oxfordpotager

Heatwave!

2010-05-26T05:41:00.001-07:00

I wouldn't normally expect temperatures to be so hot in May that seeds actually 'cook' in their pots, but this is what happened, despite maximum ventilation. The second sowings of squash and French beans all spoiled by heat, after starting to germinate. I've made another sowing, but I suspect it will be a little too late; just a few days delay in the planting of squashes can have an enormous impact on how well they do later in the season.

On the plus side, I was able to plant out the sweetcorn and earlier squash sowings rather earlier than I'd expected, as the soil had warmed up considerably in the 80 degree heat.

This week's sowings

2010-05-13T03:28:00.001-07:00

Outside

Beetroot Boro F1 - 2 rows

Beetroot Alto Fl 1 row (cylindrical)

Lettuce - Kos 1 row outside

Parsnip - Panache F1 and Avonresistor F1

Inside

Squashes - Marina di Chioggia

pumpkin

Zuccino Tondo di Toscana

Lady birds

2010-05-11T09:13:00.000-07:00

Ladybirds have been very much in evidence over the last month, mostly crowded on to the blackcurrant bushes which they seem to like particularly.

We have been quite concerned about the continuing increase in the population of the non-native Harlequin ladybirds (Harmonia axyridis); they over-winter inside in great numbers, and seem to have driven out the native ones from the cracks in our metal window frames. There has also been something of a plague of them at my print studio over the winter. Early in April, there seemed to be roughly equal numbers of Harlequins and Seven-spots, and a good number of two spots. Now I can mostly find Harlequins which seem to have a longer breeding period. There are fears that they will have a negative impact on native species by out-competing them.

Ten Spot Ladybird

Two and Seven-spot ladybirds

Asparagus!

2010-05-08T07:55:00.000-07:00

Finally, a pickable crop of asparagus! Lovely, thick, strong stems in abundance. Unfortunately, only from 2 plants. The others are still alive, but the shoots are tiny and sparse in comparison.

I started this bed about 3 years ago. I initially planted with crowns in early spring, against my better judgement, as I know from experience how little asparagus likes being disturbed (see below). A few did try to grow, but withered within a few weeks of first showing their heads later in the Spring. It was an expensive and frustrating mistake.

Luckily I had planted some from seed the previous year, and was planning to use them to fill the gaps. The first ones are now growing strongly, but I'm still filling the space gradually with more batches of ones grown from seed, so it will be a while yet before I have a full bed full of mature plants. I'd never bother planting crowns again, seed is much more reliable and barely takes any longer to establish and bulk to cropping size. The only disadvantage is that the varieties available as seed are not as good as some of the newer, all-male ones commercially available as crowns.

Variety - mostly Martha Washington from T&M, but also one batch of Mary Washington from a vendor on eBay. I'm afraid I didn't keep note of which batch was which (initially I thought 'Mary' was just a miss-print of Martha; it is in fact a distinct cultivar and also an all-female one like Martha). With hindsight, it would have been better to have looked for an all male variety, but I couldn't find any available as seed at the time I was planning the bed.

My inlaws had a wonderful asparagus bed in the orchard of their 16th century farmhouse. This must have been well over 50 years old and still cropping reliably, although the bed had become a bit congested. My father-in-law had the bright idea of digging it up, thinning out the plants and giving the spares away, as quite a few people had expressed interest in having some crowns. However, the replanted crowns all died and rotted very rapidly, and the whole bed was lost. Very sad, but it taught me the lesson, that asparagus crowns absolutely hate being moved. In contrast, the seed will sprout and survive in the least favourable places!

This week's sowings

2010-05-08T07:40:00.000-07:00

Inside:

Leek - King Richard

Lettuce - Red Fire, Cos

French Bean - Blauhilde

Broccoli - Rudolph

Sweetcorn - Sundance F1

More Aubergines, as a couple of plants were eaten by mollusc life in the greenhouse!

This week's sowings

2010-04-28T15:08:00.000-07:00

Outside

Parsnips Tender and True and Avonresister. I'll make later sowings of the same varieties to see if this makes any difference to carrot root fly attack.

Beetroot Boro to replace earlier row of Boltardy that failed due to drought.

Inside

Squashes Marina di Chioggia, Avalon and Jack be Little.

Lidl's brand Pumpkin and courgette.

Various lettuce

Leek Caretan

Various saved bean seed that got accidentally soaked.

More Runner Duck FAQs

2010-04-28T14:35:00.000-07:00

My oldest runner ducks turned seven on Saturday, which is quite a good age for them (their father died earlier this year at 8). Amazingly they are still fertile and laying eggs reasonably regularly, if not prolifically, at this age. Which brings me to one of the questions that cropped up in my keyword searches.

How long will an Indian Runner lay eggs?

Well the usual answer is for the first three years, after which there is usually a fairly dramatic fall off in production, but this post has rather disproved this as an absolute rule.

One thing that improved egg production, and probably helps with a laying later in life and overall longevity is good genetic diversity; my birds are a cross between completely unrelated strains.

Can I mix domestic duck breeds?

Yes, but remember that smaller breeds may be vulnerable to being attacked by larger ones during the breeding season, and can suffer eye injuries as the larger drakes often grip the feathers around the eye area when wrestling. Breeding birds should be segregated for at least a week before collecting hatching eggs to avoid cross-bred young (unless you particularly want them).

Wintering Indian Runners

Actually this is an issue even in the UK, as our older birds really suffered in the unusually cold temperatures of last winter. I think they found the long spell of frozen ground very uncomfortable on their feet and it was very difficult to keep their water from freezing completely, so their feather condition ended up quite poor and their eyes appeared a little sore at times. It didn't help that I was very ill myself at the time. In hindsight I wish I'd put much more straw down in their yard. The only solution for the water was taking a kettle of boiling water down to thaw out a puddle for them.

Keeping Indian Runner pairs

Keeping Indian Runner pairs is fine, although a trio will always be better; should you lose one then the other will still have a companion.

Ducks discarding eggs in water

Ducks don't necessarily have the same discipline as hens when it comes to laying in nest boxes or inside their house at all. Quite often they can be discarded almost anywhere in the excitement of morning bathing. However, ducks always lay their eggs by about 10 am in the morning, so keeping them in their house until this time will force them to lay inside, ensuring that eggs aren't spoiled by being laid in water or stolen by predators such as crows. Duck houses need to be cleaned out regularly, as it's usually impossible to keep a nest box area/eggs clean of faeces otherwise.

More Indian Runner FAQs

Spuds in by Good Friday!

2010-04-03T06:15:00.000-07:00

I managed to plant all the potatoes by Easter. Usually I like to plant a little earlier if possible (to get as much growth in before blight strikes, which seems to happen earlier each year) but the ground was simply too cold. Quite honestly I don't think it's quite warm enough yet, but growth will be rapid once we have a little more sun.

Garlic - Cledor

2010-03-07T08:09:00.000-08:00

I don't usually bother planting spring garlic, as I find overwintered varieties get away to a better start in spring and bulk up more. However, someone gave me an unwanted pack of Cledor, and it will be interesting to compare the yields with the strongly-growing bed of Germidor planted last Autumn.

No more parsnips!

2010-03-06T11:35:00.000-08:00

I decided to dig up the remaining row of parsnips today, as they are beginning to come into growth, and I had a large stew in mind। I was shocked to find them all about an inch in diameter, and riddled with canker। The other rows of Gladiator F1 were also badly affected, but were so large that a normal amount of parsnip was still present in usable amounts.

I really don't know why they have been so badly affected, Gladiator is supposed to be very resistant, they weren't sown particularly early and historically we हवे ओनली हद मिनोर problems with canker. I haven't had a problem with carrot root fly on parsnips before, but wonder if this might account for the degree of damage. I will try a new site this year and see if this makes a difference.

despite what I said earlier...

