Harvest time

The lottie was always going to take second place in my work schedule this year. The netting completed in the Spring has been a boon. The little birds fly in and out of the netting unhindered so I have had no trouble with caterpillars or green or black fly. The pigeons sit on the fencing eyeing the broccoli.

I went for low maintenance plants this year. The last part of the lottie came into production this year so I had a full lottie to utilise. Blight is a problem so I chose Cara for main crop and International kidney for the earlies. Cara was good as usual but the crop was down mainly due to the very dry spell in July and the relatively poor soil condition. I still got four bags from 14 sixteen foot rows. The International Kidney cropped well be the taste was disappointing. They also suffered from scab. My neighbours grew Charlottes which looked fanastic, so they will be my earlies for next year. The baby sweet corn grew well but came into fruit during the hot spell when I was no one was around. The standard sweet corn were great but the plants were on the small side. I can tell when its time to harvest them because the mice start eating them.

Cauliflower were great except they all came on at once, as did the Hispi cabbage. We had some and gave the rest away. The white onions were excellent this year with the Red Barons a little way behind. Good taste but smaller in size.

Broad Beans are the stars this year. They grow robustly and beans are lovely to eat especially as a "Pate". I am on the third planting. The peas grew well but bolted in the hot two weeks. The mice must have had a field day as there was not a single pea to be found on the ground.

I planted 20 gherkin plants. It turned out I planted far too many. You also need to pick just at the right time. They grew well though.

The root crops have gone well. Swede and Turnips grew well as did the parsnips. Carrots were a pain again but I think this due to the very cold start and then a very hot spell. I have two lots still in but it remains to be seen how big the second sowing grows. The leeks look majestic and does the sprouting broccoli. The second sowing of Hispi, Red Cabbage and Caulis's are going well despite the weeds.

I have just got to get some proper weeding done and then broad cast the green manure. The heavy rain we have had recently has pulverised the soil washing it away. I have deep gutters dug at the side of my beds so they are now full of the wash off. At least it is doing it is job.