Aphids are little pox ridden gits

My cabbages (Globemaster) are looking superb with little sign of any pest damage. I’ve surrounded them with green netting that keeps pigeons away and helps filter any strong winds and sunlight. I’m also growing a couple of brussel sprout plants this way (at the front of the photo) and these are also growing very well. However, I also dobbed in a few Brussels and Kilaxy cabbages elsewhere that weren’t surrounded by green netting and these have been absolutely infested with aphids. This is most strange as the aphids can surely get onto the brassicas that have the netting around them and yet they haven’t. I sprayed the one’s covered in aphids with Bio Provado a couple of nights ago and it’s amazing how quickly the plants perk up.

It's in the bag....

My potatoes growing in bags of peat are also now causing me a little concern as they just don’t seem to be growing too well. The foliage is looking a little pale so I’ve been giving them a nitrogen feed and they seemed to perk up a little bit but I’d have expected the foliage to be at least twice as high by now. I’m wondering whether the roots have actually managed to get through the bags into the soil as they drooped a bit during yesterday’s sunshine. I’ve put plenty of well rotted horse muck on the soil below the bags sp if they haven’t got that far they might be a bit starved in the sterile peat. Problems, problems!

Onions looking swell....

So far no sign of white rot. I'll be looking to harvest these by the end of July and so I'll be measuring them daily from the middle of the month and harvesting them over a period of time when they reach a size I shall settle on. Once the largest reaches that size it will be lifted in the hope that others follow over the final weeks thus making it easier to match a set. In reality this is never that easy as the bulbs will be slightly different in shape atthe base and top, but it's a starting point. I only grow 20 so I don't have much room for manouevre.

Shallots all harvested

Last weekend I took all the shallots from their pots, separating them and getting rid of all the soil from their roots. They were laid in trays in my garage where they will remain for a couple of weeks or so to complete the ripening process. Then I shall 'top and tail', cutting the tops to about 2", removing any loose skins and cutting off all the roots and any bits of hard base plate. Then they will be placed on beds of sawdust until nearer show day when I will make my final selection for the 'exhibition' shallots (over 30mm dia.) and the pickling shallot classes under 30mm (NVS rules) or under 25mm dia. (RHS rules).

Parsnip update

So ....my carrots are a disaster but the same cannot be said about my parsnips which are looking good so far. The foliage is fresh and green and there hasn't been any pest or disease problems as yet.

Obviously you don't know for sure if they are any good until the day before the show when you actually pull them but I tend to have very few problems with forked parsnip roots and can usually be confident they are all single, long tap-roots.

They won't now be watered or fed again encouraging the root to go right down to the bottom of the drums searching for moisture. I just check the foliage regularly to make sure I have no aphids present as these can transfer various viruses. Hopefully, I'll have heavy, clean roots to show come August/September time.

Cederico toms

I'm really happy with these once again this year, and I'll certainly be adopting the policy of thinning out the trusses to give each fruit more room to grow. This means cutting off every other one once they are about the size of a pea.

Each plant has a cut-off lemonade bottle buried next to it through which you water and feed. This will mean that I can keep the compost surface dry and helps to create the hot, dry conditions that tomatoes like as the water goes straight to the roots.

Progress report

Tomato Cederico. All plants growing well. First trusses thinned a week ago.

Celery Morning Star. Growing well. First loose collars to be applied this weekend.

Large onions. Swelling nicely and on par with last year.

Blanch leeks. Not as big as last year but look healthy. 3 lost to maggot fly justafter planting.

Shallots. All pots in garage for drying off. Will be 'harvested' atend of June and stored as usual.

Onion sets Stuttgarter Stanfield. Strong looking plants.

Red Baron onions. Growing slowly. Some slug damage!

Parsnips Pinnacle. Growing well. Lush top growth.

Red cabbage Maestro. Only 4 planted but strong looking plants.

Green cabbage Globemaster. 6 planted and looking fine so far.

Brussel Abacus. Some aphid damage that has been dealt with.

Caulis Cornell. Only just pricked out.

Long carrots. Shite!

Stumps Sweet Candle. Best foliage I've ever seen on a stump. Really strong looking, but early days yet.

Potatoes(Winston/Kestrel/Nadine/Malin) Kestrel at most advanced stage but foliage has needed a feed. Will keep eye on the blight forecast this season.

Beetroot Red Ace. Several rows growing as expected.

Runner Beans Enorma. No problems so far.

Marrows Blyton Belle. First 3 plants set out against canes last weekend.

Courgettes. Orelia and One Ball. First plants set out last weekend.

Cucumbers Carmen. Sown at weekend and germinated today.

Dahlias. Rooted cuttings potted up for planting late June.

Bugger it!

It’s terminal ! Defeat has been admitted! The white flag of surrender has been raised! They have ceased to be! It is an ex-long carrot bed! My first sowing in April failed because of cold. The 2nd sowing in May struggled due to heat but eventually got away. Then the slugs and snails moved in and devoured most of the tops off so that I am now left with about a dozen stations only. But these seem to be the weakest looking specimens that the snails found unpalatable!


It was my own stupid fault. Despite growing them in drums of sand that the organic brigade say slugs don’t like I’ve always found that to be complete and utter bollocks and have suffered in the past, so always put a scattering of pellets on the surface…..but alas not this year! As soon as we had a bit of rain they slimed their way up the sides of the drums and onto the damp sand to munch away at my prize carrots. Hopefully, I’ll be able to exhibit carrots at Sutton Bonington where I only need a set of two but they won’t be as big as they should be.

