Crop updates, Garden Organic and Heritage Seed Library

Another gorgeous weekend and I have digged the last 5 pounds of potatoes and planted green manure in most empty beds. And had to water seedlings, curiously enough after this summer’s weather.

Unlike the corn, tomatoes in the greenhouse are almost ripe, I have cooked a second torta pasqualina for ourselves and the neighbours, and put dried herbs in jars, which – with a bit of decoration – will make nice Christmas presents.

I am back to work and with the shorter days I cannot be at the allotment during the week… to compensate for the “loss” and at the same time to celebrate my being back on the payroll, I have invested a little bit in memberships to Gardening Organic and the Heritage Seed Library.

A bit like open-source software, some varieties of seeds can only survive if geeks – enthusiasts – provide some TLC. Otherwise – not having made it through the market screening – they are destined to die out, and their biodiverse genes do not get a future chance.

I will be sent some six species or non-commercial seeds with my subscription, and – very appreciated – I got another couple as a welcome present! My collector’s ego is all aglow…
And if I ever have any questions on how to grow the natural way, Garden Organic provides an advice service, in addition to the available information resources (last week I linked their comprehensive information on weeds).

If I make it through the next couple of business-busy weeks, I will read through the material they sent with the subscription, including how to compost with worms.

Good weather and crop updates

Amazing weather these last three days, it was a pleasure to be outside and I took advantage of it to finish digging my last but one bed, and to plant spinach, some more cime, turnips, salad and barbe di frate. Hopefully tomorrow there will be a good shower and then sun again.

I am so happy to say that that tomato leaf mould seems to be receding, and the tomatoes in the greenhouse have a visible reddish tinge to them: how exciting! Finger crossed…

Talking of solanacee, I have experimented with plastic bells to cover the chillies, afraid that it might be too cold for them at night. I have a feeling that the stagnating air inside the bells might not be too healthy, but will check them in the next couple of days and see.

French beans still doing well, with another 500gr picked, and the Borlotti beans are on their way. However, I have made a mistake fixing the labels in the ground which – together with my wobbly staking – makes it impossible to tell which plant is which (apart from the Borlotti that stand out quite conspicuously with their red and green pods).

Pumpkins also growing, but the sweetcorn’s inspection was a little bit of a disappointment: cobs do not seem ripe yet in spite of the tassels at the top turning brown a while ago (I would say one month in some cases).

I have finished transplanting all the strawberry’s runners that I had kept in water to root, and it felt like an achievement. From the initial 12 plants, I have filled a bed and started a second one: if they live, next year there should be a good supply. It seems that Honeoye has been putting out runners for some three months and Alice has started one month or so ago, but Florence has none, maybe because it was the best cropper and all its energies were spent fruiting.

Good news, there are also two tiny aubergines emerging from the spent flowers’ crowns.

Bad news, my war on slugs looks nowhere nearer the end…

Wildlife pond, slugs, crop updates, self-sufficiency and stocktaking.

I have finished working on the pond: now it has a toad cavern, a sunbathing platform for frogs, and waterplants in it.

For the rest, nothing very exciting: the herb bed needed weeding before I cover it up for the winter – it seems it won’t be long before night temperatures plummet.

News from the animal kingdom: all cabbage white caterpillars either pupating or drowned, the slugs are taking over as insect of the month. I have been killing them in dozens, and I was also “lucky” to uncover a handful of eggs under a stone, which I squashed one by one with manic patience. Small slugs I cut in two with scissors because they have this habit of propelling themselves away when I try my favoured method: jumping on (disgusting as it might be, I favour the method as they die straight away, without apparent suffering).

Thinking of it better, though, there is something quite exciting: this week for the first time I have been as self-sufficient with my vegetable supply as I will ever be this year. Potatoes, onions, shallots and garlic already harvested and stored, courgettes and flowers picked almost every day, French beans, perpetual spinach (a bonus, as it grew from self-seeding rather than me planting it!), green tomatoes, salad, basil, mint, sage, oregano, fennel, parsley. In case of emergency, I even have some frozen broad beans left. And – shortly – Florence fennel, sweetcorn and leek will be ready.
Following from that thought, I have decided that – if I plan properly and time it carefully – next year I might well be self-sufficient on vegetables most of the time. To achieve that result, I think I will need:

• a plan of what to plant each month of the year, including companion planting and catch crops,
• a space ready for planting (now I am a bit stuck as I could plant things but the beds are not ready yet).

