New potatoes

Pleased with my first dig of the Orla potatoes.A decent haul from two plants.The tubers are larger than I thought they'd be after just over 11 weeks in the ground.They have a bit of common scab on the skin (which might be due in part to the very dry soil) but clean up nicely.

Also a good harvest of lettuce,chives,parsley and three kinds of chard.The Bright Lights radish are also doing well as an mixer/intercrop and seem less prone to being nibbled by pests when compared the French Breakfast type that I usually grow.

Bright Lights radish

Orla potato checked for quality

Guess what.I'll be having salad and potatoes for my lunch,tea,dinner ........

Mid June leaves and flowers

Looking down the plot

PSB and Cavolo Nero kale

Globe artichokes

Legumes,lettuce and garlic

Kales interplanted with chards

 

Basil mint

Sweetcorn

Glad that I didn't space these any closer

 

Golden Sweet mangetout

Part of lettuce mix (and part of my lunch)

Trombone courgettes

Salad Blue

Golden Gourmet shallots

Red Ursa kale

Pink Passion chard

Golden chard

Orla

Amrilla de Lyon chard

Beer radish and salad leaves

The black radish sown as a marker for a row of parsnips is now swamping them out so they have to go. I tried some last night as an appetiser with beer as per the packet,dressed in sea salt and olive oil.A fairly firm texture and strong flavour which went well with the beer.

I'm now also self sufficient in salad leaves for the time being.A picking over of mesclun mix, lettuce leaf thinnings with some herbs and chives must have produced a dozen or more different varieties on the plate.

Potatoes and chard next?

You win some....

So far more sowing successes than failures in this "cool Spring".
My well chitted potatoes seem to have been planted earlier than some in the south and have started to produce flower buds.

Orla 1st early buds

On the minus side ,my first sowing of dwarf beans in a two day warm spell in the middle of May was probably too ambition .A delve about in the soil revealed a complete no show which has resulted in a resow of beans.I added some home raised trombone squash plants as I lost my patty pan squashes to last week's strong winds the day after I'd planted them out.

New sowing of dwarf beans inter planted with Trombone squash and Sweetcorn

Although half of the Leo and Glen Ample raspberry canes planted in late autumn 2012 are showing signs of life, none of the Glen Magna appear to have survived the winter mud bath.

Otherwise, things are looking very positive,with a good showing of lettuce,chard,garlic,shallots,broad beans ,mangetout peas,salad leaves and various mints.

Some of the lettuce are now being inter planted around the plot

Lots of chard seedlings to inter plant with the brassicas

 

 

 

Spearmint

Ginger mint

Basil mint

I'm pleased with the Globe Artichoke survivors.The weaker looking one has now put on a spurt and is producing a small globe.

Broad beans sown among the globe artichokes