Bloody Blight is Back!

Spent the afternoon and evening on the allotment. After last week finding everything growing really well, including the potatoes in flower, we arrived to find the potato flowers gone and lots of black patches on the unhappy looking leaves. Yes, definitely blight again. Several other plotholders have already cut off their potato plants hoping to prevent blight spreading to the tubers. We did the same, but also decided to dig up some spuds to take home. As they weren't fully developed yet, we didn't get a huge crop, and the tubers were small. 2 rows of Edzel Blue and a row of Charlotte gave us a small bucketful, though they did look quite nice.


The other good thing from this, it meant we had a big raised bed clear and ready for planting. So the long-overdue sweetcorn, 8 more cos lettuces and a butternut squash plant went in, leaving half a bed free for brassicas, if we want.

Elsewhere on the plot we cleared the weeds on the fruit bed, and picked as much fruit as we could. Some big juicy green gooseberries, loads of blackcurrants, a few whitecurrants, red gooseberries and redcurrants. We pulled up lots of raspberry suckers too, which were trying to take over the whole area.


Runner beans, climbing beans and (especially) pumpkins are all still growing at a surprising rate. We extended the 'cottage garden' bed by about a metre along one side, and put a few more pumpkins in (mammouth, red etapes, winter festival, sunshine) with a couple of arch frames pushed in, to train the winter festival and sunshine squashes over. We removed the mangetout peas (which had produced 4 pods in total) and their supports, and replaced with another arch frame to train one of the enormous pumpkin plants over.

Chilli Update

Been feeding the chilli plants 'Chilli Focus' for the past few weeks (now that I've found somewhere in Cardiff that can supply it) and it seems to be working. Most of the plants appear to be doing very well. Just wish the sunshine would come back now that we've had a week of grey skies and rain. Aphids have almost completely vanished (apart from on the Monkey Face plant) and although the hoverfly larvae are still around, there are much fewer of them.


Here is a breakdown of the plants in the greenhouse and their current state.

• Wenks Yellow Hot: flowering.
• Orozco: very short & slow to grow, finally has a couple of tiny flower buds.
• Eve's Apple: even shorter & slower to grow, 1 flower and a few buds.
• Habanero/Scotch Bonnet: I love these plants! Bushy with masses of flowers, but only found 1 baby fruit so far.
• Aji Brazilian Bonanza: tall, big leaves, no flowers or buds.
• Hot Lemon: lots of flowers, tiny fruit starting to appear.
• Super Fresno: flowers, a few fruit (almost full size).
• Cheyenne: amazing plants! Short but very bushy, flowers, lots of fruit, many full size.
• Fatalii: late growth spurt, sturdy looking but less than 1ft tall, 1 or 2 tiny flower buds finally appearing.
• Zimbabwe Bird: bushy, attractive plant with small leaves, lots of tiny flower buds.
• Friar's Hat: tall, big leaves, no sign of any flower buds.
• Nepalese Bell: tall, big leaves, 3 tiny flower buds.
• Yellow Bumpy: tall, big leaves, 1 or 2 tiny flower buds.
• Yellow Mushroom/Squash: tall, flowers, 3 fruits.
• Numex Suave: slow growing, still less than 1ft tall, big leaves, no sign of any flower buds.
• Monkey Face: less than 1ft tall, particularly bad infestation of aphids (still there), 1 or 2 tiny flower buds.
• Pasilo Bajio: flowers, 3 full size (quite large) dark green fruit.
• Jalapeno: tall, flowers.
• Super Chilli: tall than expected, flowers, some tiny fruit.
• Peach Habanero: tiny flower buds.
• Ring of Fire: flower buds, a few flowers.
• Demon Red: tiny flower buds, 1 or 2 flowers.
• Apache: flower buds, flowers.

Outside are a mixture of Jalapeno, Super Chilli and Ring of Fire plants, which are less advanced than the greenhouse plants, but have a few flower buds. Something has been munching on their leaves, leaving lots of small holes.

Blooming Marvellous

Called into the allotment briefly today to take a few pumpkin plants that were getting too big for their pots, and to check up on how things are going since we've not been able to come properly this weekend. Couldn't do much because I was pushed for time, and because I had to keep stopping to shelter from the rain.

My plan to plant the pumpkins didn't work, as everything seems to have had a monster growth spurt, and looking at the enormous size of the existing pumpkin plants, I don't think there would be a space big enough on the dug-over areas! The old tin compost heap was completely filled and covered by pumpkin leaves, with long tendrils creeping out onto the grass! A couple of the pumpkin plants on the 'cottage' patch have also grown bushy and long, the pea netting will have to be cut to release one that has grown through it and across the path into the runner beans!

About half the potatoes are in flower; the runner beans are up to about chest height; the french climbing beans are growing well and some already have pretty purple flowers; the broad beans are all in flower; the lettuces and chards have had a big growth spurt since last seeing them; the raspberry bushes are covered with red fruit, as are the redcurrants and whitecurrants.

The weeds have also had a good time, and we really need to weed the beds before they become too big a problem. But no time today, sadly.

Curry in a Hurry

With more courgettes filling the fridge, we tried another recipe this evening, which I think also came from the BBC website. We liked this very much. It wasn't as hot as I'd expected, and the lemon juice and sugar give it an unusual lift.

Hot & Sweet Vegetable Curry

• 1 tbsp oil
• 3 tbsp vindaloo curry paste
• 1 tbsp soft brown sugar
• Juice of half a lemon
• 2 courgettes, sliced
• 300g cauliflower florets (about half a head)
• 400ml carton passata
• 100ml water
  
• 400g can chickpeas, drained & rinsed
• 250g bag fresh leaf spinach, washed

Fry oil and curry paste for 1 min. Add sugar and lemon juice and fry for another minute. Add courgettes and cauliflower and cook 2 mins. Add passata, water and chickpeas, bring to the boil, cover, then simmer for 15 mins. Just before serving, stir in the spinach until wilted. Serve with rice.

Courgettes Everywhere!

Not sure if it's down to the floral hoverfly bait I've put in pots between the chilli plants, but hoverfly larvae finally appeared, and in most cases did a good job of greatly reducing the aphids. One or two plants had been suffering particularly badly (those with dark, shiny leaves seemed to come off worst, with the Monkey Face plant absolutely covered with creatures).

Courgette plants are massive, and producing a good crop. I'm picking an average of 4 good sized courgettes every day at the moment. Now I need to find & try more courgette recipes! Tried out this one last night, which I think came from the BBC Good Food website, which was very nice.

Creamy Courgette Lasagne

• Pack of fresh lasagne sheets
• 1 tsp oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 6 courgettes, grated
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 250g tub ricotta
• 50g cheddar, grated
• 350g tub fresh tomato-based pasta sauce

Preheat oven to Gas 7/200C. Fry onions for 3 mins, then add garlic & courgette and cook till softened. Stir in 2 thirds of the ricotta and 2 thirds of the cheddar. Microwave the pasta sauce until it's hot. layer the courgette mix, pasta, and red sauce in alternate layers. Finish with blobs of remaining ricotta and remaining cheddar. Bake for about 15 mins.

Generally the plants are doing well, despite the scorching hot weather. We've had about 24hrs of heavy rain, but it's gone back to sun again. The only plants not doing well are the mangetout peas on the allotment, and I might replace them with some on-their-last-legs tomato plants I'm going to try to revive, which I got for next to nothing at the DIY store.