Summer 2023

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BADGER’S PLOT and prepared for a second crop of vegetables that should survive until the first frosts arrive in the autumn. French beans are a particularly good choice. Sowing in the greenhouse or outside Spinach or chard that, when ready, will overwinter outside. You might also sow lettuce varieties that are hardy enough to withstand the cold. Summer Harvests As I sit writing this column (it’s actually mid-April ), I am distracted by the rain beating against the windows. Looking back, this year’s early spring had been predominantly wet, interspersed with some rather frosty nights. Hardly the right conditions to encourage seed germination, although weeds still manage to thrive! It’s therefore difficult to predict what sort of summer we can expect. If all has gone well, the early harvests in the kitchen garden should be encouraging. Good pickings of rhubarb can nearly always be guaranteed along with the early lettuces. Elsewhere, broad beans and early peas should be approaching maturity and you might also have lifted some of those delicious early potatoes. Keep an eye open for blackfly appearing on broad beans, though hopefully you will have some nasturtiums growing nearby to act as a sacrificial plant by attracting the insects away from your beans. Some gardeners pinch out the growing tops of the beans as a deterrent. So, what else should we be doing? EARLY SUMMER Sowing outside French dwarf and climbing beans. Runner beans, beetroot, carrot, further sowings of lettuce and salad leaves, plus spring onion, radish, swede and turnip. Rather than direct sow most of these, I prefer to sow into multicell seed trays and, when the plants are ready, they can be popped out together with their root system, directly into the soil. This gives them a greater chance of survival. Planting outside Basically, anything that is ready to go straight into the soil; Brussels sprouts, leeks, sweetcorn and beans. This is quite a busy time on the plot. Harvesting The first real harvest of the year! Hopefully, if things are going to plan, you might be enjoying those early potatoes along with salads, broad beans and early peas. MID-SUMMER Sowing outside A succession of lettuce and salad leaves. Planting outside Kale, swede, savoy cabbage, cauliflowers and purple sprouting broccoli. Harvesting July generally marks the pinnacle of the year’s harvests. Potatoes, peas and the first pickings of beans. There should also be plentiful supplies of all those tasty salad crops. It’s usually the time when onions, garlic and shallots are lifted. If not required immediately, store them inside where they can dry out. LATE SUMMER If some of your early harvests are coming to an end, the ground can be cleared of debris Harvesting Tomatoes should be in abundance by now (provided you have avoided blight) together with cucumbers, peppers and aubergines. JOBS ON THE PLOT One of the major problems for gardeners during this period can be slugs. Many a promising crop has been decimated by these pests. What options are available to deal with them? If you want to use slug pellets, please buy the organically approved brands, but they are not always effective. An expensive way to deal with the problem is the introduction of nematodes into the soil. They are tiny eelworm-like creatures that infect slugs with a fatal disease. An old tried-and-trusted method is the setting of beer traps in old bowls or saucers. The number of victims attracted to this method can be quite staggering. Ask your local landlord to fill a carton with ullage (the correct name for beer dregs) rather than tipping it down the sink. A word of warning; don’t be tempted to drink it! Before deciding on what method suits your situation, it is worth making sure that you are not encouraging slugs by allowing your kitchen garden or plot to become untidy. Slugs like nothing more than to spend the day under discarded flower pots, old buckets, old fertilizer bags or general rubbish, only to emerge at night and feast on your crops. Slugs dislike abrasive surfaces so broken eggshells or grit around vulnerable plants can act as a deterrent. Woodchip pathways can also be effective. Don’t forget that other visitors, like pigeons, can also do a great deal of damage. Netting is the only real answer. Hopefully, in between all these jobs you’ll still have time able to enjoy some bumper summer harvests! 34 The Cake • Summer 2023
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Summer 2023

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