As we approach mid-July, we would usually be reaping the rewards from all our hard work done earlier in the year in the Seeds to Sow garden, but it’s been a funny old weather and growing year here in West Yorkshire and I think our experience will be like yours wherever you are in the UK.
All is not lost, and we do have harvests and produce to pick, but we’ve had to battle with the slugs and snails this year and fight with the Blackbirds to see who can get to the ripe strawberries first!
A look back to July 2018 and a July heatwave saw us harvesting daily including beetroot, radish, peas, broad beans, kale, spinach and salad leaves. This year our Beetroots are only just getting to a decent size, but now is a good time to sow more for an optimistic crop later in the year. Brassicas have been a bit slow but have caught up and we’re having our first harvests of Green Sprouting Broccoli.
We have broad beans and peas in abundance, not least due to the fact that we sowed these last Autumn so the plants were already a good size when we planted them out.
Salad leaves and lettuces actually prefer cooler conditions and are less prone to bolting, and we have lots of luscious leaves this year. Later sowings of peas direct, were slug munched as soon as any green shoots appeared, but there’s still time for another go.
Pest control has been a full time job this year, but you have to accept that building a garden and allotment that encourages insects and wildlife will bring exactly that! It has been the worst year we’ve seen for slugs and snails, with hundreds of teeny tiny slugs eating our seedlings. We’ve had many evenings spent on ‘slug patrol’ and backed up with beer traps across the garden. We don’t use any chemicals or pesticides in our garden and never will.
Cooler conditions have given us the best year ever for Sweet Peas, and we are picking these fragrant flowers every other day and bringing the sweet scent into our home (and greenhouse). The strong colours of ‘Mammoth Mixed’ combined with the heady fragrance of ‘Incense Mixed’ make the perfect pairing.
Our garlic, planted out last Autumn are all pulled and drying out in the greenhouse out of the rain. The bulbs are not the best we’ve ever grown but are a decent size and all perfectly usable. We’ve also pulled our Autumn sown onion sets and these are all drying out nicely, and although there’d be no prize winners amongst them they are good enough for us. Spring onions are all perfect, and successional sowings of these mean that we can pretty much harvest these all year round, our White Lisbon variety are very reliable.
Courgettes are growing, but we’d normally have harvested a few more than we have at this time of year. There’s still time for the weather to warm up, otherwise baby courgettes are being harvested in the meantime!
Our tomatoes, chillies, cucumbers, aubergines and peppers in the greenhouse are growing well with all plants now producing flowers and fruit. We are picking tumbling tomatoes and few early Cayenne chillies and are just waiting for the Yorkshire sunshine to appear to bring on the bigger tomatoes and peppers.
Herbs all seem happy despite the rain, but we’re keeping our basil indoors (in an unheated greenhouse and a conservatory) to keep growing in reasonably warm conditions. Rosemary, Sage, Mint, Chives, Oregano, and Thyme are all happy and I look forward to a hot summers day and a nice glass of Pimm’s with a fresh sprig of mint on top!
So far, not the easiest growing year we’ve ever known and if you’re a beginner, you shouldn’t let this put you off. The amazing thing about a garden or allotment is that you can try again, and this is the best way to learn as no growing space is the same as another, you learn from your mistakes, from slug attacks, from terrible weather and you adapt.
Growing from seed remains an affordable way to grow food and midsummer provides a second spring for new sowings and then Autumn again for sowings for next years crops. Have a look at our 'Midsummer Mix' seed collection here.
There is nothing more positive and optimistic than sowing fresh seeds into compost in the hope and optimism of new growth. Keep on sowing and growing!