Cacti, Parsnips, Sweet Potatoes, Pruning, Wheel

As we move into winter time outside is a bit limited. If it’s not raining, then it’s freezing. It’s easier to cope with cold than rain, though. Many layers of clothes make man warm. Fantastic blooms on the cacti, pruning the fruit bushes, harvesting the sweet potatoes – just in time before the frosts arrived, large parsnip and no more punctured tyres on the wheelbarrow.

Early Christmas Cacti

One of the claims made for S-Chelate fertiliser is ‘Better Blooms’ Well, we’ve been feeding these cacti with S-Chelate-O Cultiv-8 organic crop booster and the S-Chelate 12 Star complete fertiliser in the spring. I think their case is proven. They’ve never looked so good.

Our ‘Christmas Cacti’ in flower – a little early, but they are lovely

New Wheelbarrow Wheel

I had a flat tyre on my wheelbarrow. I’d trimmed the hawthorn hedge and I think it was a hawthorn thorn that did the deed, they’re wicked! The tyre itself has a few damages but was basically OK until the inner tube was punctured.

I could try a bicycle repair kit patch, but my experience with those isn’t good, which leaves buying a new inner tube. Since the tyre is reaching the end of its days, I looked at buying a new tyre as well. This would have set me back a whopping £7.95.

Before I clicked the button, I noticed the page was suggesting a whole new wheel with a puncture proof solid tyre for £9.85. Seemed like a bargain to me, no more flat tyres, and it’s faster to replace the wheel than the inner tube.

It’s actually running better than the old wheel and tyre. So, if you get a flat, check out a puncture proof wheel replacement instead. Incidentally, I can buy a tube from a real shop but it costs more to drive to it than the savings against buying online.

Pruning the redcurrants

I’ve three mature redcurrant bushes that produce well. That’s despite me not getting around to pruning them last year, as I should have. So a couple of hours spent on pruning the redcurrants and the jostaberry. Still got more to attack with the secateurs when the weather allows.

Pruned Redcurrant and Jostaberry in the background

Fuchsia and Brambles

Near the redcurrants, a fuchsia has grown through the dry stone wall and established itself on the redcurrant side. It’s even making an attempt to get into the old pig-sty shed through its wall.

Under the cover of the fuchsia, a bramble is growing and left to itself, it will be a major job to remove. So the best way to sort things is to cut the fuchsia back hard, this allows me to access the bramble and clear it.

The fuchsia is an amazingly tough bush. It can be chopped right back and within a couple of years, it will be back where it was. Except with even more flowers!

So, fuchsia cut back and brambles pulled. The fuchsia is easy enough, but the brambles always manage to get me, especially when they wrap around my leg.

Pruning the Fuchsia

Sweet Potatoes and the 3kg Parsnip

Cara and Gary came over so we went up to the polytunnel and harvested the sweet potatoes. We’ve had some, but I’ve really not got the hang of growing sweet potatoes. I think I made two mistakes. Firstly, the growing medium was too rich, which encouraged foliage rather than tubers. Secondly, I let them become pot bound before planting out and what has grown hasn’t spread out. A tangled mass of small tubers rather than separate larger ones, but we’ve got some usable. Live and learn!

Harvesting Sweet Potatoes

Then, with Gary doing most of the yanking, we harvested a parsnip. Considering it was growing in potting compost mixed with sand, it was firmly embedded. I’d probably have hurt my back if I’d not had help. It had grown from a seed dropped onto the soil in a section of barrel by accident when sowing parsnips into the neighbouring raised bed.

Harvesting the 3kg Parsnip

Initially it did so well that I thought it couldn’t possibly be a parsnip, must be some sort of weed! I’ve more parsnips in the raised bed, which were deliberately sown there. They’ve not grown so massively.

It’s not exactly a showpiece, but ‘never mind the quality, feel the width!’ It was just 3 kg before I trimmed off the straggling roots. I suspect it’s going to be quite woody as it’s overgrown. We’ll find out soon enough.

The 3kg parsnip, after washing and trimming off the stragglers.