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