This week I need to do some slightly risky crop clearing to make way for more of the Summer veg. I say risky because I’m betting on early Summer plants getting a move on! I’m going to pick all the mustard greens so that I can plant some very cool stripey French beans in their place. The lettuce are growing in between the tomatoes and the tomatoes need more room, so out of the ground lettuce must come!
There are a lot of elephant garlic scapes this week and some more Spring onions.
I’ve learned not to count my vegetables before they’re in the bag, but I’m pretty confident there will be sugar snaps, cavolo nero, onions and courgettes in the next few weeks! (All the usual caveats about the weather and plagues of locusts apply.)
At some point a Small Share will have five items (rather than six), once the Summer crops get going and the quantities are a good size.
I will start Large Shares in July. I’m still deciding on when to start Medium, it could be from the start or the middle of June. Medium will have seven different types of veg, Large will be nine plus.
Sadly I think the asparagus kale is winding down, the shoots are getting thinner and trying to flower. There are still plenty of leaves though.
Last year was a terrible year for courgettes, I think I got my first courgette in July. This year I had a courgette flower last Saturday. I don’t know if it’s the weather or the Polycrub. I’ve also got French bean flowers now which is about three weeks earlier than normal. Everything in the Polycrub has suddenly taken off, the tomatoes are thigh high and the broad beans suddenly look more promising. I grew a lot of them over Winter which always makes plants look a bit battered. They are looking a lot healthier. The Polycrub is shaping up to be an excellent growing space.
The plantathon is nearly over, almost everything has been planted. Now the weeding and mulching begins.
This week’s Small Share (week seven) has one or two lettuces (size dependant), mustard greens, asparagus kale/Sutherland kale, spinach, pea shoots and some alliums (see last week.)