Verslunarmannahelgi!

This weekend is what used to be called August Bank Holiday Weekend in England. The first Monday in august is a holiday for most people. Here in Reykjavik it often means the end of the summer season; the nights are getting darker and the garden slows right down.

A couple of days ago I pulled an onion so that I could use it for dinner. Today I decided to pull them all as I doubt if they will grow much more now. Some of the leaves had died back and all of them had fallen over so it is unlikley that the bulbs would get much bigger.

In all I got about 1kg of onions from a total of 64 onions - not a great yield but probably the biggest onions I have managed here. To be honest, I think I planted the sets too deeply. I followed the instructions on the packet and it said to put a full bulb deep i.e. top of onion buried about a cm. Previously I have put them with the tip of the bulb just covered and I think that is a better method. I think these ones were too deep and stayed too damp around the bulb. None of the bulb was exposed when I harvested them.

About half a dozen went straight in the compost bin as they had neck end rot. The rest are in a seed tray and I'll let they dry out a bit before bringing them in to store. The largest onions were about 5cm in diameter.

Here is a photo of the total crop, and one of an onion with neck end rot. You can just make out some little white insects which are in there too :-(















On a brighter note : the broccoli is still shooting away and the strawberry plants are putting out runners which I plan on rooting to make more plants for next year.

The runner beans have been flowering like crazy now for a month, but not a single bean to show for it. I read on the internet that at best only about 50% of flowers set, and that bees do the pollinating. There are plenty of bees in the snapdragons which I have in the front garden, but nota single one in the beans. Then I heard on Gardeners' Question Time that it is possible to spray with sugar solution - this attracts wasps and flies which pollinated the beans while they get the sugar. So, I mixed up some honey and water, and spalshed it around on the beans. It certainly attracts the wasps and flies, have to wait and see if any beans set now. I doubt if they will mature so late but if they set then at least I may decide to try runner beans again next year - if not, then I think I'll just have broad beans as they do set OK.