I had a bit of time today to write my monthly allotment article for my local newspaper, The South Wales Argus. Writing the article is never the problem but taking a few photographs to go with it can be an issue. I have to write the piece about a fortnight or so before publication that's fine but, taking pictures of things that haven't quite happened yet is difficult.
As I was writing about the joy of new potatoes I thought I'd better take a good look at mine and see if they were ready. I planted them on the 17th March (see blog post dated the day after) and it's been 11 weeks. I planted Rocket and the advice says they can be ready in 10 weeks. New potatoes are never prolific croppers but the newly dug, creamy taste make them worthwhile. The added benefit of planting quick maturing varieties is that the ground can be used for other crops like squashes or leeks that can move into the vacated space in June.
Anyway, I was pleased with the first two plants I dug, plenty for a few meals here, all in eleven weeks, not bad at all. I'll be digging the whole lot up in the next fortnight so I can plant out my butternut squashes. There was a touch of scab on one large potato but I'll definitely grow Rocket again.
The soft fruit is coming along nicely. I'm not expecting too much from the raspberries as they are re-establishing themselves after being moved. I've already picked a few pounds of rhubarb and the gooseberry bushes are looking fairly laden. My bumper crop in fruit terms this year ought to be the strawberries. I moved them and added some new 'ever-bearer' varieties that should give me a longer cropping season and the plants are producing loads of delicious berries. All we need now is some sunshine to ripen them.
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That's it for this post. See you soon.
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