet.
   The beast (lawn mower) has had an outing. The grass was not particularly long but need a trim and I really needed to do it before the rain effect kicked in. 
   It has been a busy time at Watermeadows and I am late in publishing my blog. This copy brings me up to the 24th July and I am working on getting the next  one out as soon as possible!
Lots to tell.
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