I can’t quite get over what a strange growing season it has been this year. I thought I’d do a little round up of what’s been going on. I know I’ve mentioned a lot of this before, but it’s just interesting to take stock and compare notes with other growers sometimes.
What’s slow?
It is the first week of August, and I’ve harvested about seven french beans from the twenty plants that I planted. Normally I’d be harvesting a good couple of handfuls every other day. I haven’t seen a single courgette flower – the plants look as if I planted them a couple of weeks ago, not a couple of months ago – my tomato plants are not even two foot tall and I had to peel one of my sweetcorn cobs back to check that it wasn’t a baby corn because I couldn’t fathom that the plants were as short and stumpy as they were. Normally they’d be four or five foot tall by now.
What’s doing well?
On the other hand, the leafy crops – spinach, chard, lettuces – and particularly the brassicas, seem to be thriving – apart from this last week, the weather has been lovely and cool for them, and so far I’ve seen very few butterflies around and the brassicas are free from caterpillar damage. No doubt those are famous last words! I had better check them over thoroughly this weekend for eggs (usually on the underside of leaves if you feel called to check your own!) I’ve also harvested some fantastic beetroots – they have done brilliantly and are bigger than normal and mostly in good shape, too, unlike the carrots….
What’s disappointing?
The carrots. I pulled some up and found that they have cracked down the sides (not enough water, and then far too much water) and been devoured by underground slugs. The fennel was also disappointing, in that it got completely eaten by slugs within a couple of days of planting. In fact, there has been a lot of slug damage in my plot this season, more than normal I would say. My dwarf beans all got decimated and where there is some damage amongst the brassicas, it is all slug and snail damage.
What’s pleasing?
I had to include this because I’m so happy about how it has worked – I planted all my beetroot in between my celeriac plants. The beetroot are all being harvested at the moment, whilst the celeriac is still young and will need a few more months to grow. In pulling up the beetroot, the celeriac will have a lot of extra space to grow now, which is when they need it most (especially in early autumn as they use that rainfall to swell the roots.) – It has worked well to combine the two this way – fast growers in amongst slow growers can be a really handy way of making the most of your space.
What’s next?
My bed of lettuces is going over now and they are bolting, so my plan is to pull them up. I’ll also pull up the remaining carrots and the slug-destroyed dwarf beans. This will open up quite a lot of space, so I’m planning to get a load of extra kale, spinach and peas in place. The peas should crop in late September, I reckon, and the kale and spinach will keep me going over winter. I’ll also plant up some more winter crops in September/October time. I am a big fan of land cress, so I’ll plant plenty of that, and some of the other winter leaves are really great too.