The Allotted Month - June 2008

This has been quite a quiet month compared with earlier in the year. As I said last month, all the sowing and planting is finished and the crops are growing well with the recent rain. Keeping on top of the weeds is never easy. As far as possible, all weeds on the plot are removed before they seed but the plot gets its share of wind carried weed seeds like dandelions and willowherb. One weed that I've had for 20 years is Mare's Tail and there are always a few bit that appear. I dig them out as deeply as I can but now that crops are in place I can use only a trowel. One year it will finally be defeated but that may be a few years yet.

One crop that I sometimes have problems with is carrots. In the past my home made seed tapes have been a success. Last year they failed and this year the germination has been poor. With a three inch seed spacing no thinning is needed and this reduces their attraction to carrot root fly. But we will be eating shop bought carrots this year. Also in section B are the onions and shallots. The Red Baron onions in particular have had a lot of seed heads appearing. This seems to have been a common problem this year for that variety but is has also affected the shallots. The seed heads have been removed but I expect that there will be a lot of thick necked onions, They'll be used first as they don't store well. There has been some evidence of thrips on the growth points of the peas. Affected plants were sprayed with and organic pesticide, probably soap based. But this seems to have affected the plants so next year it will be back to derris, also an organic pesticide and one which hasn't given problems in the past.

The farmyard manure that I get comes with its share of weed seeds. Section C had the dung buried under the top spit in 2006 for potatoes. No digging was done in 2007 for the brassicas and the ground turned over this spring bringing the well rotted dung to the surface. This also brought the seeds to the surface and a lot of hoeing and weeding was needed.

Some of the wire mesh pigeon cages have been removed from the brassicas in section D as the plants have grown too big for them. By now they are less attractive to the pigeons but when the plants are small the pigeons can completely strip all the leaves overnight. Unusually this year, a few plants are showing signs of cabbage root fly.

Pay back time has started with a few peas but next month there should be calabrese, courgettes, early potatoes, summer cabbage, a few onions and shallots and perhaps some celery. As always the hoe will be busy with hand weeding close to growing plants.

B. A. Plotter.