John's Gardening Diary (23/05/20)

Early potatoes showing some lingering effects of last week's frost. Irrigation would have been needed but the rains came on Friday. Two weeks ago they were watered which consists of running the hose in the bottom of the drill until saturated. Scientists tell us that potatoes must not be dry at tuber initiation or susceptible varieties will suffer from common scab.

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Brassicas planted out under fleece which keeps the cabbage root fly at bay until they are well established. The row on the right has had fleece removed and replaced with net to keep pigeons off. Somtimes gardening seems to be a constant fight against pests and dealing with the vicissitudes of the weather.

A few posts back I said that some dahlias were left in the ground rather than lifting and storing inside. They were covered with a small pile of straw and I am pleased and slightly surprised that 7 out of 8 are sprouting. No doubt we had a pretty mild winter but i will probably repeat the practice this year.

Last week I reported that many of the strawberry flowers had been frosted and necessitated snipping off. The frost seems to have even affected some unopened buds and a further trimming off this week was needed - 200 - 300 flowers already removed but most of the flowers opening now seem to be ok.

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