24th August

Dave

Aug 24

3 min read

We have added a large veg box to our "a la carte" and standard veg box offering this week

Green sprouting broccoli is making a return!!

The latest crop of cos lettuces are doing nicely, and I reckon that they are 3 weeks from harvest

I also think that we will be able to reintroduce leeks to our offering at around the same time.

I sow them in clumps, and depending on germination rates, I transplant them in big clumps, small clumps, or singly!

Those in big clumps are slower growing

But some of those planted individually are as good as ready. Look at this proud specimen!

Our rainbow chard has been looking a bit tired, and as it is a "cut and come again" crop, I decided that it was time to cut it back to let it make a fresh comeback! I wouldn't be surprised if this is also 3 or so weeks away. This is how it looks after the "short back and sides" today

There is one particular clump that I intend to photograph each week to show progress. I suspect that this will leave readers of this blog glued to their computers or tablets each Monday night, desperate to hear that the blog has been published so that they can see the progress for the week!

Or maybe not 😁

Anyway, here we go. Day 1:

Some of the spinach were also looking a bit tired, so got the same treatment

Those that haven't been cut back are looking marvellous, and we also have an additional half bed of spinach, so this will continue to be available

On the subject of cutting things back, drastic measures were needed for our kale which had been attacked by whitefly. Horrible photo of the underside of one of the leaves below

I made the mistake of not taking drastic measures sooner, but from above they looked so good that I was hoping that we may be able to save them

Those beauties have now been cut savagely back!!!!!

I was trying to keep the blog positive today, and the good news is that I will leave the netting off for a couple of days for natural predators such as wasps and ladybugs to clean off any remaining aphids, before covering up and letting the kale grow back again.

I suspect that they will take longer than the 3 weeks that we have been talking about for everything else! That said, they can be pretty prolific, so let's see

For obvious reasons, I'm not a fan of cabbage white butterflies, but I know that some people think that they are lovely, pretty and kind.

I would like those people to know that whilst these kale plants were undergoing their humiliating and severe pruning, a couple of these cabbage whites still thought that the kale was fair game for further attack

Shocking, callous and heartless in my opinion (but as an aside, pretty good photo given that it was taken with an old iphone eh?!)

They seem to be lurking around every time I take the netting off any of the brassicas, so I took no risk with the sprouts and have given you a photo taken through the netting