Cool weather: bad and good

After a promising start to May, summer has rather fizzled out, turning cool and wet again.  It was cold and wet in spring, and my plants are still behind schedule because of this--the cold meant everything got a later start than usual. 

It doesn't look so good for my corn, squash and zuc;  and my tomatoes look a bit iffy as well, though these I've been growing and saving seed from these for years so I think they might still pull through for me (being somewhat adapted to a cooler summer).  My cucumbers are also doing their best and putting out some tiny flowers but the vines are still very short.  Last year (hot but not excessively dry) I got a bumper crop of all of these, greatly increasing my year's grand total of veg--it looks like it will not be repeated this year. (Note: at least half of 2023's squash were eaten in 2024, and will go on the record for this year's grand total.)

Conversely, my cool weather crops are loving it: including my lettuce, sugar snap peas, beets, kohlrabi and other brassicas.  The pea plants were so small and spindly when I first put them in--I didn't have much hopes for them actually--and now they are cranking out about two pounds of peas per week with no sign of stopping.  Maybe they'll keep it up all summer.  The beets and kohlrabi are bulbing up much more quickly than last year, and the lettuce just keeps on coming no matter how much I pick--we're eating a salad pretty much every day.

My perennials produce whatever the weather;  whether hot or not, the raspberries, currants, rhubarb, artichokes, figs and herbs are pretty reliable.  The other fruit trees are affected but obliquely, such as if the bees are out when they flower, or if the cherries get sufficient rain in spring before the fruit matures. 

I'm used to a washout summer though--it happens frequently on this soggy island.  I've learned to plant for both scenarios:  hot and dry or cool and wet.  This way I'll at least get something!  My preference?  I like both kinds of crops really, but when it comes me personally I'm not good with heat.  I'm more of a sugar snap pea than an ear of corn.

Finished yet?

Little cucumber plants with even littler zuc between, July 2024

Pretty much every seedling in trays and pots has now been planted out, barring one small tray of late sown beets.  I've only just planted out the Savoy cabbages--not as many as I'd hoped--and the second batch of lettuce at home, leaving me just about half a bed unplanted.  Although it should have been all cabbages, never fear, I still have a plan for this:  the pak choi (broadcast into a large pot and just newly sprouting) and daikon radish (to be sown directly) can go in this small space. 

Houseplants having summer vacation (I put the rest out later on: aloes and spider plants), July 2024

Up at the allotment I've newly sheet mulched over the spent broad beans bed, with the son and husband's help.  I've put down one last sowing of beets, and like the bed next to it, have completely enclosed it in insect mesh including burying all the edges.  This is in the hopes of excluding slugs and bugs long enough for the beets to sprout and grow a bit.  

I've also planted out the very newly sprouted cucumber seedlings (four in total) in containers to replace ones lost to slugs.  Not only did I take the precautions described in my previous post, I even took a tub of vaseline with me and smeared the rim of the pots with it to be doubly cautious.

Self-seeded in my veg patch, July 2024

But I'm not finished yet.  I'm done with the spring and summer sowing/planting, but now I'm moving on to autumn and winter.  Luckily in my climate I can have veg growing year round;  while it's somewhat limited in winter, if I want anything growing then I have to get it going now--in fact the window of opportunity is gone for some things already:  Brussels sprouts for instance (I decided against them this year but may try again next).  My other long season crops are in now:  leeks, cabbage, purple sprouting broccoli.  Now it's time to start daikon radish, turnip and fennel, along with regular sowings of pak choi and lettuce.  And later on it'll be cauliflower and spring cabbage too.  No rest for me yet--winter's coming, and that's when I'll rest.

A tour of my allotment, 30 June, 2024

Let's have a look at my allotment.  Photos to follow!

