Twist in tale of the carrots (From Blackpool Citizen)

Twist in tale of the carrots

11:51am Thursday 4th October 2007

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I'M in mourning - my sweetcorn is deformed!

I left them on the plant thinking they would blossom into fully fledged corn on the cob like you can see on sale now in the supermarkets.

But it was not to be - they are only small and the sweetcorn kernels that have grown are mis-shapen though they taste perfectly all right - very sweet in fact.

I do not know what I've done wrong - maybe the weather which sent a lot of the plants to seed is responsible. I did collect the seeds but I do not think I will bother growing any next year as they take up quite a lot of space for not a lot of end product.

I pulled up some more carrots and leeks this last weekend and was disappointed to see that while some had grown fairly normally others had not made much headway at all while others were all kinds of weird and wonderful shapes.

In one particular case one carrot had wrapped itself around another in what can only be described as an intimate embrace.

At least my leeks are straight, though most are thinner than I expected - although once the outer skin was removed they blanched very well with a kind of mellow leek flavour which goes well with most kinds of savoury food.

I still have quite a few carrots and leeks left in their barrels and I will just dig them up as I need them - I am assuming they will not grow any bigger now the weather has turned cooler.

The strawberry plants have stopped producing now and I will have to trim the plants back ready for next year.

According to the little book that came with the plants the three types of strawberry should offer up much more fruit in the second year.

I'm still getting lots of green beans from the plants which, given the time of year, are quite big.

I thought this plant would have stopped producing a while ago but it has been one of the most prolific in my urban garden this year.

The cabbages are coming on - but slowly.

I am grateful for an anonymous caller who rang The Bolton News and told me to leave the cabbage roots in the ground and wait for second greenery.

My unknown gardening friend advised me that I should just take the leaves as Spring greens - which if they are anything like the Spring greens we had earlier in the year, will taste heavenly.

Earlier in summer I had three enormous swedes which were the size you see in the supermarkets and they tasted superb.

Of the two I dug up last weekend one was only half of that size and the other was a third of that size. I don't know why they should not have grown the same size as the others. I have yet to see how big my celeriac have grown but I'm hoping for a decent size if the greenery is anything to go by.

l If you have a vegetable patch you are proud of or want to pass on any gardening tips please contact me via email at wwright@the boltonnews.co.uk or phone me on 01204 537352.

Read the Urban Gardener every Thursday in The Bolton News or anytime on the web at www.the boltonnews.co.uk and follow the links.

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