Back to work

Hello Everyone,

Firstly, I would like to thank you for all the lovely emails we received over last weekend for my daughter’s wedding. Rebecca looked gorgeous, the wedding was gorgeous, it was a gorgeous weekend.

Bob and I felt like we had a weekend off! However, we are now right back at it. Even though we were away for only a few days we both think everything grew while we were away.

Our tomatoes are like the triffids, growing side shoots over night. Our first job, after the wedding, was to remove the side shoots from our 486 tomato plants. A tall order! But, tick – done. They have all also been fed with seaweed extract. Seaweed extract is our plant feed of choice, it contains lots of essential minerals to boost plant growth and as it is a natural product it is approved by the Soil Association. We also fed the cucumbers, chillis, peppers and aubergines.

The broad beans are all now harvested. The bean stalks are now in the compost bin. Using the ‘no-dig’ approach, we have been able to transform polytunnel 3 very quickly. We started emptying the tunnel at 9.00 in the morning, collected the beans from the stalks (with the help of Mindy and Ella two Newcastle University students), placed the remnants into the compost bin and transformed the tunnel by 7.00 in the evening. We topped each bed with an inch worth of new compost. The paths got a little more of our bark chippings. And hey presto! A tunnel is now ready to have brassicas planted (see above) – that is today’s task.

The no-dig approach has allowed us to be this quick….no need to dig, no need to weed. The beans were sown at the beginning of February, planted out in the tunnel in April, removed in July and we can honestly say we only had about a dozen weeds under the bean stalks in the whole of the Polytunnel! We are delighted with the lack of weeding and digging. But we are even more delighted with our huge harvest of beans. As it is the final week for beans we have reduced them in price – see the website.

Take care,

Ann