Wow, the weather here can vary very dramatically. Last Tuesday I had to get up early to do all the picking before everything wilted in the heat, on Wednesday I was planting sprouts in waterproofs and a woolly hat, then on Sunday we had perfect midgie swarm conditions. Despite the changing weather I have succeeded in planting most of the current batch of plants! Hurray for that. I have many beds of brassicas and Dom has done the neatest squash planting I’ve ever seen. We’ve used every last scrap of compost, manure and grass clippings. The kids have been a big help, the youngest sieved a big pile of lumpy earth and the middle one is now an expert weeder.
There is still at bit of planting left – leeks, salad leaves, more mange tout but this can happen at a slightly more leisurely pace. It’s also about time to start follow on crops. My ambition is always to have every bit of cultivated ground planted with something, we’re nearly there this year. I’ve one area still covered in black plastic but it’s ear marked for late broad beans and more broccoli.
I’ve had yet another go at growing kohlrabi in the greenhouse, they haven’t been slugged this time but the foliage is enormous. I always viewed it as a small, beetroot sized plant which could fit in a smaller bed, rather than something of triffid proportions. I’ve got some growing outside too, maybe it’ll be smaller under less favourable conditions. It’s not normal to want something to be less lush but in this case it’s getting in the way.
This week’s Croft Shares will have salad leaves, Spring onions, mange tout/sugar snaps, chard, kale or broccoli and herbs. There look to be a lot of mange tout and sugar snaps this week, so plenty for everyone. I also have a few garlic scapes this week. A garlic scape is is the flowering stalk of a garlic plant, the actual flower isn’t that nice but the stalk is very good cut into batons and fried in butter or olive oil. This week will probably be the last week of Spring onions from the greenhouse, we just have to wait for this years outside plants to be ready, probably in a couple of weeks. There are some small cooking onions in the greenhouse which I might start pulling up. I’m not convinced they’re getting any bigger now.