Outside, all the potatoes are now showing in the fields. Ian has urgent plans to plant out summer brassicas, celeriac, French and runner beans as they are all jumping out of their pots and modules in the polytunnels and the cold frame which is netted against birds taking their pick of the goodies there.
Now that the area which Maxine from Halls of Heddon arranged to have ploughed for us some weeks ago has been composted and weeded, it needs to be rotovated so that the summer squash can come outside and sprawl as they do. Another urgent job!
This morning Sean was busily working on the area in the polytunnel and planning the construction of the climbing frames for the cucumbers. And the bottom tunnel has been cleared ready for the peppers to be planted there. That all adds to the urgent work between the regular watering of tomatoes in the polytunnels!!
Chard, carrots and parsnips are also already in the ground in the beds planned for their rotation this year. Jude was busily weeding the next bed for the sowing of parsnips this morning. Successional sowing is all important to keep the crop share boxes as full as possible for as long as possible with home produced items!
It may be necessary to arrange a trickle water system on the fields using the large tanks on site if the weather continues dry. Of course this ties up the trailer which moves the tanks from the tap to the site to be watered as they can’t be unloaded until empty – something to do with the weight of the water!!
However, the trailer may well be needed to move the recycled compost from Chopwell Woods (arranged by Maxine from Halls of Heddon – thank you Maxine) from the bottom of the field to the polytunnels at the same time. A difficult decision indeed for Ian.
Ian has a row of radishes that he has left to flower so that radish pods can be included in future crop shares. These are widely used in Asian Cookery but can be used in salads or pickled.
Jerusalem Artichokes
Talking of slightly different crops, Ian has a patch of Jerusalem Artichokes just peeking through the ground in a distant corner of the fields.
Given the right weather and a fair autumn these will make a different addition to the autumn crop shares later in the year.
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