Sweetcorn, hopefully

These are my sweetcorn - very prolific runner beans in the background - which are virtually ready. They are looking good, but last year most were eaten by mice. So I have picked a few already, and very good they were too. I have also put down a mousetrap, and shall see what that does! The mice are still eating my potatoes - perhaps they will stick with those?

Otherwise, things are looking OK. I am still picking beans, courgettes, beetroot and potatoes. The spring onions, broccoli and lettuces are just about finished now. If there had been more room, I would have sown successional crops. Perhaps next year? But something else will have to go. Onions are all in store now, and leeks, parsnips and purple sprouting broccoli are all coming on well. Soon it will be time to put manure and compost on a couple of my mini-plots, and to dig them. In the meantime, I am taking off all the strawberry runners that I don't want - there are hundreds - and have potted up a dozen of the strongest (still attached to the parent plants at this stage) to replace the old plants that I dug up after the crop had finished this year.

Tatty Trouble

I have been digging some of my potatoes recently. In general, the yield is good, and the slugs don't like Sarpo Mira, although there has been a little damage. However, what concerns me most is the damage seen left, which is affecting 10 - 20% of the crop. The tubers are being gnawed by something, but what, and how do I stop it? Is it mice, even though the tubers are of course underground? Or moles, but I thought they were carnivores? Last year, I lost a lot of sweetcorn to (I think) mice, but there has never been any damage like this to potatoes.
Otherwise, things are still going well on the plot. Picking lots of French and runner beans, courgettes, broccoli, lettuce, beetroot, spring onions, onions etc and freezing a lot as well. Had to get another fridge for the veg, and the freezer is about full ... If the mice allow, sweetcorn will be ready in a couple of weeks. Then, after that, there are parsnips, cabbages and leeks for the winter, before the hard preparation - manuring, digging - has to be done.