I nearly gave up on my usual Sunday morning session today as it started raining almost immediately after I returned from my coffee break at the Cafe. Having sat in the car for some time I thought it looked as though the rain had settled in for the duration but, having got wet packing up, I drove to the gate to discover when I got out to shut the gate that it had stopped! So I returned to finish my planting. This is the small plant (of Brussel Sprouts) that I lifted because it was not thriving and I wanted to replace it with another seedling I had grown. The reason for its tardiness was obvious when looking at the root. A typical example of club root! Swollen roots looking more like tubers when they should be fibrous. It is partly my fault as I grew my magnificent cauliflowers on this patch last winter and I should have avoided more brassicas for as many years as I can manage. However, I am establishing my rotation and in this first year it did not work out. So it was no surprise to find club root. The replacement seedling had to be planted in the same spot so I dug out a square of soil a spit deep, spreading the contaminated earth out on the front of the plot. I then brought in what I hope is clean soil and planted the new seedling but this time with lots of lime. As you can see from the picture I plant in a small depression (about 4") which helps keep water close to the plant and can be filled in later to keep the larger plant secure. I used lots of lime, at least a big handful per plant, and stirred it into the bottom of the planting hole and into the soil around so it is well mixed in. The white powder you can see is not in fact lime, that disappears into the soil when I water them in. Then a squirt of ant powder deters the cabbage root fly - another brassica pest. Using lots of lime I planted the rest of my tall brassicas, Purple Sprouting, Kale (both Black and Sutherland) and Calabrese. I also squeezed in a short row of Kohl Rabi.
I then planted a row of 15 Celeriac plants bought from the Trading Hut in a trench with a layer of compost buried below them to keep a good supply of moisture. That done I constructed the 3 hoops to support the netting over my peas as they had grown up to fill the space inside the unsupported netting. Then, before going home, I picked a few strawberries. The crop is declining as it is such a short season. It will be a while before I can arrange a succession of varieties to extend the season but I am very happy with the harvest this year and the 'Pick Your Own' will suffice for the rest of the summer. I have masses of brassica plants waiting to be planted out so I took them all down to the plot on Friday. I had almost cleared the net tunnel for tall brassicas so it should have been easy but as always there were complications.
The first problem is that I do not have room for all the types of brassica I want to grow, so I had to be selective. I already had a row of five Brussel Sprouts planted but 2 plants were not thriving. I decided to add 3 later cropping Brussels to the row by replacing the ailing plants and adding one to the end of the row. When I dug up the ailing plants they were an excellent example of club root! I wish I had taken a picture for those who have yet to experience it! It's my own fault as this patch hosted my spring cauliflowers and you should never plant twice brassicas in the same place. Normally I use generous amounts of lime that helps prevent club root but this was obviously not enough so I dug out the infected soil and spread it in front of my plot away from all brassicas growing and added even more lime this time. I hope it is enough! Then I planted out 2 rows of mixed Purple Sprouting Broccoli and one of Sutherland Kale. The latter was a gift from another allotmenteer and come highly recommended. Unfortunately I then did not have enough lime to plant any more so will come back as soon as possible to finish the planting out. I then watered everything in and turned to digging out a couple of early potato plants giving enough for a delicious meal or two. In between I pulled quite a few weeds - they are still growing apace. Finally I picked another tub full of strawberries and was surprised to find none were 'mouse-eaten'! A quick trip to the plot this evening just to pick strawberries with my newly arrived 'American' grand-daughter. (My son lives out in the USA and she has dual nationality.)
In just a few minutes we had picked a tub full and thrown away quite few mouse-eaten ones. I tried to pick a few peas as well but they still are not filling the pods so they got a good does of water to help them along. On Sunday I arrived late having taken a Fathers' Day call from my son on the way to the site. I had just emptied the Kitchen waste bin into the compost when he turned up. We chatted while I showed him round the plot and then we went for a coffee at the cafe.
There were plenty of customers and we chatted for a while before buying a couple of bits at the Trading Hut and wandered down to the plot. As we were saying our farewells it slipped out that he had intended to come and help! That was another opportunity I missed! After he had gone I hoed some of the open ground while the weeds were small and weeded a row of parsnips. Then I prepared the ground for some celeriac but didn't have time to actually plant it. Just before leaving I firtled round After a minor op on last Tuesday, Friday was the first day I could get onto the plot.
There was lovely crop of strawberries filling another ice cream tub that holds 2 litres. My priority then was to line my empty compost bin with landscape fabric. The woven version stops the contents drying out too much but allows surplus water to escape. There was enough material waiting to be composted that I half filled the bin immediately. However, it will soon condense down. Then I wanted to plant some brassica plants in one of my net tunnels. However, the weeds were so thick it took me ages to clear them and I ran out of time. A neighbour was harvesting potatoes so I thought I would check mine. The first plant of my 'Pentland Javelin' produced enough lovely new potatoes for at least two meals! Just found a mistake!
If you tried the recipe for sauteed Broad Beans, my wife tells me that she told me the wrong spice! She does not use Garam Masala, something I had never heard of before, but she uses Cumin, a spice I have heard of! Mind you tonight we had sauteed Broad Beans with Cumin, Mint and Coriander leaf - quite tasty! The weeds certainly are growing well! I seem to have lost the race with them. I spent some time weeding the row of beetroot only to discover the first sowing produced just a few plants, though the second sowing has germinated quite reasonably and needed just a bit of thinning. In between there were a few plants given to me by a neighbour most of which have survived.
