Basket of produce

Looks very cool when you pick a few things at the same time

Only 4 tomatoes but these were the only ripe ones.  There's a stack of green so I'm hoping that they start turning now.

Peas and more

They're starting to appear now and apparently more will as you pick them so I took these few.

More potatoes, second earlies, Nicola

Strolled up to water the tomatoes and decided to get some potatoes up too.  Both Ron and Alan tell me they should all be up by August so, although my back hurts a bit, I do a bit of potato-forking.

Glad I did.  This Nicola variety (second earlies) is much better than the Maris Bards of a couple of weeks ago.  Hardly any had been eaten by slugs etc and I only had to throw a couple away.  A range of sizes but they all look brilliant.  Definitely doing them again next year.

Artichoke Flower

Can't eat these flowers but don't they look superb?  I actually think they look better than artichoke's taste if that makes any sense at all.  I'm not bothered about eating them but I think I'll leave the plant in for the flowers.

Tomatoes

Well, I haven't done the thinning out thing as much as I should have done, and I'm sure I've got too many in my tiny greenhouse (that's right, I think I need a bigger one!) but the tomatoes are growing nicely.  I cannot wait to eat them.  Are 'fried green tomatoes' a real dish, cos I might have a go?

But still, not too long to wait as they are turning red.  How cool is that?  Slightly out of focus image of my first ever ripening tomato (in my life remember) but I was shaking too much with excitement!

Courgette flower

Following on fom the last post where I was worrying about planting too many courgette plants.  When they flower they look really nice and I'll be quite happy with a load of these beauties.

Courgette plant estimates

Tricky one this.  From last year's experience, and what all the books say, 2 or maybe 3 courgette plants is more than enough for anyone.  Last year I had 3 and, more courgettes than I knew what to do with.

This year I planted 4 and, guess what, the slugs ate them all.  I planted 1 more and it seemed to survive . . . just.  So, I planted 10 more seeds and and then moved the young plants outside, scattered around a bit to fool the slugs.  

They seem to have all survived!  If these 10, and the original one that managed to get through the onslaught, all produce like last year's, I will probably need to negotiate a deal to supply Sainsburys as I am going to have a lot of spare courgettes in a month or so.  

Alternatively it's courgettes for breakfast, dinner and tea.

Potato harvest begins

"100 days for First Earlies" my site-neighbour Ron tells me.  Well it's been 95 days since planting and I decided to lift.  Apparently the rest need to come up before August or blight sets in - black diseased potatoes.

3 rows of Marix Bard planted on April 7th, about 15 seed potatoes. Salad or 'New' potatoes

Very cool digging them up and quite a good harvest.  Sorted them out back home using the 4-stage classification system Perfect, 1-Hole, 2 or more holes, Severe (I.e. Bad).

Here's a photo of the resiults (Perfect at the bottom)

Probably eat everything in Groups 1 and 2, unless war breaks out and we'll have to eat Group 3.  It would have to get pretty bad to try Group 4 although there may be some poor sods who would welcome them.

Sweet peas

A bit of colour on the plot.  I seemed to plant a load of seeds earlier on this year but only a few actually survived.  Nice purples though and, who knows if I pick a few, they might look quite good over the summer.