We’ve come to the end of July and the garden/polytunnel are both doing well with decent harvests of French Beans, Cucumbers and Courgettes adding to the Lettuce (which are still going well). However, the Radishes, Broad Beans and Peas have finished for the year.
Whatever I do with Radishes, they never seem to be as easy as everybody suggests, they’re spindly and consumed by the slugs before they ever seem to get started. I get one reasonable early crop then after that nothing. I think I have to accept that and stop being disappointed. The broad beans and peas did okay with just about 1kg of each from the little space that I let them have. My plan with broad beans next year is to sow them in Octover/November this year and give them about half of the outside bed or a full raised bed then when they’ve finished cropping I’ll fill the space with lettuces. Peas I’m less sure about, sugar snap seem to be the best and whether I grow more than one short row is a question. They’re nice in salads but not so good cooked.
The Courgettes, cucumbers and French Beans are in the process of giving us a glut so I’ve made Relish with a picking of beans and soup with some of the Courgettes. We were away for a couple of days and as a result we had 2.5kg of courgettes from our six plants.
We’re getting a small amount of fruit, the Blueberries are largely finished but the Raspberries are just beginning to deliver and the rhubarb is into its second flush, I don’t think we’ll get much more but enough for a couple of tarts. Even more manure next year!
The fight with the grey squirrels continues, throwing things at them doesn’t seem to be doing any good, I haven’t actually hit one yet (got close) but unless they’re looking at you they don’t notice whatever might be flying near them. Water pistol the next action. I am fed up (to put it mildly) with them stealing the strawberries and the apples. Not enough to kill them but enough to try another technique – water with cayenne pepper I think. There are plenty of apples at the moment but there are also lots of chewed remains at the bottom of the oak tree so if they keep going at this rate we won’t get much of a crop