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