Mouches blanches à l'ail et au poivre

Whitefly are infesting my cavolo nero; a cloud of tiny white moth-like beasts rises up every time I pass by.  So today I spent some time ripping off all the affected leaves - white, mottled patches on the underside are the sign of infestation - and then spraying with an internet-derived mixture of chilli and garlic infused in water, with a drop of washing-up liquid.  It's probably the latter that gets rid of the beasties but since I often cook the cavolo nero with chilli and garlic it seemed appropriate to try the recipe.  What had been a bed of luscious green plants now looks very sorry for itself; stripped stems with a few tiny leaves at the top.  I took the opportunity to grub up the last of the spring-sown endive, and space out the plants a bit more, as I suspect proximity also helps the whitefly to thrive. 

The other brassicas got a dose of the spray as well, just in case, although the problem doesn't seem to be as severe.  I also dug up the remaining potatoes - we won't need to buy any for the rest of this winter, especially as my partner is following the Atkins diet - and weeded the asparagus bed.  The asparagus has been putting out feathery shoots all summer, which I take to be a good sign.  The raspberries have surprised me by producing some fruit; the apple tree, about which I have been quietly worrying, has some new flower buds.  So it is not dead, although it is definitely confused.  The Harlequin squashes are now about six inches long and looking very appetising.  Courgettes are nearly over now, although I'm still picking small ones; I need that bed for winter sowings of beetroot and turnip anyway, so will probably evict them next week.

The last of summer

After a week away, which saw some rain, we have been back to dry, sunny weather again.  This has suited the brassica seedlings that are now doing fairly well; endive, radicchio and spring cabbage are all growing well.  I thinned them out today but will need to do this again for the radicchio at least.  The white bits in the photo on the left are eggshells; I added wormery compost to the soil here for the radicchio, which it seems to like, but uncrushed eggshells were too much for the worms.

The maincrop potato plants were looking tired and a bit blotchy in places.  I wasn't really sure if they had blight, but cut off the stems anyway as advised by Joy Larkcom who is my new guru in these matters.  I'll be digging up the maincrop in a couple of weeks.  The courgette leaves, as happened last year, have succumbed to powdery mildew, so I've cut off all the affected ones - the heap of non-compostable grot is growing steadily.  The courgettes haven't been so prolific this year; I think this is partly due to choosing the round variety for three of my plants, as these only seem to ripen one fruit at a time, but the main problem has been lack of watering, I suspect.  Last year I watered every other day pretty much without fail, and every day in hot weather, but I just haven't been able to manage that this year, and twice-weekly watering has meant fewer courgettes.

All of the squash have produced small fruits, so I've propped these up to stop them rotting.  They are a very attractive variety - Harlequin - and currently striped in pale and darker green.  I suspect I'm going to need to be more diligent with the watering to get them to full size, but they look delicious as they are.  The beans are now truly over; I might try a stringless runner next year to get a longer cropping season, as despite regular picking, I only got two flowerings on the variety I tried this year.  The chard is doing very well, and I also harvested some beetroot today which have been a bit mixed in performance for some reason. 

There are three pink fir apple second early potato plants left to harvest - we've done well out of these, and I've given about five pounds away to friends.  I'm planning to mulch the area where the potatoes were over winter with a thick layer of stable manure, to enrich the soil the potatoes have broken up so nicely.  Today's big success, though, was the Bosch cordless electric strimmer, which made short work of trimming the verges, a job I can't stand.  I wish I'd got one of these last year.