WEEK 1 WEEK 2 WEEK 3 WEEK 4 WEEK 5 WEEK 6
Welcome to the seventh ‘Follow Us’ update of 2021, a space where we talk about how we’re growing in our own Ergrownomics raised planters this year, and walk you through how you can achieve the same results at home, yourself...Feel free to follow along, and be sure to follow us on Instagram & Facebook to never miss an update! As usual, key is at the bottom, so scroll down now!
The prolonged spell of settled weather has continued this week, with daytime temperatures remaining steadfast above the seasonal average at 16oC. However, overnight frosts have continued unabated with temperatures once again dipping below zero every night this week! The number of frosts recorded in April this year is apparently the highest recorded in the last 60 years… We’ve had 20 compared to an average of 12 for England as a whole, 11 for Wales and 16 for Scotland (which confirms what we’ve always suspected that the weather we experience on account of our altitude of 350 m above sea level is quite challenging!) That all being said, we’ve been lucky because (firstly) the frosts have not been particularly severe (they’ve usually crept down to just minus 20C), and (secondly) we’ve been able to offer seedlings protection by means of our fitted cloches that have proved a godsend!
‘Misticanza di Lattughe’ in Planter 1 has grown slowly but steadily this week; it is now possible at least to differentiate between the varieties contained within the mix. The majority are green-leaved but there are some that are mottled and others that are red.
We have brought forward the harvesting of Spring Onion ‘White Lisbon Winter Hardy’ in Planter 2 as it seems to have reached its zenith. The Spring onions are excellent and the stems are tender through to their core with no evidence of hollows or woodiness. The plants have a lower proportion of leaf to stem compared to those grown in the polytunnel but this isn’t really a loss. Spring onion will stand well during harvesting and as a result are not really a priority for successional sowing
Lettuce ‘Green Salad Bowl’ and ‘Red Salad Bowl’ have been thinned in order to achieve a stocking of 18 plants per row, which will eventually be reduced further to 12. This was desperately needed as the number of seedlings that germinated was far more than ideal. Lettuce ‘Oak Leaf Green’ was also thinned but here the seedlings removed were transplanted to fill the gaps at each end of the row rather than being discarded. The resulting stocking is higher than strictly needed but this is a precaution as not all transplanted seedlings will root successfully and take.
Radish ‘Diana’, Radish ‘Hailstone’ and Radish ‘Scarlet Globe’ in Planter 4 have bulbed up rapidly in the last week and harvesting has started as radishes don’t stand well and quickly ‘go over’ by becoming hollow and pithy at the centre. We usually allow no more than 3 weeks for harvesting. Radishes must be sown successionally to ensure continuity of supply, but we think they are most useful as a very early season ‘stopgap’ crop while we are growing on other crops under-cover, such as French beans and courgettes for outplanting from mid-May.
We have an outdoor planter containing Wild garlic which has this week started to flower. It’s a perennial that gets better every year which has gradually infilled by self-setting from the three plants we originally bought. While the planter isn’t by any stretch our most productive, it is extremely attractive at this time of year and it does reliably produce 3 or 4 small jars of probably the best pesto we make every year (and we do make a lot of pesto!)
While the crops we are currently picking are slightly eclectic - the asparagus, radish, spring onion, rocket and mustard lettuces do work brilliantly on Moroccan flatbreads with a spiced yoghurt dressing. Fennel seeds in the dough provide an extra dimension. We've gone a bit rogue this week and will use it as our 'Sandwich of the week' post!