Garden Diary: August

So, July got missed out due to having fun cycling round the West Country in the rain, and the sun. Never mind, here's the container corner, probably too crammed with plants. Air circulation could help a little to prevent disease. And sadly, disease there is - blight, like everyone else. I've just had to get rid of some of the tomatoes in the picture below. As you know, potato blight affects tomatoes too, being in the same family, and in a way it's worse. With potatoes - if you catch the blight early - you can cut off the haulms (stems) and compost them, so the potatoes can just stay in the soil till you need them. If you let the blight progress, the potatoes get horrible and slimy and stinky and inedible. Unlike the poor Irish in the potato famine, we have many different varieties to choose which have varying resistance to blight. However, my pot potatoes are King Edward, not resistant, and Pink Fir Apple, not very resistant. So far they look OK, but I'll be keeping a good eye on them.

The tomatoes are another story - once they get it there isn't much you can do except collect the fruit and make green tomato chutney. The Tumbling Toms in the hanging baskets look OK for the moment but are strange dwarfed things, and with the baskets being rather shallow, they suffer water stress very easily - NOT good for tomatoes. Can I claim to be doing it all wrong so you don't?


The Gardener's Delight in the mini-greenhouse frame at the back look OK too - they are in the best place and the biggest pots and are in a shallow tray which catches rain so have had consistent water. The courgette just in front is progressing fine too - for a container plant. I'm not making excuses, but growing food crops in containers can be much more difficult than in the open soil.
Talking of which: here's the little plot. All change here - been have been abandoned and I have got the leeks in, better late than never. The untidy leaves in the middle are sorrel, a tasty and easy addition to salad. The onions are small but tasty.

And below is the main garden - abundant, I think you'll agree? It's going to be another good year for apples - once a biennial bearer, now our apple tree seems to be more consistent year on year. Maybe I am doing some thing right!