Harvesting is in full swing and the usual “Summer Glut” is upon us. These days meals are almost completely vegetarian and even then we have a surplus of courgettes (Defender), calabrese (Chevalier) and cauliflower (Candid Charm) for which neighbours are thankful. These crops soon deteriorate if they are not harvested promptly. The rain earlier in the month has been very welcome particularly for calabrese and courgettes. I use successional sowing but even then lots of things mature at the same time.

Those carrots in section A which actually germinated are doing well under their enviromesh for carrot fly protection. On my last visit there were a few recent germinations from seed sown at the end of April. The organic spraying on the growing points of the peas (Hurst Green Shaft and Onward) has reduced the damage from thrips, but a few plants have been affected. Up till now the crop has been good with typically ten, but sometimes up to twelve, peas per pod. That makes shelling quicker. The shallots (Red Sun) are ready for a little easing out of the ground to assist in ripening. There is now no difference between the earlier and later plantings so next year they will all get planted later. Also, the later planting of the Red Baron onions has reduced bolting. Next year I’ll put them in a further week later. The Setton onions are advanced enough to allow harvesting every alternate onion, that leaves more space for the remaining onions to grow.

The “Catch Crop” of first early potatoes in section B has been lifted with an average of nearly 3 lb. per plant. The vacated space has now been planted up with the leeks (Musselburgh) from their seed bed. I recently saw of someone who grows their courgettes up stakes. I’ll try that with one of the four plants next year to see how it works. There seem to be a few advantages like keeping the crop off the ground.

Not much to say about the brassicas in section C except that they are all doing well. After cutting the main head from the calabrese the spears are now being harvested. I usually get a bigger crop of spears than the main heads and the spears will keep coming for another couple of months provided there is enough moisture.

The main planting of potatoes in section D will start to be harvested next month. In this section I grow mainly second earlies and early maincrop varieties. They can often be lifted before the blight becomes a real problem. There is still a big enough crop to last us a full year and the first earlies are harvested next year.

Next month the summer glut will start to reduce but there should still be plenty of produce from the plot. Hand weeding and hoeing will, as usual, continue.

B. A. Plotter.