Going Potty On The Lotty

After a week out of action, owing to recovery from an operation, I went down to the allotment today. One word, carnage. Squashes, fairly recently planted are yellowing and getting nibbled. All early potatoes have blight and were dug up. It's been the most pathetic yield ever on these, which is a real disappointment given all the new varieties I was hoping to try. Only the Amorosa yielded anything sizeable - thanks for the recommendation Zazen999 - I should listen to you more often! It's one for my list next year. Beetroot was bolting, most of it pulled and cooking as we speak. Leek seedlings look to have rust and they are not even planted into final position yet. Time to pull most of them out and go and buy some...sigh! The broadies that still had lots of life left in them last time I looked, all black and dead. They were pulled out and composted, so no more broadies. The peas are fattening and we should have a fair number of those to go at. The runner beans look thoroughly miserable and boy do I know how they feel. My blackcurrants that I had asked Mr VVG to harvest for me, hadn't been and had fallen off and rotted. The raspberry canes are so high and yet very little yield. What there is has no flavour or has gone mouldy. I don't know whether to laugh hysterically or cry. All my heritage varieties and synodic sowing has faired badly this year. I may resort to biodynamic for 2013 and mix some modern varieties with my heritage, just for back up.
I have pulled the last of the kale. I have weeded four beds out of six. I will be buying large bales of compost I think and mulching everywhere before planting anything else. It's quite obvious that any nutrient is just being washed totally from my soil, which is sandy loam. Nothing else will grow in such dreadful weather conditions, so I give up for now.

PS. I have reported my blight to blightwatch in order to warn others in the area.

Foliar Feeding

Good old Boots Plc. After some signs of magnesium deficiency on my tomatoes and French beans I decided upon an Epsom salt shower. They look perkier for it today too. Just a tablespoon of salts to my big Haws watering can and splash it on all over. Wish it would work on me. Epsom bath time!

Cabbage for Springtime and Brassicas for the Hungry Gap

Yes I know it is still Summer, somewhere...but it's time to think about sowing brassicas for the hungry gap. I have already mentioned Kale, now it's the turn of Spring Cabbage. I had a really great crop from my July sowing last year. So, I will sow only biodynamically on this tomorrow. These may get into my polytunnel, just depends how big the shoehorn is!
My chosen varieties for this year are "Precoce de Louviers" and "Piacenza" from Real Seeds. Never having grown these before I am interested to know if anyone else has and their views upon either of them please. I will also be sowing Broccoli Raab or Turnip Broccoli, variety "San Marzano", another experimental variety for me. It's a quick cropper, turning around a harvest within 60-80 days. Not really a filler for my hungry gap, although if the bad weather continues the hungry gap will be considerably wider than normal.

All Hail The Great Kale

Tomorrow signals a biodynamic day for leaf and with that in mind, I am going to sow some kale seeds then and some more on the New Moon, around the 19th July. These will be going into my polytunnel eventually, so I will be able to run a little experiment as to which germinates better and which grows more strongly. July is my usual month for sowing Kale - Toscana de Nero. I love this variety as it stands up so well to overwintering and to the various pests that come its way in the Spring. It is definitely one for the hungry gap!

Flaming June Becomes Flipping July

What do they both have in common? Soggy ground, snails and slugs. What isn't wind blown, rotted or checked in growth is nibbled. Anyone growing their own is facing a difficult year in growing conditions. One of the worst I've known. There's no let up in the rain and humid conditions, which are perfect for blight. I have had three full smith periods in a two week window. Mr VVG is currently on his nightly polytunnel slimey search. A must if we are to continue cropping successfully in there when all else is struggling out on the lotty.
We are harvesting new potatoes at the moment - win, which are not returning huge yields, but are at least ours before slugs get there. Today's varieties are Shetland Black, Red Duke of York and Lady Christl. They should feed us through the coming week or two. Broad beans are the major success this year, despite their frosting as they overwintered. I suffered quite a lot of black leaves on the young plants, but they have come back even stronger. We continue to pick them every time we visit - win. Peas are coming slowly, but they appear to be struggling with all this wet weather. What we have had have tasted lovely and without pea moth damage. Raspberries are arriving slowly, as are strawberries. Currants need the sun to ripen. Leek seedlings are still in clumps awaiting a dry period so that I can work the soil and plant. Thankfully, I pulled all the overwintering onions up and chopped/froze them. They were beginning to bolt and I foresaw a storage problem. We have four freezer bags of them, ready prepared - win. Garlic, once dried, got blitzed and turned into lazy garlic, white wine vinegar added, popped into jars and stored - win.
I feel it's not been a total wash out despite the best efforts of the wet weather gods...