2010-01-26T06:45:00.001-08:00

... on impulse I bought some partridge silkie hatching eggs. Surprisingly all 12 were fertile and 10 hatched (using an Brinsea Octagon 10 incubator). One has curled toes, and had to wear sellotape and cardboard bootees for a couple of days, but is now walking fairly well, with just a little tape to hold the toes in place.

Spuds for 2010

2009-12-27T04:11:00.001-08:00

About the only thing I can be sure of in 2010 is that I will still be eating more potatoes than usual. If nothing else they are easy to maintain if I can't do the usual intensive daily horticultural routine.

This year's spuds are already beginning to sprout (Nicola is the worst), despite the recent cold weather so good winter dormancy is something I'll be looking for in addition to blight resistance. Lady Balfour has exceptional dormancy, in addition to overall suberb disease resistance, so I'll give this a go (helped in my decision by T&M offering free postage even on heavy items over xmas)

I'd already decided on Setanta as a replacement for Rooster, and again it supposedly combines good storage qualities with greater disease resistance than it's parent, but retaining a similar dry, floury texture (I hope...)

I might try a row of Nadine just for exhibition purposes, also perhaps Romano and Picasso so that all categories are covered (with the cup in mind). I'll save my own seed of Nicola too.

Miserable Christmas

2009-12-27T04:04:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted for a long time, as food and the growing of food has been far from my mind. I've been suffering from a severe bout of mucositis, the cause of which has been diagnosed as Sjogren's syndrome. The effect of this is that I can hardly eat anything at all, as my tongue, gums and throat are raw and permanently covered in ulcers. My teeth ache and are horribly sensitive. No treatment has been forthcoming, or effective so far.

Never have I been so grateful for spuds, as mashed potato has been virtually all I can eat. I have been more or less bed-ridden from the fibromyalgia caused by the condition, and I'm not optimistic about if I'll be able to carry on doing heavy horticultural work.

The Last Silkie, RIP

2009-10-27T08:14:00.001-07:00

I'm feeling really awful today. We had to cull our last silkie hen as it became clear today that she had Marek's disease.

I noticed a couple of weeks ago that she appeared to have an eye infection. We brought her in and bathed her eyes in saline solution, and it became clear that the second eyelids were very inflamed/enlarged, and clearly painful. My immediate assumption was straightforward bacterial infection. However, nothing a "straighforward" bacterial infection in a silkie, as they cannot tolerate the antibiotics that are licensed for poultry. I've given Baytril to silkies twice before for foot injuries, both time the toxic effects of the drug killed the birds.

This time the vet was happy to prescribe a penicillin-based one that was safer. Unfortunately the only drug she could find in stock had to be administered by injection. Luckily, she was happy for us to do this at home, as bringing the bird in to the vets everyday would have been very stressful, not to mention prohibitively expensive.

The antibiotics did improve the eye irritation, and allow one to open, but the other second eyelid was still very enlarged. My gut feeling was that it was due to a tumour, having had the same thing happen in the past. In that case the tumour form of the disease developed very rapidly after an initial eye irritation, and the bird had painful sore-like tumours all the way down her throat when the vet investigated, as well as obvious lameness.

She had seemed quite happy until yesterday, when paralysis of the left leg and wing became obvious. We decided to cull her quickly, as the tumours can be very painful.

So passed what will probably be my last Silkie. Previously I had built up quite a sizeable flock of about a dozen, all healthy to that point, and blissfully unaware of their susceptibility to Marek's disease. Then I made the mistake of buying in three hens from a top exhibition breeder. Within days, one of the new birds had started twisting her head backwards. We brought her in, but the paralysis developed quickly. Then, one by one, all of my own birds started to show the same symptoms. I managed to hatch three eggs before the cockerel started his slow decline (cockerels exhibit slightly greater tolerance to the condition than hens), and vaccinated them at day old for Marek's, and kept them in isolation until they were six months old. All in vain.

So, I can't really face getting any more. They are lovely birds, they are so loving and affectionate to each other as a family group, they melt even the most unsentimental heart. Which makes having to cull them because of one of the worst diseases imaginable all the more difficult.

There's a lot of debate about vaccination, as theoretically it makes it harder to determine the few birds in the population that may have some natural genetic resistance to the disease. My view is that NO birds in the population have any resistance. If you think of the level of inbreeding that must have been necessary for so many recessive characteristic to emerge (un-zipped fluffy feathers, black pigmentation, extra toes etc), it's equally likely that any genes for Marek's resistance were bred out at the same time. And this selective inbreeding has been going on for over a hundred years in this country, and probably a millennium before that in China. The problem with extreme selective breeding, you can never be sure what problems you may be selecting for along side desired physical characteristics.

It's possible that some of the newer colours do possess greater immunity from the crosses to other breeds necessary to bring genes for cuckoo barring or red colouring into the breed, but any protective effect of hybridisation would be lost if Marek's tolerance was specifically selected for, at the expense of colour, type and other exhibition values.

Catalogue time - potatos

2009-10-20T10:08:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year when all the catalogues have dropped through the letterbox, and stay piled up on the floor until someone either reads them or piles them up as they always look too glossy to throw away, until the nights draw in and there's little to do of an evening than sit down and fantasize about all the new F1 hybrids one might grow if one wasn't so parsimonious. This year I'm sorely tempted by T&Ms special potato catalogue, with it's attractively weird blue heritage varieties and new, blight-busting, bag-bursting super spuds.

The terrible blight of this year has prompted me to consider changing from my auto-pilot choice of spuds.I'd also like to increase the range that I grow to have more suitable exhibition varieties. However, one of the reasons I like to buy seed loose is that I don't have room for more than a couple of rows of any one variety, so only have need from between 4-8 of any single cultivar, which works out quite reasonable when bought loose from local garden centres or from bargain packs. However, I've found it more difficult to find varieties I like in recent years available from these sources.

What I need is a mixture of waxy second-early/early maincrop which can be used in late summer as 'new' boiling potatoes, but also bulk up for use as early maincrops, and floury late maincrop for mashing and roasting. All need to be are blight, slug and scab resistant.

Sadly, none of the waxy types are particularly blight resistant, and though Charlotte and Anya are also fine-flavoured varieties, they fall down on other qualities (scab, bruising, size, greening, shorter dormancy etc).

Very few maincrops/late maincrops describe themselves as 'floury'. Many are only described as 'don't disintegrate on boiling' which isn't of great interest to me as I don't really like plain boiled potatoes.

On general purpose/exhibition use, there are a few that stand out:

Setanta bred from Rooster, so floury 'high dry matter' spud but with better all round qualities and higher disease resistance (including good resistance to common scab, so potentially more attractive tubers than the parent), I think I will give it a go next year.

Druid looks promising on this front. Vigourous, disease resistant, nice colour, large, even tubers that might make do for exhibition as well. However, not much detail on texture or flavour, and I've wasted space far too many un-memorable spuds in my time. Will trial if I can find a small number to try.

Orla also sounds quite appealing "Very grower friendly, it produces high yields with good baker content. It shows good foliage blight resistance and excellent tuber blight resistance."

Red Cara also sounds good "Very resistant to a vast range of diseases and viruses. Tubers are uniform and suitable for a range of culinary uses including home chipping. It is high yielding and keeps well in storage"

Blue Danube appeals just because of the beauty of the deep purple tubers. Good resistance to blight but not so good on common scab, and susceptible to dry rot and some nematodes. No information on flavour or dormancy.

Harmony has good exhibition qualities and dormancy but not so good on blight resistance.

Nadine also looks a promising oval white for exhibition, and has good overall disease resistance and very good yields. No description of culinary qualities though.

Leek: Monstruosa de Caretan

2009-10-14T13:34:00.000-07:00

First picking of leeks, or only one as that was sufficient for today's leek and potato soup. Very good size. Despite having bolted, the core wasn't woody.

