Currant News

 

Busy weeding, being sick and a week away, I see I haven't posted for weeks.  Yesterday's harvest will have to suffice.

Berry Berry

Be they red, blue, black or green the berries are most welcome at this time of year.

Black?  The blackcurrants seem to be enjoying a bumper year.  What surprised me was that the fruit appeared from tip to toe of each branch.  Here is a picture taken at ground level:

The reason for my surprise was that I have always understood that you want to encourage new growth from ground level with blackcurrants and prune accordingly.  The newer plant (set out in November 2018) didn't yield half as much as the older plants like this one, which also had larger berries.  Have I misunderstood the advice I wonder?

Here Come The Carrots

There is a notable addition to the harvest table this week: carrots. It is also the final picking of the gooseberries, broad beans, potatoes courgettes are all going like the clappers, but it is the carrots that take star billing.  That's because of their problematic history.  We eat carrots all the year around and lots of them.  Only organic shop bought carrots will do, but even these cannot compare with home grown. Yet mastering the carrot is not so easy: They don't like a rich soil (or they will fork). Sandy but not stoney soil is best. Germination can be poor if sown too early or with old seed. Watering is left to nature except in drought conditions (like April this year). Above all you have to take measures to keep the carrot root fly off or you will get a useless tunnelled crop. Fine thrip netting (see below) is the answer but even then there is the danger that weeds will overrun the carrots. Out of sight is out of mind and you will find many warnings about carrot root flies just waiting for you to lift that netting so that they can get access.  It is said that they can smell thinnings from a mile away.  So a lot of people sow sparsely and never thin or weed.  That is what I did last year, and the weeds got the better of a pathetic crop)
After a poor year last year I decided on the double or quits approach and sowed lots. I did thin and weed - just as quickly as was practical. So it was with some trepidation that I dug up the first of the crop. They came up clean, a good size and undamaged by root fly grubs. It looks like we could be eating our own carrots well into next year! 😀

Carrot Protection

Gold

Ready Set... Go Go Go

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!



Go Go Go

Soft Fruit - The Gloaming

Today thunderstorms arrived in Edinburgh.  Very pleased to have the allotment watered, but it has been a bit of overkill.  We've had a very dry couple of months and watering anxiety had set in.

Last night we went to the plot and picked just about the last of our soft fruit. Good timing as it turned out. 

Our one mature gooseberry bush has been coming up trumps this year

We also have solitary red and blackcurrant bushes:

We are onto our third variety of strawberry. After Marshmello, Cambridge Favourite (below) we are picking Florence. These last two failed to produce more than slug food for the last couple of wet years, but have justified their stay of execution while the Marshmello settle in.

Another good producer currently is Mange Tout, Oregon Sugar Pod:

You may have detected an absence recently. We've been on holiday where there is no internet - the Highlands:  Here's a snap from Loch Ness. It was a great evening and we stepped out from a celebratory meal at the Dores Inn to this view of the Loch. We were roaming in the gloaming: