In with the new

These pink broad beans (probably 'Karmazyn') are lovely, but this year the crop was a failure overall, many more plants yielding far less than last year. The green ones lower left are 'Crimson Flowered'.

I didn't stay away too long. There are too many plants needing attention for me to leave them for more than a few days at a time, and besides, the garden is where I want to be right now. In my absence there was some rain, so I wasn't worried about watering what was outdoors, and I'd given the greenhouse and polytunnel a thorough soaking before I left, so that didn't trouble me.

The first major job on my return should have been doubly uplifting: harvesting, clearing, and replacing the first crops of the year. The two small raised beds I built in April have now reached maturity, but they haven't been a raging success. In the first, I planted onion sets and sowed a catch crop of radishes. The latter were picked in May and early June, and although the onions started to swell to full size earlier this month, I held off pulling them up until now, to give them every chance to be as good as possible. In fact, they were still growing so maybe I could have left them even longer, but everything is a balancing act - two more weeks' onion growth will not outweigh (literally or figuratively) two weeks for carrots or other fresh crops. The quantity I got looks to be okay, with a range of sizes from small to largish, and they should keep me going for a few weeks, but if I want enough for a year, I need to be much more organised in future.

Multiple courgette varieties are starting to mature, although there's not many yet. Above, left to right, are 'Diamant', 'Burpee's Golden', and 'Trieste White Half Long'; below you can also see round 'Tondo di Piacenza', and an unknown striped yellow one that might either be an unnamed 'Yellow' courgette from a mixed seed kit, or possibly 'Zephyr', which is meant to have a green tip.

In the second bed, I planted peas, broad beans, and three tiny spinach plants. One pea and one spinach died right away, but the rest did really well, alhough the spinach only gave a couple of crops before bolting. I've picked peas from this bed for a couple of weeks, but they slowed down pretty quickly. The broad beans looked perfect, covered in crimson blossom, but then they had the twin shocks of a summer storm, which battered them (although I pre-emptively supported them with a network of canes and twine, they were still much less upright afterwards), and then the hot, dry early summer weather - which is absolutely not what they want at that point, when the fruit is setting. Perhaps I wouldn't have got the harvest I expected anyway, but I think this was the main problem - although I did water them as often as I thought they needed it.

 The bed with, from left to right, leeks, huauzontle ('Aztec broccoli'), spinach beet, and Brussels sprouts 'Red Bull'.

Anyhow, all of this was harvested on my return the day before yesterday, the plants and any weeds composted (a harvest in itself!), and the beds raked and amended with a little extra compost and seaweed fertiliser pellets. It's a great pleasure to have beds ready so quickly, pristine, rather than going through the palaver of clearing, as I have done elsewhere - this is the long-term goal, not having to begin afresh every year, just making minor adjustments as I go along. After much consideration, I decided to plant what looked good in the 'nursery' (all my potted plants lined up on the patio); so in the broad bean/pea bed I put one row each of leeks, 'Aztec broccoli' (huauzontle), leaf/spinach beet, and red Brussels sprouts. In the former onion bed I sowed a lot of carrots, because this is a crop I've never succeeded with in my own garden, and the ones I sowed this spring never grew past seedling stage (I used a large, deep container and fresh compost, they germinated, but then stalled and never grew any more, though they didn't die either) - different varieties in blocks. I also planted some green Brussels sprouts and the few celery plants from my first sowing, which have grown terribly slowly (but I haven't lavished them with attention, so it's mostly my fault). Very satisfying to turn around the space so fast - one advantage to growing so many plants in pots, rather sowing direct (the exception to this method is carrots and parsnips, as they really don't transplant).

The other bed with celery, Brussels sprouts 'Evesham Special', and five kinds of carrots (sown direct).

Another crop that came out was the last of the early beetroot. I sowed this direct into the soil in March (before I'd discovered no dig, and got into sowing in modules), and covered with polythene cloches (essentially mini-polytunnels) until the weather warmed up. They were slow to get going, but finally took off at the end of spring, and again I've been picking these for a few weeks. However, I noticed a massive amount of leaf miner damage, and although this isn't really a concern in this crop (although it may slow their growth a little, I'm not sure), the problem is, it's a source of infection for chard and spinach beet, which as they are grown for their leaves, can't be allowed to succumb. Sadly all the spinach beet I'd been growing in pots was afflicted, almost every leaf, before I realised what was happening, so now I'm being extra careful (I picked off every bad leaf, they will regrow as if they've been cropped). It's not too hard to deal with - you can put fine netting or fleece over the plants, and any leaf miners found can be squished, the leaves composted or burned, but I can't really cover plants in pots (this has also been a problem with regard to white butterflies laying eggs on the brassicas). Now I've started planting chard in the vegetable garden, I had to ensure as little risk of reinfection as I could, so the beets, ready or not, had to come out. This liberated a small amount of space, into which I may plant more summer beans.

