# Gardening diary

I had fully intended to make regular entries when I started this but
unfortunately I have been preoccupied with self inflicted computer
woes. Conscious of my neglect I am making this entry!

A lot has actually been happening in the past few weeks. We have been
eating our own potatoes, picked and pickled several jars of beetroot
and we are now starting to pick and eat from our bumper crop of
tomatoes.

There are still a number of beetroots in the ground, some of which
are about ready to come out and about another half a row which were
planted a little later that will need a while longer. The carrots
are coming along and will soon be ready too.

The rogue blackberry bushes, which self seeded after the neighbour
replaced his fence, have also provided for several apple and
blackberry crumbles during the recent cold snap!

Unfortunately although there were quite a lot of blueberries on the
bushes this year they didn't grow to any decent size and the ones
which appeared ripe were quite sour and earthy tasting.

The raspberries were also a bit of a failure as some kind of
caterpillar got on them and ate all the leaves to the point that they
were just skeletons...

On a brighter note the 6 GBP apple tree which we bought as a bare
root tree from the local supermarket has done well and now has plenty
of leaves. I have to admit I wasn't optimistic about this tree but
took a punt on it as it was so cheap. I'm pleasantly surprised at its
progress.

This is probably the best time of the year from a vegetable self
sufficiency perspective as we are not buying much but brassicas and
things we don't often use like aubergine, asparagus, parsnip and
leeks.