The main culprits for this endemic problem are climate change and the rotten July weather we've had this year. Progressively milder winters just don't have the oomph to kill the fungus and day after day of rain and warmth make just about an ideal breeding ground. So it's time to take the chemical route and apply the Dithane. If it ever stops raining.
You have to wait for a Smith period to use it on the plant leaves, as recommended here. And so once again we're praying for a warmer, drier period. If blight gets into the plant then, for tomatoes, it'll be time to strip the green fruit and make chutney or, for potatoes, it's advised to cut the foliage down to an inch above the soil and then harvest the crop soon after.
On a brighter note, we did harvest our first bag of potatoes and we got a pretty good crop from them:
They are great par-boiled for 5-7 mins and then roasted in a hot oven (220c) for 20-30 mins in extra virgin rapeseed oil. You can chuck in some whole garlic cloves or a sprig or two of fresh rosemary too if you feel like it.
It's easy to get disheartened when things don't go well in the garden - but the best thing to do is to keep going. We've picked up a packet of quick growing turnip seeds that should come in in the autumn. We also planted out our purple sprouting broccoli seedlings the other day, a crop that should be ready next spring:
We've given them a bit of protection from above as we tend to have fat woodpigeons clomping around the garden, sitting on things and pecking them. In fact it's been mostly big birds (the pigeons, scruffy magpies) and squirrels in the garden over the last month, adding to the general dreariness. Happily over the last couple of days we've seen some of the smaller birds come back. Dunnocks, blue tits, coal tits and goldfinches have been busying themselves about the place.
Finally, some more nice successes to round off this particular post. We've got an amazing cucumber growing on one of our plants:
And the marrows and courgettes are continuing to flourish. We've had to cut back the squash plant quite radically before it took over the entire garden - there are lots of fruits coming on it too:
The Met Office now seems to be forecasting a change in the weather some time over the next week or two. I do hope it's going to be sooner rather than later. This dull persistent rain is no good for our states of mind or for the garden!
On a brighter note, we did harvest our first bag of potatoes and we got a pretty good crop from them:
They are great par-boiled for 5-7 mins and then roasted in a hot oven (220c) for 20-30 mins in extra virgin rapeseed oil. You can chuck in some whole garlic cloves or a sprig or two of fresh rosemary too if you feel like it.
It's easy to get disheartened when things don't go well in the garden - but the best thing to do is to keep going. We've picked up a packet of quick growing turnip seeds that should come in in the autumn. We also planted out our purple sprouting broccoli seedlings the other day, a crop that should be ready next spring:
We've given them a bit of protection from above as we tend to have fat woodpigeons clomping around the garden, sitting on things and pecking them. In fact it's been mostly big birds (the pigeons, scruffy magpies) and squirrels in the garden over the last month, adding to the general dreariness. Happily over the last couple of days we've seen some of the smaller birds come back. Dunnocks, blue tits, coal tits and goldfinches have been busying themselves about the place.
Finally, some more nice successes to round off this particular post. We've got an amazing cucumber growing on one of our plants:
And the marrows and courgettes are continuing to flourish. We've had to cut back the squash plant quite radically before it took over the entire garden - there are lots of fruits coming on it too:
The Met Office now seems to be forecasting a change in the weather some time over the next week or two. I do hope it's going to be sooner rather than later. This dull persistent rain is no good for our states of mind or for the garden!
2 comments:
Snap! Our tomatoes are blighted, but the potatoes are looking great. We just have to get them up before the fungus gets them too.
I hope you managed to get your potatoes harvested OK. We've had to cut ours down to the ground and we're now waiting a few days with our fingers crossed.
Thanks for the comment. :-)
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