Picking blackcurrants

I think that anyone that can pick blackcurrants must have the patients of a saint.  I do have a special tool for collecting the currants but there were so many that had not gone black that I wanted to leave them on the branches until they had turned colour.  So there I was carefully picking the black ones.   It does not matter how careful you are you still get some green ones.  I must have gathered about 1kg of currants before I was forced to stop.  This is not bad from bushes that were infested with big bud.

I have to reconsider whether to take these bushes out and throw them away or whether to cut the branches off to ground level and hope that the new growth does not have big bud.  This is what I am thinking of doing.

I did two and a half bushes when it started to rain.  Picking blackcurrants at the best of times is a chore but doing it in the rain is just too much.

Black currant bushes await picking.

I stopped to have a cup of tea and a cake.  I almost fell asleep again but it was too cold.  I just watched the rain come down and waited for my potatoes to start growing over the shed.  There is something like the Amazonian rain forest about my potatoes.

I have another oca.  That makes four out of six that have grown.  I am very impressed.  I keep looking for the other two but to no avail.  I have had to tie back the potatoes or they would have shaded the oca out.

I watered the onions with comfrey liquid again - needless to say it rained soon afterwards.  This will help to wash the comfrey liquid down to the roots.  I also watered the newly planted tomatoes and lettuce with comfrey.

The corn on the cob is recovering from being put out too early and an attack by slugs.  I was not worried about whether it would survive because last year I bunged it into a corner on allotment 25 and it still came really well.

I put some comfrey liquid onto the tomatoes and pumpkins in pots.  The pumpkins are not going to stay in the pots.  They are going to be planted where the onions are now.  I am hoping that the onions will be out of the ground before the pumpkins become pot bound.

The garlic is going over now and needs to be taken out and dried in the shed.  The shed is all ready for them because I cleared it out yesterday.  I will do this soon but I really wanted them to go brown before I lifted them.  I will  take out the rest of the tulips and store them when I lift the garlic.

I cleared out the everyday shed and gave it a good sweep.  I have begun to move any tools that I use rarely into the store shed.  This has given me a lot more room in the everyday shed.  I don't know why I didn't do it earlier.  I may have to take them out again to fit all the canes in at the end of the season but this is of no consequence.

My first row of Early Onward peas is three feet tall and still growing.  I only wish that they had some flowers on them.  I think that I have made it too comfortable for them and they still don't want to produce peas.

The new line of turnips have germinated.  I am only going to allow them to get to golf ball size because I don't want woody ones.  My daughter wants me to grow an enormous turnip  so I will have to leave one to grow on.  I will see if I can grow it really  big without it splitting.

I may have labelled my sweet peas incorrectly because the Gwendoline sweet peas seem to coming out red.  The only red sweet pea I have is Restormel.  So how on earth have I mixed these up?

I have been particularly careful this year to label correctly.  I have a winter cabbage in the Trafalgar Brussel sprout line as well.  How did that happen?  A bit of an irritation but liveable with.

Plenty more strawberries ripening.  I gave them a miss today though.  I couldn't eat another one for a while.  This is the stage when I start to freeze them for jam.

I need to get some beer for my traps.  I will get some tomorrow.