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I keep records of each week’s harvest so I can look back and compare. I’m sorry to remind everyone of this but June 2023 was so sunny and rainless that there were rumours of water shortages on Skye. This year June has been more Wintery in nature which obviously has an effect on all the plants. Not what you would imagine though – the brassicas prefer this rainy, cold weather, onions need a cold spell to form bulbs, lettuce and salad leaves don’t like heat and mange tout aren’t bothered either way! Undercover the tomatoes have grown at a normal rate, the actual fruit might take longer to ripen if there’s no sun, but the Polycrub sits between 20C – 30C even if it’s overcast. The peppers I planted have produced a pepper and French bean harvest started on much the same date as last year.

The weak link on the croft at the moment are the birdies. I bought some shiny new chickens in March. To start with I kept them in separate accommodation from the other hens with their own pen. Once they started laying I mixed them with the other chickens and they promptly went on strike – no more eggs! I’ve now put them back in their separate house and pen and we have eggs again. They appear to have been institutionalised! They prefer their own pen which is totally enclosed and off the ground with a wooden floor so no contact with that nasty nature stuff. The other chickens hate being confined and are in a huge pen with lots of trees and scrubby grass and reeds. Some of them still want to escape. The new chickens are unusually placid, there’s no discernible pecking order, they just seem to enjoy lounging on their wooden balcony, snacking on layer pellets.

This week’s Croft Shares will have Spring onions, onions, courgettes, potatoes and two from the following – mange tout/sugar snaps, French beans, broccoli, radishes. The potatoes are from the big wide world (as opposed to the greenhouse.) There are two varieties, Cosmopolitan and Orla, known for being fast growing. Once the first earlies are all dug up, there will hopefully be Jazzy – a nice salad potato, followed by Sarpo Una and Charlotte. I’ve got the maincrops in a separate, smaller bed where I can monitor them and hopefully dig them up before any pest or disease issues in September. The undercover mange tout are running out of steam now, luckily the plants outside have some tiny baby mange tout appearing.

Much tidying has occurred. The greenhouse is mostly tidy, and fully planted for now. I have some beetroot in there which did seem to have attracted the attention of a vole, the vole appears to have relocated and now the beetroot it didn’t scoff is growing fairly well. When it does well beetroot is my favourite crop, it looks attractive, can be eaten raw or cooked and the leaves make a delicious soup. It’s such a good Autumn plant as well, will stand in the ground or can be stored somewhere cool. My plan for more Autumn veg is going fairly well, the follow on crops have been sown, but my leek planting has taken ages. I now have two raised beds of leeks in a cool spot which they prefer. At the start leeks look a bit pathetic but once in the ground are fairly quick to establish. I’m about to do some quick spuds as a follow on crop, this has worked for me in the past but it does depend on what the weather does in September. If it’s warm and rainy like last year potatoes don’t sit well in the ground.

The Polycrub is also much tidier, the tomatoes are pruned and all the old crops and plants have been cleared out. If you’ve never grown tomatoes the best way to do it is to choose cordon varieties and train them to grow up a string. Any side shoots have to be ruthlessly pruned or the whole plant turns into a giant unwieldy tree. I’ve also relocated a great many adolescent spiders. It’s good to see so many beneficial creatures I just don’t want them in my hair.

Next on the tidying rota is the net tunnel, the current batch of onions and most of the garlic has grown over Winter in the net tunnel, this was a really good use of that space. There’s enough protection from the wind but it’s still cold which these plants like. Most of the garlic seems about ready and there’s time for a follow on crop like sugar snaps or broccoli. My plan is to harvest all the garlic and probably all the larger onions, have a thorough weed then assess how much space there is, and think about what could fit in next. I’ve just sown some plants for over Wintering which seems like a weird thing to do a few days before mid Summer, but any plants for growing outside in the Winter have to be a decent size before Autumn or they just don’t grow well.

This week’s Croft Shares will have Spring onions, garlic, salad leaves, kale, sugar snaps/mange tout and one from the following – courgettes, broccoli or French beans. I can’t tell how many French beans there are, it’s a case of pick and see! The mange tout are growing undercover but it looks like the plants outside are about to start producing. These Spring onions are from February’s sowing and are growing outside. I’ll be taking a salad leaf break next week, I’m about to pick the last of the Feb sown lettuce and then I’ll need wait for the outside leaves to grow a bit more. We’re about to reach the non leafy section of the growing season which from my point of view is much quicker to pick!

