he New Plot Gets A Makeover…

 21st/22nd July 2022 - The New Plot Gets A Makeover…

As you can see in the first picture we have started working on a bit more of the new plot. The white door has been moved and placed in front of the compost bins and slabs have been put down. We have erected some simple pallet supports for Melons which will go into the ground imminently, and we’ve dug over more of the ground. It’s hard work, but “needs must”. Not sure whether we’ll get any success from the melons as we are terribly late but the plants that have survived need to go in the soil somewhere.

Down on the sweetcorn plot, all is going well. Being the first time for the English contingent here (which comprises of Chris) to have ever grown sweetcorn, lots of curiosity is going on. The white wispy strands at the top of the corn are the self pollinators of the corn! Desi calls it the "corn's hair" (very poetic 😉).

The butternut is beginning its run! Now approaching the edge of the patch, so this will need training along somewhere.

Down behind the Purple Sprouting, the first crop of onions has been picked and now we have sown carrots, and cave placed the Cloche over them to assist in their initial growth.

The plot in front of the polytunnel is filling up nicely. Plenty of tomatoes, and the Courgettes are starting to get massive as we knew they would. Next step for them is to try and train them up some sticks, in some way. The last of the 4 courgettes here got off to a slow start and so this is lagging behind a bit.

The bottles on top of the sticks are to prevent anyone getting their eyes poked. Plus they do rattle a bit in the wind, to keep the birds away.

A close up of one of the courgette plants reveals that there are plenty of courgettes on the way, here we go again looking up recipes to deal with the glut. There is however always some way to use courgettes and keep it delicious too. Once again freezing for later comes in handy.

What’s happening inside the polytunnel? Well the peppers are growing, the aubergines are also in, but they are again late, like last year. There is some problem with Aubergines growing alongside peppers and tomatoes, but we’re giving it one more try this year. On the other side of the polytunnel, the tomatoes are growing well, some more peppers are doing ok… looks like the spring onions are growing well but the Marigolds are taking over, they seem to absolutely love it here. The basil is doing well too, a bit of companion planting with tomatoes seems to be working.

Back behind the polytunnel, on the new plot, in have gone the melons! Perhaps we will get something but not convinced as we are very late with them. In the structure supporting the back of the polytunnel, the second box is now installed. The wood colour is a bit bright as it hasn’t been treated yet.

After all the digging and hard work a very welcome cup of tea, and a cucumber!! (cup is for relative size). Looks like a courgette, doesn't it? Same family, related cousins. Talking about courhettes, the frequency of harvesting them is likely to step up very soon. We have 7 plants again although not all look like they will produce very much.