AtWaG - (All the World's a Garden)

Heritage seeds - 2008 varieties.

They have arrived, seven nice little brown packets full of promise.

I don't remember which I chose as my top six - it doesn't really matter. What I have ended up with is:

Lettuce - Emerald
Cabbage - Delaway
Tomato - Veefro Paste
French Bean - Climbing - Ryders Top o' the Pole
French Bean - Climbing - Madeira Maroon
Lettuce - Bronze arrow
and
Lucky Dip: Dwarf French bean - Yugoslav II (not sure if that's eleven or two)

Last one standing - Sarpo

This has to be the worst year I have known for late blight. It struck early this year and I know a lot of gardeners have had Tomatoes wiped out and their Potatoes defoliated before the crop was really fully developed.
I've grown the blight resistant Sarpo variety of Potato for three years now and this season has been the toughest test yet.
As in previous years Sarpo has shown excellent resistance, it's foliage standing proud months after the other varieties had turned to mush. Both Sarpo Mira and Axona survived the blight with Axona perhaps being the toughest of the pair.
You'll see from the photo that there is some damage to the foliage, it looks as though the leaf tissues compartmentalise the infection and a smallish dark spot is left as the result.
The plant pictured is yellowing because the growth is just beginning to naturally die down towards the end of the season. In warm autumns Sarpo growth has continued green and healthy right through until October, this year the cold is causing them to shut down early.

Achocha - Trifid warning

  Achocha - a trifid for temperate climates 
  Originally uploaded by AtWaG

Before sowing seeds of Achocha I looked it up on the web and found it described as 'a vigorous climber that produces masses of useless tiny cucumbers'. Now that I have it growing in my greenhouse I can confirm that description - especially the vigorous bit!
Last weekend my potting bench was an Achocha free zone - now look at it.
I would add to the description above that Achocha is fun to grow, pretty, and the tiny cucumbers look a bit like clangers. When very small the cucumbers are a good addition to mixed salads, providing texture rather than flavour.

This would be a great plant for kids to grow, the seeds look like squashed dead flies and the prodigous growth rate is impressive and exciting. The plant gives a great lesson in how tendrils work.

I didn't try the plant outdoors but I will next year, I'm confident it will do well in a sheltered place.

Vole damage in the garden

Most years we get some damage to our root crops - rodent style nibblings. I had always blamed the odd rat that hangs around the place. This year the nibbling has been severe and not limited to root veg, we have had damage to tomato stems, potatoes, carrots and all kinds of beet.
This has coincided with an explosion in the vole population - it doesn't take a mastermind to figure that voles are the culprits. Checking textbooks shows that it is indeed vole damage; that's the gratitude we get for creating wonderful wildlife habitat!