Harvesting after a storm, letting ducks tidy up

We had a full day of high winds at the weekend, preventing an allotment visit;  yesterday the son and I trekked up in the rain (the aftermath of the storm) intending to search the site for our holey old tarp, covering our new little shed.  We were pleasantly surprised to find it still in place, though the pieces of wood we'd left on top had blown off.  One black plastic composter had tipped over--and a plastic garden chair--but that was the extent of the damage thankfully.  In the past I've had to go looking for composters and their lids.  

So we reset the composter and refilled it (it was full when it tipped over), rearranged the tarp and pieces of wood, and set about filling our bags with the harvest.  The son picked most of the remaining tomatoes and cucumbers and five big fennel, while I dug out another row of leeks and got some pak choi and a couple more black radishes.  We had some heavy bags to walk home with, and very wet feet;  neither of us has wellies.  

I spent about an hour processing leeks:  the white stems went into the fridge, then the long green tops I carefully washed and chopped to freeze.  I also pickled the smallest cucumbers, froze some tomatoes, and put the rest of the veg in the fridge to eat over the next week.  I had so many leeks I might need to chop and freeze some of the stems too, before they go soft in the fridge;  what's more I'll need to dig another row later on this week. 

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At home, the daughter and I moved the temporary fence from around the veg beds;  now the ducks have been tidying up a bit for me.  There are still a few little cabbages and kohlrabi in the beds, and a few tiny pickling cucumbers--and a lot of weeds--but the only one still blocked off is the parsnip bed;  I'm waiting till after first frost before pulling any (I'm not even sure if they're worth pulling, though the leaves look big and lush).  To be honest, my ducks aren't much interested in vegetables (unlike chickens);  instead they've been happily searching for slugs and bugs in between them.  

Only a few plums, keep on harvesting and preserving veg

After all that hoping and waiting, I just didn't have the physical (or mental, let's be honest) capacity to process our plums.  I gave a sackful to a neighbor and made a batch of unsweetened puree for crumbles (I was able to squeeze most of it into the freezer):  I estimate about 8-10# in total.  I didn't weigh it.  The daughter managed to eat a couple dozen too.  But the rest has gone to the birds/wasps/worms:  maybe about 20-30#.  

I had 2.8 L of kilner jar space to make some cucumber refrigerator pickle slices last week, but I'm really down to the wire for jars now.  A couple small ones, like 250 mL each, and one more 1 L kilner jar.  I mainly use the kilner jars for fermented veg, or fridge pickles.  And did I mention how full my fridge is of pickles and fermented veg?  There isn't a big tradition of canning/bottling in this country so jars and lids aren't easily obtainable.  I have to make do with what I have.  

I managed to clear my kohlrabi bed at the allotment, pulling all the usable kohlrabi and digging lots of grass runners--I have a monster compost pile at the front of my allotment now, next to my five full compost bins.  I've left the bed unmulched for now, as I plan on making one more pass with the garden fork first;  maybe I'll win against the grass one of these years.  After trimming off all the leaves and roots I stacked the kohlrabi in a box (on my kitchen floor!  I have no space!);  I'm trying to use one every day or so:  I like to shred them (peeled first) and marinate for salad.

Still picking toms, cucs, zucs, French beans, onions.  Soon:  lots of squashes, komatsuna (regrowth after flea beetle damage), beets, early leeks.  Maybe in the future (not very close):  carrots, parsnips, Brussels sprouts, pak choi, Chinese cabbage, pak choi, winter radish, cauliflower.  Looking good for a spring harvest:  hardy leeks, purple sprouting broccoli.  

Feed the soil

I was talking to a fellow allotmenter, just two plots away from mine, who complained it had not been a good growing summer for her.  I certainly tried to not to show it, but I had a rather self satisfied feeling at that.  True, it's been far too much work, but at least I've earned a fleeting moment of superiority about my yields this year.  I gave her a cucumber.

Why has mine in particular been so productive?  Here's what I think:  

• The inordinate amount of sheet mulching I've done over the last eight years, involving copious amounts of straw and horse manure
• Additionally, the very thick mulch of wood chips covering nearly every bed this year

The annual (or even twice annual) addition of all that organic material when sheet mulching has made my soil incredibly rich and moisture retentive.  Even though I've been fighting (and not winning) against couch grass this whole time, my beds have been gradually getting more and more productive, as documented on this blog.  I've been using sheet mulch as a strategy against the grass:  to knock it back long enough for my transplants to get a foothold.  Then do it all over again at the end of the season when the grass takes back over.

Wood chips have been a game changer;  until last year I would cover my bare soil with straw from the horse manure pile on site.  It served its purpose of keeping in the moisture but also had some drawbacks:  enhanced slug habitat, quick to decompose (needing regular top ups), and full of weed and grass seeds.  When we began getting free wood chips dumped at the site last summer, many people spread them on their paths;  I went a step further and started deep mulching my beds, starting with just a couple as an experiment.  Truly, it's been pivotal.  It keeps in the moisture like the straw mulch did, but has no seeds.  It also lasts much longer before needing a top up, and slugs don't hide in it as well.  Maybe the woodlice hide in it, but I had woodlice when I used straw mulch too.  