Busy Day - autumn sowings

2009-10-08T10:44:00.000-07:00

A busy but dull day. Cleaned out the small greenhouse a while back, and sower lettuce Merveille de Quatre Saisons and cilantro as an experiment (given that I can't grow the latter in open ground, as carrot fly gets it just after it germinates).

The adjacent potato bed was dug, and composted last week, so planted garlic (Thermidor cloves saved from this year's crop). Half grown in pots, with good root system already, the rest planted as bulbs. Will be interesting to see if there is any difference later on.

Lastly, dug the harvested beetroot bed and planted spinach, matador and ?. I know it's too late, but the seed needed using and the soil is still quite warm. Covered opposite bed with 2-3" well-rotted poultry manure to keep it friable over winter. Have enough left to cover one of the other large beds, must crack on with it tomorrow.

Was very tempted by the various onion sets on offer, but made the decision long ago that it's not worth it. When we had the smallholding, we grew fantastic onions on raised beds mulched with well-rotted cow manure. They never attain the same size and quality in the garden, and despite heat treatment, a significant number seem to bolt. I'm not sure onions are one of those things that taste remarkably different when home grown, and I will stock up on Brittany ones next time I go to Wales.

The compost heap was very active, already hot and steaming about an inch under the surface. It was a bit smelly for a day, but seems to have calmed down now, probably due to adding a bit too much grass to the mixture.

Sweetcorn: Sundance F1

2009-10-04T11:37:00.000-07:00

I'm slightly disappointed with this variety. The cobs are about 7" long, but the top inch or more have no kernels. I don't think it's a pollination issue as the kernels are evenly set on all of them. Flavour is good as you'd expect from a super-sweet but I've had larger cobs. Very few double cob plants too.

It hasn't been a good year for sweet corn at all, the crop is very late and the plants were beaten down badly by midsummer rain. Still, most plants did produce an edible cob. The squirrels have been attacking them too, which is very annoying.

How to make a compost heap

2009-10-04T11:17:00.000-07:00

As I've been both using and building heaps this weekend, I thought I'd write something on compost making.

I have a fairly strict 'recipe' but one which does produce very fast-maturing heaps of good friable compost. It does require lots of straw saturated with manure which I don't suppose all gardeners have. I keep my poultry on what is known as the 'Balfour Method', which is a semi-intensive system using a yard covered which straw, plus access to free range.

The straw absorbs manure, but also gets saturated with moisture (from rain and duck bath), which greatly helps the composting process. Dry straw will not rot. If you don't have poultry, then using saturated straw with added manure or anything else which has a high nitrogen content might be a good alternative.

In between the damp poultry straw are thin layers of lawn clippings. On their own, they would be too slimy and acidic to make good compost, but they are a wonderful activator. Having been pulverised by the mowing process, they have many surfaces that the microbes that break down cellulose can get to work on, and they speed up the rate of activity phenomenally.

Other layers of kitchen refuse, cardboard etc are added on top, and anything that might attract vermin (e.g. pepper tops, mouldy tomatoes etc) covered over with a couple of handfuls of straw.

As for using it, most of it goes as a mulch on empty beds over winter. By spring, the soil underneath will be very friable and ready to sow. This idea comes from 'no dig' gardening, which appeals greatly when digging can harm so many toads. I find I can't give up digging entirely (possibly because I simply can't make enough compost for all my beds) but it has helped a lot, and made life easier on my back too.

More Runner Duck FAQs

2009-10-04T10:51:00.000-07:00

Some new queries showing up in my website stats, so I thought I'd update my duck FAQs

What are the ideal ducks to keep in a garden?

By ideal, do you mean ones that cause least damage to the garden? Runner ducks are not good in this respect, they are very active foragers, and will trample plants quite badly. The various kinds of bantam ducks would be a better choice.

Can ducks eat wheat?

Yes, actually wheat is a complete diet for them, though I feed mine on good quality layers pellets, and specialist waterfowl breeders' pellets if breeding. Whatever sort of food you choose, make sure you always provide poultry grit, as birds need this for helping to grind down food in their gizzard.

Is my duck a Runner Duck?

I thought this was a bit daft when I read it, but actually it's a fair question. What makes a duck an "Indian Runner"? Largely it's down to the carriage. This is what the breed standard says:

"Upright, active, nearly perpendicular when at attention, excited or trained for the show pen. When not alarmed, or when on the move, the body may be inclined between 50-80 degrees above the horizontal. The proper carriage creates a straight line from the back of the head to the tip of the tail. Total length (fully extended in a straight line, measured from bill tip to middle toe tips): drake 65-80 cm and duck 60-70 cm."

There are probably quite a lot of cross-bred ducks that have runner parents or other ancestors. Usually these will be heavier in build, but have a much less upright carriage than a true Indian runner.

Previous Runner Duck FAQs

More Runner Duck FAQs

Beetroot: Forono and Boro F1

2009-09-30T10:38:00.000-07:00

Lots of beet to pick. The Forono surprised me by growing rather quickly this year, and being ready the same time as new variety Boro, despite being sown later. The trouble with Forono is that the long roots are particularly prone to slug damage, so cannot be left too long. Unlike newer varieties, it can be prone to being woody if left too long. So far, so good, but there's an awful lot of beetroot sandwiches to get through!

Actually, we have been experimenting with roasting beet along with other vegetables. It take quite a long time, and is prone to bleed a little, but is an excellent addition to the roasting tray.

Leek: Caretan

2009-09-30T10:33:00.000-07:00

The leeks could have been better this year. I planted to early and they have bolted, and also developed quite bad rust infection. I've grown this variety for a number of years, but never had this problem before. Usually they are large, long standing winter leeks without problem. The one thing I did differently this year was to plant very early. I'm hoping the bolters won't be too woody.

Harlequin Ladybirds

2009-09-29T08:13:00.000-07:00

Found several Harlequin ladybirds (Harmonia axyridis) today. Reported them to the Harlequin survey with photographic evidence. They were all sheltering in my quince crop.

Since the harlequins have arrived, there seems to have been a corresponding drop in the numbers of two-spot ladybirds which overwinter in our windows. Possibly just a coincidence, but I'm inclined to think there may be a connection.

Ladybird identification guide

Potato varieties - some further thoughts.

2009-09-24T09:44:00.000-07:00

I had considered finishing with Nicola now that blight has started affecting us regularly, but its resistance to slugs and scab is good, problems are actually greater evils as far as storage and general usefulness. As long as action is taken early enough, it seems cutting foliage/strawing down do stop the blight from affecting the crop or and the yields isn't actually affected as badly. I have tried Sante in the past but I didn't rate the culinary quality, the yields weren't spectacular either and I didn't find the disease resistance any better than Nicola, though obviously the latter is more susceptible to blight. A possible alternative is Charlotte, which is a similar type of potato with a similar season and slightly better blight resistance, but less versatile than Nicola, with a smaller average tuber size.

The only other second early/maincrop I've ever liked was a round, purple-eyed variety whose name I forget. This was the highest yielding potato I've ever grown, but it simply couldn't find it after a couple of years. I think it must have been Picasso. Whether it would be as good in this location I don't know, its susceptibility to slugs might be a bit disappointing.

Potato crop: Nicola

2009-09-24T09:01:00.000-07:00

Dug the remaining rows of Nicola today. Exceptionally clean crop this year with very little slug damage and only a tiny bit of scab.

Yield was a little less than the Rooster, 7 kg for two rows (6 or 7 tubers) but size was good, with a number of perfect tubers of fist-size for baking. Most of the spoiled tubers were fork-damaged. Only one plant had blighted tubers. Considering how early blight struck this season, we were lucky to have any potatoes to store at all.

I think it is definitely worth getting seed in as early as possible. The first two rows of Nicola went in a couple of weeks before Easter, and were large, fully leafed plants whilst the later sowings were just breaking.

