The Orla potatoes have grown very nicely and not many rejected with slug damage. I can’t say the same for the broccoli plants some of which have so much slug damage they look like lace. I think about half of the plants are OK. I shall persevere. Happily the French beans are looking good and starting to produce. The tomato plants have set a lot of fruit and seem healthy, slugs don’t really trouble them. The green caterpillars are back in the Polycrub, their favourite delicacy is chard, but they leave everything else alone. I’ve not seen much sign of red spider mite yet, a bit in the greenhouse but none in the Polycrub.
I’m halfway through my week of craft fairs – so far so good. I’ll be selling plants in Glendale on Tuesday. I sell a range of vegetable and blackcurrant plants, Next year I’d like to expand and do some shrubs, Willow and maybe some apple trees. The apple trees would be more of a long term project as we’d have to buy rootstock. We’d then graft short sticks from our own apple trees onto the rootstock. I’ve done this once successfully so I’m fairly confident. The grafted trees would then have to be grown in large pots for a couple or years before selling. We have several different types of apple tree on the croft, the best one is a fairly common supermarket variety – Discovery. It would be nice to have an ancient Highland apple to graft, but the Discovery has grown so well it’s the obvious choice.
Next week will be a week of weeding and no craft fairs. The weeds have got fairly out of control in some places, I’m looking forward to having some helpers once the school holidays start.
This week’s Croft Shares will have –
Small – potatoes, Spring onions, courgettes, salad leaves, onions and garlic.
Medium – potatoes, Spring onions, courgettes, salad leaves, onions, French beans, beetroot and herbs.
Large – potatoes, Spring onions, courgettes, salad leaves, onions, French beans, beetroot, herbs, kale and garlic.