Whitsend Market Garden

Talk to you soon...

Hello Everyone:

The past two weeks have been a blur of activity.

Beds are getting prepared and the first seeds are gong into the ground.













A sure sign the season is opening is the first day I remove the straw from the garlic beds.

Always a bit of a breathe catcher doing this, as I never know what I will find.

This year, as every year before, almost 100 per cent emergence.

I was particularly nervous seeing mice trails under the straw.  However, they seem to have confined their activities to storing oat seeds under the straw.  I wonder if the owl found them?






Typically, most growers leave their garlic mulched by straw all season.  This keeps moisture in the ground around the shallow rooted garlic, and suppresses weeds to an extent.

However, I need my garlic beds to be clean enough to plant cabbage in within weeks of the garlic getting harvested, so I continue to maintain the beds while the garlic is still here.

Also, due to the Euopean Leek Moth, I have to use row covers on the garlic when the night temperature goes over 10 degrees.  The straw tends to damage the row covers, so another reason why I take the straw out.




The straw is set aside for later use in compost making and mulching crops such as celery, or in this case, rhubarb.






































The rotation pattern I follow is important for many reasons.  By following it, I usually know where crops are going to be planted during the following season.

Knowing this, I can prioritise fall cleaning for the first crops that are seeded, such as spinach and peas.  The peas are just starting to germinate.











The biggest amount of labour goes into cleaning beds that became a bit messy last year.  I expect a few of these every season particyularly late season crops.

Quack grass is the biggest offender, though over th eyears I have reduced the amont in the beds considerably, partly by teasing out the long rhizomes (roots to the lay person), and by starving the rhizomes by clipping off the blades of grass that emerge.








This year, there are many of these beds, as our work flow was quite inturupted last spring.  Loosing time in the spring is

There won't be much effect for this year's crops, but it is delaying me from working on the new beds for next year - I might not have time to capitialize on what the pigs accomplished last year.












The beds developed last year (where we grew potatoes and squash) are looking quite good.  I have given them two cutivations this year to suppress weed growth before it starts, and hoped for one more.

Cultivating is best done with dry soil, so I used plastic mulch as a temporary cover for then next period of rain.

The wind had other plans, despite our attempt to pin down the mulch.  You don't win every game in this sport.



Many growers who use plastic mulch bury the edges of the plastic, but this stirs up the lower layers of soil and expose seeds in the "weed bank", which would negate the reason I use itin the first place.

By the way, cultivating is the process of disturbing the top inch or so of soil, just as weeds are starting to sprout.  Ususally, three passes with a hoe over a period of three weeks will deplete the germinating weeds and leave a relativley clean bed for the remainder of the season, provided the soil surface is not disturbed too deeply.

I can culivate twenty beds in about an hour; weeding mature weeds takes about three times as long; as well, the weed roots pull a considerable amount of soil (and compost and other amendments), and exposes more dormant seeds in the weed bank.

 For a detailed look as the type of hoe I use, check the posts dating back to this time of year, I think 2015 or 2014 has a considerable description of the use and benefits of a co-linear hoe.

Lots happening in the nursery as well.

Chard, Kale, Pak Choi, parsley, celeriac, celery, five types of tomatoes, four types of peppers, green and bulb onions...all of these need to be tended.

Primary concern is ensuring that the seed and seedling trays do not dry out.  It happened once this year, and the egplant was quite wilted looking when I found it.

Jus tin time, a quick soak brought them back to form.  A heart stopper for sure...





Here are the squash plants that germinated last week, now promoted to their cell packs.  As the weather warms, they will move out tot the outdoor nursery to get used to cooler temperatures, and then to the hardening off shelter to prepare for transplant.

Still a bit to write about, but all this writing and thinking about food reminds me that it is approaching 4:30 PM, and it is my turn to get supper started tonight....

Talk to you very soon

Bob