Two Sisters

Three Sisters, Sweetcorn, Climbing Peas and Cucurbits















This was my Three Sisters patch just over two weeks ago. The sweetcorn was beginning to do well and the various squashes, pumpkins and courgettes were just beginning to flower and burst into growth. The pea beans, though, had twice floundered under attack by slugs. I'd raised some in the greenhouse though and these were looking healthy enough to go outside. Three Sisters restored.














The cucurbits planted in tyres were mostly beginning to thrive too. This system of planting means I can pack all the nutrients in around the roots. It is most beneficial in a warmer and drier year, when the tyres heat up the soil and help retain water.

Thursday 2nd August 2012



So, fast forward to early August and here's my Three Sisters patch.



The sweetcorn is doing well. I had my reservations about planting it in blocks of four, but decided to follow the planting guidelines to the letter. The flower tassels are waving about in the air and the cobs are beginning to swell.



Underneath, the cucurbits are really beginning to ramble now and most have fruits forming.

As for the pea beans ... well, the third Sister has again failed to make it past the slugs. Maybe one or two might survive to clamber up the corn stems if I'm lucky. On the positive side, I think this system will work well for me. This is just an exceptionally challenging year for all the beans.

 

The first courgette.
This is Grisette de Provence.
It grew rather fat and I thought
it might go pulpy inside,
but no, it was lovely and firm.
I griddled half with burgers and chips.
The other half held up very well
in a chicken and potato curry.

The squashes, pumpkins and courgettes grown on the ground in the Three Sisters system seem to have faired about the same as their cousins grown in tyres. I'll give them all a feed of comfrey juice now they've set some fruits.

We've started harvesting courgettes and the patty pans aren't far behind. A welcome glut will soon be upon us!

I'm growing pumpkins for the first time this year, Jack Be Little and Hundredweight. I don't just use them at halloween. They are great in soups, curries and in cakes and muffins. So versatile.

And with the winter squashes too we'll be well fed from our stores in the colder months.

Lady Guinea's secret nest found

Lady Guinea's secret hideaway has been found!

I followed her after she had appeared for food as she stealthily slipped into the undergrowth,

right next to the main path and the potato patch.

I've been steering clear of her, but took a sneaky look while she was off for food again.

She's sitting on SEVENTEEN eggs!

Face to face with The Blight

Wednesday 1st August 2012
Summer could be over!

I didn't mention this before, but when I was wrestling with the (non) self-drilling screws on the polytunnel I wrenched a shoulder muscle fairly badly and have been trying to rest it ever since. This was not helped when the geese discovered they could easily hop the fence. I had to catch them and clip their wings, an adventure which set back the already slow recovery of my shoulder. Next morning, one of them was back over! So I had to attend to the fence.

The point of this shoulder story is that, lurking in the background has been the urgent need to venture into the maincrop potatoes. I need to pull the tops, hopefully before the tubers become infected, but the fat hen and sow thistles have grown gigantic and will need to come out too. Last time I tackled a giant sow thistle it beat me!

Everything I've read about blight is starting to make sense now I've come face to face with it. I'll be much the wiser next year. For starters, I now know what it looks like. More importantly, I know how it behaves.

It starts as blotches on the leaves, which quickly shrivel up and die. Then it heads down the stem, which turns brown and basically rots. Now it's reached the tubers. Bad news.
Some of my spuds have, unfortunately, reached this stage. The potatoes nearest the surface are infected, showing spots of white, furry fungus, or just rotting down to a mushy mess. I don't know whether I'll be able to save any of those further down.

Others still have the stem fairly green and intact, like those below. With these, I've pulled the stems and left the tubers undisturbed in the ground. They need to stay there for two weeks so they don't pick up the blight from the soil surface when they come up.
Of course, there's also the question whether or not they've had enough time for the tubers to grow properly anyway.

Blighted spuds.
Not the worst though.

One variety, Sarpo Mira, seem unaffected at the moment. It is supposed to be the most blight resistant available. I've left these plants, but I'll be keeping a very close eye on them. If they cook nicely and taste good, I suspect they'll be high on the list for next year. It'll be interesting to note how the tubers have faired on the other varieties too.

Although not a great situation, I was always going to meet blight at some point, so I will just have to treat this year as a learning experience and salvage what I can.

One thing I do know is not to put the diseased material on the compost! It needs burning straight away.

 



Tops cleared away and burning.
In the background are the Sarpo Mira, which still seem healthy.
(Not the really tall ones. They are Jerusalem Artichokes!)



