Sowing Green Manure

Today I started my winter preparations in earnest.

First I dug out a row of Sarpo Mira potatoes, many of which came out absolutely huge! I gave a couple away to my neighbours, each one being a meal for two!

Having already cleared the other side of my potato patch and prepared it, I sowed four packets of Suttons Green Manure (General Mix) bought from In-Excess for just 50p a packet. Each packet is meant to cover 3 square metres so that is just right for my 3 by 4 metre beds.

Having sown the manure I went on to refill the rat bait and traps that I have set in the sweet corn bed. I have found one mouse dying and had to despatch it. I also caught several in the traps even though a rat trap is not meant to be tripped by a small mouse. However, if they go at the peanut butter bait two at a time then the inevitable happens and I catch two at once!


As always at this time of year there is much to harvest. Runner beans aplenty and some French Beans. I am rather disappointed at the way the climbing French Beans have struggled. Growth has been slow and there has been a very sparse crop. Next year I plan to grow them where I have grown my Runner Beans successfully and hope they do better. I have grown 'Cobra' as a recommended variety but wonder if there is a better choice for our soil. Anyone got any ideas????


Another poor harvest has been my courgettes. I grew two yellow courgette plants to only one green variety as the yellow ones have always been less productive. The green Courgette was a gift from a friend and is actually a Marrow called 'Tiger', I think. It was a magnificent plant and grew well but is slow producing fruits. However, the yellow ones are very puny and have produced only one or two very small courgettes. Each plant had a good dose of my own compost under them so I am not sure what has gone wrong. I need to rethink for next year.


However, the cucumbers and pumpkins are producing well with very little help. The bed was mulched with horse litter throughout the winter and the plants put into spaces scraped in the mulch. The whole bed is covered with vines and leaves and I need to search carefully for the fruits. While many of the cucumbers are actually meant to be for pickling, we have found that peeled of their thick skin, all the cucumbers are delicious in salads.


I was also very pleased to get my first crop of peas from my new row. The row has some gaps despite me sowing two packets into the trench, but there are quite a few pods developing and enough of eating size to give me a meal. The second new row is sprouting well but may be too late to give me a crop; but worth a try as the seed is going out of date and I cannot use it next year with any hope of good germination.


Other crops harvested were Swiss Chard, raspberries and Calabrese, which my wife insists on calling Broccoli as that is what it is called in the shops!