The Nearly Good Life

I did the raspberries on Sunday. Well, I did the summer ones; the autumn fruiters will last a little while longer. The difference in treatment is quite marked. The summer raspberry fruits on canes that grew last year, so while I've been picking all those wonderful berries, a new set of canes has been growing and now the old ones can be cut out; right to the ground. While I was at it, I also cut out all spindly looking canes and dug up the ones that were growing out of the row. These can be given away to friends, if one has any. The new canes can then be tied in to whatever structure you have and the tops can be arched over and tied down after tipping. This does something mathematical to the flow of sap and is good for fruiting.
The autumn fruiters are rather different as they fruit on wood that grew this year, that's why they're late. So, when they finish fruiting, or more likely when the wasps have scoffed the lot, they should all be cut to the ground, leaving nothing but a set of woody stumps.
Jacob, he who planted potatoes to eat at Christmas, is a bit edgy as they were all killed by the blight. My rather childish comment that Global Warming seems to be over for the year didn't help his mood either.
As I may have said before, Jacob is a true believer in the new faith, the main tenet of which is not just that the world is getting warmer but that it's all our fault. Anyway, I agree that the world is getting warmer because since 1880, usually taken to be the end of the last mini ice age, the world's temperature has increased by 0.6 degrees Celsius. Of that, only 0.2 of a degree is due to man's baneful influence. The rest is due to the Sun and gas emissions from volcanic eruptions etc. I think the volcanos should be taxed until the pips squeak.

Posted by Tony at 9:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Looking at my carrots as I pulled a bunch today reminded me of pulling perfect roots from the sandy soil of Hampshire in the late 40s. Mine have been lightly attacked by the carrot fly which have spoiled that vision of perfection.
The 1940s was well before Carson published Silent Spring which effectively drove DDT off the market. I wonder if any other book has been responsible for so many deaths, and deaths predominately in what we now call The Third World. Malaria was on the ropes before DDT was proscribed, but without DDT it kills more and more each year. Not that the fault lies at the author's door alone; it lies particularly at the doors of those who being in power were convinced by the arrant nonsense of the book. What is it with politicians that they are so easily swayed by the half baked opinions and worst case scenarios of Enviromental Zealots
By the way, I wonder if it is possible for mosquitos, as they go about their blood sharing activities, to spread other blood borne diseases, such as HIV/Aids. If it is possible, then the book has been even more deadly than I realised.
I don't think it has ever been demonstrated that DDT harmed anyone, but it certainly saved a lot of lives. It would also return my carrot patch to the quality of the ones I ate raw in 1949. After rubbing them on my corduroy trousers of course.

Posted by Tony at 7:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This morning Jacob was seriously upset. Somebody had trampled on his garden and pulled up some plants. They had tried and failed to pull up some parsnips and then progressed to the leeks. As both these plants need a fork to lift the result was just the destruction of a few plants.
I thought that Jacob's reaction was way over the top; he has announced his intention of giving up his allotments and flounced off; never to return, he says.
Considering that he only eats a very small percentage of the crops that he grows and gives the rest away, I was amazed that he should be so upset. In retrospect I think that the explanation is that his allotment is much more than a garden to him, and is his personal work of art.
Last autumn he prepared his canvas by deep digging and manuring, and in the spring he mixed his colours and began to paint his picture. Planting an allotment, particularly by a man, is fairly ritualised and prescribed. But within the traditional structure there are wide possibilities for individual expression and skill. Jacobs picture was beautiful, and now it is spoiled, at least for him.
It is almost a cliche to describe gardening as an art form, and my pet hate is to hear the word "create" used by TV gardeners. But I think that the Hortiscenti would hesitate to so describe allotment gardening, with its essentialy temporary status, but I think myself that for something to be described as Art requires two attributes, and these are beauty and utility. An allotment, at least one prepared by an artisan like Jacob, has both properties in spades. I hope he soon returns.

