July has proven to be a very productive month in the Kitchen Garden. The fruit trees are starting to ripen; apples, pears, plums, peach, nectarines & apricots which have been particularly bountiful. Naturally the wasps are attracted to the fruit but these have not been as bad this year as in previous years, this may have something to do with the weather or maybe I am speaking to soon and will be plagued by them in the coming weeks. Wasp traps are set and in place with a good helping of SunnyD which seems to be their favoured tipple!
There is a long list of harvested produce; spinach, lettuce, tomatoes, kale, courgettes, blueberries, red currents, raspberries, cucumber, broad beans, sprouting broccoli, radishes, potatoes, runner beans, onions, garlic and French beans.
The courgettes have done particularly well this year and we have so many that we don’t know what to do with them all. We have also had a really good harvest of blueberries they have clearly liked the weather however the garlic and peas have been very poor and have barely produced anything worth eating.
The first crop of charlotte potatoes has now been lifted; a good size and a good yield. There was a lovely large crop of apricots too this year, although the wasps seemed as eager to eat them as I was.
The parsnips have been planted out this month. They were a little slow to get going this year, so a little late going in but they have caught up and looking very healthy.
I have also been busy preparing the bed for our autumn carrots by sieving the top layer of soil to make it as light as possible removing all the debris it was a very stony bed, not good for carrots.
I have planted a pumpkin which will add interest when the days become colder. This is growing really well and hopefully will be ready for Halloween.
We have been doing photography for our upcoming catalogue this month. We have used a lot of companion planting this year which has proved to be quite a success. The garden was looking really beautiful so there should be some stunning photos.
