Percy's Pride

Weather: Sunshine and showers - quite warm. Lovely growing weather.


This week's harvest: artichokes (3) Courgettes yellow and green (3lb 10oz) Vine leaves (50) Small white cucumbers (6) Potatoes (unidentified type left in ground by mistake (1lb 8oz) Potatoes (Highland Blue ....and they are purple all through) (1lb) Poatatoes (Harlequin - cross between Charlotte and Pink Fir Apple, very nice) (1lb) Aubergine (2 small slug attacked ones) French Beans (Trail of Tears) (13oz) Spinach (10oz) Peas (2oz) Radishes (3 slug eaten ones) Tomato (enormous single fruit Black Russian) (1lb 4oz) - Mint, Thyme, Parsley, Basil, Marjoram Sorrel.


Not a bad crop... it's not possible to work out exactly what that lot would have cost me as some of the varieties aren't on sale but I reckon it would be at least £20. This argues against my last post a bit - in which I reckoned that the cost of producing home grown veg isn't necessarily cheaper than shop bought veg. It does seem a good haul at the start of the summer glut - and things like the courgettes have taken little other than my time and the cost of four seeds.

I have heard it suggested that people are growing more of their own veg to beat the 'credit crunch' - but I would still maintain they won't save much money by doing it , particularly if they are setting themselves up from scratch. Let's assume they have space in their back gardens but even so the set up costs can be considerable - you need spades, forks, secateurs, plant feed, compost etc and I bring on many of my seeds in a greenhouse. My greenhouse must be 15 years old now and I get a huge sense of achievement out of growing and eating vegetables I've grown from seed but if I did it purely as a cost saving exercise....I'm not convinced you'd save more than a few pounds a year, and it would take several years to wipe off those set up costs.

The other thing to take into account is that a beginner is bound to make mistakes and poor weather, pests and diseases can wipe out wholw crops. My vegetable garden last year was a disaster. I didn't get one courgette plant past the slugs, no lettuces, all I had was about half a dozen bean plants and a few potatoes. If that had been my first attempt I would have given up.

But enough of that...

Finally - the reason for calling this post Percy's Pride. The yellow Red Hot Poker (Kniphofia) in the photo is a variety of that name. Bought and grown in memory of our old cat Percy who died a couple of years back at the age of 21. The snails have played havoc with this plant since I've had it and this is the first time that two flowers have bloomed together. I knew he'd make it eventually though - he was that sort of cat!