Caithness-planted veggies did better than expected this year
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Gardening on the Edge by Diana Wayland
After a dreadful start, I am happy to report that it has been a good year!
The spring struggle to get seeds to germinate, then grow, and finding that what had germinated was not what it said on the packet, has turned out far better than I expected.
In the kailyard I have harvested garlic, onions and some tatties, plus had success this year growing courgettes and dwarf French beans outside during the refurbishment of the greenhouse.
Although there are fewer courgettes, some did grow very large due to the warm weather in July and early August.
The brassicas are catching up. Although I may not see caulis this year, I may get a bit of broccoli yet. Kohl rabi has been good, although fewer than usual, and the kale and cabbages are doing very well. The sprout plants are good, so we may get sprouts forming soon.
Neeps are forming and, although they are never very big, they are so much better than shop bought ones.
Peas have been excellent. The variety I grow does well on a frame to about four feet outside, with windbreak protection round the bed. But runner beans are slow this year. Broad beans were late, too, but the pods are swelling and I must keep an eye on them so the beans do not get too big. But, for the second year, they have got blackfly. Easy to deal with – just cut off and bin the tops.
The (very) late beetroot are starting to form, but I have kept them cloched just in case. The celeriac is starting to catch up after being even slower than the beetroot, and in the next warm spell, if we have one, I will uncloche them. They will stand through winter.
Onions this year did not do so well. I start the sets off in trays in the greenhouse, then plant them out. Not too many failed but they did not grow as big as last year. I am drying them on the new staging in the greenhouse. Leeks were planted out late. They are growing now but it is touch and go whether they will be big enough when they stop for winter.
Shallots (first attempt at the long jumbo ones) were a failure. Next year they will be cloched. They were in appropriate well-drained soil, but they did not like the summer winds bouncing off the house wall into the beds they were occupying. More lessons to be learned here.
I sowed turnips and they have not done too badly, nor have radishes. Two sowings did pretty well. Spinach and leaf greens bolted, probably due to the warm weather. I don’t eat a lot of this, but do like young spinach which is only young for a short while. In winter I substitute kale.
I did not manage to grow carrots this year, nor parsnips, as I had too many onions! The bed earmarked for carrots had to be used for onions.
But, just to show how strange a year it has been, I tried to sow wild carrot for the herb garden. After a struggle I got three, which I planted out. Then, as they grew, I noticed that the root tops were orange. These were not wild carrots!
It can’t have been me – my carrot seed never left the packet this year!