I suspect if I had access to wood chips and not horse manure/straw at the beginning of my allotment journey in 2018, my soil might not be as excellent as it is now (I still have access to both).  I'm also a more experienced allotmenter than I was then, even though I had already been gardening for years by that point.  Growing veg in a couple small beds is far different from keeping a full allotment ticking over year round, and I've learned how to do this little by little.  My overarching goal has been full self reliance in vegetables:  I've never been so close to achieving this, and as well as my hard work and experience, the vast improvement in my soil has been a key factor, in my opinion.

The son was very impressed when I went up to show him (it's a single bunch!), August 2026

Defeated by fruit, but at least it rained

Elephant hawk moth caterpillar, munching my grape leaves, seen from my kitchen window ("Wow, what is that??"), Aug 2026

My lettuce experiment at the allotment didn't fare quite as well as the pak choi earlier in the season.  The slugs/bugs have pretty much mown them all down, though at least the Chinese cabbages in the same bed are still hanging on, just:  they have some bad flea beetle damage.  In my previously sown beetroot/radish/turnip bed (luckily these look ok, though there were gaps), I've transplanted what remained of my pak choi and spring cabbages, also sad from flea beetles.  Both beds are under insect mesh, but obviously the mesh isn't keeping everything out.

I've had to admit defeat on my figs and grapes:  the birds can have what they want.  I can't preserve them (no jars, no freezer space) and they don't store.  The daughter is eating some every day, but not as many as the tree and vine are producing.  I'm all figged (and graped) out.  And of the apples:  the son picked two large baskets and I keep reminding everyone to eat their apple a day.  But.  It's just too many apples, despite only being two small, espalier-ish trees;  at least these will keep for a couple weeks.  Then there are the plums...

Still bringing in too many tomatoes and cucumbers.  I was wrong about the zucs before, but maybe this time these really are slowing down.  Maybe.  I've made the executive decision to stop picking purple snap peas and save the rest for seed.  These did better than I initially judged:  they started out slow but ended up completely surprising me--I'll definitely want to grow them next year.  

On a more positive note, it rained!  Actually it's still pretty dry, but grass is slightly greener, and some self sown mizuna have spontaneously germinated in my kitchen garden.  My water butts both refilled too, and all my plants look a lot happier having had several good long showers.

I managed to clear away most of the harvested Savoy cabbage plants at the allotment;  they had enormous root systems and were starting to resprout.  I snapped off the new growth for fresh eating/dehydrating and put the huge old outer leaves and stalks to compost;  these had to go in a new pile since all five of my plastic composters are still full to the brim.  I was trying to remember what I filled them with, and I think it was mostly grass (was it really)?  I'm not known for digging grass, but that's certainly the only stuff I can see.  I guess it must have some other weeds and of course the potato tops, but did I really dig up so much grass?  

Still harvesting and preserving, still sowing and planting

I think my allotment has passed peak zuc.  Going from around 5# per day to 1# seems like a downturn, right?  I can handle 1# per day.  I've left one to grow into a marrow to save for seed;  this is one I grew from seed saved last year.  The fruit I saved from was a typical dark green zuc but had obviously crossed with a different variety as its offspring grew fat striped tasty zucs this year.  Since it's been growing amongst several different varieties again I expect it will be something even more fun next year.

In the face of an overload of tomatoes, I decided to try fermenting a large jar, crushed into sauce.  To be on the safe side, I generally go kind of heavy on the salt when I ferment veg, usually 2 T of salt per L;  the tomatoes haven't really gone very active, at least not yet--probably because of that extra salt.  I've made fermented salsa in the past using both red and green tomatoes, so I'm somewhat confident;  I've just never done it with just straight tomatoes.  I have a 1.8 L jar on the go and two more empty jars to try:  one the same size and a 3.3 L.  

I went through the back of my kitchen cupboards and found some jars I'd forgotten about:  a cucumber relish I'd made back in 2021, and a couple jars of dehydrated garlic stems which had no flavor.  Also two jars of caramel and rhubarb jam which were still good but we are a low- to no-sugar family--I decided to make a clean break and compost them (just one little taste!).  Any fruit preserves I make from now on will have no sugar added.  While this liberated a few jars for me, it's not enough to deal with the tomato influx!  Instead they will do for dehydrated veg, and I have a little more room for now.

