Slugs, mice, waterlogging…but things are looking up!

29th May 2014

It has been a long time since my last post. Much has happened. I will attempt to summarize the events chronologically.

One of our two new tunnels is skinned and up and running. We have begun planting chillies and peppers in it, and will probably just use it for bits of salad this summer. It was particularly heavy clay soil, but the land drains put in around it have helped to alleviate the problem of poor drainage (more of drainage a little later). There is also a plan to have a pop-up restaurant in their sometime in September.

New tunnel and pending tunnel

April saw the arrival of Winstanley Wheeler a fine young specimen. He was born on saturday the 5^th April, and work continued on Monday – very thoughtful of him to come on the weekend. So, the last seven weeks have been a bit of a blur, what with it being one of the busiest times of year for the garden, but also having a new born. Thankfully we have taken on more labour this year, and we also have an apprentice helping us through the summer. We have therefore kept quite on top of things and most of the veg is looking good. There are a few exceptions, such as the 300 metres of carrots that were all grazed off by slugs, along with the 240 metres of peas that were all eaten by mice. Not to mention the struggling spring lettuce that was planted in a newly cultivated patch which turned out to have a spring in it. We did some soil tests and very low levels of available phosphorous were apparent. I think this is probably due to the ground being fairly saturated and the anaerobic conditions not favouring mycorrhizae and other microorganisms which help plants access nutrients. We have therefore dug a small pond to catch the spring water, and there is an overflow pipe which takes the water off the growing area. This definitely seems to be helping. We will be adding lots of organic matter to the soil once the lettuce have been harvested to try and improve the conditions for mycorrhizae and the like.

New pond and lettuce

 

The spring has been pretty mild but also damp, which has meant huge numbers of slugs are about. Other than the carrots and turnips, they have not done too much damage yet, though there is more waste from the lettuce than usual. With extra help we are managing to keep on top of the weeds with lots of hoeing, and so minimising the slugs’ habitats around the plants.   Probably the biggest change in the last month was the changeover from the winter salad to the french beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, basil and tomatillos in the large tunnel. All of these plants are now racing away as they have settled themselves into the soil.   We will skin the next new tunnel once all of the summer crops have been planted outside in the next couple of weeks.

Sugar snap peas will soon be covering their new supports

The garden is filling up, we are currently planting the courgettes and squash and beans will be next week – a little later than hoped, but I am sure they will catch up.   Once again it is coming up to the time of the Green Scythe Fair (15^th June) which is a great event celebrating haymaking with scythes. We will be at the fair selling lots of plants. We took lots of blackcurrant and chuckleberry cuttings this year, snd they all did very well, so we have far more than we need.

 

So, we have had a few setbacks this spring, but most of the vegetables are now growing away strongly. June will be a month of hoeing and weeding, as well as harvesting the first of the spring vegetables such as wet garlic, spring onions, beetroot, cucumbers and beans.