The Allotted Month - May 2008

This month has seen the end of "Seed Time" with the prospect that June will be a bit more relaxed. The plot, apart from transplanting the leeks in July, is now fully planted up and everything seems to be growing well.

The potatoes in section A have now had their second earthing up with two more to come in June. There is a popular, but mistaken, belief that potatoes have some kind of magical weed killing ability. What is true is that the whole process of growing potatoes does help to clean up the ground. It is not the potatoes themselves that do it, but all the hoeing and earthing up that covers and kills the weeds. Also the fact that, as soil is scraped from between the rows, more weed seeds come near enough to the surface to germinate and be scraped off with the next earthing up. When the leaf canopy closes between the rows it makes any remaining weeds spindly but the down side is that they are more difficult to spot for hand weeding.

For carrots, sowing before the end of May is my aim and that was just achieved this year. Sometimes an earlier sowing has failed and the replacement, as late as June 20, has gone on to perform well. Also in section B, the shallots, onions and peas look good with some concern about the Red Baron onions which are showing a tendency to bolt. This has happened before so I may drop this variety next year. Peas are grown as a single stem cordon up canes. This does mean a bit more work in tying up but the benefit is that harvesting is very easy with all the pod bearing spurs sticking out from the stem so that no pods are lost in the foliage. Also, each pod has about ten peas and that makes shelling quick.

To make good use of the ground a "catch crop" of the earliest First Early potatoes is grown in section C. They'll get lifted in early July and replaced with leeks from their seedbed. This early lifting means that any potato root eelworm doesn't have time to mature and shed their cysts.Llast year the courgettes didn't do very well. This year they look fit and healthy.

I'm growing all my old favourite brassicas in section D except that this year I'm trying a row of Revenge sprouts. They'll have to do well to beat the Maximus. This is the only change to crop varieties this year.

I always like to try at least one new variety somewhere on the plot to see if it outperforms my "tried and tested". For interest, my favourites are listed in The Allotted Month for November and December 2007.

Next month harvesting will start with some of the early potatoes and go on until March next year. It's a comfort to know that four months of "seed time" leads to ten months of "harvest". With stored, frozen and preserved crops, we eat at least something from the plot all year round.

B. A. Plotter.