Poor Potatoes

 

I set my new potatoes in March and typically we had a dry Spring so although I had plenty on they were all small.
 I set my main crop in general in early May and since then we have had nothing but heavy rain giving the soil no time to get dry. To be honest anyone who has followed my Blog would see that I have many times posted photos of my garden standing in water. To be honest these last 2 years have been dreadfully wet here giving the ground no chance to recover.
 As we have had much rain lately last night I decided to dig up a root and to my horror found that the soil was like a bog and the potatoes had suffered, so I then dug up most of the potatoes at the top of the garden leaving those in raised beds presuming that they would be alright.
 As you can see I had to wash the potatoes and as it was getting dusk I didn't notice until this morning that about a quarter had been infected by eel worms, slugs to most people.
 This morning I decided to dig a root up from my raised bed. To be honest there was no difference at all to the ground but the potatoes had suffered worse. Some had rotted in the ground, many were small and quite a large proportion had been attacked by eel worm. I doubt if I will have sufficient to see me through till the end of September as I find more damaged potatoes every time I look.
 It doesn't stop there, for the first time I have had all of my marrows rot off just as they get the size of Courgettes, I also put this down to the very wet weather. I also checked my onion sets and several of those had rotted. My runner beans have not performed as I would have expected, so all in all I have had the poorest year in the garden I have ever had.
 I must admit the very wet weather has made the fruit trees grow and although I have had quite a few of my plums rot off I will certainly have more than enough for me.
The lad popped round to see his grapes and was pleasantly surprised at the progress they have made. I cut a bunch off for him , a large bunch and suggested he give his companion who is a lot worse than him a taste so he cut almost half of the bunch and told me he would give them to her and he would take the rest to work tomorrow. I also showed him the James Grieve apples telling him that within a fortnight there would be some ready for him to take to work, he loves James Grieve apples.
I have warned him the tomorrow morning I may not wave to him as he goes to catch the bus to work as I have an early appointment at the Surgery, just a routine appointment. More soon.