Drawbacks and setbacks (in the allotment, July 2022)

In my last post, I ennumerated all the reasons I am happy about the kitchen garden.  Nearly everything has turned out well, and any failures have been slight and easily overcome.

Let's talk about the allotment now.

In the first place, I have had some successes so far this year:  the raspberries have been crazy productive, the peas and broad beans are acceptable, and the garlic was great.  We've had some good beets, artichokes and strawberries.  Some good things going on, yes. 

But I like to keep it real, so here's some of the things which haven't been a success:

Disappearing plants.  All the corn, cucumbers, squashes and zucchinis, about half of the peas and broad beans, and various other transplants just never made it.  I posted about trying soil blocks this year, in the hopes they would transplant better:  nope.  No discernible difference at all.  Pretty much everything in a soil block that went to the allotment simply vanished. 

Grass and weeds (but mainly grass).  I have dug it out--multiple times.  I have sheet mulched it--even more times.  I have put the chicken tractor on it.  It keeps growing back and is constantly on the edge of taking over.  The only place it is not growing is on the paths covered in carpet (and not all paths are thus covered), and in the chicken yard.  And the chicken yard is only de-grassed because the chickens are currently in it--it regrew when they were locked up at home over winter.

Slugs and bugs.  It's bad.  It's really bad.  This is probably the main reason for disappearing plants/food--there are so many slugs.  And part of the reason for the slugs and bugs is the grass--it hides and shelters them from predators (and from me).  If I could clear the grass and weeds, it would reduce the slugs and bugs by a huge amount, which would reduce the amount of disappearing plants.  

In conclusion, allotment:  not that great.  Need a better strategy, particularly for the grass.

Brassicas in the kitchen garden

A lot going on here, July 2022

I took a photo of these kohl rabi a month ago, and two months ago when they were planted out.  We've started to eat them!  The biggest ones are bigger than a tennis ball, and even the smallest ones are bulbing up (slowly).  They are purple on the outside and white on the inside and taste like a swede or mild turnip.  Where I've pulled up ones to harvest I've transplanted the last winter Savoy cabbage seedlings I've been growing on in a tray.

Cabbages:  hope they heart up, July 2022

 The cabbages in the bed next to them are all huge and show some small differences in growth pattern (a few are tall and upright, a few are short and wide, most are somewhere between);  a fellow allotmenter gave me the seeds he'd saved so I hope they are only crossed with cabbages, not other types of brassica.  I want them to form big fat heads!  We'll eat them regardless, but probably not till autumn at least.

Protection, July 2022

As mentioned in a previous post, I lost most of my swede seedlings to a pesky pigeon, so I replanted the rows with corn (which was also a replacement crop, the first being lost too);  these were initially covered in insect mesh, but when the corn grew tall enough I took it off and put a different cover over it:  a table with a wire cover and bird netting draped around two sides.  The other two sides have strategic sticks blocking a flight path in, and all of it combined seems to have detered the pigeon, as the remaining swedes have flourished underneath: pictured right at the center of the row.  The corn looks good too, as does the lettuce (hard to see in the photo) I interplanted it with.  

Lastly (not shown), I planted out the Brussels sprouts and purple sprouting broccoli somewhat close together in the rows where the fennel and carrot seeds underperformed;  they are both growing on for the present, to be transplanted out at the allotment late in the summer.  One is covered with bird netting, the other with the insect mesh--to keep the pigeon off them while they grow bigger.  I need them to be big and strong to withstand the slugs at the allotment!

Everything looks pretty good in the kitchen garden;  I'm really pleased with how it's turned out this year.  I'll have to discuss my somewhat underwhelming allotment in the next post.

Food totals June 2022

 

Almonds and grapes together. July 2022

Vegetables

 

7 oz fresh garlic (including scapes)

1.5 oz chives

20.5 oz cabbage greens

17.5 oz salad leaves (chard, mizuna, lettuce, miners lettuce)

15 oz artichoke heads

13 oz beets

16 oz peas

 

Total:  91.5 oz, or 5 lb 11.5 oz 

 

Does not include several bunches of fresh herbs which were too small an amount to weight (less than 0.5 oz)

Fruit

 

No fruit recorded (strawberries, redcurrants, blueberries, sweet cherries, raspberries were all eaten immediately at harvest, but none weighed or counted)

Eggs

93 eggs from 6 adult hens and 2 ducks

Most of the roses came with the house but I chose this one myself.  July 2022

How I use my herbs

The herb garden, June 2022

Thyme:  goes in stew and gravy, anything with tomato sauce such as pizza, meatballs, etc.  I usually pick a small handful of stems and tie a chive strand around it to make a bouquet garni--it's fished out before serving.

Chives: I like it in the occasional omelet, makes a nice addition to salads and/or salad dressing, or I'll pick a large handful and chop into thirds and treat it as a vegetable in a stir fry.

Rosemary and marjoram: mainly used in a bouquet garni with thyme when making tomato sauces.