That was July

Tuesday 31st July 2012
A group of gulls heads out to The Wash at first light

Monday 30th July 2012

Weatherwise, July was a month of two halves. The first, continuing on from the previous three months, was wet ... very wet. Then came a hot spell, dominated for me by the epic saga of the polytunnel.
Early on, the month saw despair triumph over hope on the veg front, crops starved of heat and sunshine, devastated by slugs, unable to outgrow the damage. The rain seemed to benefit only the peas and potatoes.
But inevitably in such conditions, blight hit at the end of the month, putting the whole potato crop at risk. At least the spell of warm weather meant that the sweetcorn, runners and cucurbits began to look more healthy. We got our first modest crops of soft fruits too.

Chicken numbers went up by three with the hatching of three punky Polands, but the young cockerels are approaching time to go as they've started challenging Cocky, as well as fighting amongst themselves and trying it on with the ladies. Egg production is back up to about 5 a day.

While all this has happened, Lady Guinea has gone AWOL, though she occasionally reappears for food.

On the pig front, Gerald and Daisy have been getting jiggy jiggy, while the piglets have been chasing each other around. They are nearly five months old now and the two boys are booked to go off on 2nd September (they are in a state of ignorant bliss about this). Two of the girls will be following in mid October. One of them is sold already.

The bees swarmed again. Their behaviour is totally mystifying at the moment. However, after an eventful start, we are roughly back to where we started with them.
The farm's wild birds have been busy raising young and some are onto their second brood now. The summer visitors briefly started singing again mid-month. Presumably their young had fledged if they bred successfully. For now they are quiet again. They may even have moved on. The first migrants have started passing through with a couple of Marsh Harriers, Chiffcaffs and Willow Warblers putting in brief appearances.  

Finally, we've had some decent sunrises, though totally cloudless skies don't give the most dramatic effects. Best for me though, sunrise has come forward to past 5.

Here's a look back at July's sunrises.

7th

1st

2nd

8th

12th

14th

15th

16th

17th

20th

21st

22nd

23rd

24th

25th



28th



29th

Blight

Sunday 29th July 2012
A heart-warming sunrise

Three nights ago I did the daily trip in the evening gloom to lock away the chickens and I noticed that our two guineafowl were not up on their normal fence. I could just make out the distinctive spotty feathers of one of them in the roost house with Cocky and his harem. This I found moderately insulting given the fun and games we used to have persuading them to actually go in there at night!
This has been repeated for the last two nights and Lady Guinea has only been seen briefly twice. Other than that, she has gone AWOL.
I am hoping she is sitting on eggs somewhere, but I don't want to count my chickens yet ... that may not be quite the right phrase to use.

Burning diseased potato haulms
and ragwort.
Not an easy task in damp conditions.

Blight!

While I've been preoccupied with my polytunnel, a most unwelcome, yet inevitable stranger has crept onto the farm and destroyed my potato crops. Invisible, wafting through the air, thriving in warm, damp conditions, it strikes with alarming speed.


Having never actually seen blight before (only pictures in books and on the internet) I was not definite exactly what to look for, since at this time the early potatoes are dying down anyway. But I had my strong suspicions, especially when the maincrops down in the spare veg patch started to develop dark blotches on the leaves.

I knew it was coming and hoped it wouldn't strike my patch, but I couldn't have done anything to stop it anyway. Standard procedure is to spray with Bordeaux Mix, but to do that you need dry weather. By the time that came it was too late.

What has really surprised me, though, is the speed and deadliness of its strike. Okay, so I was busy with other things, but it has already virtually wiped out all of the foliage and made its way down the plant into some of the tubers. All I can do now is to pull all the stems and leaves and burn them, then wait two weeks before digging up the crop for storage. Its then that I know whether I've got any spuds left and whether they had time to grow properly.

As for the Earlies, I'll use them as quickly as I can. Even with a few losses it's still been a good crop. What a shame they are more difficult to store, but I have plans for a potato cookery day so a good proportion of them can make their way into the freezer in one form or another.

I should also learn which claims of blight resistance are the most valid.


At the moment, it seems as if the Edgecote Purples have fared best out of the Earlies. The Sarpo Mira have certainly lived up to their reputation, their lush green leaves standing out like a sore thumb amongst the withered, brown haulms of all the other varieties. It is possible that some varieties will have resisted enough for the tubers to remain largely unaffected. Let's hope so.

The fire produced plenty of smoke...

But I don't think
all this was down to me!

