August is the month for harvesting. But spend some time planning for the winter.
Sow Parsley for winter cropping
Sow into a seedbed or pots for transplanting later:
Perpetual spinach beet, radicchio, cabbages, winter lettuce & spring onions.
Common Scab (Latin name - Streptomyces scabies) causes the skin of potatoes to develop dark, scaby patches which can cause pitting or cracking of the skin.
The disease is only skin deep and the eating quality is unaffected.
Common scab is caused by soil borne bacteria.
Common Scab occurrs when the soil is:
Prevention of Common Scab: Read More »
disease new potatoes vegetable gardenBeware of the Cabbage White butterflies around the cabbages, sprouts and broccoli.
Biological control of the cabbage white butterfly involves placing empty egg shells on sticks. Read More »
As soon as the seedling carrots are large enough to get hold of, the carrots can be thinned so that there is one seedling every 2 inches. This will give the seedlings room to grow.
It is important to thin seedling carrots before they get too big, so that the roots of the remaining carrots are not disturbed. Watering the row before thinning will also help the roots. Water gently from the side.
A measuring stick, with 2 inch spacings, will Read More »
The weeds are growing, but the vegetables are looking well after a day of sun.
Blackcurrants hang in bunches which are quite easy to pull of the bush.
Blackcurrant fruit comes on last year’s stems, which means that the fruit bearing stems are pruned out to encourage new growth for next year’s harvest.
It is therefore quite in order to cut off the whole twig bearing the blackcurrants, and then pick the berries off later. Read More »
blackcurrant harvestSummer pudding made from soft fruits picked in the garden is a special treat. The summer pudding recipe can vary according to the fruit available.
Today the Bedfordshire Giant blackberries are at their best. The Tullamine raspberry variety are coming to the end of a very productive season, it is an excellent variety with a good taste. The Ben Lomond blackcurrants are very ripe and sweet. Read More »
Soilman has jumped onboard the Inter-blog Leek Growing Project TopVeg are carrying out with Farming Friends, and has kindly offered to share the leek growing video.
Now we have an inter-inter-blog leek growing project, which must be good! Thank you soilman.
The sun has come out, and the broccoli leaves are going limp and wilting in the vegetable garden.
Some poatoes are cracked when they are dug out of the ground in the vegetable garden. The cause of the cracking is usually irregular rainfall or watering.
This year the UK experienced dry conditions in the spring. The first rains to end the drought caused a spurt in growth, which caused the potatoes to crack.
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