I also ran the hoe through some thick weeds that had grown between my cauliflowers in the brassica tunnel. When you leave it that long it really is hard work. Much better to hoe them off when too small to resist - or even before they emerge! Unfortunately for me there are lots of places on the plot where the weeds have formed a mat of green and started climbing through the crops. I finished hoeing inside my greenhouse frame to cut down the weeds there ready to lay the path and to start enriching the soil there. I made one step forward which was to plant out the leeks that I got from the Trading Hut. There were enough plants in the bundle for a 10 foot row with a few extras at the end of the row. Hugh Merritt and his helpers have done a grand job producing strong plants - much bigger than the tiny seedlings I have got growing beside my parsnips. He tells me they are the type 'Musselburgh' which gives a long season through the winter. I have been so busy this week that I have not been keeping the blog up to date!
I have been down 3 times and done quite a bit of work. I have planted my self-sown sweet corn, a marrow/courgette plant and a butternut squash plant from the Trading Hut. The squash will grow into the bed of sweet corn as they grow well together - though the harvesting is a bit more difficult. I hope my yellow courgette seedling grow on quickly to go with the green courgettes I hope to get from the 'marrow' plant. I opened up my mature compost bin to enrich the planting hole for each plant. My system seems to work well as it was lovely and dark and crumbly. I also planted a couple of tomato plants inside my glassless greenhouse frame. A barrow-load of compost improved the rather poor soil. They are new Blight resistant plants from Suttons called 'Crimson Crush'. (3 free plants for the cost of p&p.) I hope they taste good! The weeds are growing apace. I hoed between the rows of parsnip and chard but can only see a few seedlings of parsnip. Perhaps I should have sowed a complete row - not 3/4 seeds at 6" stations - then thinned down to every 6" leaving room for a hoe between mature roots. Nevertheless, The weeds have germinated well and hand-weeding them is tedious even after hoeing between the rows. I noticed some ripening strawberries on my first visit so harvested them. I picked those that showed any redness as I found the mice had nibbled the ripest ones. They ripened nicely on the window sill so I will harvest early again. Today (Sunday) I harvested more but found those in the weedy part of the bed were ripening as well despite the covering of weeds. I therefore spent much time and effort weeding the whole bed while harvesting. I filled a 2 litre ice cream tub with fruit and enjoyed a lovely strawberry dessert of the ripest at dinner. I had harvested some broad beans earlier in the week but today I uprooted the autumn sown row and took 2 carrier bags full of bean pods home. That leaves space for a later sowing of dwarf French Beans. I also picked a meal's worth of peas from the autumn sown row. There is so much green waste coming off the plot I must re-line my third compost bin as the other two are full and piles of greenery are piling up around the plot. When I clear the weeds from the back part of the plot I will have enough to half fill the bin immediately! I have just come home with my first peas of the year! They are from seeds sown last autumn which I featured in the blog protected under bottomless plastic bottles. At least a third did not germinate and those I sowed in modules did not germinate either - two weedy seedlings out of 24. However, the surviving plants have come good and I am looking forward to tasting them; they are beautifully sweet eaten raw!
The spring sown peas have germinated really well and outgrown the net tunnel cloche protecting them. I have delayed staking them too long and had the devil's own job doing it. I then netted them with butterfly netting as I hate maggoty peas! The first of my strawberries were turning red but when I looked closely the best one had teeth marks - from mice? So I picked all those I could, hoping they will ripen and taste good. Finally I harvested a large bag of Broad Beans from my overwintered row. I pick them young as I find the taste of the fully mature beans is rather bitter, though even they are nice cooked , then skinned and sauteed in butter and garam masala. Delicious! Having planted out my Runner Beans, I was keen to get the climbing French Beans in the ground as well. The frame is more traditional but as the plot is so exposed to the wind I have used three posts with a rail along the top to support the canes. I also needed to buy some new canes to complete the set up. (I must remember to post photos of the two cane structures!)
So on Thursday I took the trays of plants down to the plot. Due to a memory lapse I had sown two trays of the climbing French Bean 'Cobra', one in toilet roll tubes and one in 'Root Trainers'. Having planted the toilet roll tubes I found that the 'Root Trainers' had dried out too much so had to leave the job half done. Mind you I did not forget to net those I had planted against pigeons and gave them a scattering of slug bait! I then picked some more rhubarb as it is in its prime and tasting lovely. Finally I picked some broad beans from my autumn sown row of 'Super Aquadulce'. I am trying to pick them nice and young when they taste better. There were enough to offer a handful to my neighbour. Today (Saturday) I returned to complete planting out my climbing French Beans. Having done that I turned my attention to the carrot seedlings. I have risked not protecting them from Carrot Root Fly but now they are through (somewhat sparsely) I carefully hand weeded them after hoeing round them, before erecting a fleece tunnel over them. I also put a net tunnel over the row of Sugar Snap Peas as I noticed they had been attacked - probably by pigeons. The clumps of grass threatening to close off the gateway to the plot were dug out and added to the heap ready to start the new compost bin and I used some lengths of plank to extend up the sides of the old bin which is full to overflowing before adding another bagful of grass cutting from a neighbour at home. Next time I cut my own lawn I will be able to compost the clippings as the fertilizer/weed killer will have worn off. |
Your Comment!To add your thoughts to any of my posts, click on the title and then go to the 'Reply' box that should appear at the bottom of the post.
Otherwise go to the 'Contact Us' page. AuthorHi! As "Webmaster" for this site I feel a bit of a fraud. CategoriesArchives
May 2023
|