Week 42 - Bed 5

Some of the greens in this bed are doing well, but others have disappeared, like the rows of lettuce in the foreground. We suspect slugs are responsible!

The rocket/arugula (below) and purple mustard leaf (above) are growing quickly.

The Rhubarb chard is growing more slowly, but is in need of thinning.

Week 38 - Bed 5

Most of the rows of greens have sprouted, and the fact that the seeds were sown late in the evening when there was very little light is made evident by the uneven spacing and scattered seedlings! Most of the seeds were very small and hard to see.

Lettuce seedlings coming up.

Most of the mizuna seedlings, which look very similar to many other brassica seedlings, are unfortunately clumped in one small length of the row.

A lot of Winter Purslane seeds were sown, especially at one end of the bed, and will have to be thinned quite severely.

The spinach has sprouted quickly as well and the larger seeds helped to sow a more even spacing.

Week 37 - Bed 5

The new seedbed with a few of the seedlings just starting to emerge.

Tiny mustard seedlings.

Week 36 - Bed 5 Planting

We dug up the last of the potatoes, mixed in about 40 liters of well rotted horse manure and prepared a fine seed bed into which we sowed one short row each of (listed from North to South):

• Matador (Atlanta) Spinach - all year round variety with dark green leaves
• Perpetual Spinach (Leaf Beet) - a beet variety with leaves resembling spinach which can provide valuable greens throughout the winter
• Rhubarb Chard - rich ruby-red leaf stalks and dark green/purple foliage
• Mizuna - a hardy vigorous oriental green leaf with serrated dark green leaves with a mild, slightly mustard flavour
• Winter Purslane - a winter hardy salad plant, also known as Claytonia or Miners Lettuce
• Corn Salad D'Orlando - a hardy annual, small nutty leaves, large leaved variety with glossy green leaves
• Osaka Purple Mustard - a very hardy oriental mustard leaf, large deep purple/green leaves
• Rucola Coltivata Rocket/Arugula - a refined variety with rich dark leaves and wonderful spicy taste
• Roger Lettuce - red batavia variety
• All Year Round Lettuce - a pale green compact butterhead variety
• Till Lettuce - dense looseleaf variety with arrow shaped leaves
• Salad Bowl Lettuce - cut and come again looseleaf lettuce, with long green leaves

This bed containing a wide variety of leafy greens will be covered with a mini polytunnel when the weather turns cold.

Week 31 - Bed 5

This bed has changed considerably since the last post at the beginning of July. The potatoes have died back (probably due to a combination of wet weather and possibly blight) and the broad beans are basically finished.

Rust and dead patches have formed on all of the bean leaves, and the plants have been pulled out.

A reasonable harvest of well formed potatoes from 2 plants, which are unaffected by scab or slugs.

Week 27 - Bed 5

This bed has the lushest growth in the garden, with the tall broad beans to the south and the early potatoes to the north.

Very few pods on the otherwise tall and healthy broad bean plants.

The beans are almost ready for harvest, only another week or two before the (tiny harvest).

The early potatoes are ready to harvest and we dug up a few plants for dinner! The yield from the remaining plants will increase over the next few weeks, as there are still several small tubers that will continue to grow.

Week 26 - Bed 5

The broad beans are starting to swell and could be ready for harvesting next week! Unfortunately there are not many beans on each plant, usually less than 4 and the plants have stopped flowering, so we are not going to harvest more than a sampling. This is probably due to a lack of pollinators as there are not many bees around.

Week 23 - Bed 5

Express broad beans eleven weeks after sowing, with early potatoes in the background.

Express broad bean flowers.

Week 21 - Bed 5

Early broad beans in the foreground and early potatoes covering the rest of the bed. Everything doing reasonably well.

Week 16 - Bed 5

photo by Eoin Campbell

We dug up one of the broad bean seedlings again this week and there has been a huge amount of growth in the root system after 4 weeks. The total length of the plant is about 30cm with at least 80% of it underground. It could be more as it looks like the end of the tap root was broken off. (That is Bruce holding the plant). The root has already grown through the depth of cultivated soil and the extent of the root system shows the huge amount of energy that was stored up in the seed.

photo by Eoin Campbell

A close-up photo of the same plant shows the seed, the white stem above it that was underground (up to the top of the finger) and all of the horizontal roots coming from the tap root. The tiny hairs of the white roots have clung to the soil particles

Week 15 - Bed 5

photo by Eoin Campbell

We dug up a potato to examine the amount of growth after only 3 weeks (from a chitted seed potato). The green leaves are only beginning to appear, but the root system is alreaady quite large. The longer thinner roots are the main root system of the plant, while the new potatoes will grow at the end of the shorter, thicker roots. Notice that all of the growth is above the original seed potato.

photo by Eoin Campbell

Original seed potato with numerous roots already visible, and leaf growth in the background. The tiny hairs of the white roots have picked up soil particles.

photo by Eoin Campbell

A broad bean seedling after only 3 weeks in the ground. The leaf shoot (top) has barely broken the surface of the soil, but the root is already 4-5 cm long.

Week 12 - Bed 5 Planting

We prepared this bed as a lazy bed, which involved cutting out a piece of sod with as much topsoil as remained attached, and turning it upside-down. The surface of the bed was then worked over with a sharp spade to break up the clods slightly. In this roughly prepared bed we planted:

• Express Broad Bean (4 short rows) - a fast maturing longpod variety growing 60cm tall
• Orla Potatoes (21 sets) - a 1st early variety with creamy white oval tubers with light yellow flesh