This is the potato council's evaluation of Nicola:

"Second early maturity, high number of uniform tubers per plant, medium to long dormancy. Good resistance to common scab, potato leaf roll virus, potato virus Y and bruising. Resistant to potato cyst nematode Ro1. Medium low dry matter, good boiling qualitities"

Potato Council website

Best of all, no damage done to any toads today. I did see a grass snake tail slipping silently away as I cleared the straw, maybe the toads have all been eaten.

Not sure why these won a prize, they look dreadfully uneven!

Compost: don't include triffid in the mix!

2009-09-23T14:02:00.000-07:00

This is a cautionary compost tale. In theory almost everything of plant extraction should be possible to compost. But not Parrot's Feather Myriophyllum.

I cleared a lot out of the pond last summer as it tends to overwhelm the surface and cause the aquatic oxygenaters to die back. I mixed it in with chicken straw and grass as the bottom layer of the new heap I was making, thinking that a year underneath a hundred-weight of hot, actively steaming muck would kill it off. Wrong. When I came to harvest this heap earlier in the summer, the bottom layer was still full of wiry, strongly-rooted stems that looked far from dead. It was impossible to use in this state, so I left it. Within a week, the stems had started to grow and produce fresh green leaves. This plant does not need water, it can grow in fairly dry soil like any other. It is truly a pest. I have now treated with glyphosate, which has wilted it a little, but I'm still not sure that I can just compost over it again. I think I'll have to dig it out and destroy some other way.

The Elderflower Wine

2009-09-20T10:34:00.000-07:00

Well, the cup is coming home again this year. Having not made any this year, and not even having gotten round to bottling last years, an eleventh hour effort last night paid off. Now we just need to rememer to start drinking it, having got out of the habit somewhat in the last few years.

One of the many

2009-09-20T10:25:00.000-07:00

Just to illustrate the problem, there are probably half a dozen toads per square yard in the vegetable garden. Nestling under leaves and boards, finding their way deeper into the soil via cracks or mole/mouse tunnels. All ready to be trodden on, spiked or bisected by a spade at any point. It has made gardening really difficult. Only a tiny percentage have been harmed by gardening directly, but it's very upsetting when it happens. One jumped under my foot as I walked down the path this week. On the other, hand it's obviously a fantastic habitat for them. I can't say I've ever noticed any benefit from the presence in terms of reduced slug numbers though. Both are present in plague proportions!

Potato Rooster

2009-09-20T10:09:00.000-07:00

Decided to lift the 'Roosters' today. In previous years I've left them far too late, and lost an awful lot to the hole burrowers.

A good yield, about 10 kgs in total. Not bad from 7 small seed potatoes in 2 rather cramped rows. Less scabby than last year too, the sulphur had done a reasonable job, though hadn't eradicated it completely. Certainly not enough for exhibition standard, though the Nicolas were perfectly clean, and took first prize in their category today.

Best of all, no toads spiked. Putting the straw down was an excellent idea. It stopped any blight spores affecting the tubers, prevented any greening and discouraged the toads from burrowing into the soil. Most were just nestling under the straw, and were easily brushed off with it. I will leave it down until spring and hope the same applies when I come to dig then.

Autumn musings

2009-09-10T09:49:00.000-07:00

Superb autumn sunshine again today. I feel I should be doing something, but the ground is too hard to dig at the moment. Digging when the soil is in this condition creates too many fissures which quickly attract sheltering toads and toadlets, which will probably end up on the tine of my fork at a later stage. I'd rather wait until the soil condition is right.

I could have cleared out the 'tomoato tardis', but he blighted tomatoes are still yielding the odd fruit. Instead I spent a while photographing the abundant insect life. Lots of seven spot ladybirds, so nice to see after the influx of harlequin ones in previous years. This one was feeding on a fennel flower. The self-seeded borage was attracting multitudes of honey and bumble bees, lots of different species.

A good picking!

2009-09-04T12:18:00.000-07:00

I couldn't resist posting a photo of today's pickings

Butternut Avalon

2009-08-31T05:54:00.000-07:00

First picking of winter squash. I decided to cut the large ones to encourage the smaller ones to swell to a decent size in the last couple of good growing weeks. These are whoppers, haven't weighed them yet but much larger than any butternuts I've grown before, more like the over-sized ones available at the supermarket, weighing in at about 1.5 kg each. So much for being 'compact' as described in the catalogue! Not perfectly matched for exhibition purposes, but I suspect I might enter them in the village show anyway.

The stalks were quite compact, I hope they are a good keeping variety.

Duck (Indian Runner) FAQs

2009-08-31T04:31:00.000-07:00

I get several hits a day on my personal website asking very basic questions about duck keeping, particularly runners as I occasionally breed them and advertise them on their own pages. I've been meaning to do a FAQ page for ages, and so here goes. (These questions are lifted from my stats records, so it's not my fault some appear particularly dim).

Can I keep ducks?

I would suspect yes, but only if you have the time, space, and a genuine need for the gallons of duck slurry that they produce.

How big are Runner Ducks?

Runners are a medium-sized duck breed, fairly low in weight compared to the heavier breeds but quite a bit bigger than a mallard. Do not be deceived into thinking this makes them easier than larger kinds; Indian runners need more space than any of the other breeds as they are very active and nervous. They are NOT suitable to keep in an ark for instance.

Do Runner ducks need a pond/water?

ALL ducks need access to bathing water. They need to submerse their heads regularly to bathe their eyes, and their eyes can become easily infected if access to deep water is limited. They also need water to help them preen and keep their plumage in good condition, and also like to wash food items before eating.

For just a pair of ducks, all of this can be accomplished in a large washing up bowl or, better still, a plastic child's sandpit. The side must be low enough to allow the birds to get out easily and not become trapped, and be light enough to tip the water out. Bear in mind that water must be kept fresh at all times, which might mean filling and emptying a couple of times of day, and that all the dirty water has to then go somewhere. If the effluent goes on to bare earth, then after about two days you have a quagmire. Ideally, the bath should be sited on concrete that can be hosed down, angled so that the water runs off to a drain/sump.

My own set up is that I have an 8'x4'x6" custom-made fibre-glass bath on constant drip from a mains hose. It is raised about 9 inches above the soil level, and has a gutter that runs off to a sump hole. This is okay for about 12-18 ducks at the most. It is thoroughly cleaned every week in summer, less often in winter. And yes, it is a lot of work.

Can you keep ducks in a wildlife pond?

Yes, but only if you don't mind the ducks eating all the wildlife. I also have a 20'+ diameter pond which the ducks enjoy, but I rarely let them free range these days as I can't bear the amphibian carnage that ensues within minutes of letting them out. The younger ducks will also dive and catch goldfish.

Can you use algicide in duck ponds?

I don't see why you would need to. A well-managed duck bath in a poultry run should be kept constantly fed with fresh water, and any algal build up washed away regularly. If algae has had time to grow, so might a whole-host of other pathogens. Blanket weed in a garden pond is a sign of too small a water volume / chemical imbalance, and algicides will kill a number of pond plants. However, ducks love blanket weed and will eat it. They may trample and dig up all your decorative pond plants at the same time though.

What plants are poisonous for ducks?

I'm sure all the same one that are poisonous to us, but ducks are actually quite bright and never eat any green matter that is unpalatable to them. I really wouldn't worry about it. The only edible things that have killed my poultry were a batch of mouldy/contaminated wheat I got from a local farmer (which only poisoned the hens; the ducks were too canny to touch it) and a duckling once choked on a large slug.

Are duck eggs poisonous?

