We can see the end of the ‘Hungry Gap’ now, we have harvested the first of our spring onions and outdoor lettuce. We had annual spinach for the box scheme and markets at the end of May, and now have new season’s perpetual spinach, chard and kale ready. The new potatoes are still very small and the main area of onions needs a bit more time to grow.
With less to harvest during the last few weeks we’ve had more time for ground cultivation, transplanting, tractor weeding, hoeing, hand weeding and seeding into plug trays. And there will be more of the same for the next few months (but hopefully with more harvesting)! We’ve also continued with changing over the polytunnels from leafy salad crops to heat loving summer crops such as tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and chillies We are trying a small area of climbing French beans under cover too.
The last of the courgettes were planted out in the last week of May, along with some of the summer squash and sweetcorn. These plants won’t be enjoying the cooler, windier weather though so fingers crossed for some sunny, calm days.
Hand-weeding of direct sown crops such as carrots, parsnips and beetroot has to be done along the rows, after Martin has weeded as close to the rows of crops as he can with whatever tractor-mounted implement is suitable. Robot weeders are being used on some large-scale farms, but with our patchwork of small areas of different crops, and very stony ground this isn’t an option for us. And some of us enjoy weeding anyway!
It didn’t take long for the local stock doves to find the seed we started putting out weekly as supplementary feed for turtle doves. None of us have heard the lovely purring of a turtle dove yet but I was very happy that one of the photos from the wildlife camera last week had a picture of one feeding along with stock doves and pigeons.
My daughter Theresa was helping with carrot and beetroot weeding, so I didn’t need to use my Merlin bird app to find out which birds were singing, as she’s got a much better ear and memory than me! We heard chaffinches, wood pigeons, skylarks, song thrushes, yellowhammers and a distant cuckoo calling as we finished.
There has always been swallows around the farmyard, and they nest in the horse stables adjoining our growing areas but this year there have been 2 or sometimes 3 swallows flitting in and out of our big shed/barn. They don’t seem to be nest building in there though, maybe they just like a bit of company!! Their ‘chattering’ is lovely to hear.