The son and I have been renovating a couple beds which have just been cleared at the allotment:  the Charlotte potato bed (finally) and the mange tout pea bed.  We've spent a couple hours forking out grass runners and spreading new wood chips on top;  I'm hoping to transplant some quick brassicas and fennel there, but the brassica seedlings have been attacked by flea beetle and look very sorry indeed.  I don't know how the flea beetles got to them so high up on my patio table, draped with insect mesh;  I'm not sure if they'll pull through actually.  At least the fennel and lettuce seedlings (all sown on the same day) look healthy, though small still.  Maybe I'll risk the lettuce at the allotment too, usually a no go because of slugs;  I risked the pak choi earlier this summer and it paid off--the lettuce might pay off too.

Still picking purple snap peas, small aubergines, salad and pickling cucumbers, French beans, a little cabbage, and a beet or two.  Thinking about a couple onions, kohlrabi, komatsuna and fennel.  The last batch of lettuce bolted in the hot/dry, but my newly sown seeds of beets and radishes are sprouting up.

Let's get it done before summer's over

My summer break off work at last (I work at a school), and maybe I'll have a little more time to devote to my food producing engine--I've got six weeks before the kids and I start back.  I've been racing just to keep up with everything these past couple weeks, particularly since the zucs started.  But it's not just them;  it's also lettuce, French beans, kohlrabi, cabbage, komatsuna (similar to pak choi, which I also have), Charlotte potatoes, snap peas, cherry tomatoes, beets.  I've also been desperately trying to keep a handle on the couch grass and bindweed in my wood chip mulch--I can't let them take it over.

Me at the allotment (zucs in the foreground), July 2026

I'm dehydrating zuc shreds daily, freezing snap peas, putting potatoes into paper sacks;  I've made komatsuna kimchi, made kohlrabi/beet sauerkraut, and I'm cooking up a storm.  We are a family of four:  we can eat a lot, right?  Preservation is a high priority:  I'm unofficially following the Vegetable Challenge (not buying any veg except onions--and even these only rarely) and I'll need vegetables in winter too.

The allotment spoils of the day (heavy!), July 2026

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As daytime temps dropped by about 5C (down from the high 20s), I took a chance and started my late season seeds in pots:  Chinese cabbage, spring cabbage, kohlrabi, lettuce, fennel, pak choi, komatsuna.  Some of these are second or third sowings, but will probably be the last this year.  Most of these have already started popping up, to be pricked out sometime this week.

I'm also sowing my last half a packet of beet seeds in the potato bed now it's been cleared;  probably some winter radish and turnip seed too.  This bed was generously mulched with well composted manure in early spring when the potatoes went down;  I'll gently fork it over to remove any obvious couch grass runners (a constant battle on my allotment) before sowing, and will cover over with insect mesh to protect from birds/cats/slugs/caterpillars, my usual strategy.  I should be able to take the mesh off by around mid September, as the white butterflies diminish.

Hot again, carry on cucumbers, bugs and good bugs, ducks

We've had record breaking heat this past week, almost unbearable at my work (a school kitchen);  because it's been so hot I've not done as much at the allotment as I'd planned--it's been too hot to get things done after my shift.  Normally this time of year I'm there both morning and afternoon;  instead I've been going straight home after work to try and cool down in the ten minutes before I have to walk up to collect the daughter from school.

So in the 15 or 20 minutes I have in the morning before school and before it's got too hot, I've finished planting out all my leeks at last, continued picking mange tout peas (sold to me as snap peas, but these are definitely flat podded peas, not the round swollen pods I expected), picked the last of the gooseberries, carried on loosening and pulling bindweed from my wood chip mulch, and of course watering all my containers.  Not all of these jobs in one day, unfortunately!  Though the daughter has helped water in the morning and the son and husband have done so in the evening.

The cucumber saga continues:  the plants growing in my kitchen garden are indeed growing, while I've lost a few more to slugs at the allotment.  Regardless, I feel a little more confident about the possibility of harvesting some, at least at home.  However, I may not be able to save seed as I have two varieties growing practically in the same bed:  a pickling variety and a salad variety.  I don't want cross pollinated seed as I really do want both types;  I might have to buy seed for next year.  Though if the salad variety at the allotment manages to produce I may be able to save some uncrossed seed from them.

It's only in the last week or so I've seen the cabbage white butterflies out and about, fluttering around my brassicas.  I've even found a few inside the insect mesh at the allotment;  the cabbages have grown so tall they've pulled the netting up enough for butterflies to sneak in.  While I have a few unprotected plants at home--the mature spring cabbages I've been gradually harvesting and a few late-sown kohlrabi--I put my last small piece of mesh over my newly planted pak choi bed.  

On the positive side, there are also a lot of hoverflies in my kitchen garden this summer.  And I mean a lot!  I've read they eat aphids in their larval stage, so I can only assume they've been busy earlier in the year.  I think they're really cute, hovering around my flowers and plants.  While not as populous as the hoverflies, I've also seen a lot of ladybugs and larva going about their business.  I let all the bugs get on with it for the most part in both my garden and allotment, and let the resident predators take care of any problems for me, a la permaculture.  My policy is live and let live and the only active role I take is against cabbage caterpillars, but not with insecticide or anything like that;  I pick them off and give them to my ducks.

