Tuesday 17 May 2011

Our first harvest...

So at the end of last week we had rain. Not a lot, not enough by any means, but a couple of hours of this wet stuff has made everything green again (including the chicken decimated sections of the lawn) and my allotment has burst into life.

We have our first crop! This is very exciting as we have never grown anything edible on the allotment before, the only thing we've taken off the plot is rocks and weeds! I'm excited despite the harvest being a small one.Four little radishes which I took home and munched in a salad for my tea. I shared them with the boyf of course!


The weediest, greying of all the seedlings, my calabrese and purple sprouting broccoli have come back with such vigour I am now fearing the gluttiest of all the gluts...


The current darlings of my plot, my beautiful red cabbages have sprung up and are looking even more lovely now than in their purple seedling state. I never thought of myself as a cabbage fancier but these girls have got it going on...


On the advice of a friend, as well as Alys Fowler in The Guardian I have begun a rigorous regime of mulching with lawn cuttings. Luckily the boyf always has a van load from his gardening round so there’s no problem with supply. I covered the raspberry plants a couple of weeks back and the soil which was once dust and concrete dried clay has now become soft, moist and full of worms. My three sisters, corn, courgettes and beans, (currently two sisters as my beans are taking a while to get going) have got a specially thick layer as I am out to prove to the boyf that companion planting is the way forward...


As you can see, his onions are growing obediently in their perfectly uniformed lines. The jig is up though and he’s noticed my little carrot seedlings popping up in between. I’ve just about convinced him that my carrots and his onions are a dream team....time will tell.

Have you got any successful companion planting pairngs? I’d love to know, I’m all about trial and error at the moment! Parsnips and artichoke? Rhubarb and sweet potato?


6 comments:

  1. YES! YES! YES!

    It's always great to get that first harvest of the season no matter how big or small!!! :)

    We are hopefully planting our first radishes today! Quick and Simple!

    Martin :)

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  2. It's all looking VERY good.

    Like you I plant carrots amongst the onions, and I ALWAYS have Marigolds dorrted around the polytunnel and the raised beds outside, they attract all the necessary predators. I also plant Basil with the Tomato plants, a pairing made in heaven for growing purposes and taste-wise.

    Rosemary is also very happy in a bed with Brocolli.

    Seems they all have bedfellows!!

    I ate my first homegmrown strawberry yesterday, I confessed to LH....I'll let him have the next one!!

    Sue xx

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  3. 'dorrted' should of course read 'dotted'...lol!! Although if you say it like that you do sound VERY posh!

    Sue xx

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  4. Thats a lovely looking radish, and the rest of your plot is looking lovely too. I'm not too good at companion planting really but I am going to try putting my squash plants in the middle of my sweetcorn this year in a kind of two thirds of the 'Three Sisters' method... :)

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  5. Nice post!
    I tend to plant basil with tommies, if they taste that good together they should be grown together!
    As with everyone else too, marigolds planted around the place seem to help things along and I also like to put large lavendar in the middle of my largest raised beds, have now done the same at the lottie. I think it smells lovely but also helps attract pollinators too!
    Loving the look of those onions, neat little rows, all looking very smart! :) x

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  6. thanks guys! I've got marigolds and nasturtiums hardening off at home ready to go out- looking forward to getting a bit of colour in the plot! I will definately try basil and tomatoes, that sounds like a bed which would be hard to pass without a little nibble!

    Holly x

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