No more than any other eggs. All eggs carry a risk of contamination with salmonella. This can due to shell damage (bacteria entering via a small hole) or very occasionally via internal transmission from the duck, visible as a small, grey bacteria mass when the egg is broken open. Obviously dirty eggs will carry a higher risk of contamination if there is any damage to the shell, cuticle or membrane, and duck houses tend to be harder to manage for a number of reasons, which is why duck eggs have acquired the reputation of being more likely to be a problem. However, duck eggs usually have very good shell quality, with tough membranes and thick, waxy exterior cuticle (intended to protect the unborn duckling from damp conditions); they are much tougher than commercial hen eggs in this respect.

Clean-water management can be an issue with ducks, and the combination of stagnant water, bird faeces, rotting green matter and warm weather can cause anaerobic conditions that favoured by botulinum bacteria. However, the ducks are much more likely to succumb and die from botulism themselves before passing the toxins on to humans.

As with all eggs, keep duck eggs clean at all stages, discard really dirty or damaged ones and refrigerate others asap. Don't use any that are found in the run or duck bath, especially if you are not sure when they were actually layed.

If you find one with a grey spot in the albumen when you open it, don't use it (red blood-spots are fine). If you are feeding eggs of any kind to the young, old or invalids, make sure they are well-cooked.

Why aren't my Runner Ducks laying?

This depends on a lot of things. Time of year, age of birds etc. Given that this question appeared in September, there are two possibilities. If your birds are youngsters, hatched earlier in the spring, chances are they are too young. Only the ones that hatch very early are likely to produce eggs in the following autumn, and then only if they are a particularly prolific egg-laying strain.

If the birds are older, then they will go out of lay through the summer as they need to devote more of their metabolism to growing new feathers during the moult. Some will lay through this period if they are a good strain, though not necessarily every day. Personally I'd prefer them not to lay and have a rest.

Some strains just aren't very good layers. I used to keep Silver runners which laid far fewer eggs than the black ones.

Are Runner Ducks noisy?

They can be. Drakes are virtually silent, but females can be a very vocal, and have fine, strong voices capable of conversing with other ducks of their acquaintance half a mile away. A pair may not be too bad but once you have a number of females, they can be quite noisy. Ducks, unlike hens, don't have any 'roosting' instinct and are quite happy quacking all through the night, especially from late winter onwards.

If you just want ducks as pets and have snotty neighours, then a couple of drakes will get along very well and make virtually no noise.

How to mix young ducks

With caution. Mixing young birds in with adult males should be done very carefully. Runners are particularly bad in this respect and can be very aggressive towards ducklings. I don't mix my youngsters in with the adults until they have grown to be the same size, and even then there can be quite a bit of bullying. Youngsters take the best part of six months to get to this stage (another reason why I don't breed very often) and wouldn't encourage anyone else to do so unless they have the time, space and dedication.

Do Runner ducks moult?

Yes, all birds moult.

Can I use duck eggs for making pancake batter?

No, it's about the one thing that duck eggs aren't good for. Older, watery hens eggs are best for pancakes, and also soufflés. I'm not wildly keen on them scrambled either; hens eggs make lighter, fluffier scrambled eggs. Duck eggs are good fried and poached, as the strong albumen hold it's shape and doesn't spread out. They are also excellent for all kinds of baking.

Do Runner ducks swim?

Runner ducks are just a variety of domestic duck, which are all derived originally form the common mallard; like all waterfowl are adapted for aquatic life and yes, they do swim.

Unlike some other breeds of domestic duck, they can't fly. This has some benefits (they can't fly out of your backyard into the blue yonder, as my Black East Indies have done) but isn't so good if a predator attacks.

Brown Eggs

2009-08-27T11:29:00.000-07:00

On the topic of eggs, here's an old photo of a mixture of nicely-coloured eggs from cuckoo marans and welbars (dark-egg laying, auto-sexing hybrid between Welsummer and Plymouth rock).

The darkest ones are from the welbar, and also had an unusual, torpedo shape. They were not prolific layers, about every other day for the first couple of years, but the shell quality and colour were very good. They lived to be ten, and all died within a few months of each other of congestive heart failure.

My current 'dark brown' hens are a commercial hybrid, Plymouth Rock crossed wtih Pl/Rock x Copper Maran (black hens shown below). Egg numbers/quality have been good, but the colour has faded from dark copper to ordinary buff colour through the laying season. I will probably order in some more hybrid POL pullets early next year to keep numbers up, and hatch a handful of Welsummers or Copper Black marans if I find I have the time.

Sweetcorn

2009-08-27T07:28:00.000-07:00

Mixed results with the sweetcorn. The main variety is Sundance F1, with a few of the "Indian Summer' bicolour that survived damping off.

The ones used to interplant the winter squash near the duck bath sump are doing well, with good-sized cobs developing. Those that went into a bed of their own two weeks later have not thrived, and are only half the height of their neighbours, with rather pathetic looking coblets. Interestingly, despite being sown and planted at two week intervals, they have produced cobs/male flowers more or less simultaneously. As the saying goes, "what's the difference between a good gardener and a bad one?" "One week".

Poultry greens, weeds and other poultry stuff

2009-08-27T07:08:00.000-07:00

The poultry yard has many uses. As well as a provider of the ton or so of composted manure I need for the soil, the birds also consume a large proportion of the weeds I pull every day through the season. Most of the annual weeds that infest my beds are palatable to the birds:Sow thistle, Fat hen, dandelion, hairy bittercress, rough Hawk's beard. I should make a photographic record, but this site covers most of the edible weeds, albeit listed for tortoises rather than poultry.

Greens should be an important and regular part of laying birds' diet. They improve the yolk colour and improve levels of omega 3; research by Artemis Simopoulos published in the New England Journal of Medicine has shown that eggs from birds fed on a varied died rich in greens (purslane) have a much higher ratio of Omega 3 to 6 than ordinary supermarket eggs (1:3 as opposed to 19:4). They also get bolted lettuces and brassicas, beetroot leaves etc in season.

The run is also proving useful as a support for a 'Jack O Lantern' pumpkin variety, which has started setting and swelling fruit since clambering up the run apace.

Brussels Sprouts

2009-08-27T06:54:00.000-07:00

I don't particularly like Brussels Sprouts. They take up a lot of room, aren't that easy to grow well, and I find them fiddly and time-consuming to harvest and prepare. For years I have been putting a few in just for my father at Christmas. This year I planted them nice and early, before he was taken ill.

I planted these in what I thought was a rather moribund asparagus bed, little fern having emerged in the spring. However, the latter rose from the dead with a vengeance in the June heat wave. In theory, the settled ground should have been nice and firm for the sprouts, which were also well 'healed in', to avoid the sprouts 'blowing' and developing into loose, soggy bundles of leaves rather than tight nuts. The plan does not seem to have worked; all the plants have set an early crop of loose sprouts, now reduced to lace by copious number of caterpillars that I was not around to squash.

They are being enjoyed by the toadlets, which are clambering all over the large leaves to pick off the wriggling swarm, though not in a great enough number to halt the damage. Theoretically I could spray, but the plants should recover from the damage in the Autumn, and put on a bit more stem growth with clean sprouts. The looseness is more of a problem. I don't suppose I shall grow any more sprouts, at least for a while, so will never work out how to avoid the problem. I did manage to plant some purple sprouting broccoli 'Rudolph', which I'd prefer to give space to, but not any black kale, which is my favourite through-the-winter green.

Bean feast?

2009-08-27T06:25:00.000-07:00

I like this variety of French bean, Neckar Gold. Apart from being very productive, the pods are much more visible than the green types, which means that they are far less likely to be left behind and set seed, thus reducing the productivity of the bean plants.

I'm not sure how big the crop from this single wigwam of 6 poles has been, having been away. Our neighbour said he helped himself to a few decent pickings, and since returning on the I've picked 2 lbs in less than a week. This batch should continue for a couple of weeks longer.

