16 Sep - Sweetcorn & Clearing The Winter Squash

The weather has been largely wet for a few days with more heavy rain forecast. I thought it best to harvest the squash crop in one of the sunny spells rather than leaving them resting in wet mud; besides, most of the plants have gone over now so they weren't going to grow any bigger.

Last year I had the pictured plastic crate plus a sack just of butternut squash; this season my butternut hardly fill half the crate. As mentioned in my last post I think the cooler temperatures this Summer had a detrimental effect. Anyway, I've got some nice Winter squash so things aren't too bad. (Link to last year's squash harvest).

I cleared away the squash vines and started roughly turning over the ground. I'll pull out any weeds and will probably cover the area with black plastic over the Winter. 

I had another look at my sweetcorn and I was pleasantly surprised. Last year was almost a write-off but this year I seem to have gotten some good results. Most of the plants have two good sized, well pollinated cobs on them. The recent winds have seen a few of them keel over now so I thought I'd pick a few that were lying on the ground.

Pictured are the first five I picked with the tassel end trimmed and the outer leaves removed. Overall, not a bad collection. Fingers crossed the rest of the sweetcorn harvest will be as good.

On a more sour note; my leeks have had an attack of leek moth. I've discovered a few larvae on the leaves and some damage at the centre of the leeks despite the covering of enviromesh. I'm hoping the damaged ones will recover but, even if they do, they never seem to get to the size of the unaffected ones. Oh, well, I'll keep an eye on them for the next few weeks.

That's it for now, see you next time.

08 Sep - First Of The Winter Squash

We are into September already and the weather has been bright and warm. I've tackled the strawberry patch, well most of it, by detaching the runners that have spread everywhere and by generally thinning out the plants. I think I initially planted them too close together which encouraged mould to grow on the fruit in damp conditions due to lack of air flow.

I've taken up a few old rhubarb plants that have been poor this year and have replanted the area with the best of the strawberry runners and thinnings. Can you have too many strawberries in June and July? I don't think so.

The Winter Squash plants are beginning to die off now. It hasn't been a great year for such squashes, size and number are much reduced compared to last year. I put this down to the cooler summer with more radically fluctuating temperatures. May and June were particularly cool so the squashes didn't get the sunshine and warmth they really needed to get going. Nevertheless, I managed to get some fruit so I must be thankful.

Below are the first of the rather splendid looking Turks Turban squashes. I've never grown these before but I'm impressed with their look and taste. We've had one roasted on Sunday, it was surprisingly easy to cut and prepare. (Pic - Turks Turban Winter Squash).

I always grow a couple of pumpkins for Halloween though we have started eating them too, (initially we didn't like the taste but both the flesh and seeds are better roasted). This year I have two varieties, neither are particularly massive but are nevertheless large enough to carve at the end of October. The pumpkin on the left just beginning to turn orange, is Jack O' Lantern; the one on the right is Big Max.

The sweetcorn will be picked very soon as the cobs are beginning to look fairly good, much improved on the paltry crop last season. Most of the plants have two good cobs, most look to be well pollinated too. Anything a bit ropey can go to the chickens, I'm sure they will mop them up.

The weather forecast for the next week doesn't look too great with rain and winds predicted. So, I'm ending this post with a late evening picture of the plot in the fading sunshine. Bye for now.