Veg plot 2021: Going “no dig” in the polytunnel?

Posted on October 19, 2020 by james

I’ve been pondering today on switching to “no dig” in the polytunnel. It’s a 30’x14′ tunnel containing eight 6’x4′ beds with wooden sides, several of which are rotting away and should ideally be replaced this winter.

However, I’m thinking that I could make a bed down each side about 2’6″ wide with a similar width path and then have a 4′ bed down the middle. I think that would give me quite a bit more planting space (over 25% more) and allow me to use the polytunnel for melons, cucumbers and other plants needing some protection from our elements that I’ve not had space for up to now, especially as it would become easy to interplant, perhaps with edible flowers and non-climbing beans, around the tomatoes once they’d gained a bit of height and I’d taken the lower leaves off.

If I’m going to make this change then switching to no dig at the same time seems to make good sense. It doesn’t help that I’ve already started planting salads in one of the beds, but I can probably work around that and get a fair bit of the work done before they absolutely have to be removed.

I can’t really do much until the tomatoes are completely finished, but that won’t be too much longer.

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Swimming, 19th October 2020

Posted on October 19, 2020 by james

Only five people in the pool today so it was very quiet, but the really good news is that the bridge that has been closed since the start of September has now opened once again meaning a much easier drive to the pool.

My 50m set was quite a struggle today. I didn’t feel great and had my first failure on rep ten when I managed to complete fourteen good reps on Friday. I failed once more on rep fifteen. Not impressive 🙁

The 25m set was much better however. In that I completed ten reps before failing and managed to get to fifteen before running out of time.

Hopefully tomorrow I can do a little better on the first set.

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Veg plot 2020: Winter salads

Posted on October 18, 2020 by james

Today I transplanted the last of the salad leaves that I’m attempting to keep alive through the winter in the greenhouse. These were a mustard called “Pizzo” which took me a little longer to get hold of than the rest so were planted a couple of weeks later. Like the others they’re now in a “mushroom tray” full of compost, six plants to the tray.

So, I now have (clockwise from top left) land cress, coriander, chervil and “Robinson” lettuce.

“Lollo Rossa” lettuce, mustard “Golden Streaks”, “Red Little Gem” lettuce and red chard.

Leaf radish, salad rocket, mustard “Red Frills” and “Webbs Wonderful” lettuce.

Mustard “Pizzo”

“Left over” plants have mostly gone into the polytunnel beds though I have a bit of a backlog now. The ones already in the polytunnel are clearly not growing as fast as those in the greenhouse. I suspect that’s something to do with the cooler temperature in the polytunnel, and perhaps also that they’re growing in a bed that has already been used once this year. The greenhouse plants actually look as though I could take a first pick off some of them already, though it would probably be quite a small salad. Certainly not enough for more than two people and perhaps only sufficient for one.

It seems like a lot of plants, but I have no idea what to expect in terms of growth or how often I’ll be able to pick nor how much I’ll be able to pick. I’d very much like to guarantee one salad a week for four people. Two a week, or enough for six people would be better still.

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Veg plot 2020: (Almost) the last of the tomatoes

Posted on October 18, 2020 by james

Yesterday afternoon I picked over all of our non-cherry tomato plants to collect all the ripe/mostly ripe ones which are apparently going to be made into soup, and the green ones that will be made into chutney, so this is almost the last of this year’s tomatoes.

I’ve now removed the plants from the polytunnel, leaving only the cherry tomato plants in the beds. We’ll pick over those to go with salads for the next couple of weeks and then I think that will be the end of them. Getting into the last week or so of October is pretty good for here, so I’m not unhappy with the length of the season we’ve had, but I think better bed preparation is required for next year to get a better crop.

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Would you like some dinner with your roast parsnip?

Posted on October 18, 2020 by james

Whilst I appreciate that it can be fun and a challenge, growing monster-size vegetables isn’t really my thing. My primary goal in growing vegetables is to produce a harvest that tastes excellent and I don’t tend to concern myself with the size of the end product. This evening we’re having our first roast dinner since last winter which will include roast parsnips, so I went out to dig a few up. A couple were particularly reluctant to come out, but after applying a significant amount of leverage, this is what I ended up with.

Possibly the biggest parsnip I’ve ever grown! Hopefully it will still taste ok. I’m going to be a bit disappointed if it is woody inside.

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Swimming, 16th October 2020

Posted on October 17, 2020 by james

Another very quiet day at the pool. There were only six people in my entire session and we ended up swimming one per lane line. My arms really weren’t in the best state for swimming — I think the switch to adding a 25m set is still something my body is adjusting to and I could feel the tiredness in my shoulders. My swimming felt very sluggish, but despite being a second or so off the pace I’d prefer I still managed one more rep of my 50m set than yesterday before failing, and then completed the rest of that set. After a decent rest with a little gentle activity I started on the 25m set and managed eight reps before my first failure, followed by six more reps before I ran out of time — again one rep better than yesterday before the first fail.

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Veg plot 2020: One last picking of the chiles

Posted on October 16, 2020 by james

This afternoon I’ve taken all the remaining chiles off the plants. They’re not going to get any more ripe now. We’ve done really well this year though, so I’m not complaining. I’ve not weighed them all, but in this basket there’s over 900g of chiles, so I don’t think 4kg is an unreasonable estimate for the total this year. Now I just need to wait for the plants to die back a bit before moving the ones I want to keep to the greenhouse for the winter.

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Veg plot 2021: More onions planted out

Posted on October 16, 2020 by james

Almost the last of the onions to be planted out, these. I have a few left from some seed I found after sowing the main batches that aren’t quite big enough yet.

These ones are brown onions, Bedfordshire Champion if I recall correctly. Again sown four seeds to a module and transplanted as is. There aren’t quite as many of these as we eat far more red onions. I’m not sure this year’s crop will last us until Christmas, so hopefully next year we should be in a much better position.

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Veg plot 2020: Last of the courgettes

Posted on October 15, 2020 by james

My wife harvested what will probably be the last of the courgettes for dinner this evening. What is left on the plants aren’t really growing any more and are getting nibbled by the wildlife. I think it’s probably time to lift them, in which case I can probably clear another section of the plot and finish one of the new beds for next year.

The courgettes have been exceptionally good value this year. We had three of the Orelia F1 variety in the plot, chosen partly because they have an RHS Award of Garden Merit and partly because my daughter liked the idea of yellow courgettes. They’ve been providing the four of us and my in-laws with a harvest for five months, including a few oversize ones that have been made into a chutney with chiles and ginger, not entirely unlike mango chutney. I’ll be a little bit sad to see them go.

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Swimming, 15th October 2020

Posted on October 15, 2020 by james

A quieter day today. There was only one other person in the fast lane for my session, so we took a lane line of our double width lane each. I struggled to get started and it felt like my body was taking an age to wake up for the 50m set. I eventually failed on rep fourteen, but then managed to finish the set. The 25m set seemed a little better, with a couple of fails on reps eight and ten, but after that I managed to finish the session. I had very wobbly legs afterwards though 🙂

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