Peas please!

I have picked LOTS of peas recently (Hurst green shaft) and they have been delicious. Too many to eat fresh, so we have made soup (plus mint, and frozen it) with some, have frozen others after a quick blanch, and may be making some chutney, as I now have a glut of courgettes (!) as well. The only problem has been pea moth, which lays its eggs on the flowers. The maggots hatch and burrow into the peas, and on average I have lost 2 or 3 peas per pod. I shall cover them with fine mesh next year. You can spray, but why bother when you can keep the culprits off altogether? Especially if you are trying to be organic.

Loads of excellent cabbages still - all covered with fine mesh to keep off the nibblers - and lettuces. I have given away lots of lettuces in the last couple of weeks, but despite planting them out in 2 tranches they all came at once because of the hot weather. Now they are all going over together.... Also picking French beans, broad beans (still, but I shall take the plants out this weekend) and potatoes. If I take out a whole row, there will be room for my chard seedlings. 

For a change, we have had some rain in the last few days, and very welcome it has been too! It's still 20+°C, so growth is still strong. 

Heatwave still!

The Meteorological Office defines a heatwave as 'five consecutive days where the temperature is at least 5°C above the average for the time of year'. Well, the maximum daytime temperature has been at least 30°C for rather more than a week (high by our standards) and there is no end in sight. Neither will there be any rain in the forseeable future, which means daily watering. I dug a root of spuds yesterday - the ground was like concrete, and the spuds were not nearly as big as they should be.

The weather has however helped quite a few things - peas for instance, which I started picking this evening. Broad beans are coming to an end, but I have just sowed some winter cabbage seed in my seedbed, so when the beans come out, the cabbages will go in. Likewise, when the potatoes come out, chard will go in, which I am also growing from seed. In the meantime, there are summer cabbages (in truth, it's been so hot that all we have eaten is salads recently!) lettuces - which are all coming on at once despite being planted at different times - runner and French beans, and courgettes. Beetroot and carrots soon.

Heatwave!

When I got back from Denmark on Monday night, the south of England was enjoying a heatwave (by British standards) and still is. As a result, things have grown very quickly. I dug a root of potatoes last night - Valor, very clean and tasty when boiled lightly with some mint - and also had a lettuce. These will ALL be ready in about 3 days! The sweetcorn are also looking very good, and there should be peas in 2 or 3 days, and as for the cabbages ....
Perhaps my courgettes will start growing sometime?
Of course, with the heatwave comes the daily watering, but at least it's too hot for the slugs!

The concrete slab has now been put down for our 10 000 litre water tank, to be filled with the aid of runoff from the roof of our containers, and topped up from the mains. Plus as I have already mentioned we now have electricity on site. There will be a community area in front of the containers. This has been seeded with grass, and picnic benches and tables are on order.

Here's a question though : my broad beans have been quite good, with many large pods. However, half of these have been empty - no beans in them at all - why?

Holiday time

 For a change, I think I'm more or less up to date on my plot. The sweetcorn are doing well, and I've fed and watered them, and more slug pellets inside the plastic collars. The potatoes are looking OK as well, and it will be time to try a root of the earlies in a week or so.

This is another of my mini-plots, with runner beans on the left - I have planted African marigolds in between to keep off the blackfly - and peas to the right, which will also be ready to pick in a week or so. In the middle is squeezed a row of beetroot. Rain is promised for this evening and tomorrow, which will hopefully remove the need for watering, which is just as well as I am having a few days in Denmark (a niece's wedding) and will not be able to water etc.



So everything is planted for the summer (with the exception of some leeks which are still too small to plant out), the paths are covered with a thick mulch of chipped bark etc, and there are boards round each plot so that the soil level inside can be raised. Lots of things are slow this year (like the courgettes, which have hardly grown since planting them out) but the pace is picking up. I have already picked lettuce, broad beans and cabbages, and in the next month there should also be peas, beans, beetroot, potatoes, spring onions and carrots - plus courgettes, maybe!

Midsummer

 The sweetcorn have grown really well since I put them in a week ago, and are now double their size. The weather has been warm, but not too warm, and basically dry, so I've had to water them. I have also dug my first potatoes - Casablanca - not many but enough for two and very tasty. I shall now have to be very patient and wait another month!

Buoyed by the success of my netting, I have put some more in the same enclosure, this time over rows of carrots (which were attacked by carrot fly last year) and swedes (which were attacked by flea beetle and pigeons) and beetroot (which just happen to be in the middle). This will also stop the birds eating the slug pellets.

I have also picked another cabbage - untouched! - and some broad beans, so already I'm doing better than last year (not difficult!).

I have also now finished putting boards around each of my enclosures, so it will be possible to raise the levels by adding compost and manure. Looking forward to next year!

A summer evening's delight

It was a real pleasure to go up to my plot this evening - warm, and (most importantly) very little wind. I took the opportunity to plant out my sweetcorn, most of which I have enclosed with plastic jars with the bottom cut off. This will give them a little protection against the weather, but it also let me put slug pellets round them, as the birds should not be able to get to them. The variety is 'Ovation', a so-called 'supersweet' variety, which is F1, so I won't be able to save seed if they are good. I have intercropped them with lettuces (Little Gem, which I have been growing in my seed bed), which should be ready in July/August, while the sweetcorn  should be ready in September. It will be interesting to see if the protected sweetcorn do better than the unprotected (in the foreground) ones.

That's nearly all of the planting/planting out done. I have also planted more carrot and beetroot seed, and a row of swedes. There are some more leek plants to go in - not big enough yet - and I shall sow some chard and early spring cabbage seed in my seed bed. No more room for anything else - in fact I shall have to take some things out before planting out the chard and spring cabbages. Of course, that is not the end of the work this spring! I have boards to install round 2 of my mini-plots in order to raise the beds, and there is always weeding, feeding and watering. But things are now back on an even keel, after a very slow start.

Only 9 days til the longest day.

 These are my apple trees and - under the green cloche - 3 courgettes. It has been quite cold - not at all like summer - but the cloche is there to keep the birds off the slug pellets that I have put down round each plant. Yes, it's slug time again, and they are either in my enclosures, or they have somehow managed to cross the 10cm depth of shredded bark that I have laid on all my paths.

These are the legumes. Broad beans (nearly ready to pick) in the background, then in the middle are runner beans. Despite the netting, they have been badly affected by the wind, hence the scorched brown leaves at the bottom. However, they are recovering now, and are beginning to twine round the poles. Nearest to the camera are climbing French beans. I put these out a week after the runners, and they escaped the worst of the wind.




I took my old cultivator up to the plot at the weekend. It's about 60 years old, is heavy, and makes a lot of noise, but it is very effective at breaking up the clods. So everything is ready for the sweetcorn seedlings, which are in the mini plastic greenhouse that is just visible in the top photo. I planted 36 seeds and every one came up, and is now a healthy seedling. This is because I put them individually in pots of seed compost, and started them in a heated propagator - they like heat. Most only took 4-5 days to germinate.  They will go in the space next to the potatoes, also in the top photo. Looking at my post this time last year, I see that the sweetcorn were already in (too early?) but the slugs were having a field day .... what's new?
(It was a busy weekend but fortunately the weather was kind - dry but not too hot. I cut some of my hedges at home, and ended up with 4 builders' bags of clippings.)
I have also planted another row of beetroot and another row of carrots on the plot, so space is quickly running out. Just room for another row of lettuce seedlings. 
Next week I hope to pick my first produce of the year - lettuce, a pointy cabbage and some broad beans. Can't wait!