The Extensive Plot is fully cultivated and all of the cool tolerant plants are thriving, while the warm season courgettes, beans and sweetcorn are struggling.
Only one more bed to Double-Dig!
The Polycrop Plot still has 2 beds that need to be cultivated and planted.
This map of Ireland from the Met Éireann web site shows the amount of rainfall for the past week as a percentage of what we would normally expect (the garden is located in Cloughjordan in the middle of the island - close to the 274% figure). It has been a very rainy period with less than half of the sunshine that we would normally expect.
This diagram show how much rainfall would be needed to provide the soil with as much water as it could hold (without draining excess away). With a figure of 6mm near Cloughjordan (middle of the map) if the rain continues it will start to saturate the soil, affecting plant growth. Luckily there is better weather on the way - though not great conditions for this time of year.
Less than half of the peas that we sowed have sprouted, possibly due to poor seed quality or the dry weather when they were sowed 6 weeks ago, so we filled in the gaps with additional seed of the same variety. These will likely mature later but will extend the harvest.
We earthed up the potatoes and constructed a structure out of sticks and twine for the peas to climb up.
The kale and sprouting broccoli plants transplants are doing well, helped by the cool conditions and rain. It takes a while for the transplants to recover from the loss of roots, and sunny dry conditions would have stressed the plants.
The rest of the bed was raked into a fine seedbed and in short drills across the bed we sowed (listed from north to south):
We pulled up all of the arugula which was badly eaten by flee beetle and the spinach which was bolting and replaced it with:
We covered the full bed with horticultural fleece, which will let in the air, rain and most of the sun, but will keep out the insects as well as providing a sheltered environment. the reduction in wind and the slightly warmer temperature under the fleece will hopefully help the sweetcorn and courgettes which have not been doing very well with the recent cool and wet weather.
We harvested some beets this week, from both of the varieties. Both the roots and the leaves will be eaten. In the space between the two rows of beets we transplanted from bed DD6:
We decided to place use a fleece to cover the bed of carrots and parsnip, to keep the carrot fly from laying eggs near the roots. The larva of the carrot fly will tunnel into both roots, greatly reducing the edible yield. The fabric is held down around the edges by stones.
The small leaves can be seen through the woven fabric, which lets in air, water and most of the sunlight, but keeps out pests.
Finally tied in some twine for the runner beans to climb up, each line tied to a stick pushed into the ground behind the bean plants up into the 'tree'.
The runner beans are doing fairly well, despite the cool and wet weather, though some of them have been eaten by slugs.
A couple of lengths of twine have also been tied in to complete the 'tipi' for the climbing french beans (pole beans).
The beans are starting to extend upward and will start to wrap around the pole shortly.
View of the Extensive Plot (from the south-west) with 8 beds planted.
View of the Double-Dig Plot (from the south-west) with 5 beds planted.
View of the Polycrop Plot (from the south-west) with 6 beds planted.
Although the potatoes have been knocked back by the frost, the peas that had been crowded out earlier now have more space and light to grow.
The first of the peas from this bed!
First-early potatoes to the left were more affected by the frost than the early-maincrop potatoes to the right.
The broad beans interplanted with the potatoes are not thriving, possibly due to the competition for limited water supplies.
Brussels Sprout transplant in the center, with a calabrese transplant to the left.
Polycrop bed after most of the bolting leaf crops have been removed.
Rocket (arugula) plant in flower - it seems a shame to remove these plants, but space has to be made for the other crops and for transplants.
A beautiful mix of leaves from the brassica and beetroot family.
After 5 weeks the slower growing beetroot in front being dwarfed by the faster growing spinach and brassica greens.
Different leaf textures - with a bolting spinach plant in the center.
Young plants in this polycrop. Top row (L-R): cherry radish, mooli radish, swede, turnip, kohl rabi. Bottom row (L-R):, spinach, perpetual spinach, 2 varieties of chard, beetroot, chicory, mizuna.
Polycrop mix of carrot (left) feathery leaves of the dill (right), several varieties of lettuce (top and middle) and a small parsnip (lower middle).
The empty spaces of the polycrop bed - caused by uneven sowing and germination and the harvesting of some of the fast growing rocket - will be filled by fennel, herbs and possibly leek transplants.
The long leaf blades of the scorzonera.
Two of the squash plants that had been transplanted into this bed last week. The top one is looking fairly healthy, but the bottom one was two weeks older when transplanted and the roots had started to wind around the base of the pot. Squash family plants hate their roots being disturbed.
Bed of early potatoes that was hit by frost three weeks ago but is recovering better than some of the other plants, especially those of the same variety in bed EX8.
Closeup of chopped grass mulch that had been placed around potatoes to maintain moisture and to prevent the tubers from turning green.
Only roughly half of the pea seeds germinated, leaving gaps that can be filled in with more seed.
Late planting of main-crop potatoes ready to be earthed up.
The lush green foliage of two kinds of beetroot, traditional red to the left and pink/white ringed to the right.
We thinned the beetroot, and ended up with a substantial meal of steamed beet greens!
The chard in this bed are doing well, but two of the Rhubarb Chard plants have bolted, producing an extended flower stalk instead of each of the leaves starting from the crown of the root.
Because none of the plants in this bed have been doing well, we decided to remove everything (except a few chicory plants) and transplant a variety of large overwintering brassicas instead:
Freshly transplanted kale plant.
The rocket (centre) grew well initially, but the spinach (left), kohl rabi (right) and Minowase radish (not shown) either failed to germinate or didn't grow well.
The rocket has been eaten by flea beetles, and a few of the plants are starting to bolt.
The chicory appears to be growing well, despite the wrong conditions, but is very bitter, indicating that it has not had the right growing conditions. All of the plants in this bed prefer cool weather and have been stressed or failed to germinate under recent conditions. Extra water would have helped.