Next to the beets I grew a couple of short rows of garlic, about a dozen plants. I ordered the bulbs from a specialist supplier last autumn, but predictably I didn't plant them then, because by that stage the veg beds were overgrown after a few months of neglect. They were still mostly healthy by spring, so I sowed them in modules and small pots, but most never got planted, as I still didn't have anywhere for them. But those that did grew fine, and although they've recently been coated with tiny black flying insects (which don't appear to be a pest) and seem to have a little rust, they have done what they should. The bulbs aren't huge, but it's still a crop! I sowed runner beans a fortnight ago between the garlic and they've germinated, so all I needed to do was put in some canes for support, and the next crop is ready to go. The garlic, along with the onions, has gone in the geenhouse to cure and dry for a week or two, then they'll be cleaned, weighed, and stored.

Onions and garlic in the greenhouse, waiting to be strung up or put on a rack to dry.

After that, it's back to what I was doing before I left. The latest bed to be brought back into cultivation is half done, with vigorous spiraea (a hateful invasive shrub) removed, along with other inappropriate things like Japanese quince and Solomon's seal, and a thick layer of compost laid over corrugated card. In this I've planted two rows of fennel, a row of module-sown beetroot, and most importantly winter squash and shelling beans. Once this is finished, I can turn to other areas that need the same treatment - and yes, this means another sack of compost had to be ordered. I refuse to fall behind.

Harvests
24/07 - 400g beetroot, 40g peas, 190g broad beans, 55g turnip
25/07 - 230g mangetout, 230g kale, (280g raspberries)
26/07 - 280g courgettes, 5g garlic scape (680g blackcurrants)
YTD total: 6.99kg*
*Note: although I harvested onions and garlic on the 24th, I won't weigh them until the tops have dried, as that will give a more accurate result

Mid July

Not quite a glut, but a nice quantity of beetroot. On the left, 'Chioggia' (which when cut open reveal concentric red and white stripes), on the right 'Cheltenham Mono', with long roots (but which have disappointed me by growing very slowly and not swelling much).

I have to go away again. It'll be for no more than a week, like last time, but once again I feel stressed. This time it feels like a tipping point - there are summer tasks I need to have done before I get back, because the end of July really is too late for some things. I can't expect runner beans sown that late to do very much, so any cheeky late sowings of anything remotely tender must be done before I go (and even then, I'm pushing it, but what do I have to lose?). I have got a few things done, planted the first bulb fennel, which should be ready by mid August, the second sowings have germinated - and there's still time for more. At last, the winter squash are being planted. Once again, this is very late - I sowed them at the 'right' time, and can only hope that by potting them on and feeding them, they have grown enough already to set fruit before too long (they're good-sized plants, 18 inches to 2 feet long in most cases, with flowers either open or budding, but they have been a bit constrained). I sowed cucumbers again, because all the previous plants died one way or another, but this time they went in the greenhouse, mostly sown straight into the beds. They'll compete for space with what's already planted, but it's better than nothing. I'm hoping by the time they start taking up space, the tomatoes' lower leaves will all be stripped (this is usual practice when growing indeterminate or vine tomatoes), so they can form an understory. Basil, ditto, but that's not a worry.

My first courgette! I believe this is 'Diamant' (from the first plant put in its final position, a large pot).

Some winter squash will be planted in the polytunnel, as insurance and because there's space in there - they should have extra time to grow and mature in the warmer conditions. Also sweetcorn, which was an unexpected success in there the first year here. Some of the largest brassicas are being fed in their pots as they too ae desperate to be planted. At least some can go in the onion and/or broad bean-pea beds once those are cleared, but in the meantime I have potted the largest ones on again (from 1 litre to 4 litre pots). In principle they can be grown in pots all the way to harvest, if the containers are large enough, but I'd rather not do that because it will involve much more watering. We'll see...

Most other things are fine, at least. The middle sowing of brassicas - cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower done in May - that I repotted a while back are bouncing into growth again (they'd reached a bottleneck), and the last sowing of these have germinated and been thinned to healthy seedlings. Barring slug and snail damage (which has wreaked havoc with them on and off this year so far), they should be good to plant in autumn, for cropping over winter and into spring. That's reassuring, at least - knowing the beds won't be empty in the colder months.

