Change of Plan...

I had what I thought was a particularly smart idea – by planting the brassicas in between the rows of peas in the legume bed, the strings from the pea frames would form protection for them, & when the peas were all finished & the frames taken down, the slower growing brassicas would have space to mature. Brilliant!

Not a hope.

Having returned from a week away (in which time, incidentally, someone would appear to have swapped the full-length mirror at home for a fairground version which returns a far larger reflection than can remotely be the case in reality), I couldn’t wait to go to the Hill in the drizzle today to see what’s what.

Well, I am clearly not the only one to have had a dined lavishly in the last week or so – the pigeons have taken the opportunity to decimate virtually all the brassicas – only the CAULIFLOWER (all the year round) & the BRUSSELLS SPROUTS (falstaff) have a hope of recovery, I think. Boo.

So next time round I either plant all the brassicas together so that I can net them, or maybe I can get away with not planting them out until a month or so later, when they would be larger plants, & maybe better able to withstand pigeon assault.

Whilst away I read the excellent Digger's Diary by Victor Osbourne – the author’s ups & downs of allotment life led me to variously nod in sympathy, shake my head ruefully & take note of a couple of really excellent ideas that may work for me. It amazes me how much I have learnt from other growers just having a go, as opposed to the ‘how to’ text books. The number of times you hear an on-line gardener saying ‘well, I planted like this, & have never had such a good crop’, or speak to an allotment holder at the Hill who says ‘I’ve always done that, & it works really well’.

Perhaps the moral is that no text book can offer a fully comprehensive instruction on growing for your aspect or location, & that the rules aren’t really hard & fast anyway, with the weather or other factors changing year on year. I’m sure that I’ve heard someone describe vegetable growing as an art, rather than a science, which is both the frustrating challenge & the ongoing delight.

Apart from the pigeon damage, the rainfall in the week following 2 or 3 weeks of dry weather has bought everything on a treat – including, inevitably, a fresh batch of chickweed & poppies. The STRAWBERRIES have responded to their vigourous weeding recently & are in flower, & BROAD BEANS (barry plot19) almost so, the POTATOES are nearly all up. Close scrutiny of the row of CARROTS (manchester table) reveals just a bare handful of seedlings – well, as least they won’t need thinning out.

I picked a large handful of sprouting spears for steaming from what I think will be the last of the KALE (Sutherland), & I just couldn’t resist picked the very first of the new season’s crop, a little LETTUCE (stoke) – just a single portion for a sandwich tomorrow, but my excuse is that it thins the row out a little which will let the others grow on.

And tomorrow I’m going to have to do some serious record updating - going round all the seeds on the windowsills, outside & in the mini greenhouse to get to grips with the next lot of planting out which in turn means making a final decision on the bean frame layout…