Sunday 17 August 2008

A walk round the farm

blue

It's not entirely true to say we've got stunning weather at the moment. Mostly it's rather grey, not terribly warm, a bit windy but at least from time to time we get a patch of glorious summer, even if it only lasts 10 minutes.

empty plot

The potato patch - Ta Da! Completely cleared and (probably) entirely empty of potatoes. Paul has been working hard to remove the big weeds, enormous stones and indestructible couch grass. We plan to put a green manure crop in here next.

You can see the tomatoes, still mostly green but also still mostly blight free. It's nail biting stuff. No, really, it is!

courgettes

This morning's booty. The big white one is Trieste White Cousa Courgette from Realseeds. I was pleased to get this as my previous home saved seeds had expired. Unfortunately the long green one is also from the seeds I bought. Still a nice vegetable but not the variety I wanted. Never mind, all the curcubits are cross pollinating tarts and almost impossible to keep true. I'm not planning to save seed this year so it's not a problem. The little round ones are Rondo de Nice. The single plant came from the local garden centre and was so slow to get going that it entirely missed its purpose of providing an early crop but it's making up for it now, fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you look at it.

purple

These beans, on the other hand, are being grown for seed. They're a variety I've been saving for years, a brown seeded, purple podded climbing french bean that I originally bought from T&M at least 15 years ago. Unfortunately an unplanned breeding experiment contaminated the stock. I'm trying to re-establish the true strain and at the same time separate out the interlopers, a white seeded pole bean with green pods and a black seeded variant. I'm only half hopeful about the black and white seeds but the original buff seeded bean is extremely strong. If I'm careful I should be able to isolate my own locally adapted Normandy beans which will be nice.

shy

The first sunflower. They're all suffering in the wind a bit but a vegetable patch isn't a proper plot without sunflowers, so I'm pleased.

2 comments:

joker the lurcher said...

i love visiting your garden - it feeds my soul!

Catofstripes said...

Hello Joker,

I'm glad you like it. You're always welcome to stop by for the full tour in person if you're able to sometime.