Nine kale plants went into the ground, and I took the three lowest leaves from each for this harvest - it weighed 200g. I could have picked twice as much, but I want the plants to concentrate on growing for now.

Harvests are quite plentiful, with the first courgettes ripening, although they're not prolific (will they ever be?). Lots of soft fruit, leaves, and legumes. Returning to the greenhouse, there's plenty of growth, with lots of green tomatoes and chillies, and even the aubergines are getting ready to flower, so it's not all stressful. The greenhouse so far has been a joy - I don't have to water too often, as the beds are deep and the plants can root into the subsoil, plus I'm using cut-off inverted plastic bottles to drip water deeply, which helps even things out (rather than watering then letting things dry out, back and forth). I get lots of pleasure going in there - especially on a grey day when it's much warmer under the glass than outside - and pinching side shoots, twisting the supporting twine around growing plants, and just enjoying the atmosphere. I don't expect any ripe fruit for a couple of weeks at least, but I can be patient.

13/07 - 110g mangetout, 120g lettuce, 80g (elephant) garlic*
14/07 - 80g lettuce, 95g courgette, (15g raspberries)
15/07 - 200g kale
16/07 - 120g broad beans, 95g mangetout, 20g peas, (315g raspberries, 30g blackcurrants)
17/07 - 95g peas
18/07 - 75g chard, 305g beetroot
19/07 - 110g courgettes, 45g kale, 95g lettuce, (400g raspberries)
YTD total: 5.56kg

*harvested at the beginning of the month, but left to dry a bit before weighing

Strawberries, raspberries, redcurrants, and blackcurrants, stewing with a little sugar for a summer pudding. The smell was delicious!

Toil

The colours of July: pink-tinged mangetout 'Spring Blush', redcurrants, and garlic.

As I have mentioned before (or you could infer from previous years' blogging), normally I give up on the garden about now. But not this year. However, now I know what both alternatives are like, I'm not sure which I prefer.

I keep getting a lot done (by my standards at least) - sowing, pricking out, potting on, removing dead or dying leaves, checking for and attempting to counteract pests and disease, harvesting, planting, pruning, tying in, and all the other small tasks that a garden of any size requires, as well as larger ones like taking delivery of, and shifting the second sack of compost. But it never feels enough, and every day I seem to fall further behind.

When I gave up in years gone by, I felt sad, guilty, and a failure. This time I just feel worn down. There's still a small voice saying 'it won't be this bad in the future, because all those big jobs - building the greenhouse, thoroughly clearing and amending beds, etc - will have been done, and from then on it's just keeping things ticking over'. Well, maybe.

I've had to contend with unforeseen issues. Blackbirds have been a pain since the soft fruit started ripening. We inherited a lot of soft fruit here - redcurrants, blackcurrants, and raspberries - and they have continued to grow and even spread (raspberries are actually quite invasive) without our input. This is the first year I've made a proper effort to harvest them - in the past I picked a bit here and there, but most was left. Well, clearly the blackbirds think it's their fruit, and the laden boughs have started turning bare. They're doing what I've seen them do with elderberries and rowan in previous years - stripping the fruit before it's fully ripe. This is particularly annoying because some fruit can't be picked like that (raspberries just won't pull off the plant easily), and none is worth collecting in that state, as mostly it doesn't ripen properly off the plant. So if they take it before I can, then it's a complete loss.

I constructed a fruit cage around the bulk of the currants (which took a day out of my time that could have been used elsewhere), so they started attacking the raspberries. I put up CDs on string and it seems to have repelled them (it's actually very effective in the sense that I keep catching movement out of the corner of my eye and being startled by them, so perhaps it does upset the birds), and so they moved back to the currants and got in any gap they could find in the netting. Today I decided the fruit was ripe enough (though not fully) and time was short, so I've picked them. Raspberries are trickling in, and will do for some time, but currants are a one hit wonder. There may be enough for a summer pudding and a bottle of cassis, but that's about it.

Another problem I've not really noticed before is beet leaf miner. On the beetroot it doesn't matter, though it's unsightly, but the spinach beet have been ruined - I've not managed to harvest any yet. I have to remove every affected leaf on both crops - and the chard - because if they hatch out they will transfer from one to the other endlessly. The regular spinach all bolted, every time I sowed it (sometimes whilst still in the seed tray), so I'm not doing well on that front.