There are some upsides to all the rain, first of all the ducks love it. Their pond is full and they can spend their days dibbling in the mud. I may be imagining this, but I reckon they lay more eggs in the summer when it’s raining. Secondly, onions and garlic need a good dose of water to form bulbs and finally brassicas do better in cool and wet! Downsides – it makes the weeds grow, the squash are not happy and slugs are multiplying again.

Me and the youngest teen were at the Armadale monthly market on Saturday. We experienced a wide variety of climatic conditions – rain, wind, rain and wind, still and warm with midgies! Luckily this didn’t put off the customers and we had a very good day. Armadale is our best market because we can take the full range – baskets, pendants, cards, eggs, jam and veg. I’ve sold several baskets recently so I think I might have to do a bit of weaving in July. It’s easier in the Summer. The willow is dry and has to be soaked to make it pliable. If it’s warm the soaking time is a bit shorter and more effective. Cold willow is more prone to cracking.

Everything in the greenhouse and Polycrub is growing well despite the dreary weather. The Polycrub is getting a bit out of hand. The tomatoes could do with a good prune and the paths need a weed. The greenhouse is in an untidy, in between phase, there are over Wintered plants in there as well as Summer crops. I’ll be planting courgettes and French beans together in there next, this is always a happy partnership. After Wednesday I have two weeks of no markets so a big tidy up is on the agenda.

Outside the potatoes are growing well. The onions and Spring onions are a bit pock marked after the hail last week but they’ll recover from that (I hope!) The net tunnel proved it’s worth as nothing in there was damaged.

This week’s Croft Shares will have kale, courgettes or broccoli, mange tout/sugar snaps, onions, salad leaves aaaaaand new potatoes! These potatoes were planted in January in the greenhouse for an early crop. It won’t be a huge portion but some of the outside potatoes seem to be nearly ready so there could be more in a few weeks.

Our main weed this year is kale which has self seeded everywhere. We have saved plenty of seed for sowing and there are enough little plants to start a kale farm. Occasionally one appears in a helpful location, most of them are being pulled up though. I’ve just collected pods from last years dazzling blue kale, hopefully before it self seeded everywhere. The kale from our own seed is growing particularly well, I planted it earlier than is sensible and it hasn’t minded at all.

The net tunnel is much improved on last year although it’s still the weediest location on the croft. The net tunnel is the one area where I’ve done proper “no-dig.” This method works perfectly well for getting plants to grow but I think it’s weedier. Even our hot composter doesn’t kill weed seeds. For those who aren’t up on trendy gardening methods, “no-dig” involves spreading compost or manure on the soil surface rather than digging it in. One of the advantages of this method is meant to be weed suppression. The soil underneath is undisturbed so weed seeds aren’t brought to the surface and any weed seeds in the compost are supposed to have been killed off by the temps in the compost bin. That’s the theory anyway. On our croft the opposite seems to be true. A bit of ploughing always knocks back the weeds and a nice spell in a hot composter really gets the weeds off to a good start!

Everything has really taken off in the last week – the French beans are nearly at the top of their strings, the courgettes plants are enormous and all the potatoes are up. There are little baby tomatoes in the Polycrub. I think French beans will be on the menu in a few weeks. The first batch are Cobra green beans. I’ve also planted yellow and purple beans. Last year the French beans were a casualty of the vole menace. The early ones were OK but by September the evil furry creatures had chewed through almost every French bean stem they could find. I also had a bit of a problem with red spider mite in the Autumn. This year there are a lot of actual spiders in the Polycrub, I’m hoping they might enjoy a diet of red spider mite. I am planning to relocate these helpful spiders to the corners, I appreciate the part spiders play in a healthy eco system but I don’t really want them on my face. Currently they are spinning little webs across the French beans, right where my head will be when it’s picking time!