My bean schedule did not go to plan. The early runner bean plantings ended up in Swansea, as my father was worried about not having put any in himself this year. They grew weakly, and ironically their fate pretty much paralleled that of his.

Despite planting several more batches on rushed trips home, very few germinated in the care of my husband, and the odds and ends went into a single wigwam in the front. I did not have enough 'Sun Bright' runner beans (with decorative golden foliage), so I added my only two plants of French Bean Blauhilde to fill the gap. These proved rather more vigourous than their companions and are now up and away onto the pear arches, feet ahead of the runner beans. They are also rather more precocious, having already set a few edible-sized beans. So far it looks a vigourous and productive variety, again with the advantage that the purple pods should be easy to distinguish from the rest of the vine. When the runners finally set a usable crop, they should follow on neatly from the French kinds.

Wild Plums, Bullace

2009-08-23T13:37:00.000-07:00

It's very annoying having such a heavy crop of the wild plums that creep over my boundaries when the domestic varieties do so badly. I'm tempted to bud the latter onto a branch of the wild tree to see if they do better.

Wild plums are just about edible as desert if very well ripened, and if you take off the skin, but I think I'll just jam these or better still, make plum gin.

I don't particularly like them, but have to pick them as the windfalls attract rats to the poultry run; the stored stones keep them going well into the winter (despite the cyanide). Soon there will be copious purple fox droppings in the garden, all full of tell-tale stones. Foxes appear to be largely fruitarian between July and September from the scat I find in the garden.

How does growing your own save you money?

2009-08-15T03:38:00.000-07:00

I keep on reading that growing your own vegetables is a good way to 'beat the credit crunch' (though how this helps you get a loan or mortage is never explained). This makes me realise that I've never actually sat down and totted up the net cost/benefit of my fruit and vegetable growing and poultry keeping. But then, decades of practice and parsimony passed through the genes mean I don't do things in the same way as many people.

I suspect if I added up the cost of materials and food for the poultry over the years (even with all structures home made or free-cycled), I would be well out of pocket despite buoyant egg sales. But then, the birds produce about a ton of straw manure which makes vegetable growing possible in a very thin and porous soil, and it's sentimentally valuable to have many generations of ducks or hens you've raised yourself.

If the your sole reason for growing food is economic, then here are some tips.

Don't spend too much on seeds

Most of the catalogues that spend a lot on marketing have very expensive seeds. In fact, some are so overpriced that the companies have a number of half-price seed sales through the year. T&M harass you with a lot of junk emails if you get on their list, but among those will be some half-price veg seed sales. I've bought about half my seeds from their sales in the last few years.

Some garden centres also reduce seeds by half at the end of the season, around June-July.

And some seed merchants are simply better value than others even without reductions. I buy a lot from D T Brown

Also consider some budget brands, though seed quality can be variable. I recommend those from Lidl which were only about 35p for small packets, c. 55p for larger packs of peas and beans. They have good range of largely continental varieties which personally I like a lot. (The one vegetable I'd insist on quality seed for are parsnips, which can be hard to germinate at the best of times.)

Don't throw away last year's seed packets

Most vegetable seeds will actually remain viable for a number of years (the exceptions are parsnips and lettuce, though I find the latter will germinate the following year with reduced fertility). I just planted a row of Forono beetroot with a sell-by date of 2003 and it germinated with as much vigour as if it was new. Opened seed does need to be stored well, in a dry, cool place.

Save your own seed

This sometimes happens by accident if you find a pea or bean pod that has escaped picking. Dry any of these off and then shell. Discard any that look too shrivelled or brown.

Don't buy seed potato or onion/shallot sets mail order

Self-evident; the postage will be astronomical and chances are you'll find exactly the same varieties in your local garden centre unless you live on mars.

Don't be tempted by gadgets

If you do end up with a seed catalogue full of weird and wonderful things, don't be tempted by any of them. The one exception is a roll of environmesh which is essential for keeping caterpillars of brassicas. All the others are a waste of money.

Don't buy lots of fertilisers or pesticides

If you're creating a vegetable plot from scratch, then the soil won't yet have been denuded of nutrients or have built up a lot of pests or diseases. Soil treatments are really for those who have been cultivating a plot for a long time, and need to return what has been taken out to stop the soil becoming exhausted.

Don't buy fruit bushes/trees from catalogues

The fruit offered by the glossy catalogues is very over-priced in comparison with smaller, specialist nurseries, plus postage will be astronomical. Also, all fruit is a medium to long term investment, and it may take a few years before you get the value of the purchase price back in fruit. Check out any local nurseries first. Buckingham Nurseries used to be the best value mail-order supplier of the more popular varieties of top and bush fruit, but I haven't bought anything from them for a while.

Some catalogues do offer good deals on strawberries though, I've bought them from Marshalls on a couple of occasions when they've had a good offer.

Don't create gluts

If you sow a lot of one vegetable in one go, then you'll probably end up chucking a lot of it away. Sow little and often, leaving gaps between sowings. Learn how to store things properly. If you don't have a cool place to store sacks of potatoes, they will germinate in mild weather and will have to be thrown away, so grow a mixture of varieties you can use through the season and a small amount of maincrop until you're sure they will store well (I've ended up storing mine in paper bags in the bottom of the fridge).

Pumpkin support

2009-08-14T11:16:00.000-07:00

Last year the poultry run proved to be a very good support for squashes, so this year I'm encouraging a pumpkin variety to cover the wire. I would have expected something to set and start developing by this point in August for there to be any hope of decent, fully ripened fruits, but yet again the season has been disappointing. The biggest pumpkin I ever grew was in my allotment in Wolfson College. I remember going into college on August bank holiday to work, and finding someone had tried to steal the nearly-mature fruit. It was too heavy for them to move, so they had hacked out a slice. We decided to take it home and use it ourselves before the thieves came back for some more. It took two people to move and filled a small wheelbarrow. I doubt my current pumpkin will produce anything like this in time for this year's bank holiday.

Squashes

2009-08-14T11:10:00.001-07:00

The squash bed around the 'duck sump' has become a jungle in my absence. I'm sure the irrigation helped them establish during the brief heat wave, but constant rain throughout July hasn't helped the fruits to set without rotting off. Some leaves showing mildew. Normally I'd put this down to being too dry at the root, but I suspect the drip from the duck bath plus the rain might have been a bit too much. Now the vines are attaching to fences and other supports, hopefully there will be enough air to allow some to set without rot from the blossom end setting in.

You might notice some sweetcorn interplanted between the squashes. I've done this before with some success. However, none of my sweetcorn is looking very vigourous this year, the later-planted ones not in the squash bed being the weakest.

Potato: Nicola - with no scab

2009-08-14T11:01:00.000-07:00

A very clean crop of Nicola, about 1Kg from one of the later sown tubers. This year I treated the ground with sulphur powder at the rate of 15g metre before sowing. So far it seems to have done the trick, not a trace of any scab, though Nicola isn't the most scab-prone of potatoes but it does sometimes show some brown scarring where earth has attached in a lump. I'm even hopefully the early-sown ones might yield some large and clean enough for exhibiting at the Autumn show. I'll reserve judgement until I harvest some of the Rooster which were quite badly affected by scab last year.

Nicola is my favourite potato as it is so versatile. A salad type second early, it can be used early (after flowering) as a new potato, or left to attain a larger size as maincrop as it stores very well. It has dense, yellowish flesh with a lovely buttery flavour. It has smooth, fine skin and isn't as prone to scab in my soil as some varieties. It's slightly less prone to slugs than some, perhaps because it is denser. Larger tubers bake well too, though be very careful to look for any tiny slug holes before baking. I'm going to miss this variety; I'm not sure I can bring myself to use dithane to control blight.

It scores 3/9 for Blight resistance, 7/9 for scab and 8/9 for potato eelworm.

