Peas and broad beans are the mainstay of mid-summer supplies.  The over-wintered mange-tout ‘Oregon Sugar Pod’ peas did not do well.  Instead of ripping them out, broad beans were ‘stitched’ into the surviving peas.  As they get different pests and diseases the ailing peas won’t affect beans as they would peas.  There are enough pea plants to take a very light picking if all goes well.

The stitched in beans have emerged very well and will follow the early crop of over-wintered beans and the rather more numerous beans that were sown early to fill in the many gaps in the over-wintered beans after mice had done their worst

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Getting crops established in the most demanding but also the most interesting time of year for allotment holders.  This year (so far) has been brilliant, especially compared to the wet and chill of last spring.

Carrots are up and growing well.  Many years re-sowing is needed, and in fact I once had to sow six times before the crop was properly established, by which time it was July and the crop’s yield potential severely reduced.  Early finger carrots, ‘Amsterdam Forcing 3’, are now very well developed and the next sowings of ‘St Valary’ and ‘Campestra’ have emerged.  The former has emerged rather patchily suggesting poor quality seed, an all too common occurrence with non-commercial cultivars where seed production is less stringent than is ideal.  If the gaps are serious I usually just dib in a few seeds of beetroot to fill in the gaps.  Unlike other crops, carrots do not transplant well.  Having said that, another allotment holder transplanted his carrots last year and they did quite well.  Whether this was ignorance on his part or whether this is common practice in his native India I cannot now ask him as he has left the district. 

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Getting crops in the ground and growing is the critical task now.  To do well crops need plenty of leaf in June/July when the sun and temperatures are highest, days are long, and in this dry district they need roots deep in the soil extracting moisture.  Unless established in April they are in a poor position to take advantage of summer weather.

The red onion sets were planted out through black groundcover membrane to avoid the need to weed.  Foolishly I had not noticed that the packs only contained 50 sets this year instead of the usual 75 (same price of course), and I had a shortfall.  To fill in the gap some onion ‘Hyton’ seedlings were bought from the Wisley plant centre

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With the ‘Accent’ early potatoes emerging beneath fleece and polythene it was time to plant the rest of the earlies and second earlies.

First early ‘Lady Christl’ was set out in two rows at 50cm centres, allowing 30cm between tubers.  The ‘Accent’ should crop in June. ‘Lady Christl’ in June/July and then it will be the turn of the second earlies

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There is real warmth in the sun now.  After raking and stirring the soil to harry the slugs last week, weed seeds germinated and the uncropped ground began to green.  Another raking laid waste the weeds.  Their silvery stems were exposed to sun and drying.  As a bonus the twice raked ground is in perfect condition for sowing and planting.

Although the last set of sowings are now through they are not yet far enough advanced for the next successional sowing of lettuces, radishes and broad beans.

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