Though we've had some cooler days recently, it's hot and sunny again, no rain at all in the last week. I've been walking up to the allotment with the daughter before school to water every morning (it's just down the street); also to plant out a few things and pick the last of the purple sprouting broccoli. This I've been gradually clearing away, picking the leaves to cook like kale and composting the stems; I'm immediately sheet mulching the bed in preparation for the squash which is now finally emerging from its pots on my kitchen windowsill.
I finally got all the cabbages and Brussels sprouts transplanted; the only brassica I have left is the new purple sprouting broccoli but I really don't have anywhere to put it. I may try to grow it on at home just a little longer though I think it needs covering with insect mesh like the rest as I've found caterpillars on the mature broccoli already: it's pretty early but they'll destroy my young plants if I'm not careful.
The garlic bed at the allotment looks strong, probably to harvest in June, and the broad beans are all flowering well; I hope I can start picking them later this month. I've also started putting up some supports for my snap peas which are around 10-15 cm tall now; I planted them in circles and have been making teepees out of last year's bamboo canes (tall but narrow canes from my own plant at home). Last year I grew most of my peas and beans in rows but the supports kept falling over when it got too windy; the one teepee I'd made for my French beans was the only one to stay upright--and was easiest to harvest.
We had a light frost at the allotment and it nipped the tops of a few of my tomatoes, despite the son and I covering them all with straw and netting the afternoon before. It looks like most are ok though it might have been too much for one or two. We had another forecast of frost a few days later so we absolutely buried them in straw that time; I don't know if it did actually frost or not, but everything survived unscathed the second time. We'd also buried the potatoes and they were unaffected too.
The first of the new season lettuce has been wonderful; I've got two kinds planted: a frilly oakleaf type and a butterhead. I've planted the butterheads fairly close together in anticipation of cutting whole heads; the oakleaf is for cut and come again. All of these are interplanted with cabbage in my kitchen garden at home.
Also at home are spring onions in the ground and in planters (some oakleaf lettuce in planters too), massive cauliflower plants with no heads yet, and some strawberries just forming. I've interplanted the spring onions and strawberries, and may even put some leeks down there too--they don't take up a lot of room. While I'm hoping to plant out leeks after my potatoes are lifted (a second early type), I do have a Lot Of Leeks.
No comments:
Post a Comment