A week of firsts

Last week was a week of firsts, in more ways than one. 

Ruby had her first visit to the beach. On Jo's blog, she wrote of a visit to the beach at Fraisthorpe. It's a dog friendly beach on the east coast, and only an hour and a half's drive from home. It seemed an ideal place to introduce, Ruby to the sea and sand. Various Covid restrictions meant that we couldn't venture this far when Ruby was a pup.

Jo, reported that, on her visit, there was hardly anyone else there, but when we arrived it seemed that lots of people had had the same idea as us. We were somewhat perturbed to see so many cars parked up, but it was easy to maintain a safe distance and we had taken a packed lunch with us. Pre Covid we would have bought something from the café.

Ruby, was wary of the sea as it seemed to chase her, but once she plucked up courage she was splashing in the shallow water.

She loves digging, so it was no surprise when she began digging in the sand. She was surprised though, when her hole began to fill with water.

She was a very wet and sandy dog, as we left the beach, however she dried out quickly and was looking herself again when we had a walk along the coastal path after lunch. I think Ruby enjoyed her day out at the coast but she wasn't keen when she had a shower later to rinse out any saltiness.

Tuesday afternoon was spent at the allotment. We filled up the last of the main empty beds. We sowed a long row of peas - Onward along one side of the bed and half a row of peas - Terrain alongside this. The row was completed by planting a few beetroots - Boltardy, a few swedes - Invitation and sowing a short row of Mooli - April Cross. We haven't grown Mooli before but I read about Mal growing them and so thought that I'd give them a try.

The bed was covered with enviromesh to protect the seeds and young plants from any wildlife damage. After the failure of our first sowing of peas we didn’t want to take any risks.

The resown peas are now growing well so, Martyn inserted some twigs to give them something to cling to.

The parsnips germinated well and actually needed thinning out, so this was reluctantly done on Tuesday.

I was very disciplined, last week, as not only did I thin out the parsnips but I also cut all the flowers and immature fruits from our new strawberry plants. As the old plants are still producing a good harvest, I felt that I should give the new plants the chance to build up their strength. I also cut off most of the runners that they had produced. I just left a couple to produce plants to fill the gaps where a plant failed.

Our weekly harvest is starting to look less embarrassing and included some firsts.

22 June 2021 Strawberries - Sweetheart & Elsanta, Calabrese - Aquiles, Garlic - White Casablanca,  Onion - Senshyu and Sweet Williams

After several failed harvests, I had decided not to bother planting garlic, but then that feeling, all too familiar with gardeners, kicked in. I'm sure you've been there. You see the bulbs for sale and you think, "I'll just have one more try." Well, I'm glad that I did. The tops of the garlic had dried up so we decided to dig them up.

White Casablanca

One decent bulb of garlic, that had successfully separated into cloves, would have been regarded as a major success, but we actually ended up with 17 bulbs of varying sizes all having produced usable cloves.

We did have some failures, Three bulbs had split into mini bulbs rather like shallots do. Last year most of the bulbs were like this, and we thought that it was that we had left them in the ground for too long. This year we whipped them out as soon as they stopped growing. Were these three ready before the rest or did they split for another reason?

There were also three bulbs that had rot.

Expecting failure, we also planted some Solent Wight bulbs that were advertised as suitable for early spring planting. I wonder how these will fare. White Casablanca is a hard neck variety and Solent Wight is a soft neck that should store better. That is if we manage to get any successful bulbs. Oh dear, I feel my expectations have been raised!

A video of our garlic harvest is posted here.

Although our autumn planted onions are still growing we have decided to lift some as we need them. Lots of them sent up flower stems so, even though I nipped the buds off as soon as I saw them, I'm guessing many will have an unusable central core. Still we should get enough cooking material from them.

Onion Sensyhu

Another harvest first of the season was some heads of calabrese - Aquiles. The spell of summery weather had brought them on quickly, so quickly that one was on the verge of bursting into flower.

Calabrese - Aquiles

In March, we planted up a couple of crates each with two tubers of Casablanca potatoes. The intention being to obtain an earlier crop than from those planted in open ground. We tipped out one crate last week, and were satisfied with the yield. Potatoes have been very slow to start growing this year so these were a welcome treat.

23 June 2021 - Casablance potatoes

Another harvest first last week was a picking of broad beans - de Monica.

26 June 2021, Onion- Senshyu, Strawberries, Sweetheart and Elsanta, Calabrese - Aqulies & Broad beans - de Monica

We are still harvesting rhubarb. These sticks of Giant Grooveless Crimson are going to be used in a rhubarb and strawberry compote.

Rhubarb- Giant Grooveless Crimson

Now a question. Do you remember our battered sweet corn? It's making an attempt at a revival. What do you think? Will it go on to produce any corn?

If you are interested, Martyn filmed an overhead view of our allotments that can be viewed here.

As always wherever you are keep safe and well.

This week I don't feel embarrassed to join in with Dave’s Harvest Monday collection of posts over at Our Happy Acres.

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