Sow

Swiss chard, perpetual spinach & mixed winter salad leaves directly into the vegetable garden.

Lamb’s lettuce, salad onions, mustard & cress can be grown under cloches for winter salads

Planting out (later in the month) seedling:

Perpetual spinach, radicchio, spring cabbages, & chicory.

Harvest:

Broad, French & runner beans, peas, cabbages, onions, carrots, lettuce, courgettes, tomatoes, marrows and sweetcorn. Read More »

When the early new potatoes had been dug at the beginning of June, some chitted Maris Bard seed potatoes were planted in their place.

These late planted early potatoes have just been dug. The potato haulm has remained healthy, but they went through a very dry period, and some of the tubers have suffered from corky scab. In spite of this, they have yielded a substantial 2 kilos from one root.

These Maris Bard potatoes have been in the ground for about 12 weeks. The other Maris Bard were planted as second earlies in late February, Read More »

Corky Scab is caused by bacteria Streptomyces scabies. It is particularly severe in dry periods. Affected potato tubers get scab lesions, which are quite variable, giving a raised corky area, or a pit.

To control corky scab:

• Keep potatoes well watered, especially during tuber set

• Aim for a soil pH of 5 or 5.2, by using acid producing fertilisers, such as ammonium sulphate. Do not lime or add manure before potatoes

• Grow resistant varieties

• Buy scab-free seed

• Rotate crops and have at least 4 clear years between potato crops on the same soil

We have just had the final lot of Broad Beans in the Vegetable Garden. They have been marvellous.

The first lot of Broad Beans were sown in November. The third and final planting was at the end of March which spread the harvest well.

Picking started on 26 June from those planted in November. So we have been harvesting broad beans from the vegetable garden for 8 weeks. The French Beans are now producing well, and make a pleasant change. At least French Beans do not need podding and can be thrown straight into the pan.

The challenge to make a vegetable face came from the GreatBigVegetableChallenge

Their collection of vegetable faces was amazing - and inspiring, so this is the effort from TopVeg.

The artwork is built round a beetroot and comprises chives, carrot, runner bean, and broad bean.

Cabbage White Caterpillars can devastate brassicas if they are not picked off or sprayed.

The zero-weed policy in the vegetable garden is helped by friable soils which have not been walked on. These two factors, friability & lack of compaction, contribute to much easier weeding.

Friability

Our soils were originally difficult, heavy clays, which set like concrete after a rain. But the addition of sand has helped, by keeping the clay particles apart.

Adding compost from the heap does help, but an enormous amount of compost is needed to make any difference on the depth of soil in a vegetable garden. Sand has been the salvation of our soils.

Lack of compaction

Narrow beds accessed from the walkways keep us off the beds, so we do not tread the soil down. The beds are just wide enough for all the work to be done from the edge, so that we do not have to walk on them.

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The only problem seems to be picking the stick beans from the wigwams. A walking board has been placed beside the wigwam, to minimise the compaction caused when picking. Last year we did not use a board (just trode on the soil), & the soil around the wigwams had been trampled during picking, so that it was pressed down and very difficult to dig later on - & difficult to make into a seedbed.

Wide rows.

Having enough room between the rows to use hand tools for hoeing & breaking the soils, makes working easy.

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Weed when the weeds are small.

Hitting the weeds before they get too big, & before they have had time to develop a strong root system, makes it easier, too!

Little & Often Weeding.

Weeding little & often in the vegetable garden makes it less of a chore. You are more likely to adopt a little & often approach if it is not hard work &:

• the soil is friable
• the soil is not compacted
• the rows are wide
• the weeds are small

The courgettes leaves are flourishing and look a picture of health.  The plants are producing masses of flowers. Courgette fruits must be harvested when a few inches long. If they are left on the plant, flower production will be suppressed and fewer courgettes will be produced.

To prolong the season, and ensure that more flowers and fruits are produced, feed every 10-14 days with a high potash liquid fertiliser.

Cut the courgette fruit from the plant with a knife, to avoid damaging the parent plant.  Search for young courgettes very carefully, as they hide under stems and are easily missed- allowing them to grow into larger, coarser courgettes, and suppress flower production.  The young courgettes taste the best.  Regular feeding of the courgette plants will ensure a constant supply of courgettes.

The three varieties of leeks which were transplanted six weeks ago have set off well and grown into strong plants.

The mid-season leek, Pandora, is romping away and will be the first to harvest.

The King Edward potatoes which have been grown as a main crop for storage over the winter, have started to senesce.

Senescence is when the green leaves and stalks of potatoes, known as the haulm, starts to die down at the end of the season. The potato tubers  stop growing and the skins start to set.

The skins have to be set before the potatoes can be lifted for storage.  More information can be found in the post ‘potato-skins-must-set-for-storage‘.

The potato haulm can be left to die back naturally, and the potato skins will set about two or three weeks after the haulm has died.  Or the haulm can be cut off, which will force the skins to start setting.  This will mean that the skin will start to set earlier and the potatoes can be lifted earlier.  This is possibly a way of ensuring that the soil is dry when the potatoes are lifted.  Wet potatoes do not store well..