However elsewhere, harvests are ramping up. I cleared the polytunnel garlic and it should do for some months, and there are around another dozen bulbs from this year's planting still in the ground. I sowed runner beans in between these a few days ago, as I've let earlier sowings linger in their pots for want of somewhere to go, and this should mean they're a good size when I pull the garlic out (carefully!) in a couple of weeks' time. Incidentally, I also sowed borlotti beans amongst the sweetcorn, not because I want to go down the three sisters route (two thirds at least), but because once again space is wanting, and they should do okay if the theory holds. Peas are thriving - I must grow more next year - both shelling and mangetout. The first courgettes did what they always do for me: start to form, then wither before reaching any size, but more are growing and I must just hope they perk up. Kale is a stalwart, although I'm picking lightly as I want them to continue for months to come. The beetroot I sowed direct is still cropping well, I can just grab some when I want it. But so many plants are waiting to go in, some more desperate than others. I have nonetheless sown more, as I need things for later in the year - cabbages for winter, broccoli for late autumn, etc. One good thing is that some of the early crops will be coming out soon, onions, broad beans, and peas specifically, so I will have some bed space for *something* at least, although what takes priority isn't yet clear.

Peas, fresh from the pod! I've always dreamed of growing them well, and this seems to be the year, even though half the varieties I sowed never went in the ground. In my previous garden, they tended to fall prey to snails, but here they've been utterly trouble free.

Harvests
06/07 - 440g garlic, 15g broad beans (shelled weight; 45g in pods), (110g redcurrants)
07/07 - 70g kale, 115g garlic, 20g courgette flowers
08/07 - 110g mangetout
10/07 - 230g garlic, 50g mangetout, (35g raspberries)
11/07 - 650g beetroot, (90g raspberries)
12/07 - 115g peas, (170g blackcurrants, 385g redcurrants, 10g raspberries)
YTD total: 3.915kg

Early July

I only planted the first melon into the greenhouse in the last week - I sowed a batch at the correct time, but none germinated, so I ordered some different seeds, and thankfully they came up, although I didn't get them potted on as soon as I ought to have. However, it seems to have responded instantly, with two flowers opening today.

I did indeed order a second 900 litre sack of compost. Actually, although it's called 'compost', it's rather different to the stuff I've bought in bags from local shops - although they vary a lot too. Small bags from the Co-op are very fibrous and light, while the ones I got from Morrisons were crumbly and had a good weight. This stuff feels halfway to soil, so it's a good texture for beds, but I'm not sure how fertile it is (the website I ordered from claims it's good - this one is for vegetables). You can't judge its quality for at least a few weeks though, alas, until the plants start to thrive or not. But I'll use plant food as necessary too - homemade from nettles and comfrey, and also seaweed and poultry manure pellets, both of which I already had. My fingers are eternally metaphorically crossed...

Crops to come. Above: a shelling pea, either 'Hurst Green Shaft' or 'Kelvedon Wonder'. Below: one of the first courgettes, I think this is 'Diamant' (note this is the embryonic fruit I photographed in this entry.

The bed with broad beans and onions that wasn't thriving has been replanted. I actually left some of the existing crops in, giving them the benefit of the doubt. The top growth of the broad beans was thin and the leaves stunted, but they have started reshooting from the base, and that seems much healthier, even flowering, so I cut back the bad parts and they'll be given a few more weeks. The onions, though weedy up top, had rooted in pretty well, so I've left some of them too. I top dressed with a couple of centimetres of the new compost (this bed was filled with manure originally, which may have been the problem), and then planted in some brassicas. I have a lot of large cabbages and suchlike, which were potted on and on, and now really need to be put somewhere permanent, so they have gone in as an experiment. Three types of cabbage - 'Red Drumhead' (blue-purple), 'Barbosa' (a savoy type), and 'Deadon' (primarily green but tinged with purple) - and some swedes, that probably shouldn't be grown in pots initially, but we will see.

In fact I'd got a bit despondent a week or so ago, because one by one, the big brassicas were being destroyed, probably by fat garden snails - eaten right down to the soil level, no chance of recovery. But having rescued the survivors, there are still a lot of plants, more than enough, so it's not so bad. I had thought every cauliflower was lost, too - the snails(?) seem to like those best, whether seedlings or larger plants, even ignoring lettuces and other choice things around them. But no, there are some left, including 'Romanesco Natalino', which has acid green curds, and 'Clovis' (and later I found a few 'Violetto di Sicilia', with purple heads, and the classic white 'All Year Round'). The former I planted into the bed, the latter are still mostly too small, and I'll pot them on. It will be a few weeks at least before any of these crops are ready, but they are growing, and I must remain patient.

Flowers presage future crops. Above: the first tomatoes to go into the greenhouse beds are now double the size in less than two weeks, with multiple trusses of flowers opening. Below: the third type of shelling pea, 'Alderman' has started blooming, although it's only half of its potential full height of 6-7 feet.