Tomato Blight

2009-08-14T10:51:00.001-07:00

Another disaster. I had been growing bush tomatoes in the Growmate greenhouse. Unfortunately the design isn't blight proof, as water can enter in the gap at the top of the pyramid, and splash blight spores on to the tomato foliage below. I can probably find a way round by covering the gap loosely, but I won't be able to grow tomatoes in here next year.

Luckily, very little of the fruit had been affected by the infection and I managed to rescue a couple of pounds of tomatoes.

Blighted!

2009-08-14T10:39:00.002-07:00

Returned from Wales to find all the potato crop badly affected by blight. Fortunately the infection was still on the leaves, and hadn't spread down the stems to the tubers (as far as I could see) so there was a hope of saving the crop. Fortunately I had been earthing up very assiduously which would help stop infection spreading to surface tubers.

The only way to save the crop was to remove the haulms at soil level and destroy them. I dusted the ground with some Bordeaux powder and slug pellets then covered the ground with at least 6 inches of straw (to cover the pellets from birds and act as a barrier to spores. I've just dug some Nicola, and this approach seems to have words.

This is the first time in more than twenty years of gardening in Oxford that I've had potatoes affected by blight, though outdoor tomato crops have always been affected from mid-August onwards. I had one plant affected last year, but the rest of the crop was unaffected. Sadly my favourite potato variety Nicola has little resistance to blight. The other bed of Rooster was also affected. I'm really glad I experimented with planting early, a couple of weeks before Easter. This meant the early tubers made a lot of early growth and the haulms were twice the size when blight struck; this certainly seems to have a more or less doubled the yield between the early and late-sown rows (though I didn't have time to weigh the crop unfortunately).

Now that blight is well and truly established in the garden, I will have to choose blight-resistant varieties. T&M claim their maintcrop variety Sarpo Mira has 'unprecedented blight resistance'; I might give it a go and report back.

July

2009-08-14T10:39:00.001-07:00

July was a horrible month. Not only because it was so wet but because I spent most of it at my father's side in hospital, leaving the garden and orchard completely untended, and nearly all the summer fruit unpicked. He died last week. Only now do I realise how much of my urge to grow fruit and veg was tied up with my relationship with him and his world; partly competitive, partly to provide things that he liked. I wonder how I will feel about it now, the amount of work that has built up, and the amount of produce that needs picking and eating seems an enormous burden at the moment. July is the one month one cannot afford to be away from the garden, growth is so rapid, disease so rampant and production so high.

Squirrel Damage to apples

2009-06-30T09:21:00.001-07:00

More squirrel damage, this time on an apple tree, Worcester Pearmain.

Squirrels are probably the worst pest of fruit trees in this country. They can damage fruit at all stages, and the damage is frequently misattributed to birds.

Squirrel damage is very easy to identify. If you look carefully you can see two identical upper incisor marks, with a 'spooned out' mark above made by the lower incisors. Other fruitlets in this cluster just show tooth marks which match. Squirrels rarely eat the whole fruit at this stage, but can fatally damage a large number by 'mouthing' them out of curiousity.

Two year ago I was not at home to monitor the problem at this stage, and lost the entire crop from my 50-odd cultivars. One pear, two apples and no plums, the entire result from a sizeable, mature orchard. The problem is largely due to a particular neighbour who has numerous bird feeders that are not squirrel proof, and the population had grown from a single pair to numerous competing ones over the exact time period that has been excess supply food in the environment. I trapped and disposed of 10 squirrels last year, and this had a very positive effect on the crop which was very large despite a particularly poor growing season.

This is not something I like doing, but it is impossible to get worthwhile results from fruit growing where there are significant numbers of squirrels.

Moles

2009-06-30T09:07:00.000-07:00

My heart sank when I saw the latest eruption of mole hills. We had a particularly destructive one last year that excavated and undermined the main path. I vowed to remove it, only to find it dead during the bitterly frosty weather last winter, having crawled under a bucket lid to shelter. It must have been trapped on the surface, and unable to burrow into the solid, frozen ground.

Moles are a real nuisance in the vegetable garden. Compost heaps are attractive to them, being filled with lots of large, juicy earthworms, but they can mix a large quantity of sub soil into the the compost, rendering it unusable. I line the bottom of my heaps with woven ground cover matting.

They also undermine other structures (like paths), and also find the chicken run attractive as the manure run off probably increases the earthworm population. Unfortunately, their burrows attract rats which can then colonise the space.

Reluctantly, I think I'll have to relocate this one, using a humane trap. I will wait until ground conditions are better, I don't think it would be fair to release one while the ground is so hard.

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Redcurrants

2009-06-30T09:00:00.000-07:00

Fruit picking is turning out to be something of a chore this year. I only covered one of the redcurrant bushes this year, leaving the other two for the birds, but I can't even face picking one bush (or the several hours of preparation for jelly making). Normally it's such a pleasure picking the ruby-like fruits and distilling them into their sharp, solid essence.

Fruit cordons: dividing the plots

2009-06-30T08:52:00.000-07:00

The vegetable beds in the rear garden are divided by double oblique cordons (all semi-dwarfing trees on Quince A/M 26), and fronted by M27 apple step-overs. I've found this has worked very well so far, and vegetable crops do quite well up to about a foot away from the trees (which are essentially root pruned by annual bed digging).

One initial worry was that regular manuring of the beds might cause soft, disease-prone growth of the trees, but again this doesn't appear to be a problem.

Strawberries

2009-06-26T11:28:00.001-07:00

The strawberry crop in the front garden has been phenomenal this year, only the first year of 'proper' cropping. The variety is mostly Marshmello - although I planted three varieties originally, Florence and the perpetual variety I planted failed almost completely, so I allowed the strong plants to develop runners directly into the gaps. I won't know the yield until we jam the crop (currently frozen in several batches, ready for yet another marathon jam session), but there have been enough spare for eating fresh daily, for the last two weeks or so.

I do have some left out the back, but there are simply too many feathered or furry things that take steal them, and all sheets/environmesh is in use elsewhere.

Greater Spotteds

2009-06-26T11:00:00.001-07:00

The greater spotted woodpeckers are nesting nearby, and now spending more time in out garden, en route to the rat and squirrel peanut paradise two doors down. I'm not a great fan as they have raided our blue tit boxes for chicks several times in the past, pecking around the holes to create larger aperture. The blue tits haven't returned, despite repairing the boxes and nailing weldmesh on the fronts to foil any further raiding.

Blackcurrant: Ben Sarek

2009-06-26T10:45:00.000-07:00

A bumper crop, but I've been unable to pick any so far due to having to spend so much time in Wales. The pigeons have been stripping the bushes, but still a daunting quantity to pick.

The march of the toadlets has begun

2009-06-26T10:40:00.001-07:00

The annual plague of tiny toads has begun, just a little late (usually it starts promptly on the solstice). In previous years it has been incredible, impossible to walk anywhere in the garden or pavements without treading on them as there have been several to ever square foot. Numbers were slightly down last year, possibly related to the noticeable increase in the frog population over the last couple of years. Happily, I have not damaged any adults while digging so far this year.

Compost: Grass snakes

2009-06-26T10:33:00.000-07:00

My favoured recipe for compost (mixing lawn mowings in with the poultry run straw which results in very rapid and hot breakdown) has attracted an unusual number of grass snakes this year. The current heap has at least four regulars, one a good four to five feet long. They have been breeding in next doors lawn clippings heap for years, but this is the first year I've ever noticed more than the odd juvenile in my heaps, or what was formerly the slow worm reserve (a metre of old pond liner under a medlar tree).

Below is a tiny one; the next one is a huge adult, over an inch in diameter, difficult to tell differences in scale from photographs. Hopefully they'll control any rats that are breeding in the heaps too, though I suspect the amphibians are an easier meal.

Baby Wrens have fledged

2009-06-20T04:49:00.000-07:00

The wrens that have been nesting in the ivy by the back door have fledged, taking their first flight to the quince tree.

