Summer arrives
News and advice from Charles to you
Harvests for a day course on 30th May. Delicious food was cooked by Catherine Balaam, from the No Dig Cookbook.
Some of the vegetables in my photo already have a succession planting growing alongside, such as climbing beans around the remaining kohlrabi.
Quickstart F1 kohlrabi was transplanted 20th March, from sowing late February. First harvests were three weeks ago and I removed the mesh cover on 17th May.. These beans went in three days ago.
There are now cucumber plants, exactly where I had just pulled clumps of multisown beetroot.
For more ideas like these, see my Grow Together book.
La Diva cucumber is nicely sheltered by the taller beetroot, perfect for the forecast winds this week of early June
For carrot harvests, I just keep thinning from a sowing of 28th February outside. In the same rows, I had also sowed a few Rudi radish, which harvested six weeks ago.
The vigorous radish seedlings helped to push up the fleece cover, which I removed a month ago. There is no sign of damage but it might happen in June from carrot root fly, and I'm keeping a mesh cover on the main carrot bed.
No dig sees longer and cleaner carrots, from naturally-structured and agglomerated soil, see my No Dig book
Harvests this spring from my two bed trial are 13.56 kg from the dug bed, and 19.64 kg from the no dig bed. Both beds receive the same amount of new compost every December.
I've been watering each bed a fair amount - and before watering, I notice how some vegetables on the dig bed are looking more limp. It’s like the disturbed, dug soil struggles to offer enough moisture and nutrients for plants, because of the mycelial and bacterial networks being broken.
Kohlrabi from the dig bed weighed 3.87kg, from the no dig bed 6.91kg. All were transplanted on the same March day.
Potatoes in the first photo are last July’s harvest of Charlotte, the onions are Red Baron from last August. both stored at ambient temperature.
Soon I shall harvest the first new potatoes, and you can harvest a few potatoes from existing plants at any stage if you feel carefully around them to pull a few out, rather than lifting the whole plant. Also now you can drop some more compost on top of the potato plants, to ‘earth them up’ and prevent potatoes turning green.
Cabbage Golden Acre, with tall peas on the left, and multisown onions to the right
More intersowings you can do now are carrots and / or parsnips, between any vegetable which will finish in four to six weeks.
Also, it needs to be a vegetable with sufficient space for the new sowing to be made. So that could be leaf lettuce, garlic or spring onions, for example.
Sowing parsnip seed Gladiator F1, between lettuce which will finish in five weeks or so. We harvest their outer leaves every week, until they start to make a flower stem. This is my two bed trial, no dig bed in front.
A big advantage of these companion plantings is that they can share the water, which has become so short for many of us. For example we are watering the lettuce anyway, and that should ensure enough moisture for the parsnip seeds to germinate. Also, there is better moisture retention where there is some leaf cover.
Watering
This has become one of my biggest jobs in the last 10 days, using a hose and tap water. I have Magnostream magnets around the hose to increase plant hydration.
Cauliflower wilting: at first, I thought it might be cabbage root fly maggots eating the roots, but it was simply the soil’s dryness.
Cauliflower revived one day later, after giving giving water
All vegetables close to harvest will give more if you can apply water. And the vegetable which needs most water is celery, at all stages of it’s growth.
My Seed to Harvest course has these kinds of details, for all different vegetables.
Celery Celebrity & Victoria, sown 26th February and transplanted 6th April, with a mesh cover over to reduce aphids. This is after removing the cover on 30th May
Peas Hurst Greenshaft have many pods now, which will swell more if you can water them. It's a wonderful variety and many pods contain 9 to 11 seeds. Leave one plant unpicked so that all its pods can mature and then you have seed for next year.
In the last three weeks especially, I have watered the fennel to help swell its bulbs. It’s Rondo F1 sown late February and transplanted 20th March, with fleece over.
Broccoli Bellaverde Sibsey, a Tenderstem type, transplanted 30th March at 4 weeks old and covered until 17th May. It makes a classic large head for the first harvest, and then throws up many sideshoots such as you see, for up to 2 months if you keep it watered.
The barrel
It's not possible to get water into the planting holes. So I let the hose run for two or three minutes on top, say every two days, and the water trickles down through. So far it's working!
Polytunnel
Watering in the polytunnel, during the recent hot spell, has been every day and even twice a day for the new cucumber plants, which, otherwise are wilting by the afternoon. To help them at that time of day, we laid grass clippings along the south-west side, which is the hottest and driest.
Soon, all the plants will be much larger, and they will shade the soil for the most part. See my greenhouse and polytunnel course for more details.
Cucumbers Carmen planted 18th May, with melons to the right and tomatoes planted 5th May behind.
Sow now
Every month through summer, there are more sowings to make. My priority just now are lettuce which we shall transplant around mid-month, to give succession when the first lettuce plantings rise to flower.
Root vegetables such as beetroot, swedes, parsnips and carrots are fantastic to sow in June. And we are still selling Sowing Calendars, at a reduced price.
Lettuce seedlings three days since sown
A happy visit
It was such a pleasure to meet Joe Lampl, finally! I have known him for 10 years, but only virtually, and we found plenty to discuss!
He brought a tour group of 33 gardeners from all over the USA, and they visited gardens across the south of England, including Chelsea Flower Show.
With Joe Lampl. He recorded a conversation with me, which will be on his new podcast
The shirt I am wearing is one of our new range, including mugs and aprons. I want to find time this week for taking photos of these fantastic shirts, and we are hoping for photo contributions also from Alby, the no dig kid!
