It's 2017 and a new growing season beckons. But, before I launch into that I thought I'd take a moment to look back over 2016 and pick out some highlights and low-lights; there's quite a few of both.
I suppose it's easy to say that 2016 was an excellent potato year. The Rocket early potatoes produced well from the first week of June until the middle of August. However, the main crop Sarpo Mira were undoubtedly the stars finally going over in early October. I had three sacks of large potatoes which will see us into early Spring.
The onions and garlic produced well and the brassicas were OK, the Bosworth Brussels sprouts particularly good though I did have some cabbage root fly on one or two cabbage plants so I must remember to use protective discs this season. The Winter cabbage Tundra F1 are still quite small as I write so perhaps I need to plant them out earlier in the season so they get some good growth in before the cold weather.
The leeks looked tatty when I took the nets off in the Autumn but surprisingly they have thick stems and are pretty good. The parsnips which were barred in are a decent site and three rows are probably too many for us - must reduce the number next time. The kale is still doing well, standing through all the bad weather. Kale is not one of those 'go to' plants initially but it becomes more useful as the Winter progresses both for the family and the chickens.
The beans did well though I did stop picking the runners too early and they went over well before they should have. Saying that, I still have a large bag of them frozen in the freezer which I'm still eating. The same for the broad beans, I'm still adding them to vegetable pasta sauces and will have enough to continue doing so well into Spring. Sweet corn was another triumph this year, I literally have a kilo or two still in the freezer - I simply grew way too much in a good year when the cobs were massive.
The Winter squash were good though I grew too many Butternuts and they simply don't keep like the other squashes, I've thrown loads away. The Turks Turban I put in as 'space fillers' did really well. I grew Crown Prince for the first time and I'll be growing them again, probably now as my main squash as they are large, tasty and easy to prepare. We also had a couple of pumpkins for Halloween too.
The biggest failure this year were the carrots. Both the main crop Sweet Candle and my 'finger' carrots Nantes were relatively poor. I'll be growing the Nantes in a slit trench again this season but I'll be trying for some large Sweet Candle by growing them in a barrel which I've already prepared.
There weren't too many failures this year; the veg did well and the fruit too. I had loads of raspberries, strawberries and even the plum tree decided to crop well too (I'm sure the plum tree has reached an age when it's fruiting every other year now). I had plenty of salads and the courgettes were prolific but, ironically perhaps that's been the real failure this year, I ended up with too much.
I'm beginning to think that one large plot maybe too much. This year I'm going to have a real think about going back down to half a plot, it might be that the rents are going to go up so dramatically that it won't be worth keeping a full plot or, that I'm simply over producing on the space I have. The first step will be to plant less and give more space to each vegetable, I must ensure that I don't try to cram more in than I need. If that looks a bit more reasonable that I might retain both halves, we'll see.
Overall, 2016 was a pretty good year, the weather was kind and the pests relatively easy to control. A sour note has been added by the regulations regarding poultry keeping; due to bird flu the hens have to be 'enclosed' so, after keeping them caged up for a few weeks I've now covered the whole pen with nets to enable them to free range once again - they are definitely happier.
That's it for now. The next post will look forward to 2017.
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