This week’s Croft Shares will have salad leaves, proper garlic, onion onions (as opposed to Spring onions), mange tout/sugar snaps, kale and courgettes or broccoli. The broccoli isn’t growing very speedily so there may be a few weeks of broccoli or…….

Last week I added some photos of recent progress to our facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/EllasCroft/.

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.

I have ten days with no markets, so I’m working my way through a seemingly endless planting list. So far most of the French beans are in the ground, about two thirds of the outdoors mange tout, carrots are sown but there’s still loads of brassicas to go. I sow quick broccoli in succession which results in an unmanageable number of broccoli plants. My plan is to plant all the brassicas this week.

I have deployed the footloose teenager to plant squash outside. I don’t know which he prefers – digging holes or maths revision. Planting squash outside in a windy field is a bit of an experiment but I’ve seen other market gardens in more exposed places manage to get a crop. Squash plants grow to be metres in length so at worst they are a brilliant weed suppressant, at best we get a squash or two. I’m growing the usual red kuri variety, one called Blue Hubbard and Crown Prince, which is pumpkin sized but the best tasting and storing squash I’ve found. Squash do need a bit of warmth so fingers crossed.

The first French beans I planted are flowering so we could have a French bean in June. The Spring weather this year and last year has been quite different to the preceding years. I used to plan for courgettes and French beans in July, now June seems like a possibility. This is good for more variety in June but plants that flower so early can run out of steam by August. I have to do a better job of sowing second crops. Things like French beans and mange tout which crop fairly quickly.

This week’s Croft Shares will have a salad leaf/pea shoot mix, spinach, kale, Spring onions, green garlic and either asparagus kale or mange tout. The mange tout are about eight feet tall now and covered in flowers but it’s hard to know exactly how many portions there are until I start picking. There are baby courgettes now and a bit of broccoli so these will probably feature soon. There will probably be a bit of “either/or” for the next few weeks as quantities increase and decrease.

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!

Such a treat to have a warm spell of weather! For ages my problem was keeping all the little plants warm enough, now I’m trying to cool things down. For years the greenhouse wasn’t fully glazed, one section had a solid roof. Over the Winter Dom replaced the solid roof with polycarbonate and I’ve discovered that on a sunny day the greenhouse is hotter than the Polycrub. Luckily we have a well established irrigation system in there and I can cool the whole thing down fairly quickly.

I have early mangetout in the greenhouse which has sun damage, but it’s starting to flower so fingers crossed. The broad beans outside have flowers too and I’m pleased to announce the first tomato flower!

Potato planting continues. It’s so much faster in dry weather, two boys and one man planted 310 Jazzy seed potatoes in about 90 minutes. Overheating humans could be a new problem though. We aren’t planting all the spuds at once as there’s no way I can harvest them all in one go. One lesson I’ve learned over the years here is that potatoes don’t sit well in the ground on Skye, I think digging and storing from the middle of September is a better option.

I started some brassica planting (cabbages). I’m doing more of a cabbage selection this year. I’ve limited myself to red cabbages in the past as they seem to repel most pests. One of my targets this year is to have more variety available in October, a good cabbage selection could help in this regard.

It’s the first Armadale Market of the year this Saturday. I do really enjoy my Summer visits to the South of Skye. The South end residents love a duck egg, the market’s always well supported by locals and there’s usually some tourists around as well.

This week’s Croft Shares will have salad leaves, pea shoots, chard, Spring onions, asparagus kale and coriander. I can feel the approach of the hungry gap! I’m hoping that broccoli planted this year will be ready to take over from the asparagus kale soon and I have a lot of really nice looking lettuce. Last year voles, slugs and leather jackets ate almost every lettuce I planted. This year seems (so far) a bit less pest filled.

Thank you Betty for the nice comment on last week’s blog – this is definitely curry (and stir fry) time of year!

The fruit trees are looking particularly good this year. We have a mix of plum, damson and apple trees in the net tunnel which all have lots of blossom. In the greenhouse we have an apple tree and a Victoria plum tree. Because they are undercover the blossom sets earlier and both these trees are covered in baby fruit already. We’ve got apple trees properly outside as well – how these trees do is more of a lottery, a freezing cold wind in May can stop bees from bumbling and fruit from setting.

