Onions

My specimen onions 'The Kelsae' are now drying-off before being trimmed and generally cleaned-up. I had been hoping for some larger bulbs, but am reasonably pleased with these, which have been grown from seed. This year, two rows of plants were grown with a row of beetroot between. Next year there will be no beetroot and all the resources focused on the onions themselves.

Gooseberry fools...

We have had a really good crop of gooseberries this season. The green, cooking berries 'Invicta' were picked in late-June and used to make gooseberry fools and other puddings. The small and smooth 'Hinomaki Red' and the larger, hairier variety 'Pax' (both shown below) are being eaten as a dessert fruit.

The nets have now been taken off of the soft fruit to allow the birds to get at any bugs that may have been lurking in the leaf litter.
We are going to remove two of the 'Invicta' gooseberry bushes and an old redcurrant bush in the Autumn and replace them with a yellow gooseberry 'Hinomaki Yellow', a later fruiting redcurrant 'Redstart' and another blueberry 'Gold Traube'.

Edit 12/10/10 : The blueberry 'Gold Traube' should actually be 'Ozarkblue'.

The planting plan will look like this :

Currant affairs...

We have now finished picking our currants and will soon be taking down the nets to allow the birds in to clean up any nasty bugs that may be remaining. We have had an excellent crop which has been used to produce Summer puddings, coulis and an amazing Cassis made by macerating blackcurrants in brandy.

These are the varieties we have grown :

Blackcurrant 'Ben Connan' (Ben Sarek crossed with Ben Lomond)

This variety carries high yields of exceptionally large fruits on a compact bush. Resistant to mildew and leaf curling midge. A good garden choice. Picking time mid July.

Whitecurrant 'White Versailles'

The first white currant in both popularity and picking time. The trusses are long and heavy, the fruits are pale yellow and pleasantly sweet. Very reliable giving good crops year after year. Picking time early July.

Redcurrant 'Laxton's No 1'

Later flowering than Jonkheer Van Tets. Strong growing with a good flavour and heavy yield. Picking time mid July.

Blueberry 'Northland'

An excellent variety for cold climates, it is one of the heaviest producing berries and easy to grow, producing great berries for jams and baking because of their high sugar content.

We also have a redcurrant bush that was originally growing in our garden and then transferred to the allotment. However, this has not performed very well and we will uproot this and replace it with another blueberry.

Withering July

We go in withering July

To ply the hard incessant hoe;

Panting beneath the brazen sky

We sweat and grumble, but we go.

We were certainly sweating and grumbling as we struggled to keep the patch watered and weeded during the hot weeks of early July, but we seem to have been rewarded for efforts.

We have had a terrific crop of Garlic Solent Wight, as shown in the picture below. In the cage on the left, our Cauliflowers Candid Charm are coming along nicely. On the right are my 'prize' Onions The Kelsae with Beetroot Moneta alongside.

In the picture below from left to right : Onions Sweet White Spanish, Leeks Bleau de Solaise and Oarsman, Shallots Banana, Parsnips Avonresistor and then some mixed plantings of Rocket, Coriander and other salad leaves. The shallots and onions were grown from seed and were looking good up until the dry spell, when a few have withered and died. The leeks seem to be thriving, though !

Our 'Three Sisters' bed is growing wildly. There are five stations with Pole Beans Cherokee Trail of Tears trailing around Sweetcorn Zuccherino. Around these are our Squash : Avalon, Festival, Sweet Dumpling and Uchiki Kuri.

The harvest of early potatoes (Nadine and Maris Piper) has been poor because of the dry conditions, but our maincrop (Golden Wonder) are looking very good and we should get good yields once a bit of rain falls and helps swell the tubers.

Heather's flower bed is now predominantly Cosmos and Calendula, but there are some Dahlias growing in there that we hope will develop to provide a show in late-Summer.

Where are our peas going ?

We are now getting a good harvest from the peas and broad beans we sowed last Autumn... and no sign of Pea Moth yet !

A lot of our Summer sown pea and broad bean and french bean seeds have been dug up from their beds by unknown critters and we have had to re-sow and protect the beds to prevent any further theft from these pesky varmints.

As a general precaution for our Autumn sown peas and beans, we will sow double quantities of seeds and ensure that they fully protected over the Winter months.

Long Days, Short Nights

We have been working hard down on the patch these last few weeks as the lack of rain means we have to water our crops by hand.

We are harvesting the early Broad Beans, Peas, Autumn planted Onions (Senshyu Yellow & Radar) and Beetroot. There are also plenty of Strawberries for us to pick.

We are eating much of this immediately, but Heather has been freezing the Peas & Beans and pickling the Beetroot.

Autumn planted Onions are not good keepers, so we are using the Radar for general cooking and I have used the Senshyu Yellow to make 7 jars of Golden Sweet Pickled Onion Rings.

The brassicas (Red & Savoy Cabbage, Calabrese, Kale, Brussels Sprouts, Cauliflower and Purple Sprouting Broccoli) have all been transplanted and are caged to protect them from both Pigeons and Butterflies.

The leeks have also been transplanted into the prepared bed to provide one row of Bleau de Solaise and one row of Oarsman.

May Days

May drifts into June and we are being kept busy down at the patch.

The picture below shows some of what we are growing at the lower end of our allotment :

In the foreground are our potatoes Golden Wonder and hidden behind the low willow hurdle we are growing turnip Purple Top Milan and kohl rabi Purple Delicacy. Lower down on the left are our onions Senshyu Yellow, garlic Solent Wight, shallots Griselle and autumn-sown peas Early Onward.

Looking across to the right-hand beds the same picture shows where we have replanted seedling shallots Banana and onions Sweet White Spanish. Then we have spring-sown peas Kelvedon Wonder and the bed where we are growing squash, sweetcorn and climbing beans. Following down we are growing two rows of onions The Kelsae with a row of beetroot Moneta in between, more garlic and our nursery beds where the leeks and brassicas are under frames to protect them from the pigeons.

The next picture shows our broad beans Aquadulce, onions Radar (which we are already harvesting) bunching onions Ishikura and spinach Fiorana.

The final picture shows the top of the patch opposite our 'ut.

From left to right we have raspberries, gooseberries, currants and strawberries. Next we have the asparagus bed with a young rhubarb at the front end and a dwarf cherry at the other. The bed is bordered with our step-cordon apples and a row of beetroot growing in front.