Stuck indoors today because of the rain (hurray) gives me the opportunity to review recent progress. The garlic crops, both winter and spring plantings have been a bit underwhelming. The autumn planted Elephant Garlic and home saved Early Purple Wight and Doocot I feel more forgiving toward. The spring planted Mersley Wight and Solent Wight got all the room and feed they required but turned yellow in early July. Digging them up they were small, showed signs of white rot and in many case developed as two stems intertwined below ground level. While I will continue to grow my own Elephant garlic I don't think the return on the traditional sized garlic is worth it on my plot. Lesson learnt. The picture shows the portion of the harvest that justified storage. Elephant garlic on the left, other autumn planted middle and spring planted on the right. The more fiddly smaller bulbs are still drying off in the greenhouse awaiting assessment for rot and suitability for cooking.
Despite the heat and dry conditions the brassica patch seems to be full and ready for the coming (cooler) brassica season. The thin row is Swedes. To the right are the winter harvested kales. Now that we have had rain I am confident that they will survive to maturity.
Although a bit out of date this last picture is indicative of what is harvesting now. Broad beans have been great and I have staggered further sowings. Courgettes are now harvesting in torrents. Peas have been great this year, and again I have further plantings to come. Raspberries have been ripening daily. That is one days worth of ripened berries.
So all in all I have been very happy with the produce so far this year, even though drought conditions have prevailed until yesterday.
A lovely morning of sunshine, after what seems like weeks of wind and cloud - but no rain to speak of. So off to the plot to water.
Alliums in the foreground. The leeks onions and shallots are green, but the yellow strip is three rows of garlic. (Digging up the first few they are rather disappointing.) The potatoes behind are looking really happy.
And what pretty flowers on the Blue Danube!
Beside the alliums the brassica patch is looking a bit sparse, but is nearly full up now and will come into its own later when the seedlings put on some leaf.
The cucurbits are showing plenty of leaf now. Fruit will follow and an avalanche of courgettes is anticipated.
Separated by a row of broad beans that has been cropping for weeks we have celeriac, celery and runner beans. I have high hopes for all three. The runners have just reached the top of the canes and I pinched out the tops today.
One rather unsightly crop is peas (alongside a second,later, row of broad beans). The pigeons discovered the peas, but not before they had podded. While they decimated the leaves and stems the pods were not to their taste, so we humans got them! Next year either taller pea sticks or netting will be deployed.
Last word goes to the carrots. Not pretty due to the protective net, but they deliver for months provided you keep the net on and the root fly out.
So, all in all, I am pretty happy with progress on the vegetable plot so far this year.
Pride of place has to go to the brassica patch. Brussels, kale and PSB still to come. Far left is a short row of mooli that I keep forgetting to check for root development.
The old potato patch looks like a building site, but there are garlic bulbs planted at this end and two short rows of potatoes left under the fabric.
At the far end are parsnips for this winter and 10 bags of farm yard manure to beef up the fertility for next year.
The contents of the fruit cage looks suitably dormant. I am currently half way through pruning . The net has been removed to avoid the danger of snow damage.
My customary "view from the end" looks a bit bleak but the leeks in the foreground should come on in the spring. The net hides the end of this year's carrots and next year's spring cabbages. To the right of the net are the last of the celery and celeriac. Both were high on expectation and a little short on delivery. ( The white piping is just awaiting deployment as protection for plants)
Just for completion, here is the pumpkin patch, currently fallow. There are beets, root and leaf, under the net, and some spring onions. Beyond are strawberry plants and a wannabe asparagus patch.
Here is the current state of play in my warts and all circuit of the plot:
Rhubarb is at one end (together with a globe artichoke). The bare patch before the blueberry pen and strawberries is my aspiring asparagus patch.
...beyond which is the potato patch...
...then peas and beans (with their scrap heap supports) ...
...climbing beans and cucurbits (currently finding their feet under netting). The cages are protecting celeriac. ...
