Harvest time

This is an example of what I am harvesting every day now. It's grown for flavour rather than uniformity or maturing at the same time, so is quite unlike what is available in the shops. Some is frozen, but most is eaten on the same day that it is picked. I am also picking lettuce, carrots, beetroot, cabbage and the first of my second early Kestrel potatoes - delicious!

Of course, apart from picking things, there is still lots to do - watering, feeding, weeding etc - but things are definitely better this year than last. At this time in 2013 I had not picked any peas or beetroot.

My new project

No, it's not the start of a refugee camp, but my latest attempt to keep the dreaded cabbage white butterflies off my brassicas.

This is inside the 'tent'. There are two vertical poles with a crosspiece, and the fine netting is draped over this and sewn to the top of the green fence. It's about 6' high in the middle, and at the moment contains cabbages - pointed, round and red, all at various stages - and Brussels sprouts. It will also contain my leeks, when I get round to planting them out. Quite apart from keeping off the butterflies, it means that I can put down slug pellets - very important! In the end I shall put up another tent, but both will have to come down in the winter in case there is snow, and because of the crop rotation, one will have to be put up over another plot next year.
I have also planted out some lettuce seedlings between my sweetcorn as a 'catch crop'. They should be ready long before the sweetcorn shade them too much. And a row of swede seeds. Oh, and I've planted out a couple of butternut squash in the only other room there was - just squashed them in, you might say.

The not-so-lazy days of summer

Nearly everything is planted now. Runner beans and sweetcorn were the last, together with courgettes, which are just behind the netting. All are coming on OK.
I am picking beetroot and carrots, plus of course cabbages (below) and lettuce leaves. All delicious. I grew some beetroot in a tray and have just planted those out, so there should be a succession. And lettuce seed between the sweetcorn. It's been raining today, but is still warm, so with the long days everything is growing very quickly.


I've just bought some more netting, which will go over a whole plot, so my next job will be to fix up two vertical poles with a long pole on top, and put the netting on that. Hopefully, then, for the cabbages etc at least, there will be no caterpillar attacks! Always something to do, and never enough time to do it all!