It's all in the Planning!

Such that I can continue to spend the balmy summer evenings trilling ‘la la la’ in a straw hat whilst picking produce into a trug with the lazy drone of the bees & the scent of lavender in the air, I did a little potting on of the next crops at home tonight.

With the disappointment of not having any Brussels sprouts for Christmas last year, this year I am determined to make John Seymour’s rotation plan work properly - squeezing the brassicas in after the legumes. He says that the brassicas, having been grown in a seedbed then transplanted to a nursery bed, will be well grown when transplanted to their final positions but will be none the worse for it.

So here are the CAULIFLOWER (all the year round), BRUSSELS SPROUTS (Bedford filbasket & Falstaff), KALE (Sutherland), CALABRESE (early Waltham) & CABBAGE (sprouting red) which will all start to go in to plot D (legumes) once I start to rip the spent beans & peas out.

I did notice that the cauli & cabbage in particular had a nasty attack of greenfly, but I had a bit of a brainwave & have been transferring the ladybird larvae (of which there are hundreds on the cherry tree – as it has been a bad year for blackfly, it’s been a good year for ladybirds…) to the affected plants & they’ve made a terrific difference.

By the way, since I went & watered the tomatoes on Tuesday, it’s not stopped raining…