Potato planting is underway. We have a good routine which involves three people – one to dig a trench (the biggest person), one to place the seed potatoes and one to put seaweed or compost on top. It’s all much easier in the sunshine!

All the outdoors Spring onions are in the ground, along with with the cooking onions. I’ve sown most of the outdoor veg in trays. I’m finding it really difficult to find a consistently good seed compost. Even the expensive ones vary dramatically in quality. Compost manufacturers aren’t allowed to use peat in their mixes anymore. This is a good thing, we shouldn’t be digging up ancient peat bogs so I can sow some seeds, unfortunately I don’t think anyone has hit on a good alternative to peat yet. I have made seed sowing mixes using homemade compost in the past but this is a big job, involving a soil sieve and it’s hard to eliminate weed seeds.

This year I’m using kale seeds that we saved from last years crop, these seeds will germinate in anything at all it appears, including a crack in the concrete in the greenhouse. Maybe because the seeds are super fresh. Seed saving is very satisfying, but can be logistically challenging as you have to avoid cross pollination. I’ve accidentally created a cabbage/broccoli hybrid in the past.

I’ve reluctantly given up growing heirloom tomatoes, they just don’t have the yield or disease resistance of modern varieties. I am trying out some different modern types though – Douglas, Sparta and Honey Delight. Anything called Sparta should do well in our unpredictable climate.

This weeks Croft Shares will have – mixed salad leaves, asparagus kale, leeks, Spring onions, Sutherland kale and mustard greens. The mustard greens are called Green Wave, they are very spicy eaten raw but lose their heat on cooking. Mustard greens are a staple of East Asian cooking. In this country we only really see Pak Choi in the supermarkets, and mizuna in salad leaf mixes. There’s a lot more variety available to the home grower, although the growing season is limited to the Spring and Autumn. Mustard greens are great in a coconut curry with some fried tofu or chickpeas. The whole leaf and stalk can be used.

Finally some sunshine, the greenhouse was 35C on Saturday and the ground has actually dried out a bit! Ploughing has begun. We are re-visiting a bit of field we used for potatoes a couple of years ago. It’s ploughing up surprisingly well. It did look very lumpy and weedy, now it looks quite like a potato field. Only about 800 seed potatoes to plant now. This is my least favourite job, it’s just heavy going and seems to go on for ages. We are mainly planting Charlotte and Jazzy, with some Sarpo Una and Orla. Jazzy and Sarpo Una did well for us two years ago. Charlotte is the most easy growing potato I’ve found, a bit prone to scab but will grow in wet clay as well as a bit of a drought. I’ve never been satisfied with any maincrop potatoes I’ve grown, so this year I’m doing some trials in raised beds for good drainage. I’ve got a few red varieties and some pink fir apple as these grow to a good size and store well.

The warmer weather has made everything undercover grow enthusiastically, including the weeds of course. I’ve now got a huge list of jobs and they all need to be done simultaneously. I’ve made good progress in the net tunnel, I’ve planted all the broad beans in there and about half of the outdoor Spring onions. Last year’s Spring onions were pretty rubbish for slug reasons, this year’s look more promising. Next up are cooking onions, potatoes, tomato and French bean planting.

The 2024 craft/produce markets began last week in Portnalong. This craft fair is every two weeks on a Wednesday. It’s a lovely event, lots of nice stalls and a pop-up cafe. I really enjoy the drive over there as well, Portnalong is in a stunning location. Next month I have Armadale which I always enjoy and a new one in the Gathering Hall. I will post details on facebook. What I take to craft fairs varies a bit, Armadale is baskets, jam, eggs and veg, Portnalong is art, baskets, eggs and possibly some veg, the Gathering Hall is timed to coincide with cruise ships so no veg, but crafts and jam!

This weeks Croft Shares will have – mixed salad leaves, pea shoots, asparagus kale, chard, leeks and a mix of coriander and parsley. There are probably enough leeks for a small portion next week as well, then we’ll be moving on to some other alliums. The chard is a mix of yellow and Fordhook Giant. The Fordhook Giant is pretty enormous, it has big white ribs. Chard ribs don’t need to be removed, they aren’t stringy and are really good in a soup or curry.