Blight and birds

Been plodding up and down the fruit and veg garden all the last week collecting the rapidly ripening soft fruit (I will blog about what I am doing with it all another time!) but on this occasion I glanced at the lovely rows of potatoes and noticed a couple of breaks. Instead of fresh green leaves and purple flowers there was a gap. Went wading up the rows and found BLIGHT.

YUK. We donned surgical gloves and took a plastic bag and have cut out the affected plants down to the soil. Carefully removing the black slimy stems and wilting foliage to be burnt. In the past I am sure Gardeners World have said cut off the tops and harvest normally. I do hope this works!

While we in the potato rows our attention was drawn to the nearby fence. The swallows had lined up their 5 fledglings and were gamely showing the babies how to do aerobatic flight over our neighbours beautifully mowed grass. Landing occasionally alongside to feed the fledglings caused a lot of tweeting. 

They all ignored us.