Harvest time

How is that for a fine crop of beetroots and baby carrots? The last of them pulled this morning after we has tested them out last week.

Also harvested this morning were radish leaves – but alas only tokens of radishes! This was our second radish sowing and I suspect we may have overwatered them so they put all their effort into their leaves rather than their roots. Still, the leaves are delicious if somewhat peppery.

In the Three Sisters planter (beans, corn and squash) the corn has come on by leaps and bounds and I think is almost ready to harvest. According to my reading the cobs’ feathery ‘hair’ needs to be brown and dried up before you pick them – and it is all but that.

The beans have sprung a few actual beans although I think that our failure to deal with an infestation of blackfly about a month ago may have somewhat stunted their growth. But the squash below them is doing well.

Over in the cucumber bed – we have not just one but several cucumbers! However, I am not sure how big they are meant to grow. I did try twisting this one off this morning but it seemed unwilling to come off so I am assuming that it still has some growing to do. Meanwhile I can see that the bindweed which, along with the brambles, entirely covered the garden six months ago, is staging a comeback. I’ll be on to it this afternoon…

The tomatoes are gulping down water and getting ever bigger – but don’t seem to be doing much ripening, despite the heatwaves. And the strawberries have been a complete waste of space. I think we have got about three strawberries out of maybe a dozen plants. Not sure what we did wrong there.

The summer term is now over for the Urban Forest Tribe so we won’t see most of the children again until September. However, we are hoping that a couple of those who live nearby may come in to help reseed the beetroot/carrot planter – possibly with more beetroot and carrots as they were such a success. However, we need to do a good clear out first.

We also need to clear our first leaf and chard planter – the chard still going strong but the leaves most definitely past it! Not quite sure what to put in there… More leaves? More chard? Or something new and exciting? All suggestions welcome.

Meanwhile, we are already harvesting Bramley apples – or to be more accurate, whenever we work in the garden we get pelted by windfalls crashing down out of our old tree. Thanks to the heat they are very early and they are still quite small but I cooked some last night and they are already delicious. And it is going to be a bumper crop.