There are a few extra customers joining the Croft Share scheme this week so here’s a quick re-cap of the growing season so far. The mild Winter has definitely given a boost to the undercover crops, all the alliums (onions, garlic etc) in the greenhouse have grown well and so far nothing’s munching on them. All the tomatoes are now planted and are flowering, although the time between first flower and first tomato can be several months, so don’t start dreaming about tomatoes just yet! I have courgettes in the Polycrub which don’t look far off flowering and have planted some of the French beans. Outside all the onions are in the ground, the broad beans have lots of flowers which smell divine, and I’ve started planting brassicas. Last Saturday one man and one teenager finished planting the bulk of the potatoes. There was quite a bit of space left in the big bed we had ploughed so I’m thinking of planting some more first earlies in June for that new potato taste in September.
I always grow a few traditionally outdoor crops undercover in the Spring to try and get an early crop. It’s interesting to see the growth habit of potatoes and mange tout when there’s no wind pressure. Outside mange tout on Skye reaches about four foot tall, in the greenhouse it’s heading for six foot! Indoor tatties produce tall, glossy foliage, several feet high. Outdoors, one foot is more usual.
The mange tout and sugar snaps have tiny little pods now, probably about enough for one each, so I’ll hold off putting them in the Shares for this week.
I am fanatically monitoring the vole situation – so far there don’t seem to be the numbers around this year that there were last year. I’ve started planting French beans in the greenhouse with barriers around the bottom just to be on the safe side. The barriers are made from the left over bits of Polycrub hoop. Polycrub hoops are made from recycled fish farm pens. In other words my vole guards are designed to withstand constant battering from the North sea! If a vole gets through these I will assume they were armed with tiny chainsaws.
This week’s Croft Shares will have salad leaves, Spring greens, spinach, Spring onions, asparagus kale and green garlic. Green garlic is an immature garlic plant, it looks a bit like a Spring onion and can be used in the same way, or chop up and use like mature garlic.
Asparagus kale is not asparagus, it’s a type of kale that has been bred to produce broccoli type spears in the Spring. It can used in the same way as purple sprouting broccoli, it’s also very nice raw. We have endlessly mulled over the idea of growing asparagus proper, so far the plan involves building another greenhouse out of reclaimed windows, so I’m not sure I can see that happening!