At the very top of the allotment (not pictured) is a small bed of beets, some of which have been harvested already.  But it's also getting weedy/grassy again so the empty parts of the bed have had some cardboard laid down in anticipation of more sheet mulch.  I just keep on sheet mulching!  There is also a stack of semi-usable wood and other bits of allotment detritus at the very back against the perimeter fence, and to one side is the very grassy/weedy raspberry bed;  we've been picking plenty of rasps over the past week, mostly to freeze.

Then further on is the chicken yard (seen obliquely in a couple photos below), currently not occupied.  I was excited to see some self-sown squash in it but that disappeared about a week later--so disappointed.  I was going to plant it up but maybe I should just put the chickens back in instead.  There is a small bed on the side of the chicken yard, newly sheet mulched and planted with some purple sprouting broccoli.  Slugs love this, but they don't love the new sheet mulch, so I'm hoping it'll grow enough by the time the slugs work out where it is.  Also on the same side (at the very edge of my allotment) are a couple each of:  redcurrant, gooseberry, rhubarb (shown below: broccoli at the very top left in rings, leafy rhubarb top right).

Snap peas at the very front, small squash and corn in the bed, rhubarb and raspberries at the back right, June 2024

The bed pictured above is towards the middle/back of my allotment and has been newly sheet mulched.  The plastic rings are surrounding some of the corn seedlings to protect them from getting stepped on (as they are still pretty small) but also to keep them a little moist and warm as they grow on.  I really like putting one of these rings around all of my transplants if possible, to ease the transition from pot to ground.

Leeks and grass, with climbing beans to the back right, June 2024

This is the other side of the same bed, now fully planted with leeks.  The furthest rows of rings I only just planted out at the weekend;  the ones around the other three perimeter sides are there to prevent us accidentally stepping on them, as these are even smaller than the corn.  This bed has some grass growing through the sheet mulch but I can't deal with it as it will disturb my precious leeks.  I do know through experience that most of my plants will still grow reasonably well while swamped with grass, so long as they get a good foothold before the grass takes over.  There are also my climbing beans at the top right, some starting to grow up their supports.

Broad beans to the front, a climbing bean structure behind (and the chicken house and yard at the back), June 2024

Moving on.  Closer to the front of the allotment is this bed of broad beans which I've been picking every day for a week, but think they're about done now.  I'll sheet mulch over it as soon as I've got every bean.  Next to it (to the right), where it looks so grassy, is a smaller bed of snap peas which have also come into their own.  We've been eating these (and freezing most of the broad beans) and they are still flowering/producing well.  

At the very front of the photo is a bit of insect mesh covering a newly sheet mulched bed I sowed with beet seeds at the weekend.  The son helped me lay the mesh and bury all the edges in the hopes that no slugs and bugs will penetrate it.  I've found they don't care much for beets--even smaller seedlings--but will eat the shoots just as they emerge;  I hope my fortifications are sufficient to keep the beets alive long enough to pass this stage.

Lots of artichokes, all of them tall with small heads, June 2024

Again moving forward (the other side of the broad bean/snap peas bed are more squash, climbing beans and corn, not pictured) is my row of artichokes, stretching across the width of the allotment.  I think there are about 12 plants?  They are very tall:  the artichoke heads at the top are out of my reach entirely and I have to grab the lower stems and bend them over to cut them.  These are coming in at about ten heads every two or three days;  I expect this sort of production over the rest of the summer.  But it's not much to get excited about:  these ten heads give about 3 oz total of edible hearts--not a lot of produce for a whole lot of plant.  Luckily I like the flavor and I have a fairly quick method of extracting the hearts (don't bother washing, just dump in slow cooker and when soft: let cool and peel);  and it's free food after all, being a perennial with basically no maintenance other than harvest. 

Cherry toms and pickling cucs, June 2024

And last on my tour is the front of the allotment, sporting my collection of motley containers and shed.  There are more containers on the other side of the shed (slightly visible behind);  also beyond are my black plastic composters.  The other side of the bed itself has my in-ground plum tomatoes (one white tomato support is just barely showing at the top left corner).  Some of these containers lost their first planting of cucumber seedlings to slugs.  I will be replanting them with a later sowing:  the son emptied out the old compost (and mounded it around the toms, so as not to waste it), gave them a very thorough spray with the hose inside and out--and we moved them to a new spot just to be on the very safe side.  I hope to replant by the weekend.

