Club root and rust!

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.

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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.