'Knee high by the fourth of July'

There is an old American saying that sweetcorn should be 'knee high by the fourth of July'. This is mine - and it is knee high. I have planted lettuces in between, plus one spare courgette plant. All of these should be ready before they are overshadowed by the sweetcorn.

I am still picking broad beans and peas - enough to eat every day, plus quite a lot for the freezer. Also carrots, beetroot, lettuce, cabbage and new potatoes. The latter are a bit disappointing. The yields are small (mind you, I am digging them very young) but there is no slug damage as Kestrel are slug resistant. However, there is a little scab on some, and if you boil them for more than 15 minutes - barely enough to soften them - the skins come off. The flavour is good though! The broad beans only require 4 or 5 minutes, and the peas no more than a minute, if you cook them at all, as they are delicious raw.

Still to come are onions (sets and seed) which are looking good, courgettes, French beans and runner beans - both nearly ready - Swiss chard, and lots of autumn/winter veg - leeks, Brussels sprouts, swedes, parsnips. And of course the sweetcorn, which I am looking forward to eagerly!

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!

My favourite time of year

Joy! at putting together this bench - and two large picnic tables - at the allotments. These were done between the showers, which included hail, and they must now be screwed down to concrete blocks or they will 'walk'. They, and several others, will be part of the 'Community Garden' in front of our containers, available for anyone - not just allotmenteers - to come and enjoy the view.

   I planted out a few sweetcorn yesterday, and they seem OK despite the hail. I have also planted out runner beans, French beans and courgettes. All of these are quite tender, but I am hoping that we will have no more cold weather before summer really starts. There are more courgettes and sweetcorn to go in, and I have also been planting cabbages (both green and red) and onions, which are quite hardy. We had a touch of frost at the end of last month (we were away on holiday, so could not do anything about it) which caught the tops of some of the potatoes, but they have all recovered well. In fact everything (weeds especially) is growing madly, a reflection of the warm, wet weather and longer days. Unless I go to the allotments every day - and needless to say I am too busy to do that - it all rather gets away. So I am now NOT nearly up to date! There is a lot of weeding to be done, plus replacing the Swiss chard that have now bolted, plus much more planting of seeds and plants.

Nearly up to date

Not much to see here, but for once in my life I'm almost up to date with the plot. All is dug (with manure and compost, or lime, or blood, fish and bone meal). I have put in my onion sets and some of the onions that I have grown from seed. Also in this plot is a row of garlic, and rows of beetroot and carrot seeds

This is my new cold frame, with lettuce, beetroot and carrots growing strongly from seed, and a row of spring onion seeds. (The carrots are in bottomless modules, two carrots to each space, so I don't have to thin them.)
I have also planted potatoes (the earlies (Kestrel) are ridged up and the leaves are coming through, but the maincrops (Cara) have still to show) and parsnip seed. On other plots I have planted out some Brussels sprouts and a few early cabbage, and there are some red cabbages coming along nicely from seed. My bean seeds (both runner and French, and both saved from last year) are in pots in the greenhouse and have just come through, and I have today planted sweetcorn, which are now in the propagator as they like some heat to germinate, and courgette seeds. Although I try to maintain a fairly strict 4-plot rotation, the sweetcorn will have to go in where they were last year, as there is insufficient room in the potato plot.
I have also planted some Swiss chard seed, to replace the plants that have stood over the winter, from which I am picking plenty of leaves. They will of course bolt soon.

Spring

Today is cold and wet, but the last few weeks have been much better, which has enabled me to catch up somewhat. I've planted out broad bean seedlings and onion sets which I had started in modules in the greenhouse, also some cabbage seedlings, and there are some sprout seedlings ready to go in too! Some onion seeds planted in modules have germinated (as have leeks) and I've put some more seeds in. I will be planting out pea seedlings in the next day or so, but will have to keep them covered, at least initially, as we may have a frost. In the next couple of weeks I intend to sow runner beans and French beans, then courgettes and sweetcorn in a heated propagator, and I must sow parsnip seeds into the ground. All this as well as digging (that of course was delayed by the weather) and putting loads of chippings (kindly supplied by our local tree surgeon) onto the paths round the plot. Plus successional sowings of carrots, beetroot and lettuce. And maincrop potatoes - it's all go at this time of year!
We have been picking purple sprouting broccoli regularly, also swedes and the odd leek, plus the first of the pointed spring cabbage. But now I need the room, so the swedes, leeks and purple sprouting will have to come out. Never mind - they have been great.