Speaking of ducks, it's been about three months since we adopted those three nervous Snowflake ducks--how are they getting on?  We officially combined the whole flock in April, about a month after we brought the Snowflakes home.  They are much less quacky now, less scared of everything and used to free ranging in the garden;  we still lock them up overnight and let them out again in the morning.  Boy Duck still chases them once in a while, but they don't freak out about it and he's much less aggressive about it too.  Girl Duck has gotten really slow and trips over her own feet when she tries to run;  I worked out that she's actually about 10 years old now, and Boy Duck is 8.  The Snowflakes, not yet 1 year old, are all laying an egg a day:  big tasty ones with lovely white shells.

Asparagus growing, garlic harvesting, losing more cucumbers, and eating some fruit

 

Asparagus (and a few weeds) to the front, artichoke and raspberry (and a lot of weeds) behind, May 2026

Check out my asparagus!  I'm trying to keep it weeded as well as possible, as that bindweed means business.  At the back are the transplanted artichokes, not expected to produce this year, plus the very weedy raspberry patch (lots of little berries on these).  I've got at least 10 cm of wood chips on this bed.  In fact, every bed that's mulched this way should have a minimum of 10 cm, but I'm trying for even more in places.  I haven't picked any spears this year, in order to let the crowns establish;  I may not pick any next year either, but we'll see.

This weekend my garlic came up somewhat in a rush, because of white rot.  I never had this disease until last year:  the bulbs start to go moldy and if left in storage will just disintegrate.  I won't be able to save any of my own garlic for replanting this year, as it all seems to have it;  instead I'm mincing it all up and freezing it, and will buy new bulbs in the autumn for replanting.  I'm a bit sad about this:  I've been self sufficient in garlic for many years now, but my winning streak is broken.  I'll probably plant the new cloves in planters instead of directly in the ground, in the hopes they'll avoid it next year.  It looks like my overwintered onions grown in containers are free from the infection, so that gives me a little hope.

The son, daughter and I did some work on the now empty garlic bed, digging out grass and weeds and raking out roots.  In fact, we had to stop before the bed was all clear as we completely filled our five composters!  Well, they weren't empty to begin with--most were about half full already, but still:  a lot of compost material.  I was able to spread a few wheelbarrows of wood chips on the edge of the bed, where it meets the next bed (previously mulched and growing peas and beetroot).  I'll carry on clearing the bed this week and will just have to make a pile until some of the older stuff compacts down.  Luckily this time of year that doesn't take long.  I may sow some turnip and beetroot seeds here, or possibly transplant fennel, or even pak choi though that's a risky idea:  slugs love love love pak choi, and it would probably survive better in the kitchen garden (except I don't have any room!).  It's a rather big bed, so I might even have space to do all of the above.

Of my sad cucumbers, all but one of the pickling types have bit the dust:  I think it was slugs.  Of the salad types, four--of five--are still growing.  I have a lot of little seedlings growing in trays from a very late sowing, but none are quite big enough to transplant.  To be honest, four salad cucumber plants is adequate--but I definitely need more pickling cucs.  They need to get a move on!  It seems like the potting compost may have been the culprit in the early demise of all the other cuc plants.

In other news, we've begun picking strawberries, gooseberries and redcurrants!  It seems early?  Maybe not.  We don't have many strawberry plants (all at home), but there are two bushes each of gooseberries and redcurrants, and all four are completely loaded.  I put some wire over the strawberry plants, and also netted my small Morello cherry tree, not quite ripe but close.  What's more, I thinned out the apples on my two trees:  no more than two fruits per cluster.  It hurts, but I did it;  I know from past experience that big clusters have little fruits and little clusters have big fruits.  I want big fruits.  

Picking up the pace

Quite a lot of gardening has happened over the past week, mainly in the Perennials section at home, but a bit of action at the allotment too;  it's the end of our spring break off work/school.  The son and I finished working on the bamboo at last and also drastically cut back the overgrown laurels at the very back of the property.  The laurels were planted by a previous owner, presumably as a hedge;  now they are part of my regular coppice rotation and I cut them back every five years or so for firewood.  

On a sunny, dry day I managed to dig out some of the excellent compost from the bottom of the chicken yard and spread it on part of my veg beds, both around my strawberry plants and onto a weedy bed destined for onion seedlings.  I have a tray of onions, rather small, which I will transplant in a few days after the compost has settled/been rained on.

In addition, I finally sowed a packet of parsnip seed in another bed I'd cleared earlier (with the help of my free ranging poultry).  There's a space below this bed which is earmarked for carrot seed:  very soon!  I also transplanted some lettuce seedlings in between the parsnip rows, and put a short row of dwarf beans at the back (I'd soaked them first);  then I covered the whole bed with insect mesh, mainly as a pigeon deterrent.  

