This week’s Small Share (week four) has asparagus kale, salad leaves, green garlic, red Russian kale, chard and mixed herbs.
I was in two minds this week about whether to start picking the Spring onions. There would have been a few per customer. I decided patience is a virtue and will wait for more to be ready at once. Spring onions left in the ground just turn into bigger Spring onions, they don’t grow into an actual onion and they don’t seem to bolt.
The red Russian kale is the one with the frilly edges and the pink ribs. It is good in soup, stews, curry and stir fries.
I’ll do a smaller bag of chard this time and put in the remaining spinach. The spinach plants have resisted bolting and have produced a few more big leaves.
The salad leaves are a mix of rocket, pea shoots, sorrel and mustard leaves. There might be some lettuce leaves soon.
The plantathon continues – the Polycrub is filling up, now we need some irrigation as the watering is taking ages.
In the greenhouse I have to juggle the over Wintered veg that I’m still picking with Summer veg which needs to be planted. I have to maintain a constant supply of baby plants to fill in any gaps. All the little brassicas and legumes are waiting to go outside.
In the middle of May the second big round of planting begins, all the brassicas can go outside and I spend a lot of time staring anxiously at them looking for signs of a creature attack. This year I have a new pest to contend with – Leatherjackets. These are Daddy Long Legs babies. I like Daddy Long Legs but not their unpleasant offspring. These horrid little grubs eat roots, which is pretty unhelpful. They seem to be concentrated in the net tunnel so I’m going to plant mostly legumes in there as the Leatherjackets don’t seem to like them. It’s a good place for peas and beans as it’s nice and sheltered.
The hens are still laying with gusto if anyone would like to reserve some eggs.