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.