Speaking of pigeons, it looks like they haven't stripped all my plum flower buds off this year--maybe we'll get some fruit at last?  We were wondering if the old pair of wood pigeons moved on/died--we have still seen a pair of them in the garden, just not eating buds off trees:  this might be a new pair who don't know the delicious taste of flowers yet.  Perhaps the Kordia cherry will have fruit too!  I'm keeping an eye on things, but there's not much I can do to prevent them if they decide to attack.

I'm starting seeds and pricking out seedlings regularly;  most of my seeds are started outdoors, broadcast into small pots on my patio table and then pricked out into trays--only roots like parsnips/carrots/beets get sown directly into their beds.  My tomato seedlings are spending nights indoors but having day trips to the patio for sunbathing--only a couple days have been too cold/windy for them;  hopefully in a week or two they'll be acclimatized enough to move out and I can start my next batch of indoor seeds:  cucumber, zuc, squash.  I don't have enough room on my sunny kitchen windowsill for everything at once.

At the allotment my snap peas and beets are just emerging under their sheet of insect mesh.  I prepared another row nearby and put down my kohlrabi seedlings, also under some mesh.  I took the mesh off the broad bean bed at last (mesh goes on most of my newly planted/sown beds to keep birds, mice and cats off) and put it over the kohlrabi instead.  As a brassica, it's in most need of the mesh to keep the cabbage white butterflies off when they start to lay eggs next month.

I'm still harvesting Musselbrugh leeks, but getting very near the end now.  Maybe a dozen left?  I'm also picking purple sprouting broccoli once a week, hopefully till May at least.  And rhubarb once a week too, though it's prolific enough for a much more generous harvest;  maybe I should make a batch of wine this year, something I haven't done for a while.  I rarely drink alcohol but it makes a unique gift.

Experiments with wood chips

It's been windy and a bit too cold this past week;  despite some rain, the wind has really dried the soil a lot.  Our walk to the daughter's school is far less muddy through the country park than it has been all winter.  

I'm continuing to sheet mulch the allotment, piece by piece.  As I mentioned previously, some of the mulch is wood chips, only available on site since last summer.  As an experiment, I heavily mulched my Musselbrugh leeks in the autumn and I notice their bed is the least weedy.  There is probably about six inches of wood chips on this bed, with the leeks growing through out of the soil underneath.  Their stalks were lovely, long and white (normally I don't earth them up or do anything special to blanch them) and surprisingly no sign of allium leaf miner.  This pest has always attacked my leeks and garlic, but maybe the deep mulch prevented them finding the leeks this year?  The garlic bed is right next to the leek bed and it only got a light mulch of straw, but I won't know if the garlic bulbs are affected till I harvest them in June.

I also noticed some nettles starting to grow at the very edge of the leek bed next to the path, where the wood chips were only put down shallowly.  As I was pulling them out, the few nettles in the deep mulch only took a tiny tug to extract a long root, whereas the shallow mulch nettles had a very firm grasp and didn't budge.  I'll definitely keep this in mind as I continue my wood chip mulch experiments.

We're just starting our two week spring break from school and work--even the husband has the time off, but unluckily he also can't walk due to an ankle fracture.  So I won't be getting any work out of him--the son will have to step up a bit.  There's plenty to do both at home in the garden and at the allotment and it needs to be done now, before spring is over.

Sheet mulching and mulching

I've begun sheet mulching again at the allotment.  Truly, I should have been doing it all winter, as my beds emptied.  But you know:  rain, dark, cold, etc.  I didn't.  Technically it's still all of the above, except possibly a little less dark;  however, I've begun at last.  

Actually, I'm experimenting with some wood chips for mulch this year.  The site has always had stables with a manure pile, my go to for mulch (soiled straw);  this has a tendency to sprout new weeds and harbor bugs and slugs.  I anticipate there will be no weed seed hiding in the wood chips, though I can't speak for the pests--possibly woodlice may be a problem.  Still, I'm trying it with the new (and hopefully continuing) supply of wood chips next to the manure pile.  Many people at the allotments have been using the wood chips for their paths.  If I see my next door neighbor there, I may ask her what she thinks about them on the path between us, too.

I don't really mulch at home in the kitchen garden, though every year I dig out some extra good compost from the chicken yard to spread on one bed, in rotation.  I also divvy out the less composted first layer to my fruit trees, as a top dressing.  Though before I start, I need to tidy up the beds:  weeding, clearing spent plants, and so on.  I already let the ducks have a week of slug hunting, but have locked them out again as they trampled a few of my emerging spring bulbs.  I may let them and the chickens in briefly once those flowers are done--if there's time;  I may start planting the beds first.

Another glut of vegetables

I thought I was back to a slow and steady harvest of vegetables at the allotment, but it turns out I was wrong.  Last week I noticed some of my fennel bulbs were starting to bolt, so I pulled most of the bed--around 35 bulbs.  I started a 1.8 L jar to ferment with some garlic and fresh dill heads, but as I've never tried it before I didn't want to go overboard in case it turns out bad (I've done some experimental ferments which have been awful!);  I crammed the rest into the fridge to cook from fresh.  Fennel is nice roasted or added to stews;  the leafy tops also make a tasty tea which I sometimes drink in the evenings (no caffeine).

