Long
days and the sun high in the sky coupled with warmer temperatures mean
that June and July are the crucial months for vegetable growers. Crops will make a huge proportion of their growth in June/July. But
they can only do this if weeds are not out-competing them, they have
been adequately thinned, there are sufficient nutrients in the soil and
they are protected from pests and diseases.
The outbreak of heavy rain in the south in the last week has left ample water in the soil. Enough in fact to carry crops through into August.
Weeding
and thinning is the most laborious task and this has been the main job
this weekend, with fertiliser added as soon as the weeds are removed.
Cabbage family crops have had a sprinkle of calcium nitrate at the base of each plant. This is an expensive fertiliser, but is very quick acting and the calcium helps to combat clubroot disease.
Other
crops, such as onions from seed, leeks, tomatoes, haricot beans, runner
beans and the pumpkin, squash, gourd and courgette tribe received a
light dressing of growmore. This granular
material is quick and easy to handle and with just quarter of a bag
left I don't want it hanging around for next year! Dribs and drabs of fertiliser are a nuisance to keep unspoilt, without split sacks and to avoid dampness.
The
allotment trading hut closes in a couple of weeks, until late February,
and I shall buy enough materials before then to keep me going until
late winter. In the meantime I aim to get rid of all old stocks.
The weeding is a rough old business of hoicking out the larger weeds that survived the thorough hoeing given before my holiday. I
hope the soil will dry long enough for the hoe to be applied again to
get the plot weedfree in time for the annual Borough allotment
competition on 9 July. So many enthusiastic new
gardeners have started allotments this year that I have felt the need
to pull my socks up and be less dilatory. I think I have a fair chance this year.
In
a break in the rain I applied weedkiller, diquat (Weedol 2), to clear
up edges, uncropped ground, paths and service areas around shed and
compost pit. This should save some time.
I
had hoped to be all planted up by now, but the urgent need for weeding
has meant that I have been forced to delay planting the last of the
leeks for a few days. I find that I have inadvertantly planted two celeriac plants in the celery bed and vice versa in the celeriac rows. The
rainy weather provided the ideal opportunity to address this by
shifting plants round with trowelful of soil to protect the roots. In
other cases, amongst haricot and runner beans some gaps following
sowing were ‘gapped up' in the same way to make a more even row.
More
spent crops were cleared and the newly cleared ground 'turned round'
with generous sowings of beetroot, chicory, Florence fennel, raddichio,
and a little salad. These are for late summer and early autumn.
Peas have shot ahead and I have chanced another small sowing and supported this with wire netting taken off spent crops. This means I have a row of peas each side of my dwarf runner beans. The
runner beans have been browsed by deer (deer relish runner beans above
almost all else) so netting stretched between the rows of peas will
protect the peas from birds and the beans from deer. Despite
the Green Belt being a mile away, with a solid band of suburban housing
in between, roe deer have infiltrated the town and now lie-up on the
railway and golf course beside the allotment site.
Slugs
will no doubt be on the move with the wet weather and the vulnerable
seedbeds have been protected with a very light dressing of the very low
toxicity Iron phosphate pellets. Other, more mature, crops can resist much slug damage and can be left to take their chances.
Weeding aside the easy times are coming. Already,
I am basking in monster amounts of crops; beetroot, baby carrots, broad
beans, cabbage, calabrese, cauliflower, garlic, globe artichokes, kohl
rabi, lettuce, salad onions, globe onions, sugarsnap, mange tout and
ordinary peas, potatoes, radish, rocket, spinach, strawberries and
turnips.
In another month the allotment will start to wind down and by October it will be ready for winter. I must enjoy it while I can.