Well I spoke to soon about the melons. Once more a fungal disease had destroyed a crop. My Troubadour melons have been wiped out. There are unripe melons but the plants themselves have died. I still have some of this variety in my "tomb" which are still thriving and I am hopeful that the melons they have will ripen. I have cut one Prescott Musk melon as it was beginning to rot. It was virtually ripe and what there was tasted really nice. Strange melon this one. Water melons continue to swell. Fingers crossed!

Troubadour melons destroyed by fungus

   The poly tunnel cucumbers have now finished. A reasonable crop was gained. The outdoor cucumber, La Diva, continue to produce some fruit and I am hopeful that they will continue for a little while yet. 
   On the runner bean front the variety Gigante has produced a good crop and I am hopeful for a decent amount of beans for drying. The Scarlet Emperor runners are now in full bloom and producing increasing amounts of lovely beans. The bees really love them.

Wind affected runner beans

   I have now removed side shoots from the pumpkins,  melons ans squashes in the hope that the remaining time they have to grow they will concentrate on making the pumpkins etc larger rather than producing leaves. One variety of pumpkin is already showing signs that it  has done its bit and one of the squashes is also had enough. So autumn is coming and there is going to be pumpkins for Halloween!
   

Potatoes, potatoes, potatoes...

   The days just fly by. Another week gone by. Over the previous week or so the harvest has started to be gathered at an increasing pace. Runner beans, potatoes, haricot vert, sweet corn, sweet peppers, aubergines, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers and onions are being picked, dug and pulled! 
   Looks like I am going to get some melons. They are ripening now and should be good to eat in a few days should the weather stay warm or get hotter. The forecast is good so fingers crossed!
   Main crop potatoes Desiree and salad potatoes Franceline have been dug up and put into storage. Ha! Storage my foot. They will be eaten pretty quickly I think! I still have some Rosabelle potatoes in the ground and they will be dug up as soon as I can get to them. winter cabbage and swede are the priority at this time.
   The pumpkins and squash are looking very good. Looks like it is going to be a bumper year. The pumpkins are swelling and I think there will be a few really big ones. This has been one advantage of the wet weather there has been over last winter and this spring and summer. Of course the grass grows and the weeds too. Never stop. Looks as if there maybe a second autumn flush of strawberries. I guess when you have a variety that is half wild strawberry you are likely to get some in the autumn. So, another job! Clear the strawberry patch of weeds. Man, it never ends.
    I have been busy in the kitchen too. From the few tomatoes that I managed to rescue I have made jars of passata. It is a pitiful amount considering that the tomato crop had so much promise.

Buttercup Squash

Hundredweight pumpkin

Butternut squash

Good grief! Has it been that long?

   Guess it has. Last entry publish on the 19th July. Now it is the 12th August, three weeks later! OK, my excuse is that we have had friends to stay and I have not had access to my PC which is my preferred instrument of writing my blog on. Anyway, lots to tell.
   On the sheep front sad news. Our old ram, Blackie, had to to been put down after suffering from blow fly strike. Not nice. The sheep are fed some feed every day and one day he was fine at feeding time the next he was pretty much a goner. To be fair he was old and we believe in not very good condition and we were expecting the worst at any time. Flies got to him first.
   In the outside veggie garden the blight won. Lost most of my very promising tomato crop. 

Blighted tomatoes

Such is the joys of gardening. You win some, you loose some. This one I lost, damn it! Other vegetables have been doing well. The haricot vert have come into production and has been very productive. I have been giving them away to the neighbours! For reasons unknown I have been having issues getting seed to germinate. I have had to replant lettuce, swede, beetroot and spinach and in some cases three or four times. Time to throw out older seed methinks! Potatoes have been very good this year and I have been digging up Belle de Fontenay, Rosebelle and Franceline by the kilo!
  We have slaughtered our crop of meat chickens, twelve in all. One we believe got damaged somewhere along the production line and discretion being the better part of valour it was thrown away! Rynsburger yellow onions and the Red Baron red onions have been a disappointing crop. Last years Rynsburger onions were very good. This year they are small. I have also concluded that one just has to accept that red onion sets do not produce a great crop and one should be happy with what one gets. As always the grass is growing and growing and growing and I play catch up mowing it. The weather has been on the damp/wet side with the odd nice day. Good for the garden except the tomatoes!
   In the poly tunnel the tomatoes have suffered from blight but the blight has developed more slowly allowing the tomatoes to ripen. There has been a reasonable crop of grape tomatoes, at least enough to satisfy demand. I have cut lot of Wautoma cucumbers but they are now coming to and end. Just in time the outside La Diva cucumbers are swelling up.  The chili looks good and the sweet peppers are turning orange! Yeah! 
   The squash is doing well. There are lots of squash set - buttercup, butternut. The pumpkins are also doing well, however, my bush courgettes are not as great as I would have liked but they are producing enough to satisfy our needs so I guess I must not complain. Melons has beginning to set. Fingers crossed that there is enough time for the water melon to mature.
   Planting for the winter is well under way. Spinach, parsnips, leeks, beetroot, swede and sprouts all up and growing well. I need to get my Christmas potatoes in!