Garlic: Germidor?

2009-06-19T08:02:00.000-07:00

Part of the reason I need a blog is torecord what varieties I actually grow in a year, rather than have a hazy memory of months later. I'm not absolutely sure which variety of garlic I put in last year, other than it was the only variety available in the local garden centre, bought on impulse. Which is a pity, as it has done very well, producing a heavy (literally) crop of very large bulbs with no sign of rust whatsoever. A number of the larger bulbs did split, but careful harvesting ensured little earth ended up in the cavity, so they should keep quite well if dried properly.

Decorative potager

2009-06-19T07:36:00.000-07:00

The distinction between a 'potager' and a 'bog-standard' vegetable plot is the degree of decorative value, largely derived from formal elements (regular beds, trained fruit forms) combined with flowers and the most decorative vegetables.

I had this very much in mind when I turned my front garden largely over to vegetables and a variety of trained and half-standard pears. The locals hereabouts aren't the most enlightened, and anything that strays from the norm of bedding plants edging a lawn, tortured to within an inch of it's life, (or worse, just grim concrete) is viewed with great suspicion as a sign of terminal eccentricity. Despite the risks of being tarred and feathered, my front is very productive, with 18 different pear/quince cultivars (growing in a number of trained forms, mostly step-overs, but also arches, espaliers and 2 half standards). One bed is entirely devoted to strawberries, which have yielded about 8lbs of fruit already in this, their first proper year of fruiting, and still have a way to go before they finish. The other bed will eventually be devoted to asparagus, which I'm gradually building up from seed. I planted the part where the latter had failed with garlic last year, and have just harvested a bumper crop of 40 very large bulbs.

For some reason the colour scheme ended up being red, with a stunning display of shrub rose Scarlet Fire, Papaver orientalis 'Turkenlouis', red valerian with contrast provided by dark red foliage of various sedums, bronze fennel and Lysimachia ciliata 'Firecracker'.

Winter Squash bed

2009-06-19T07:30:00.000-07:00

Last year I stuck in a couple of winter squashes (my favourite squash, Marina de Chioggia) next to my 'duck sump', which is the overflow from the duck bath which is on continuous drip from a hose, flushed out once a day.

I was amazed by how well they did, climbing several metres into neighbouring rose and plumb trees, producing several very large fruits each. Previously squashes have done very poorly, and I'd rather given up on growing them.

This year I've extended the area that the water flows to, to irrigate and fertilise a larger number of squashes. So far they've taken off very well, and are looking healthier than in previous years, in different beds. Time will tell if this experiment will be a productive one.

Varieties grown this year: Winter Festival F1, Jack be Little, the intriguingly-named Pumpkin SC4-15 F1, Avalon A1 (butternut type) and one Jack o' Lantern pumpkin. It's possible there's the odd other variety, as I hang on to packets for years, and usually have a couple of ancient packets left.

Blackcurrant: Ben Sarek

2009-06-19T07:24:00.000-07:00

My favourite blackcurrant, Ben Sarek. Compact, dwarf growth with enormous black berries, sweet and juicy enough to eat raw. I bought the first four bushes when I was 15, and grew them in pots. 28 years on, I still have the original bushes, plus a number I have taken as cuttings. Until this year, none has ever shown any sign of any pest or disease, and has always cropped copiously. This year, we had a very bad attack of aphids, which has reduced the amount of foliage on some of the bushes, and spoiled a small portion of the crop. I'm not sure if this is related to the age of the bushes, the pattern of attack was rather random. I'll removed as much of the old wood as possible once the bushes have cropped and see whether this makes any difference next year.

The Tomato Tardis: Growmate greenhouse

2009-06-19T07:16:00.001-07:00

My 'growmate' greenhouse which was christened 'The Tomato Tardis' by some friends. Bought very cheaply on eBay, it slots into a very narrow space, and allows access to the surrounding fruit cordons. We suffer very badly from tomato blight here, so it's impossible to get a crop in the open, but this arrangement theoretically allows the plants to grow directly into the soil, minimising the need for watering.

Last year wasn't a great success, as the first varieties I grew were my favourite tall cordons Tigerella and Andine Cornue. Being very leggy, cordon types, little fruit is produced on the low trusses, and there wasn't enough room at the narrow end of the pyramid. This year I'm growing determinate, bush cultivars ( Beefsteak, Pricipe Borghese) which will hopefully do better. Once I'm sure they are well-rooted, I'll close the opening but open the top to allow ventilation. Whether this will be access enough to keep out Tomato moth remains to be seen; this pest ruined the few tomatos we had last year.

Beetroot: sowings

2009-06-19T07:10:00.001-07:00

We eat a lot of beetroot so I've dedicated a whole bed to it, with sowings at 2-3 week intervals beginning in early March which will hopefully provide a succession of roots which will keep us in beet until the early spring of next year.

Interestingly, the sowings made in April have caught up with those made in March, and all are now bulking up at more or less the same time (all the same cultivar, Red Ace). I sowed some in 'the Tardis' greenhouse in early March. The ones that survived lack of watering in there matured no earlier than those sown in the open ground. Next year I will try sowing under glass much earlier, as it would be nice to have beetroot a little earlier.

The latest rows are Boro, and an ancient packet of Forono, expiry date 2003 which germinated with unexpected vigour!

Beetroot: Red Ace F1

2009-06-19T07:00:00.001-07:00

I used to grow mostly Boltardy, which I bought in bulk quantities as it is cheap and very reliable (plus a couple of rows of the cylindrical variety Forono for winter use) but this year I've decided to trial other varieties and see if the quality is better.

I've planted mostly Red Ace F1 at fortnightly successions starting in March, and pulled the first baby beet a couple of weeks ago. T&M describe it as having 'high quality roots with a dark red colour'. Taste is good; growth and germination were good too. It's supposed to be drought tolerant, so it will be interesting to see how later sowings get on.

The other variety I'm trying for the first time is Boro (F1) (which looked like a monogerm when it appeared though not described as such).

First - clear up the manure...

2009-04-16T05:22:00.000-07:00

I find it deeply ironic that the start of this blog, coincides with the BBC's 'Dig in' campaign, "the campaign that makes growing your own 'grub' cooler than a cucumber in very cool shades, possibly riding a motorbike". Because growing vegetables is well known to be embarrassingly unsexy. At least until the arbiters of cool hit 35, drop a couple of sprogs, move to a property with some adjacent earth then start to worry about the lack of antioxidants or omega 3 from supermarket veg affecting the offspring's chance of passing entrance exams. Then they take to it with the tedium of every other kind of born-again zealot.

Thus goes affectation of bourgeois peasantry, at least in my life time. But lo! Now they have another incentive, the Credit Crunch. Apparently it's "super cheap". Whenever I come across one of those 'How to...' Sunday Supplement articles, how to be a urban peasant turns out to be work out as surprisingly expensive.

This isn't a terribly positive start to what was meant to be simply a record of my aim to grow fruit and vegetables; I'm inclined to start another blog to challenge some of the bovine-derived-organic-soil-improver being aimed at the aspiring public, probably in an attempt to fiscally stimulate the over-blown garden-centre-visitor-life-style-experience industry.

Perhaps I should save the edge of my sarcasm for another outlet, but the patronising tone of the BBC's campaign really does move me to anger. It patronises just about everyone; people of my parents' generation, who had to 'grow their own' to supplement their meagre diets through the industrial poverty, the Depression and following war years and learned the horticultural skills derided by the original generation of cool though necessity; it patronises all those from from Asia and Africa and elsewhere who have revitalised urban allotments which had become derelict in the wake of uncool; it patronises just about any adult too, though maybe not the ones who genuinely believe sprouting seeds in a jam-jar is going to lower the food bills and be their first step to joining the CLA.