Back in business (after all the setbacks)

It's been disappointing, with such a long cold spring, that I've lost several of my transplants at the allotment to slugs.  If the plants are growing well they can outgrow most slug damage, but some of them need warm weather for this:  cucumbers and squash for instance.  I've lost about half of my transplants (so far) before they've even started growing.  The weather has finally warmed up again to above 20 C, and they seem to be growing a bit now.  I have a tray of late sown squash just emerging, so hopefully when I plant them out they will just keep going (have another tray of cucumber but no sign of it).

I have other warm weather plants--corn and tomatoes--that the slugs don't like to eat, so at least they are still all right.  The corn only got transplanted last week anyway--really late--but with a pot shortage, I couldn't sow them any earlier.  Maybe I should focus more on these two for next year, with squash and cucumbers lower down on the priorities list.  

Also late to sow and hence transplant:  two varieties of climbing beans (a green podded one and a purple).  I've lost of couple of these too, but as they got planted out late it looks like the rest might be able to shrug it off. 

The broad beans and snap peas were planted out relatively early, before the slugs were too active;  finally they are producing pods for me.  I'm also getting the first of the beets, another one unattractive to slugs except as new shoots.  None of these are warm weather crops however--if it stays hot, they will go over quickly.

It's not all doom and gloom, even though I like to keep it real here and talk about failures as well as success;  I am still writing down my harvest every day.  Lately it's been lettuce, broad beans, kale, artichoke hearts, garlic, beets.  The son made a deluxe allotment crumble on Sunday with our own rhubarb, gooseberries, raspberries (and some strawberries we picked from a farm).  Even with all the setbacks, we're back in business again.

Harvest 2024: begin!

I can't believe that I've still not yet planted out everything (still got some climbing beans, corn, and late sown cucs and squash) but the harvest has begun.  I dug out half my garlic harvest on Saturday--it started raining so I gave up--and brought it home to cure the heads and dehydrate the stalks/leaves for powder.  As I stood at my kitchen sink for 20 minutes I thought:  it must be summer now!  Harvesting and preparing a large amount of veg from the garden or allotment is a near-daily task every year from summer until late autumn. (It still doesn't feel like summer though, with temps barely making it to 15C during the daytime.)

Every other day we are having small side salads from my first batch of lettuce, mostly recovered from its initial pigeon damage.  I have a second sowing on the go--just need to get it transplanted.  I'll plant it next to the first sowing, under the netting.  I've also cooked some young nettle greens and young kohlrabi leaves, sauteed with onion/garlic/ginger/sesame oil, to go in our sushi wraps alongside the rice, cucumber/carrot and salmon.  I've got some young kale too, not quite as leafy as the kohlrabi, but closing in on it. 

The daughter has been watching our few strawberry plants like a hawk and pounces on them as soon as they are red;  the son managed to get one, but she's had the rest.  She's also found the first couple of red raspberries but I'm not too worried--no way she can monopolize that harvest, there's too many.  The Morello cherries are ripening too but like last year have very few;  I've left it and the other cherry trees unnetted and the birds can have them.

The broad beans at the allotment now have some excellent pods on them, just coming ready.  They are always such a treat, as they're one of the very first fresh veg of spring and don't last long.  Another early (but much longer lasting) veg is artichoke.  It's such a lot of plant for such a little harvest, but the first ones are ready now and they should last all summer if I keep picking them.  Which I do!

State of the flock, June 2024

And now for something completely different.  I've been so focused on the allotment this past month I've not been paying much attention to my own garden or my poultry.  The son is the main caretaker for both chickens and ducks;  he's 14 now and is fairly responsible when it comes to their care.  I sometimes have to remind him to collect eggs still, but he remembers to feed and water them every day thankfully.  The chickens are laying around four eggs a day, from eight hens.