Mint: I try to collect a large amount to make mint vinegar, an excellent condiment for lamb and a nice addition to salad dressings.  Any leaves left are dried for tea (good for an upset stomach or for calming before bed).

Chamomile: leaves and flowers dried for tea.

Lavender and rose: flowers/petals dried for winter fragrance.  I have been experimenting with soap-making, and these may be incorporated into a batch one day too.

Dill: large stems and fronds are steeped into vinegar for use in autumn vegetable pickling, seeds are collected and dried for the same (and some saved for next year's sowing).

Coriander/cilantro: my first year successfully growing it (slugs normally demolish it); we have been enjoying leaves in salads and as a garnish;  I hope to save seed for sowing and cooking.

Nasturtium: occasional flowers as a salad garnish (spicy!), leaves used fresh in stews and sometimes dried for winter use.

Basil: (another one the slugs love) I use it fresh on pizza, in salads and salad dressing, in omelets, and I try to freeze batches of pesto for winter use.

Cherries 2022

Lots of little Morello cherries in there, June 2022

I've just started picking this year's harvest of Morello cherries, pictured above.  I scrounged the net from an abandoned allotment two years ago and it's done wonders for keeping the birds off.  I have some other bird netting which prevents birds entering, but the gaps in the weave are large enough for them to peck through quite easily--I needed to erect a little structure around the tree to make sure the netting wasn't too close to the fruit.  But with this netting, I can just wrap it around quickly and easily and not worry about losing any cherries.
I planted the Morello cherry tree when the son was just a baby so it's about as old as he is:  12.  

I have two younger trees, both sweet cherries:  a Kordia and a Stella.  The Kordia has been around longer than the Stella and is fairly tall (the Morello is a mini-dwarf).  We've never had many fruits off Kordia:  it's too big to net so the birds get most of them.  Although it was covered in blossom this spring, it's shed a lot of immature cherries so we still probably won't get very many.

Stella cherry, not doing so well, June 2022

The Stella has been in place only a few years and again, no real cherry harvest off it yet.  It's badly affected by blackfly this year--the sparrows helped Kordia recover from them a few years ago, but it looks like they're not stepping up yet for poor Stella.  It formed some cherries but most have dropped off before ripening.  I'll leave it alone for now in the hopes the local birds will do something about it.  It was only a £5 tree (from the supermarket)--not a huge loss though I hope it will survive.

Morellos are acid cherries, best used in cooking.  I found a bag of last year's in the bottom of the freezer the other day!  I've started freezing the new batch too and once they are all collected I might make a giant cherry pie.

Growing on in the kitchen garden

Compare these photos from last month's post.

The transplants are growing but the seeded rows aren't quite, June 2022

Kohl rabi growing furiously, June 2022

I took these photos at the beginning of the month and the plants are even bigger now;  the spaces between the rows are no longer visible in the kohl rabi and I have since taken off the cabbage netting--it was to deter a pesky wood pigeon who was nipping off leaves.  I think the same bird was nibbling my swede seedlings;  I planted out my (small) second batch of corn seedlings in the gaps in their rows and threw a mesh over to protect them from disappearing again--and the swede seedlings are looking much healthier now too. 

In other gaps in various rows I've transplanted some lettuce seedlings, including where it looks like some of the herb varieties I put down were just too old to germinate;  only dill and coriander have come up.  The carrots are also pretty sparse even though it was new seed, but surprisingly I have a few parsnips coming up (I've never managed to grow them before).  There are only a couple fennel too, unfortunately.  

I may use the fennel row as a holding bed for my winter brassicas, to allow them to grow on a bit more before transplanting to their final places at the allotment;  I need them to be as big as possible to survive the slugs and bugs there and they don't mind being transplanted--right now they're still in a tray.

The tomatoes are all putting out their first trusses of flowers and have all had sideshoots pinched and have grown enough to need a second tie to their support poles.  The green kuri and yellow crookneck squashes however are still somewhat small, though have grown a little since transplant (unlike their counterparts at the allotment which seem to have mostly disappeared).

The husband put down some marigolds and geraniums (bought on the cheap), and cranesbill (transplanted from the front garden) around the perimeter of the beds;  I put down some California poppies and a few dahlias too.  I've been hoeing and hand weeding the multitude of poppies that self seed prolifically, along with most of the nasturtiums though a few of these have been allowed at the very edge of one bed, to climb up a small support I wove out of laurel trimmings.

Food totals May 2022

It's been years since these flowered! May 2022

Vegetables

 

1.5 oz chives

15.5 oz leeks

26 oz chard

9 oz salad greens 

47 oz purple sprouting broccoli

48 oz squash (2021 harvest)

3 oz spring onions

8 oz potatoes

4 oz garlic (bulb and scape)

7.5 oz cabbage 

Total:  169.5 oz, or 10 lb 9.5 oz

 

Fruit

 

43.5 oz rhubarb

 

Eggs 

92 eggs from 6 adult hens and 3 ducks

The last tulip to flower (cabbage seedlings behind), May 2022