A clearer view of some of the plants photographed in the last entry. Anxiety-inducing! Note the dark red-purple lettuce 'Bijou'.
The one onion bed that is doing okay, which had a catch crop of radishes in between until I pulled the last ones today.
I have to go away for a few days. I'd rather not, but it will perhaps push me to do some chores I had been putting off.
A lot has changed in the week and a half since I wrote the previous entry (although I only published it today). The last of spring passed away quickly - the hawthorn came and went in a flash. The weather has continued mostly very dry and warm, although there's been more night-time cloud and fog, and a few showers. But not enough for watering not to still be necessary.
Crimson-flowered broad beans, looking healthy (I've never had a problem with blackfly and this year seems no different!).
The outdoor broad beans are now in full bloom. Two varieties, 'Crimson flowered' and 'Red Epicure' - the former with decorative blooms has thrived, and is now waist high with hundreds of potential pods, the latter with red-brown seeds rather than green does not look healthy. Why the difference? Hard to say, but the beds are in subtly different positions, one is filled with manure while the other got well-rotted compost and a bit of chicken and seaweed fertiliser. Peas in the thriving bean bed are also in bloom, with baby pods. I pulled the last of the radishes sown as a catch crop between onions, as the latter are starting to bulk up and were being shaded, and to be honest I've had enough radishes now (though I will sow some more today for later in the summer).
Beetroot sown straight into the ground about two-and-a-half months ago, under cloches at first. Lower left: spring onions, upper right: garlic.
I've set up the last wicker-edged planters - turns out we had more than I originally realised. Four are very large, divided into two compartments. One is split between vegetables (in a picture in the previous entry - beetroot, spinach beet, spring onions, and turnips) and flowers - a large white foxglove which will be replaced by sweet peas. Another with rows of sunflowers, ruby chard, and mimulus - all in reds and oranges. A third with red kale on one side, red cabbages on the other, which will host the catch crop of radishes I mentioned above. And the final one half with tall peas, and the other half with more red cabbages and probably a catch crop of turnips. Medium-sized planters with herbs (thyme, borage, hyssop, and chives) and flowers (cosmos and petunia), beetroot, and onions respectively. Small ones with lettuce, lettuce and spring onions, and calendula (classic 'English' marigolds) respectively.
I've moved a lot of tender plants to the greenhouse, where some will live permanently, and others be put in the polytunnel - chillies, peppers, tomatoes, and aubergines. The first courgette was put into its final position, a large pot, but many others are budding and need to be planted soon. Ditto summer beans - of which there are many, with more to sow. The other brassicas are pretty much all potted on, and will keep for a couple more weeks, but then I'll need to find somewhere for them - I have a couple more raised bed edges I can set up once I decide where. Hundreds of smaller pots contain lettuces, chard, alliums, and all sorts of other things, and again I'm not sure where they'll go - but at least the red lettuce 'Bijou' is attractive enough that I may use it as an ornamental edging in pots of flowers, or even the flower beds. Then there's seedlings of things sown in May - broccoli, more cabbages, more lettuces, beets, spinach, and all sorts of other things. Hopefully planting out will free up pots, and everything will move up a category - with the module trays then free for more seeds, things like beetroot and onions than can be planted after some crops are pulled in the next couple of months.
One of the first tomato flowers - several plants now have them open. Probably the variety 'Moneymaker'.
In the ground, the outdoor-sown beets are now growing well, at last, as is garlic and more peas. I want to plant onions, and the first courgettes, winter squash, and summer beans, as soon as possible - rather than clearing the overgrown beds, I'm hoping a no-dig approach of hacking back the invasive plants (like goldenrod), covering with a lot of manure and compost, and then black polythene will work - at least for the cucurbits which are spaced widely.
So I have to go away for a few days, and it feels frantic. But it has for weeks. Maybe it'll all be worth it. Perhaps this is the year I test my desire for a vegetable garden to breaking point.
At centre, a tiny embryonic courgette, the first of many, I hope! I've never managed a respectable crop of them, but this year I have enough plants to be in with a chance.
Crops:
11/06 - 90g radishes
YTD total: 940g
A crop to come: one of the first pea pods (this is 'Kelvedon Wonder').
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