Beyond that is currently a sight for sore eyes - soon to house sweetcorn and my brassica patch.
That takes you from end to end on one side. Heading back along the other side in the reverse direction you start with the fruit cage. This is three bays (Berries/Raspberries/Strawberries)...
...but the last (former strawberry bay) now has been given over to new salad sowings...
We are big on carrots - but so is the carrot root fly so they have to be covered .
Bringing up the rear are the alliums. Onions to the left, garlic and elephant garlic to the right.
Today it was time to harvest the overwintered alliums. After a dry spell we are forecast some rain every day for the rest of the week. Perhaps I should not be as surprised that the homegrown variety performed so well. This is Doocot with parentage grown in Elgin, Scotland (not far from Inverness). Sold as "really garlicky garlic" I couldn't resist locally sourced stock.
Scottish grown 'Doocot'
Originating from the other side of the world Shenshu Yellow is a proven overwinter performer.
Japanese onion variety Shenshu Yellow
Our elephant garlic is another proven performer. We keep our own cloves for planting each year. This must be about 8 generations down from the first (single) clove we bought.
Elephant Garlic = African or Indian?
It must be noted that we have more uncloven bulbs than usual this year, probably down to the mild winter.
Last but not least is the Early Purple Wight. Some good bulbs, some showing signs of rot.
Early Purple from the Isle of Wight
I have to point out that I consider it an achievement to get an allium harvest at all in Edinburgh. Every row has some gaps and despite adding a handful of sand per clove when planting some succumb to rot. But this year it has been worth it!
The elephant garlic has dried up enough to plait the "keepers". I am happy to report an improvement on my usual laughable attempts to do so. This is courtesy of an internet search for instructions. (How did we manage without it?)
My ordinary garlic got the same treatment. From the picture you would think they were the same size! A side by side shot reveals all:
Only the best bulbs are plaited for storage. There are plenty not so perfect bulbs to keep us going for a month or two.
Soon it will be the onions turn. It is looking like a large crop. Fortunately they are much easier to string, because unlike the plaited garlic they are hanging off a string!
Edinburgh has had a terribly dry, dull, cold April and early May this year but things seem to progressing even before the promised rain of this weekend. My early early row of potatoes has started emerging (and are being dutifully mounded). I've never been keen on watering spuds but I made an exception for the really early ones and they seem to have responded.
The Potato Patch
As you can see there are a lot more yet to emerge. Even the weeds have been discouraged by the conditions!
The soft fruit area is getting a move on too and soon I will have to sling a net over the newly painted wooden frame
Soft Fruit Cage
The redcurrants are shaping up nicely....
,,,and so are the gooseberries:
Three rows of raspberries seem to have sprung to life.
Raspberries
Not forgetting the strawberries
Strawberry Patch
Next door to the soft fruit the alliums are leaning to the light source from the south. The latest planting of sets is to the left and that's two rows of elephant garlic on the right with ordinary garlic between it and four rows of onion sets in varying degrees of development as some were presprouted at home and others set out directly.
Alliums
Squeezed in at the end I've recently planted out the first leeks (Jolant). Not sure where I will put the next lot (Musselburgh) when they are ready.
Leek planting and Rhubarb
Maybe I have been over generous in the space allocated to carrots. All the more because they have to be netted. I really am trying to make a success of carrots this year, being one of the crops that we eat most of all the year round, and yet they did miserably last year. (The tunnel to the left is sown but the hooped tunnel is going to house our main crop - and, hopefully keep out the root fly.
Carrot Nets
These peas and broad been are squatting between the weed suppressant fabric for the brassicas and the WSF for the cucurbits. The runner beans and French beans have been allocated another similar sized area on the other side of the brassicas which is currently still covered with WSF - which won't be removed until the last moment before planting out.
Broad Beans and Peas
It's the bit with the bricks in the foreground here:
Room for Brassicas and Beans
With these preparations and the sowing and growing in the greenhouse at home, and the promise of rain this weekend, it really is all about to go in a clatter!
