Out with the old, in with the new

Hello everyone, 

Bob and I hope you are very well and enjoying the lovely blue sky and warmth.

This week has been yet another busy week (I know…I am repeating myself!). But it has! We are nearing the end of our overwintering crops..still lots, but we are about to enter the spring crops. 

The above picture is a fine example of where we are.

On the right of the snap (old school term for photo) is cavolonero which is still going strong. This was sown last May and transplanted out in August and has been a very good crop for over the winter. 

The top left is some of our vivid choi which has now ‘gone to seed’. It first produces an abundance of flowers. The flowers do look pleasant to us humans but to the bees it is food. The flowers are attracting a huge assortment of insects and buzzing. A number of our tunnels have crops we are letting ‘go to seed’. This was part of the plan, you may think not really, but it will be part of the plan in the future as it can only be a good thing to attract the bees! The plants will shortly be removed as we do not want the seeds, which the flowers will produce, to drop to the ground and ‘self seed’.

The middle bed in this tunnel is full of our white onions. They were seeded late Summer last year and planted out in the Autumn. They were settling in over the Winter months (over wintering) and now about to bulb and grow. This is not the only bed we have growing the onions, we have more than three of these beds with 10,000 onions for you, our lovely customers, to eat during the late Spring and Summer months. 

The left bed has trays of mixed lettuce. They are being transplanted as we speak. We have had leaves and lettuce over the Winter in polytunnels two, three and four. They have been used during the past few months. They are very slow to grow over the Winter time, but still a good Winter crop. The ones in this tunnel will be ready in less than six weeks (I hope). Obviously due to the fab weather and lighter days we are about to have. Exciting!

So, we are busy converting the crops from the Winter produce to the Spring and early Summer produce. It is out with the old and in with the new. This takes a lot of effort. The beds are cleared of the finished crop. The ground is tidied, some extra compost and volcanic rock dust (minerals) maybe added. The watering system straightened. A plumb line is placed to allow for an equal distance to be measured. The distance will depend on the crop. The plugs of the new crop are removed from the tray and planting begins. Then they are watered in with any protection for the new seedling being provided. Then continuous care will be given and we watch for growth or signs of any attack from mice, slugs, snails, moles, birds. Job done!

I am now going to crack on and get the jobs done. 

Thank you for your continued support (and the boxes back).

Take great care,

 Ann👩‍🌾