This weeks trip to the lottie was again a brief one and thanks to the monsoon like rain we had the day before, decidedly on the damp side. However, the visit this week would turn out more productive and encouraging than any we had yet experienced in 2007.
On first inspection of the plot, luckily we seemed to have suffered little in the way of bird or weather damage (not short of a miracle considering the hideous weather which had preceded our weekly visit) and most things were nicely damp and did not require watering. However there were some disappointments, in particular our lovely cauliflower which seemed to have been hearting up so nicely appears to have blown and gone to seed, dashing most of our hopes for any kind of crop from them this season. But we will persevere to see if anything can be obtained from it and try cutting out the blown centre to see if it can be revived and then hope some of its younger siblings who are not looking marvellously healthy might be able to produce something edible.
'Blown Cauli'
Second problem of the day was another infestation of black fly on our poor broad beans this is despite the various sprayings of very stinky organic insect repellents. On this occasion even the hardy aquadulce was suffering attack from the little swine’s and so a more drastic treatment seemed to be required. Before this commenced we harvested a good crop of large pods for us and our families this week, then set about the infected areas with a sharp knife, removing any large colonies which could be taken without removing too many flowers. However the drastic nature of this treatment could mean we don’t have the harvest we had expected from this season and will encourage us to research other organic methods of repelling these persistent pests before planting in 2008.
'Beautiful Beans'
Following this and after inspection of the most recent sown seeds on the plot we do have other encouraging news, in particular some along waiting success in the germination of our onion and carrot crops on the top of the site. We were also very happy to see the healhty looking onions of various kinds beginning to bulb up and offering many promises of a good season to come. This success has hopefully marked a turning point for this season and if the weather warms up a little bit we hope for a more productive few months to come.
'Stunning Shallots'
Other crops doing well include the squashes and pumpkins, planted out into their final positions which seemed to be getting used to their new environment and beginning to happily sprawl all over their allocated space. The Swedes sown some weeks ago are now thriving underneath their horticultural fleece protection, and another sowing was made to provide us with some slightly later specimens. Beets, celery, cabbages, Brussels and broccoli’s all seem to be coping well and enjoying some prolonged periods of dampness.
'Summer crops'
The biggest success and most positive aspect of our visit this week was the fruit patch which although looks a little like a jungle is turning out to be a very productive area. Despite the distinct lack of any significant sunshine this week we have had 2lb's worth of excellent strawberries from our plants and it is safe to say without boasting they are some of the nicest tasting fruits of its type we have ever sampled and even more satisfying as we grew them ourselves in as close to organic conditions as we could make.
'Sexy Strawberries'
This success however does go hand in hand with some sadness during our harvest of this fruit we did notice a large amount of the smaller unripe fruit had been knocked off of the plants and left to rot on the floor by the heavy rain that we have had. This could limit the number of harvests we have of this fruit this year and so is very unfortunate.
Another triumph from our 3 * 1 fruit patch is the gooseberries, which luckily do not seem to have suffered any such damage at the hands of the weather. The small green fruit of former weeks was replaced with large golden fruits which although slightly mature are ideal for use in desert recipes. The bushes holding the fruit, apart from being protected by netting seemed to have developed their own camouflage mechanism to protect their precious offspring, namely that when the fruits reach a certain size the braches of the bush bend under the weight so only the top is visible and the fruits beneath remain concealed. This makes a wonderful surprise for any gardener however, as when they lift one of these branches they discover a bountyess horde of fat little fruits. Following this discovery we were able to harvest a large punnet full of the biggest fruits for use throughout the week.
'Anoher crumble anyone?'
We also took the opportunity to remove as many weeds as possible from the fruit patch to prevent them hording all the soil nutrients themselves, and removed any rotting fruits to prevent the build up of pests and disease.
Because of all the rain some routine maintenace of our waterbutts seemed required, speciifically the addtion of a couple of handfulls of gardeners lime to keep them free from pests and algaes.
'Lots of Lime'
Our final harvest before leaving the plot this week after only having to water the tomatoes was one medium sized globe artichoke, from the plant we rescued from an abandoned plot last year.
'Cropppppppppage'