So, yesterday, I started my “professional” stock-taking.

I have a spreadsheed where I am trying to keep track of expenses, yield, stock of seeds and plants. Quite a sizeable stock (179 species for next year, to be precise – I am a collector by character, no doubt of that!). Which stock, taking advantage of a cooler, gray day, I have catalogued and sorted by month of planting.
During the winter, I will need to assess the family of belonging of the plants, and find a suitable place for them in my 4-year crop rotation. I think the most difficult thing will be keeping in mind all the relative lifespans of the plants so as to introduce catch crops and plan timely succession.
I do not know if I will manage to be that precise anyway, though, gardening is after all my hobby , I should allow myself to leave some spontaneous enjoyment in it!

Male or female asparagus, slugs, wildlife pond, crop updates.

I was all set on pulling the female asparagus plants today: my plan was to create a separate bed only for them. However, when I got there no sign of either berries or yellow flowers (that yellowy thing in the picture should be one). Now I am not sure which plants I have to pull, so I suspect I’ll leave it for this year. It must have been birds, as slugs would leave traces on the plants as well, but there was none.

Talking of slugs, they are really the major pest in my allotment and I will have to come up with some serious plan for next year – the cime have all gone, most of the new round of turnip’s seedlings disappeared, the salad patch is a wasteland and several of my potatoes have been tunnelled into by as many as 10 slimy creatures together.
Today I have bought collars woven with copper fibres and I think I will have to resort to nematodes as beer traps have not worked: more ground beetles than slugs drowned, which is no good as ground beetles feed on slugs and knocking them off is not a good move.

I have planted Marsh Marigold and Purple Loosestrife in and around the pond respectively, and had a go at creating a toad cavern with flint and a spare tile I found abandoned around, let’s see if it stands the weather this winter. As soon as the pond gets clear again of the mud I have stirred today I will create an island for the frogs to sunbathe on, by placing bricks on the bottom of the pond and a concrete slab on top, as suggested by VeggieGlobal.

The pumpkins are growing quickly and so are the French beans. The transplanted Florence fennel is putting out new feathery fronds, which I decide to interpret as a good sign, hoping that the bulb will follow after the leaves. I managed to pick one ripe tomato Tigerella from the greenhouse, while a handful I had to throw because they were diseased. Finger crossed for the rest.

And the only surviving chili plant has one single flower on. I am wondering whether I should cover it now before it gets too cold. After all the hassle to grow chilies, I hope this “Hot Mexican” is a perennial species, I may still find the seed packet and be able to check.

On watering and rain, pumpkin or squash, male or female asparagus.

I hate watering, and last summer I had to do quite a bit of it, hence my raindance, which incidentally seems to have worked far too well! It is incredible the amount of rain that has poured in the last few weeks, and it doesn’t look as if it is over yet either… However, over the weekend I have sneaked briefly to the allotment in the breaks between showers.

The French beans are doing well, despite the wobbly staking; I picked my first 150gr and had them simply boiled with olive oil – they tasted amazing, so fresh!

Pumpkins have decided they will take over the plot and are doing their best: I spent most of my time today pulling strings for them to run on. I was not aware that the flowers smelled so strong and sweet, and it is lovely to see the fruit forming.

I have called them pumpkins but they might well be squashes: I do not know exactly what they are as I saved some seeds from my organic vegbox last year (when I was still a newbie gardener ;)) and did not think of writing down the name.

I am happy they are doing well also because I shared some of the seedlings with Claire, who only got her allotment in July and was starting from scratch. Although I warned her I was not sure what would come of the plants, it would have been horrible if they turned out to be worthless!

Pull out or not? Pull out or not? The best of my asparagus fern has berries on it, and the second best has yellow flowers… apparently female asparagus (the one with the yellow flowers and berries) is lower quality, so the instructions that came with the crowns suggested to pull out any plants that ended up with berries on them. I have done some research tonight and it is confirmed that the yield is lower on female plants; moreover, seedlings from the berries lead to overcrowding of the bed. Will I manage to pull a plant that looks healthy and beautiful? This is the time for me to think of the bigger picture and sacrifice a couple of plants for the greater good…