Competition in Middle Town

The other day I was asked by three girls "could we set up our stall next
to yours"? I replied "so long as you're not selling vegetables and you
encourage everyone who buys a shell to buy some veg too, that's fine"!

And still the weeds keep coming!

This has certainly been a wet few months. For us that means most crops have grown well and our soil never gets drainage problems as it's so sandy. However the cool temperatures and lack of sunshine have made tomatoes very late indeed, possibly as much as a month behind where we would expect them to be. But they're coming now, albeit slower than we would hope for.

Weeds of course love rain and they've grown like stink. Normally after June they slow down, but not this year! The trailer was filled to over-flowing from a patch that was cleared measuring just 20 yards by 8!!

Grapes are looking good and won't be too long if we get some prolonged sunshine; meanwhile the lettuce are romping away.

When Lord Taylor came to visit

It was a horrible day in early June, with literally gale force winds and rain, Lord Taylor came on a fact finding visit to St Martin's. As part of his tour of Scilly, trying to understand more about island life, from farming and water management to tourism and waste disposal, he visited me down on the farm.

I'm always a bit annoyed when I have to take time out my working day (especially a Friday which is a busy veg box delivery day) as it interrupts the rhythm of the day. However as he and his small delegation came down to me and didn't spend more than 30 minutes, it worked OK.

He was amiable and sounded genuinely interested in horticulture on Scilly and my business, and all associated problems of growing in such a remote place. I hope it gave him a small impression of the issues we all have to face over here and perhaps some ideas as to how to assist with some of the current and potential future problems on the islands.