I was very pleased with my spud efforts. The spud bags worked well, and the spuds in the garden were fine. I realise now that the spud planting season is longer than I thought, so I plan to do more staggered planting next year. Not sure whether I will plant in bags next year, as I have prepared a larger garden plot for spuds in 2010.
The foxes were a constant headache. Although they haven't been as evident in the last couple of months, there was an occasion last week where I noticed they had dug up a nicely established foxglove plant. I had a spare plant with which I replaced it, only to discover the following morning that it had also been dug out.
I have been trying to prevent the foxes from entering the garden by placing garden canes parallel with the fences that I know they can jump, in such a way as to hopefully prevent them from jumping down. I've also been using large twigs and/or chicken wire to try to block other known entry points. The foxglove incidents demonstrate the I haven't yet created a fox-proof garden, but I will keep trying to exclude them. I hope to see a fox in the garden at some point, then note how it leaves. However as mentioned above they are not so evident in the garden in the daytime now as in the summer.
Another thing I didn't achieve this year was identifying the first strawberry plant on each runner. Apparently the first plant on each runner is the only one which will fruit the following year. I had intended to move the first plant on each runner to spread them evenly over the strawb patch, but the runners were so convoluted that it was hard to identify the first plant, so I just guessed and moved a few. Next year the runners are going to be growing off the patch. I might need to think about creating a new strawb patch for 2011. Also, apparently if you remove the flowers from a strawberry plant in its first fruiting year, the following year will see the plant give a much larger crop than normal.
I was pleased with my efforts in growing primroses from seed, but disappointed that all the new plants had purple flowers. Next year I'll try to germinate seed from the yellow-flowered primroses, which should produce plants with red/yellow flowers. I must also ensure that the pots in which I germinate the seeds are protected from the foxes, as this year they turned over the pot in which I was germinating seed from blue primroses and I lost them all. I'll also try to split the existing yellow plants so that I have more in subsequent years.
Next year I plan to do some crop rotation, so in the garden where I grew the spuds this year, I will grow runner beans. This will be another first for me.