Another emergency harvest:  my second sowing of kohlrabi.  The spring sowing of kohlrabi made way for the fennel transplants, back in early August;  some of this first harvest went into kimchi and we gradually ate the rest, mainly grated into slaws and salads (just finished the last bulb out of the fridge at the weekend).  There were far fewer plants from the second sowing and I wasn't too confident about them, considering how spindly they were when transplanted out.  Suprisingly, they'd filled out nicely;  rather than let the slugs eat them hollow (they'd made a start), I pulled the remaining ten.  

And speaking of slugs, after a very dry and slug-lite summer, they were happily munching on some of my autumn cauliflowers last week:  about half of these have come home with me, after luckily noticing the damage in time.  I froze the heads, and the nicest outer leaves were dehydrated for winter stews.  I will keep a very close watch on the rest of the heads and pick at the first sign of danger.

At the same time, I checked on my turnip and winter radish bed under its net and found three big purple topped turnips;  these came home for the same reason as the kohlrabi:  I want to eat them before the slugs do (the radishes however don't look promising).  These turnips and most of the kohlrabi got sliced into matchsticks on my mandoline to make sauerkraut;  I added some freshly cooked beetroot too, filling a 3.3 L jar with the whole concoction.  And we ate the turnip and beetroot greens for good measure:  delicious. 

I was positive I'd picked the last of the squashes, but found two more this last week:  one green, one orange.  I can understand missing a green one:  it's the same color as the leaves, but the orange?  That makes 17 squashes altogether, though most of them are medium/small sized;  there are three big orange ones, though none as big as last year's monster.  All mature squashes are on mats either on the floor or windowsill in my living room, for winter eating;  so far we have eaten two that were too immature for long term storage.

Pak choi, cabbage, onions and leeks

I thought I'd be planting out my Chinese cabbages* in the kitchen garden and sheet mulching over the failed beetroot bed;  I changed my mind and instead transplanted the cabbages into that bed at the allotment.  The son helped me re-weed the bed (recall it was matted with couch grass roots after I pulled the new potatoes), digging out grass once again and pulling some small weeds.  It looks like only about a dozen beets actually sprouted--probably old seed after all.

I managed to get a tray of pak choi in the kitchen garden along with six extra Chinese cabbages.  That bed held my very first early leeks which I pulled, washed and put into the fridge last week, and the long green leaves got chopped and frozen for later stews and stir fries.  I let my two ducks have several days of free range in the kitchen garden ("We're Going On a Slug Hunt");  and after planting out my tender little plants, not only did I net them (sorry lettuce, but you are now big and pak choi is small) but I very liberally covered the ground with crushed eggshells.  Here's hoping the slugs are a) not willing to cross, or b) not there at all.

It's about time to empty the pots of cherry tomatoes at the top of my allotment--I may move them back to the bottom (close to the water supply) over winter and replant with onions, now sprouting up in a pot at home.  I've tried growing onions over winter once before, without success--actually onions in generally have never been a winner for me, winter or summer.  Still, I want to be self reliant in all vegetables we eat and onions are a staple:  I'm not giving up just yet.  

Unlike my onions, leeks have always been a reliable crop for winter and spring harvest for me;  this is the first year I've grown an early variety (Lyon) in addition to my usual late one (Musselbrugh);  I started picking them last month.  I expect the earlies to last until winter before I move onto the lates.  I've been using them as an onion substitute with tasty results:  the long white stalks are very similar to onions in taste and the green leaves are mild like spring onion tops, though a different texture.  The only downside (and really only a slight one in my opinion):  they aren't as easy to clean as an onion, with sand and compost trapped in between the outer layers.  

*First it was going to be cauliflowers, then Chinese cabbage--now I'm aiming for spring cabbage!  Something will go there, I promise.

Finishing and starting

Although it was so much work at the time, I'm sorry my cherry tomatoes are just about finished.  My plum tomatoes are also nearing their end, but while the numbers may be few, the sizes are great--at least ten pounds left I would guess.  And while my pickling cucumber vines are nearly all dried out, the very tips of them are still making small cucs--a couple ounces a week (I'm still topping up a 2.2 L jar in the fridge, not quite full).  I think I should make a second sowing of pickling cucs next year:  the first in mid spring and another in late spring/early summer.  I luckily have two overripe ones ready for next year's seed, and am leaving one of my salad cucumbers on the vine for seed too. 

I'm kind of amazed at how quickly my new fennel and kohlrabi are getting on, transplanted at the beginning of August;  these followed on from my spring kohlrabi.  I wasn't sure if this second (small) batch of kohlrabi would succeed as they were a bit spindly when they went in, but like the fennel they're looking very luxurious.  In fact the fennel itself is already swelling into bulbs;  can't wait to start eating it.

