10th August

Let's start with some good news (but to manage expectations, this blog is going to be balanced more the other way!!!! 😢😢)

We have been asked numerous times about our veg boxes, and have had to explain that we only offer "a la carte" boxes where people can choose their own veg, and thereby choose how much or how little they want.

However, we have now decided to additionally offer the option of having a box of vegetables based on what is growing well. Last week's is shown below:

The advantage for the customer is that the box is sold at a slight discount to buying the vegetables individually. The advantage for us is that we can choose what to include and thereby focus on the most plentiful products.

You will notice that red potatoes were included in the box.

I planted three beds of white maincrop, and three beds of red maincrop. Unfortunately I have had to abandon the first bed of whites as their bed was first in line to the sun and they have overheated and then been nibbled!!

They look awful, but actually what we salvaged tasted great!

Fortunately the other beds, and the reds are ok, but this illustrated why the reds were chosen for the box this week

Another casualty of the weather has been our purple sprouting. I had three beds planted up with purple sprouting; one of which was extra large and planted first.

Unfortunately whitefly are thriving in this weather and have completely wiped out the extra large bed.

Hopefully the other two beds will be ok.

My error here was that I bought veggiemesh netting as opposed to micro veggiemesh netting. The veggiemesh worked well last year, and at £350 per roll compared to £500, I thought it would be OK this year.

WRONG!!!

The mico netting is only really needed to prevent whitefly or flea beetle, as veggiemesh is fine enough to prevent everything else.

Guess what?

Yep, we've got flea beetle as well. 🤦‍♂️

They have been slowing the growth of our sprouts and our broccoli. We have treated both today with organic horticultural soap. This is described as "a safe, organic, biodegradable contact spray made from potassium salts of fatty plant acids. It kills soft-bodied garden pests like aphids by breaking down their outer protective membranes and causing dehydration"

They should dehydrate fairly quickly in this weather I imagine. I certainly did today!

As soon as you get the netting off to treat the plants, then you have the cabbage whites trying to get in. I took this photo to show the cabbage white, but you can also see the damage that the flea beetles have caused to this broccoli plant.

Hopefully it (and the sprouts) will pick up and get going soon!

At least the broccoli and green sprouts are in the ground and growing. I have a few things waiting in the wings that I am keeping in the greenhouse so that I can water them in trays rather than see them wilt outside.

These include red sprouts

I didn't know that these existed, but when I heard about them I thought that we have to give it a go. As you can see, they are going to have to get a move on if they want a place on the Christmas table

They are not as far behind as swede though. These guys should have been in the ground about 6 weeks ago!!

This is actually my third sowing as for the first two attempts the seeds cooked rather than germinating

Red cabbage are about 3 weeks behind schedule

As are the chicory

Given that our lettuce bolted, and the replacements have also now bolted, we need to get these fellas planted ASAP

Hopefully next week we will be busy planting!

Oh, the other crop that is waiting to be transplanted is some purple sprouting broccoli to overwinter for March harvest

In the greenhouse, they are safe from the whitefly that are being a nuisance on the field

But not the cabbage whites and the aftermath of their eggs it seems....

The affected seedlings are now in a segregation zone 😢😢

I need to end on a positive, which is that the Lido stall is going well, proving to be very popular, and we are getting to know lots of lovely people 😁😁

What we frequently hear from people is that they didn't know that we existed. A cheeky request if I may, is that any help to spread the word, such as social media posts, and recommendations to friends and neighbours, would be much appreciated. 😊

Thank you