Monday, June 22

Brassicas and berries

The rain that fell over the last couple of weeks meant that, Martyn was able to go over the remaining beds with the rotavator, but believe it or not one bed was actually a bit too wet.
We managed to plant more vegetables and the beds are now filling up.
Brussels sprouts were added to the bed housing the late brassicas where there is still space for more brassicas as the plants become ready to plant out.
The first two rows of Onward peas that we sowed are now on flower so more seeds were sown. We sowed four more rows of Onwards and half a row each of Oregon Sugar Snap and Terrain. The former is a mangetout and Terrain is reputed to be mildew resistant. As mildew can affect later sown peas it is suited to later sowing.
Alongside one row of the peas we decided to plant a few lettuce which we will add to as plants become available.
The above photo shows our trial potato bed where we grow four tubers each of six varieties that we have never grown before. As you can see growth is variable across the varieties. It will be interesting to compare harvests.
We usually grow some tomatoes outdoors in an old cold frame 'skeleton' covered with enviromesh. Previously this has been a way of using up left over tomato plants which have been crammed into this space. This year we have taken more care and planted a dozen San Marzano plants which will be given more care.
The garden greenhouse was sorted out and the tomatoes are now in their final positions. These plants are being grown in large pots containing potting compost as we are avoiding using growing bags this year due to last year's problems with suspected weedkiller contamination.
The blueberries were on the point of ripening and so it was crucial that they were netted. Without protection, the blackbirds home in on the berries which the birds will strip off before they are fully ripe.

The same is true of the redcurrants, however we have stopped netting these as there are usually more than enough berries for us to share.
The blackbirds still complain noisily when we are picking our quota.
Our overwintering onions are now ready to start harvesting. We have only had to buy one small bag of onions in the tiny gap between our stored summer onions starting to shoot and these being ready to use. Hopefully the overwintered ones will take us up to when this year's summer onions will  be ready.
Onion Senshyu
Our strawberries are now producing lots of tasty berries.
These too are netted but this doesn't stop a mischievous puppy, with a penchant for fruit, stealing the odd berry from the punnet when your back is turned.
Red and green are very much the predominant colours of last week's harvest.
16 June
Some calabrese/broccoli went into a chicken and vegetable stir fry and one cabbage went into a batch of coleslaw whilst the other was a major ingredient in Ethiopian Cabbage - a sort of curried stir fry.
20 June
The strawberries below were picked from the few plants in our garden cold frame.

I popped a few garlic cloves saved from some of the garlic grown last year when they didn't grow very well, in fact I wasn't going to bother planting any again as they never seem to produce for us. In the end, I planted some in a large pot. They still haven't grown very well. They have divided into cloves but the bulbs are very small. These are hard necked garlic. I have another pot in which I planted soft necked garlic but I'm not expecting any better results.
21 June
Keep safe - let's hope that this dreadful virus is on the wane and that people continue to observe the advice. I am concerned about the large groups gathering together for various protests and get togethers. Maybe then we can get back to something approaching normality.

This week I am linking to harvest Monday hosted on 

Dave's blog Our Happy Acres

You don't have to have your own blog in order to join in conversations. It may seem that everyone who comments knows one another but bloggers always welcome new commenters, after all that is how we all started. 

PS: It's not just our gardens that suffer from blight. Martyn and I are currently suffering from an influx of blog blight. It seems that it is the season of the spammer. One in particular is persistently targeting our and what appears to be lots of other people's blogs. Most are sent to the spam or moderation folders as we moderate comments on posts over five days old. These spam comments are deleted and never see the light of day but unfortunately some do sneak through. I apologise for any that sneak through and end up being emailed to those who subscribe to comments, Please do not click on any links in spam comments which gives these nuisances satisfaction and encouragement. They can track where click throughs originate from and will target a blog even more if they think that this is causing more people to visit their site.

Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett







22 comments:

  1. Lovely to see the puppy, who is absolutely adorable. The blackbirds here are gorging on the cherries which are just ripening. It's going to be another bumper year. In fact I still have jam from last year left, so most of this year's crop will be frozen for winter cooking. Your strawberries are looking lovely - still waiting for mine. Raspberries are good this year though.

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    1. Ruby turns on the cute look CJ then goes crackerdog which I’m sure you have experience of. We had very few cherries but they have all disappeared;

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  2. Hello Ruby, you little show stealing sweetheart! I only hope my garden can look a lot more like your allotment next growing season.

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    1. Ruby is good at stealing lots of things, Deborah. I’m sure that your garden will get there.

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  3. I admire your vegetable harvest! Your strawberries look appetizing!
    Greetings

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  4. All your hard work in previous months shows in your gardens. And oh those currants! Would love to taste.

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  5. How I wish our beds were too wet to work! We haven't had a decent rain in weeks, and I brought out a soaker hose today to start watering. I have some weed barrier fabric now and will be looking to see how you use it. I'm trying to decided what to cover it with, since my usual straw doesn't make sense to me. The onions look lovely - I've given up hopes on growing them that big!

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    1. We’re back to watering again now, Dave. We keep tweaking how we use the fabric.

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  6. Your onions and spring cabbage look fantastic, although the strawberries steal the show. Puppies have so much energy, but yours has an especially sweet little face.

    It looks like you've got a lot of your planting done in a short period of time. I'm always so relieved when most of the planting is done.

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    1. Ruby definitely has bags of energy, Phuong. It’s certainly good to have most of the planting done.

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  7. Wow those onions look great. I can almost hear the blackbirds squacking about you picking their berries. ha... Lucky you having enough rain for a change. We need rain here too. It keeps going around us. This may be the new norm. Ruby's snitching bites here and there reminds me of a Lab I used to have that loved tomatoes. He would take bites out of them. Luckily he grew out of that phase.

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    1. One of our plot neighbours had a dog that bit the heads off broccoli, Lisa. He also ate all the low growing raspberries. It’s drying up here again!

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  8. Firstly hello Ruby what a gorgeous pup. I am so envious and happy, what a delight. Secondly, your plot looks so good. Those red currants are magnificent. And wow what an abundance of strawberries, i get enough for two servings with cream or Greek yogurt.

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    1. We like them with yoghurt too Saheen but Ruby just eats them au natural.

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  9. I see a few raspberries in your harvest! Our Glen Ample raspberries have overtaken the strawberries this year.

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    1. I’m not expecting many raspberries this year, Mal as the canes were newly planted last year. They are making lots of new growth though.

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  10. Busy as usual! I'll be interested to see how your potato trials are going.

    I was wondering why you picked the garlic so early?

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  11. The garlic tops were just about dead, Julieanne

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  12. Ah! Mine are still going strong. I usually don't harvest until late July or into August. Shows the differences in microclimates I guess.

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  13. Ruby is sooo cute! Loved seeing how everything is progressing! It's funny how we all have something thta doesn't grow very well, it's onions around here, they are always disappointing. Loved your harvest, the strawberries have done well here too. I do like the sound of the curried stir fry.xxx

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