Friday 21 August 2009

Potager update

It's been a while since the last one.... at least a couple of weeks! But the potager has been keeping me busy and the dinner table plentifully supplied with all manner of scrummy fresh veggies. So here is a brief summary of the current potager situation;

The 2 aubergine plants have suddenly started producing some fantastic fruit which are long and thin and very tasty - I bought them as young plants and didn't make a note of the variety.... which was silly!
The chilli plants (2 varieties) have produced copius quantities of excellent quality fruit which will hopefully start turning red soon. I was unsuccessful in my chilli growing efforts last year so am particularly pleased with this year's production!
The three capsicum plants are likewise producing excellent and very tasty fruit which will hopefully start reddening soon.
The cherry tomato plants (gardener's delight variety) are dripping with ripening fruit. I have sundried around a kg of fruit which is now being preserved in olive oil with more to follow.
The parsnips are big enough to eat. I am pulling the odd one here and there but want to leave the majority in the ground until they have had a frost.
The courgettes are still producing fruit.
I have had 3 kuri squashes off one plant which are now stored in nets for later use.
The mystery squash/gourd plant has produced 5 really big fruit but I still haven't got a clue what it is! We roasted some for dinner this evening and it has a lovely flavour - somewhere between a butternut squash and a pumpkin and with the texture of a kuri squash - delicious.I should be picking French beans from my third sowing very shortly.
The cabbage plants have recovered well from the cabbage white catterpillar infestation a week ago. I found that tweezering off the grubs and then spraying the plants with 'savon noir' worked a treat.

Looking forward to the autumn and winter, I planted my 'Bleu de Nantes' leeks last week and they already seem to be well-established.
The autumn spinach is coming through.
The autumn carrots that I sowed a couple of weeks ago are making slow progress.
The spring greens are doing well.
I sowed some lambs lettuce today and also some more lettuce.
However, the turnips appear to be under attack from the persistent vole community which I am none too happy about :-(

I think that covers everything!

Andy has made progress on the ground floor today. We took the decision to remove the ceiling plasterboards as we needed to get proper access to the jumble of wires and cables that seemed to be appearing from all over the place. It turned out that several cables were not actually connected to anything! Others seemed to be taking convoluted and totally unnecessary routes to their destination so it has all been stripped back down to basics and rewired with the addition of two new ceiling lights in the centre of the room. It is much neater and safer. Tomorrow, the new ceiling plasterboard will go up, the plastic sheeting put onto the walls and the frame for the plasterboard will be erected. Then we just have to wait for the delivery of plasterboard which is expected on Wednesday.

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