Posted by Tony at 7:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Noticed Jacob planting potatoes last night. These are "specially prepared" seed potatoes that are sold to be ready for Christmas. Jacob asserts that he has heard of this global warming (GW) so they are bound to be OK.
Potatoes are of the Solanum genus and need lots of light, a property not much in evidence in the last three months of an English year; warmth is not the limiting factor. So unless the use of FWD vehicles on the school run has caused the Earth to untilt on its axis, I don't hold out much hope.
I trust that the reader, if such there be, does not gain the impression that I am a heretic about GW, because it is almost bound to be proclaimed a crime by this most pathetic of governments, and I don't wish to be reported to the GW gaulieter. No indeed, there is evidence abounding that my allotment was covered by many feet of ice not so long ago and it has certainly got warmer since then. So I am a True Believer (TB).
What actually caused the gradual increase in temperature since those frigid days is not clear, but I daily expect archaeological discoveries that will prove that the inhabitants were misusing their refrigerators and driving all over the country in SUVs. Jacob says that it will soon be too hot to grow cabbages so I'd better get on with planting my winter potatoes. Personally, I hope the end will be a bit farther away than that, but it doesn't stop the seed merchants turning an honest shilling out of the hopes and fears of TBs. That's what I call profits of doom.

Posted by Tony at 7:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Pulling up a row of Broad Beans today and putting aside some dried seeds to sow in October, reminded me that these are the only truly european beans, and so the only ones available in this country before the 16th century. They are the Fava beans, much enjoyed by Hannibal Lecter, presumably because the peeled seed resembles a foetus. They have been cultivated around the Mediterranean for 6000 years.
Curiously, they can have a nasty effect on a few people, causing headaches, nausea and in the case of some children, even death. Pythagoras, who was a vegetarian, advised his followers against eating the bean and even forbad walking through a field of flowering beans.
It wasn't until the middle of the last century that the scientific basis for his advice was made manifest; it seems that some people inherit from their mothers a defect in red blood cell enzyme, known as glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency. This causes them to react badly to the Fava bean, even to inhaling the pollen. The syndrome is known as Favism.
I love the beans myself, particularly boiled and served cold with vinaegrette. Like a bean fed horse, it leaves me feeling sleek and full of beans.

Posted by Tony at 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I pulled a bunch of carrots this morning; they are grown under a material called Enviromesh, which is supported by hoops of blue water pipe. If they are left uncovered they become drilled through by maggots of the carrot fly and are unusable.

Many garden pundits advise the sequential sowing of carrot seed to miss the two main generations of the fly, but to me this is rather like the rhythm method of birth control recommended by the Catholic Church. Good sex, but lots of ruined carrots.

Jim was on his allotment this morning. He is the leader of our little world, by which I mean he is the committee chairman and general organiser. He is also a great gardener and very generous with his advice; he was sowing spring cabbage this morning so a nod is as good as a wink. He owns an enormous poly-tunnel which produces wonderful crops, particularly of onions, potatoes and tomatoes. All of these can be ruined by rain borne fungi, but they are safe in his tunnel.

Jim is now in his seventies and has invested in an electrical bicycle, complete with trailer, which at this time of year is always full of produce. He suffers from rosacea and has an enormous nose, like some rare and fissured vegetable marrow. But I don't think that this has anything to do with the bicycle

Posted by Tony at 1:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

With rain and sunshine replacing the drought, a lot of my neighbours' plots are suffering from the dreaded Potato blight. Mine are healthy so far as I bought Sarpo Axona seed potatoes, which are reckoned to be blight resistant. This is the second year that I have grown them and they have shown no sign of the problem, even though some of the other varieties I grow (particularly Pink Fir Apple) have been destroyed.

One of my neighbours was there, putting the finishing touches to his latest shed. He has two allotments and has a mini estate of two greenhouses and four sheds, all of the authentic mix of Hansel and Gretel house and a Bombay slum.

His name is Jacob and he is probably the world's best digger; pursuing the roots of bind weed to such depths that only his hat remains visible. He fails to understand why the authorities will not award him Disability Living Allowance, which would allow him to stop pretending to be looking for work and to spend the whole of his time in pursuit of the bind weed. I used to point to the fact that he is patently about the least disabled person I know, but in the interests of keeping the peace, I now demur from this kind of useful comment.

Posted by Tony at 6:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)