Week 42 - Bed 1

The fine weather over the past month has allowed the sweetcorn to continue to grow.

The cobs seem to be ripening, but we don't expect much.

Week 38 - Bed 1 Planting

The sweetcorn continues to grow but some of the plants have fallen over - it looks like something fell onto them. We used a couple of bamboo canes to tie them up.

Throughout the entire bed we sowed:

• Red Clover - a tall nitrogen fixing clover that is winter hardy and improves the soil texture
  

The clover will grow where there is space and light for the next few months and when the corn is finished, the clover will continue to grow slowly throughout the winter and into the spring. Prior to sowing or planting into the bed next spring, the clover will be dug in as a composting crop adding fertility to the soil, including lots of nitrogen, and improving the texture of the soil.

Week 37 - Bed 1

The sweetcorn continues to grow well, with some of the plants reaching almost 180cm.

The tassels have opened to release the pollen.

The ears are starting to form with the silk exposed ready to catch the drifting pollen.

The squash plant has been infected by a Squash Mosaic Virus, which has severely stunted the plant and distorted the leaves. This is not surprising given the poor soil conditions that it was growing in. We should have given this plant a lot more compost! The plant will have to be removed!

Week 35 - Bed 1

The sweetcorn continues to grow well, there might be hope for a few cobs if the good weather continues.

The tassels (male flower which produces the pollen) is starting to form.

The squash plant is not growing very quickly, which is likely due to nutrient deficiency given the poor fertility of the soil.

A few of the squash leaves show are yellowing, a sign of nitrogen deficiency.

Week 31 - Bed 1

After a month of rain and very little sun, this bed is doing reasonably well, except that one of the squash plants is missing (not visible even in the blurry photo) as are the direct seeded courgettes among the sweet corn. I suspect slugs had a feast during the three weeks that no-one was watching the garden!

The sweetcorn is taler than expected, given the incredibly poor weather conditions over the last month. There was certainly enough water, but not nearly enough sun.

The Butternut Squash plant looks healthy, though a bit small for this time of year, and it has plenty of room to grow with the Blue Ballet Squash plant missing.

Week 27 - Bed 1

The sweetcorn and the squash plants have become established and continue to grow but not as quickly as would be expected for this time of year, due to the continuing bad weather. One of the courgette seedlings that we planted between the corn has been eaten by slugs. Notice the overshadowing of the north end of the bed in this photograph taken in the early afternoon.

We will need some very good weather for the rest of the summer to get any crop of sweetcorn at all.

Week 26 - Bed 1

The sweetcorn is doing well, we thinned out all but the strongest seedling at each station. This photo also shows one of the courgette seedlings that has come up from a few direct sown seeds that we placed in amongst the sweetcorn.

This is the same squash plant that was photographed in Week 23, and is doing well considering the bad weather and recent transplanting. It really is much better to transplant this family of plants early - or direct seed.

Week 23 - Bed 1 Planting

We cultivated this bed this week, using a more thorough lazy-bed method. We had planned to use a no-dig method, but did not get around to doing it early enough in the season to allow the mulch to settle in and start to decompose. Once prepared, we planted:

• Golden Bantam Sweetcorn (18 stations covering half the bed) - very good variety if harvested in time, with a nice sweet flavour.
• Ponca Butternut Squash (one 3 week old transplant from pot) - an early winter variety with thick necked fruit and pale carmel skin.
• Blue Ballet Squash (one 4 weeks old transplant from pot ) - a soft blue-grey skined variety with sweet orange flesh.

A three week old butternut squash plant, just transplanted.