News from the Veg Patch....

This month I thought would have break from all the trees and have a quick catch up with the ups and downs from the veg patch.

Potatoes:
Since last years crop went so well I thought I’d give it another go. But I didn’t like the idea of leaving some in the bed and some re-growing where I had planted a new crop.

This year I decided to keep the potatoess under control and try some potato bags. I bought my earlies, mids and lates (2 of each); planted each a month apart; filled up the bags as directed; kept nice and watered and last month I excitedly opened up the first bag.

Sadly the instructions I had followed were not as clear as I would have hoped (or more to the point my interpretation was slightly off. Instead of 60-80 beautiful potatoes, I retrieved 20 small to medium ones. Very disappointing.

The instructions said to fill up the bag every time a shoot came through the compost. I unfortunately filled these up too late and left some shoots showing. This meant the plant just kept on growing form where it was and was not forced to make more roots (therefore more potatoes). A harsh lesson to learn! I have since left the other bags for fear of further disappointment!

Onions:
The most successful crop of the year. I bought some onions ready for planting from the farmers market and some bulbs from the garden centre. Last October/November I sowed/planted them and spent a nervous winter watching them getting soaked and snow covered. I spent the spring hoeing and watering and two weeks ago pulled up a bumper crop of delicious onions! After finding 2 days of dry weather, I dried them out on a wire tray and they are now sat in a bag being enjoyed. I must admit that the garden centre bulbs were a much more impressive crop, but this may be the variety chosen as opposed to the quality of plant.

Garlic:
The garlic was almost identically planted and cared for as the onions but so far have not shown signs of much beyond very unimpressive wet garlic (I have left them to see if our wet period might kick them into action!)

Carrots:
The new onion bed has been a huge success. They are wonderful eaten fresh from the ground or are gorgeous lightly boiled. I plan to put a late variety in the empty onion patch to keep us in carrots for as long as possible.

Sugar snap peas:
These have been and gone already and the crop though not massive was delicious eaten straight from the plant and rarely made it to the pan! Most were snacked as I watered the garden each night.

Raspberries:
The move has not lead to a successful crop this year, but I have recently cut all the old growth down to the ground and there are some new shoots already growing for next year.

All in all it has been a very rewarding experience and a steep learning curve and the whole family have eaten with pride some delicious home grown produce. It has even got a five year old eating veg!

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