However, my newly seed beetroot bed looks mainly grassy--I can't see many beet seedlings and it's getting a bit late now.  Old seed?  Slugs?  Not sure, as the other newly seeded bed of turnips and winter radishes is growing well--all were sown on the same day.  If it turns out to be beet-less I'll sheet mulch it over winter--I might even drag one of my big pieces of old carpet down from the back of the allotment to try and kill off the grass.

I had originally planned on growing my spring cauliflowers in the kitchen garden over winter, but the plants were getting too big in their pots and rather than potting them on yet again, I put them down in gaps at the allotment.  I hope I don't regret this, as the last time I overwintered them at the allotment they were full of slugs--lots of large slugs wedged in between the inner stems of the heads.  I guess they got in there as little slugs and couldn't get out:  I did not enjoy washing those cauliflowers!

Instead of cauliflowers, I'll transplant out my Chinese cabbages and pak choi in the kitchen garden, though these will have to wait a little while longer until the zucs, salad cucs, early leeks and lettuce are finished.  And of course I have some more lettuce to go out too.

Succession sowing and planting

I did it:  at the allotment I cleared the last of the new potatoes and the snap pea vines.  The potatoes are in paper sacks in my cupboard and the vines are spread in the sun at the allotment to finish drying any pods for next year's seed.  If you recall, I'd planted the potatoes in no-dig fashion.  The result:  kind of small yield but not too bad.  Some plants were more productive than others but on average each plant grew about two meals worth, I would say.  Most I could just pull up carefully and sift through the mulch for potatoes (though a few needed to be dug up).  I would probably grow them this way again, at least with new potatoes.

The potato bed had been heavily sheet mulched in winter and renewed again in spring;  however it was still crisscrossed with couch grass runners, despite only a few blades of grass growing in with the potatoes.  I did my best to pull out what I could find as I prepared and sowed the bed with beet seed, but I already know it'll be covered in grass by the time the beets are sprouting.  I raked most of the mulch onto the tomato bed next to it.

The pea bed wasn't as bad with runners as the potato bed though I did have to pull out quite a lot of weeds in the unmulched bits where the vines had grown.  I sowed this smaller bed half turnips and half winter radishes.  Both beds have insect mesh on them;  the beets won't need it once they have grown a few leaves, but the turnips and radishes will, being susceptible to cabbage white butterflies as well as pigeons.

My small bed of daikon radishes (at home) is sprouting up under its little net curtain.  I've pricked out one last tray of kohlrabi--though they're not looking as robust as the ones I sowed in spring--and two trays of fennel.  Also potted on the spring cauliflowers;  these will hopefully transplant out in the kitchen garden after the cucumbers and zucchini are finished.  What's more, I sowed a pinch of pak choi into a pot which are just starting to come up.  These will have to transplant into the kitchen garden because they are known slug candy (though the slug population at home is starting to grow since my ducks aren't allowed on the veg beds just yet);  the kohlrabi and fennel may go up to the allotment when big enough to transplant.

Cherries and also not cherries

(The Vegetable Challenge has restarted!  More details next week!) 

It turns out I've not been getting many Kordia cherries or Czar plums off my trees for the past several years because of a pair of pigeons.  They were witnessed in the spring, methodically stripping both buds and young leaves from my trees, meaning hardly any fruits formed at all.  These are wood pigeons (we don't currently have any feral pigeons around);  one of the neighbors has been known to shoot them with an air rifle in his own garden--but in this case I would have been quite happy to shoot them myself!  They're too big for netting:  I don't know if I can protect my trees in the future.

Hiding the few cherries that survived the pigeons, June 2025

Only a few Kordia cherries, but at least they're perfect underneath their cloth napkin, June 2025

On the other hand, my little Morello cherry tree produced a good amount of cherries this year, maybe because the branches are much smaller/thinner (wood pigeons are pretty big birds) and the tree itself is very close to the house.  I fully netted it a little while ago and have been picking red cherries and freezing them this past week.

Already picked a freezer bag of Morello cherries, June 2025

I can only assume the pigeons treated my small Stella cherry tree the same way they did the Kordia as it also has very little fruit.  Its top has died back and it's suffering from aphids in a bad way;  I don't know if it'll survive.  My plum tree, just around the corner (seen a little bit in the top right corner), had a couple years of bad aphids which I think the local sparrows eventually sorted it out;  this tree isn't visible from the house (unlike almost all of my other fruit trees) so I don't know if the birds are helping it this year or not.  While every ladybug and/or larva I find goes onto this tree, other than that, my policy is to not intervene.  I focus on setting up healthy conditions for my little garden ecosystem, a la permaculture;  it's up to the ecosystem to sort out its own details.  If I lose this tree, I can console myself with the thought that it only cost me £4 or £5, and I do have another healthy tree.