And before you think it, please don't leave any comments reminding me that blight can be even more lethal to tomatoes. I watch with crossed fingers.
The loss of many of my potatoes I can swallow. We had far too many anyway, and even if  the worst comes to the worst it won't cost us a fortune to buy them locally, even if our rather gourmet selection of varieties will be limited. But the tomatoes are a different story. Even if we don't sell any, they are a crop which simply cannot be replaced from the shops and I'll find it very difficult to pay through the nose for any that actually have any significant flavour.

Bee surprised

Saturday 28th July 2012

You may have noticed that recently I've taken full advantage of Blogger's ability to pre and post date posts. That's because I've been totally dedicated to getting the polytunnel erected. With fifteen hour days in the baking sun, I'm afraid doing anything when I got inside was out of the question.

Anyway, if you look at the last 6 posts you'll get an account of the saga that was the polytunnel.

So today I took a very well earned rest.

Sunrise has crept past 5 o'clock now. It may sound early, but it's a little luxury to set my alarm a minute later every day! So today, as the sun rose, I captured this striking cloud formation before going straight back to bed till 10. Then I watched the Olympics!

Bee Surprise
Our introduction to bee-keeping has been eventful to say the least. Our bees seem determined to colonise the whole of the fens, beavering away and building queen cells left, right and centre. Despite our best efforts, they have swarmed twice that we know of. Presumably they are not completely happy with the queen.

It's a week now since I briefly spotted a swarm settled in the veg patch. Since then, there's been mixed activity at the entrance of each hive. At least the bees have been able to get out and about at last and the warmth will be very welcome to them.

No pictures today I'm afraid, but Sue came back from her inspection of the hives with some very surprising news.

The hive which I thought had swarmed has young brood and is thriving. If you remember, when we split the hives we found a newly emerged queen to go in this hive. But, after over a month there was no sign of eggs or larvae, so we put in a couple of queen cells from the other hive. Well, obviously something went according to plan, though we're not sure which plan!!

The other, into which we moved the original queen, is faring OK but Sue could not find the queen. She is marked and has always been easy to find in the past. Could it be that the swarm actually came from here? After all, this is where the queen cells were being built. Could it be that both hives have swarmed?

All in all, by hook or by crook, it seems as if we are pretty much back where we started!

Polytunnel: Part 6 - The Opening Ceremony

Friday 27th July 2012
Will the weather hold?
Most importantly, we need wind speeds of zero mph

Well, I've really pushed my luck on the weather as polytunnel deadlines have slipped further and further back (not or lack of effort). It's been an absolutely scorching week and I have single-mindedly applied myslef to constructing this Olympic-sized polytunnel. Poor Sue, as well as being my third hand and occasional labourer, has had to get on with all the other farm jobs.

There's a race on this morning. Just a couple of jobs to do in readiness for the cover going on, but experience tells me that those jobs could end up taking a lot longer than expected.

Irrigation fitted.
Timber base-rail almost completed.

The last few jobs were completed at breakneck speed, but the wind was freshening and the sky was clouding over. We had been advised by a friend who works in a large commercial nursery that we would need a large team of helpers and many sets of step ladders to get the cover on. Even the manual, which made everything else sound impossibly easy, warned of opening up a giant sail!
We could end up doing some pretty spectacular kite-surfing!

We had a decision to make. Should we attempt to get the cover on today? We would need to get our team together.

Come early afternoon the sun shone, the wind dropped and our luck, already pushed to the limit, continued to hold. In fact, we could not have picked a better day for the job in hand.

Game on!

We assembled our team of helpers. That's me, Sue and Don!!! We're stubbornly independent, whatever the scale of the task in hand.

First job was to lay out the cover. This would tell us how difficult the job would be. If it blew everywhere, we would abandon the attempt.

Sue tries to protect the Jerusalem Artichokes,
but they need a summer trim anyway
to stop the stems being snapped in the wind.
They need to make way for the cover to be spread out.
They'll grow back.

The cover spread out.
Good news is, Sue and I can move it without too much effort.
And it's not blowing away,
though we have tyres, straw bales, telegraph posts
and concrete blocks at the ready to weigh it down.

Warming up nicely in the sun. This will ensure it goes on nice and tight.

With the base rail option, there is no trench.
The bottom of the cover is pulled tight and trapped under battens of wood.  
The fellow with the braces is my wonderful neighbour, Don.

As you can see, the cover went on in no time.
Here I am just going round putting a few extra nails in.

The last screw goes in.

The inside.

The finished product.
There were times when I thought this would never happen.
I am very, very happy with it.
It's taken a week of my life.
I have a good tan, a back which has been injured and healed and a badly strained shoulder.
Overall though, I wouldn't have it any other way.
My thanks to Don for always being there for help when I needed and to Sue for her patience, support, hard work and keeping everything else going.