Having said all that I’m quite happy with just about everything else on the plot, and everything is pretty much planted now apart from my caulis which have just been pricked out and my french beans and peas which were both sown yesterday.

All my shallots (in pots) were lifted last week and spent a few days in the greenhouse drying out. They’re now in my garage (still in their pots) as it was getting a little hot in the greenhouse and I didn’t want them to overheat and shrink. I’ll let the foliage die back a bit then empty out the pots and store the shallots but I won’t ‘top and tail’ as I said in a previous posting. Instead I’m going to follow Liam’s method and leave the foliage on so that it dies back into the bulb and hopefully ‘rounds up’ the bulb where there are any flat surfaces which occur when two bulbs have been growing against each other.

Party girl is 18 today!

She's lucky she's got this far...there are times when I could have gladly killed her! Somehow though, I think my problems are only just beginning!

Fuchsia exhibiting

I love growing fuchsias, especially standards. I always like to 'show' a fuchsia if there is a class for one, or even if it's just a class for 'one pot plant'. Several years ago I grew some ‘Checkerboard’ to about 4’ high which won me several shows. The problem is getting them to the show, especially if you have a car full of veg and dahlias (and last year’s trophies) to transport also! Therefore, I made a conscious decision to grow less bulky plants and have started to do these fan trained plants in 8” pots. In fact quite a few shows around my neck of the woods specify maximum 8” pots for pot plants as they’re fed up of Hilda Knobthwaite clogging up the benches each year with her 80 year old aspidistra in a pot that’s 6 miles wide and needs a jib crane to lift it in and out of the marquee!

Anyways, I’ve mackled together a frame of pea sticks that I tie the fuchsia shoots to make a pleasing fan shape. I’ll nip out any flower buds until about 30 days or so before the show date and feed the plants well as they’re only in smallish pots and are quite hungry feeders. Hopefully, on show day they’ll be full of bloom and I’ll tease all the flowers to face forwards, pick off any dead or decaying foliage and give the pot a good wipe. The varieties I’m growing are Swingtime and Dark Eyes.

Organic schmanic Janet

On Saturday our Hort.Soc. visited Ryton organic gardens ( and yes I did manage to get in without setting all the alarms off!) and I was prepared to suspend my beliefs in readiness to be converted to the lettuce munchers’ way of life. It is my happy duty to report that growing organically is a complete crock of cobblers. Not one of their lettuce or brassicas had escaped the ravages of Mssrs. Slug and Snail despite the application of enough bran to keep Kellogs going for a week. Their apples, plums and pears all looked very poorly and the soil looked in very poor heart. All in all we skipped out of there at 3pm satisfied that they have always been talking complete bollocks and couldn’t wait to get home and zap some bugs with a lethal spraygun.

Especially for the CBC boys etc.....

I'm getting it in the neck from certain quarters for not having said anything remotely controversial on here for some time ................so here goes............


I've not seen this year's Big Brother..............I don't intend to. But I can safely say that all of the contestants should be skewered through their eyeballs with Samurai swords and that anyone who watches the programme should be instantly committed to the nearest nuthouse.

I feel better for that!

Shallot harvesting time

It will soon be time to harvest your shallots and indeed I put the first pot into my greenhouse last night. This contained the two biggest ones as I want some others to catch up. The idea is that you don’t let any water get at them from the first week or so in June so if heavy rain is forecast you need to lift them. They should have done most of their growing by now so you don’t want a sudden influx of water making them put on secondary growth and going out of shape. I will leave them in their pots on the greenhouse benching so that they dry out naturally.

I see on Liam’s blog that he’s already harvested some monsters, but mine went in a little later than usual this year. Everyone is different in the way they do things but I think my way will stop me having thick necks on my bulbs. Also, by parting the two shallots when the foliage dies back it gives the bulb a more even, rounded shape. At then end of the month I will empty the pots, cut the necks back to leave 2” or so, cut off the roots, peel off all loose skins and store the bulbs upright in boxes of sawdust. One evening I will grade all my shallots into separate boxes depending on size…….over 30mm dia. for the large shallot classes, 25mm-30mm dia. for shows under RHS rules and under 25mm for shows being judged to NVS rules.

I was glad to see that when I lifted the first pot last night there were plenty of roots coming out of the bottom of the pot that had been going into the soil. I shall persevere with the method next season as I’m definitely making progress on size and form.

Cabbages and Kings

I've always grown good cabbages but if I'm honest there isn't the same 'kudos' attached to growing them as there is say, onions, leeks, carrots, celery, caulis etc. This year I said I wasn't going to grow so many but I changed my mind at the last moment when it came to composting the last few seedlings....I potted them on instead! (GROOOOOAN!)

Ah well. They're now all planted and growing away strongly with protective green netting around them. I find this stops the pigeons landing and nibbling them in the early days as they don't like to have anything above or around them if they have to make a swift takeoff....usually when I'm running down the garden throwing stones at them! It also filters any strong winds that can catch the large leaves and spin them round causing breakages. The variety in the pic is Globemaster with a couple of plants of Abacus brussel in the foreground.

Skiddaw 31st May 2008

Sharp Edge, Blencathra in the background.......we nailed that too!