The chickens and ducks are both locked up in their respective yards at home for the present.  Some of the chickens got to make a pass of the lawn in their tractor for about two weeks but it's growing too quickly for them to efficiently graze now.  So we're mowing and giving them the clippings.  The ducks have had periodic free range (usually for a day or two at a time) but I'm still putting in new plantings and I don't want the ducks dabbing them out--I lost a few small marigold transplants this week, so back into the yard went the ducks.  And I can't let the chickens free range at all while my veg patch is in growth.

Boy Duck is maybe calming down a bit after the spring breeding season.  He gets very protective of Girl Duck (who doesn't seem to notice) but if he tries it on me, he better watch out--I've been known to send him flying.  Thankfully he can't jump and is not sharp anywhere so his attacks are pretty ineffectual.  He's been spotted chasing pigeons out of the garden (hilarious) and won't share his patch with chickens either.  He's a big duck and stands fairly upright with a long neck and short legs, surprisingly (and comically) fast.  Once he starts to molt in summer I think his hormones ease up a bit.  Girl Duck is smaller and has the more usual duck silhouette--also short legs--but doesn't do a lot of running.  She just sort of waddles around, with Boy Duck in her wake like her security detail.  Girl Duck does lay the occasional egg, but not in a dedicated place:  I don't always find it in time.

Still so busy at the allotment

Still pushing to get it all done:  it's truly the final stretch.  Despite the slow start, my allotment is looking a lot more populated, though it also has a couple of really grassy sections too.  I'm still sheet mulching bit by bit--it's a never ending process:  as soon as I reach the bottom I have to start at the top again.  

For the first time since I've been growing there, the local council has provided a couple of tons of compost for members, deposited into one of the bays by the on-site stables.  I've been using the stable bedding in my own compost and as sheet mulch since I started back in 2018, really improving the soil, but obviously it has to compost first (usually there is composted stuff--if you dig it out of the bottom of the pile).  This I have used in sheet mulch and also to fill up about half my planters, as my own compost has run out (I top dressed those planters with the contents of the last bin).

The past weekend I got in all the squashes, some very small still (fingers crossed).  I actually made one more late sowing last week too, in trays, to act as zucchini as my other zuc sowings didn't sprout;  however, I recently sowed a different zuc variety which has begun to sprout--perhaps the late sowing of squash will still have time to make actual squash.  They taste zuc-like when immature--and sweet when mature--so I'm ok either way.

The husband, son and I have all donned gloves several times in the past week to pull out nettles, filling up a couple of emptied compost bins in the process.  This isn't as persistent as the grass and is easier to remove too, despite the stings;  but like the grass, there are a lot of of them.  Makes good compost at least.  I really don't bother trying to dig up the grass except in rare cases where it has sprouted in a new sheet mulched bed. 

At the weekend I also planted out the first tray of green climbing beans and erected a couple of bamboo canes for them to climb, and have been trimming some longer garden prunings to fill in the gaps.  I have several more trays of climbing beans, both green and purple, mostly sprouted and almost ready for transplant.  I'll continue sowing the purple beans (run out of the green bean seeds) probably until the middle of this month.

I even staked most of my tomatoes this weekend;  I've had to pinch out the first side shoots and tie them in already.  My cherry toms are indeterminate--and in planters, not the ground--so these I have just let get on with it.  Most of the cherries are flowering, though not as tall as the plum toms.  And I've put in pea sticks around all the peas now, most of which are now growing a bit better, though not as tall as I'd like.

And finally I got in all my pickling cucumbers (also small, like the squash), though I'm wondering if I should make a late sowing of them too (probably).  I did a late sowing last year--early June--and they had enough time to fruit.  I finally have reached the tipping point on my trays/pots situation:  I've transplanted enough stuff to have some empty at last.  But we are still saving plastic cream pots from the fridge for the future:  next spring I will definitely have enough pots!