The temperature has been very up and down this year and according to my reckoning, most crops are at least two weeks behind last year. Saying that, I've already cropped my peas and broad beans successfully with another few pound of new potatoes still to be dug up.
Last post I was picking the first of my brassicas, kohl rabi, and on the 2nd August I took my first Summer cabbage, Primo II (aka Golden Acre). The cabbages are a nice size with weighty tight heads - I'll be taking a few to eat fresh over the next month or two but will end up freezing some for the Winter months.
I've been picking French beans (Cobra) for a few weeks and, at last, the runner beans (Prizewinner) have now come into crop too. I'm pleased with the amount of beans appearing and their length is very good. I believe this is the first time I've grown this variety as I've usually grown Scarlet Emperor. Despite a neighbour telling me about problems with his runners 'setting', i.e, not forming pods after the flower stage, mine seem to be OK.
We've had a window of a few hot days with a forecast for rain on the horizon so, I took the opportunity to harvest my onion crop on 8th August as they had all 'gone over' and there seemed little point in leaving them in worsening conditions.
The onions were planted on the 20th March, the variety was Sturon (see 21 Mar post). Yesterday I pulled them up and set them out on latticed trays in the sun to help them dry. As rain is forecast for later today, I've brought them inside and put them in a light, dry extension to my allotment shed to continue the drying process.
It's not a bad crop but I think last year's was better with more larger onions. In fact, we are still eating last year's crop, there's four or five still left! After drying, these will be put in net bags and stored in the house is I find that when the damp weather arrives the onions don't store so well in a shed or out building. Just to clean up a bit, I removed any weeds and gave the onion plot a rough dig over. That's a whole bed cleared now - it's done well this season, peas, broad beans, garlic and onions - all successfully harvested.
Well that's it for this post. I'll leave you with a nice picture of one of my bright and gaudy gladioli plants which are used in the house as cut flowers. Bye for now.
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