Incidentally, returning to the subject of compost, I have been laying down plenty of my own for the future. For years the compost heap was down the far end of the garden, and I added to it only when I could be bothered, mostly food waste and grass clippings. But this year I'm being much more rigorous about it, so I set up a new pile in a more convenient location, and have been layering on 'green' and 'brown' material (respectively, soft, leafy, nitrogen-rich, and dry, carbon-rich stuff). Well it only took a few weeks to fill to a good level, so I started a new one next to it, but that is already almost full too. Of course all this clearing of space for new plantings generates a huge amount of waste, plus I've been adding plenty of carboard, which is a good foil for the soft leafy stuff that might otherwise go slimy. I've had to water these heaps though, as we've had next to no rain, and a dry heap won't compost at all. I really hope in six months I'll have enough to spread over some of the vegetable beds, saving some money and improving the garden's self-sufficient credentials.

Sweetcorn 'Double Red', which even if it doesn't produce a crop is so ornamental that I couldn't consider it a failure. I haven't yet decided where there will go, so they're being potted on. 'Swift' have been planted into the ground, while 'Incredible' will need some attention very soon.

Harvests
03/07 - 15g mangetout, 40g beetroot
05/07 - 30g peas (only shelled weight counted; before shelling 110g), 70g chard, 90g garlic*
YTD total: 2.1kg

*This is not from the 2018 planting, but garlic I put in the polytunnel in my first summer here, four years ago. Despite not being watered for all that time (until the last few weeks, when I decided given I would grub the whole lot up, I wanted to give it the best chance to crop well), it grew every spring, before fizzling out in summer due to heat and dessication. Garlic is tough! It must have got moisture from the subsoil. It never produced bulbs, but mostly individual cloves; still, it tastes great and has been all the garlic I needed for the past nine months or so.

Drought

The courgette and summer squash bed, at last coming together. I had intended to do this, here, last year. This was a thicket of goldenrod - that must have self-seeded, and then formed an impenetrable, invasive patch. Instead of digging it all out, I'm trying 'no dig', so cutting it down to the roots, putting down a thick layer of cardboard, then a mulch of compost, manure, and coir mixed with seaweed fertiliser pellets, to a depth of at least six inches.

30/06
The heat subsided a little after a couple of days, but there's no rain in sight. The garden beds are okay with that - established plants will be fine for a while yet. But I still have hundreds of pots. It's been an advantage in one sense - as I clear a space and add a load of fresh compost or manure, I can pop them in and it looks instantly mature, like a show garden without the polish, but the downside is that until planted, they dry out very quickly, so they are constantly teetering on the edge of death by dessication.

Meanwhile, my compost came. I was tired of buying it bag by bag wherever it could be found cheaply nearby - the local convenience store, the supermarket, the nearest sort-of garden centre - then running out in a few days. All that potting has burned through hundreds of litres (although it's worth remembering that it'll all go back into the garden, either as the plants are put into the ground, or when they die), but for no-dig, the method I'm using for some of the most challenging beds, I need enough to coat the ground to a depth of several inches. So I ordered a 900 litre builder's bag, and it came on the hottest day of the year. As they could only wheel it partway down the driveway, I immediately had to shovel it into the wheelbarrow and cart the whole lot away so it wasn't blocking the car. Actually that didn't take long, but it's already being used up fast, and I'm contemplating having to get another sackful in the coming week.

I envisage that at *some* point, the garden will require less input. But maybe I'm deluding myself. Surely some of the slack in months to come will be taken by compost made here, and once the beds are thickly mulched, they'll require less anyway. But there's always so much that needs to be done - thirsty pots, seedlings straining at their modules, plants getting too big and crying out for a permanent home. I look at other people with gardens I aspire to, or even allotments, and wonder how on earth they manage - especially with all the other stuff that most people's lives involve, be it jobs, children, travelling, and so on. I feel utterly inadequate. This year I set out to do more than ever before, and I have done, but if 80% of the plants never get to harvest, it will naturally still feel like I've failed.

I am not a thoroughly negative person, but I have to be honest. Perhaps other people have help? I can't rely on anyone else, so it's a constant battle with lethargy and doubt. And still I wait for a substantial harvest, half the year gone already.

02/07
I've carried on with jobs around the garden, and made progress. I'm still in the foothills of the mountain that needs to be climbed, but I'm moving in the right direction. The heat has built again, and there is still no sign of rain...

Harvests
30/06 - 50g strawberries
01/07 - 5g courgette flowers, 70g lettuce
YTD total: 1.855kg