Sad Stella cherry tree, June 2025

As an aside:  there are a lot of wild cherry trees at our local country park just a few streets away;  some are pretty sour but others are quite nice.  Just much too small to preserve in any way:  good for eating and spitting out the pits.  At least we've been able to eat cherries this year, one way or another.

Working, working

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.  

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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.  

The next phase

It looks as though I have to stop with the seeds for now;  I have some empty pots and trays now and I can't refill them as I won't have anywhere to plant.  Now I'm moving on to the business of potting on and planting out.  

All my green cabbages are in the ground, some at home and some at the allotment;  the allotment ones are sharing the kohlrabi bed, under some insect mesh and the home ones are with some lettuce.  I have Brussels sprouts and red cabbage ready to go too, probably to go partly with the kohlrabi and the rest in the turnip bed at the allotment (also covered).  All the snap peas are also transplanted, mostly growing well (looks like a little bit of flea beetle damage).

The first batch of plum tomatoes are all in the ground at the allotment, and the cherry toms in planters.  I have a second batch of plum toms but as they are still pretty small I don't know if I'll end up planting them out.  Maybe.  I initially wasn't planning on growing sweetcorn this year but ended up buying a packet on special and only 5 of 25 seeds sprouted:  not that special.  I've potted them on already;  lots of people plant sweetcorn at the allotment so maybe mine'll still get pollinated and grow some corn.  I'll put it with the squash anyway, like I always do.  

I'm waiting for my squash to emerge actually.  I ended up sowing three trays of it:  two of the giant squash seed and one from the final squash of 2023 (that we ate in July of 2024).  Both came from the same lineage;  I hope they both grow big, long-storing squashes (we still have one last squash from 2024 on our living room windowsill--I'll save seed from that one for next year too).

Though the squash is slow, the cucumbers and zucchini are all looking fine.  I've put the cucumbers out on the patio already (sprouted indoors) but the zucchini are only getting day trips so far.  My runner beans are also just coming up in the cold frame on my patio.  I bought some dwarf French bean seeds and saved some climbing French beans seeds from last year but maybe I won't have anywhere to grow them this year;  I'll take stock in a few more weeks and see if it's possible or if I'll save them till next year.

Harvesting and sowing, March 2025

Dinner for four, February 2025

I'm clearing away the winter veg now, some of it starting to go to seed including a couple Savoy cabbages;  I have two more left out in the kitchen garden which may or may not do the same (they don't have a formed head yet).  Though they didn't form heads, the greens are still tender and tasty.  And no slugs to speak of;  the leaves are in almost perfect condition.  Cold winter?  Duck patrol?  Usually my cabbages are full of slugs.

I'm harvesting the allotment swede and turnip greens with their puny roots;  I put the last bunch of roots into the slow cooker and rubbed the skins off after they were soft--each root was one bite.  The greens were much more substantial, even after cooking.  Also picking greens from komatsuna, self sown mizuna and lambs lettuce;  these will probably be over by the end of the month.  

In other news, I received my 2.5 kg of Charlotte seed potatoes which are in a tray in my kitchen to chit before planting out.  I plan on putting these in the big containers at the allotment, maybe at the end of the month;  a few are starting to poke tiny little sprouts.  

And my seed starting mission is carrying on, though there's been a change in the weather for the worse;  now I've held off direct sowing my beets and parsnips at the allotment.  If I want them to grow I need it to be a little warmer again--for about two weeks we've had warm, dry, sunny weather but it's gone from 16 C at the weekend to a forecast high of 7 C today.  Better to wait a week or three if it means they actually come up.

Overwintered veg, growing and eating

Cauliflowers and komatsuna, 2 Feb 2025

Cauliflowers and komatsuna 22 Feb 2025

It's not just me is it--can you tell my cauliflowers have grown over the past couple of weeks in the two photos above?  No sign of actual heads forming yet, but probably not for another month or two anyway.  I've already had one small harvest of the komatsuna (the smaller, rounder leafed plant in between the caulis), taken as cut and come again leaves.  They are a bit like pak choi which I still have too (though also pretty small).

I've had pretty much all the turnips and swedes from the allotment by now--just a few weedy looking plants left without any bulbs;  same with the white and black radishes there.  However, I still have a couple small white radishes at home in the kitchen garden, shown below.  They aren't that big--I picked the biggest ones already to put in another big batch of kimchi (though I bought some cabbages for this batch);  I also had some fresh allotment grown leeks and garlic to put in the kimchi.

White radishes, 2 Feb 2025

I'm trying to eat through all my leeks now, growing at the allotment;  partly so I can sheet mulch over the very very grassy bed, but also because they have a pest which has overwintered on them as pupae and will start to bore into them when it warms up.  I think it is called the allium leaf miner;  my garlic gets the same pest but doesn't actually get bored into like the leeks do.  It's giving me pause for thought about my onion plans actually;  do I attempt to grow them at the allotment this spring or should I not risk it and instead plant them in the kitchen garden (where space is at a premium)?