June 2008
Unfortunately for us here at Lottieblogs, June followed much the course of May in terms of dissapointment and difficulty, with the cool gloomy days not doing much good for our plants or the hopes of a good harvest.
Although everywhere was very green and leafy we certainly did not have much to fill our expectations or harvest baskets with during this month and on top of this, the destruction and vandalism continued. Still our brassica's and beans were being hammered by pests and ended up looking incredibly sorry for themselves and we struggled to hold out any hopes of salvaging what was left of the season.
The only thing which lightened our visits at all were the lovely floral displays we and our neighbours had managed to cultivate on our plots, especially this year in the form of poppies. These varied, large and spectacular specimines put some of our other favorites such as lupins and nasturtiums in the shade with thier huge, elaborate and beautiful blooms. Good food for the soul, but only meagre consilation for eight weeks of griping dissapointment in the vegetable stakes.
The other area still thriving on the plot was our insuppressible fruit patch and although the cage itself had taken a hammering from the rabbits who had chosen to chew through its sides in order to get to our young veg, it continued to look promising, with a whole throng of immaure fruits appearing before our eyes as the month drew on.
This area also provided us with the only true crops of the month in the form of the ever present Rhubarb and 2lbs of Gooseberries which were a welcome addition in pie form to an early summer picnic one weekend. Check out the Fruit Challenge Page for the exact results and weights.
Summer is time for Garlic pulling, as soon as the leaves have begun to yellow. When the first signs of this appeared on our plants we decided to pull a "tester" bulb to see how they were progressing. We were greeted by a large, round and quite pungent root but somehow gagued that they were not quite ready for pulling wholesale yet. The pulled bulb we dried by hanging it upside down in a shed which resulted in a perfectly formed, aesthetically pleasing and firm specimine and we are now anxiously waiting for the weather to warm up slightly for the rest to follow.
June is also the time for pumpkin plantng, now that the last danger of frost has well and truly passed it is safe to bring out your seedlings to face the world. We dig a good hole, add some water retaining matter such as shredded paper, along with a handful of manure pellets and plant it deep, whereby forming a crater around it to catch and retain mosture as well as protect the young leaves of the plants as it starts. We would always reccomend the use of a weed-suppressent membrane as although they do provide good ground cover, light is not totally excluded by the leaves and so unwanted plant growth can be a problem. Other members of the pumpkin family such as squashes and courgettes can also be planted at this time in the same way. Regular watering and the idetification of the root area with a cane once the plants become established, will stand them in good stead to produce lots of lovely fruits towards the autumn.
Our potatoes had put on a lot of green during thier months in the ground and were not far off beng ready to dig, however the tell tale yellowing and die back of the leaves had not quite occcured yet to spring us into action, so we'll keep a keen eye ountil the beggining of july in case of any signs of blight before we pull them. The tomatoes and chillies were also planted this month, in the area they should have been., but sadly without the monolith due to its destruction earlier this year. We hope the summer warms up to give them a boost.
Our sweetcorn has somehow managed to evade the hungry attentions of our local pest population and been able to establish themselves without suffering any damage whatsoever. Nothing short of a miracle considering the light defense aganist predators we provided them with in the form of a few upturned plastic bottles.