A busy night in the plot

by Nik on June 24, 2008

I had a big session in the plot last night. It started out as weeding the carrot runs, which were starting to get seriously overgrown, and ended up with a bit of building, a bit of trimming and a lot of reorganising. It was such a warm night, and the evenings are light until gone half nine now, which makes the whole thing a fairly idyllic way to finish off the day.

I didn’t realise quite how many weeds there were among the carrots until I got started, but they easily filled a bucket. Unfortunately the runs themselves look a little underwhelming. The early crop is doing well but the late crop, which we put in at the same time and which seemed to be going at around the same pace, is decidedly patchy, with a good bunch of tops poking up around the middle, but little at either end. At least they don’t look like they need much thinning.

Before and after: it wasn’t obvious how weedy the carrot runs were until they’d all been pulled out

The runner and French bean plants are now in full bloom and should start cropping in the next couple of weeks, while the first broad beans are starting to show. They’re not much bigger than pea pods yet, so have some way to go, but it probably means it’s time to start pinching out the tops. The broad bean pods themselves aren’t actually very pretty as they grow out of the centre of the expended white flowers, which turn black and look like they’re a bit of rot or disease on the end of the beans.

The runner beans are in full bloom

The tomatoes are really bushing out, and starting to make some serious demands for extra space. Beside the two semi-mature vines in the fruit bed, the two marmande saplings on the potting bench, the three hanging vines in the basket ready for the hook beside the front door and the four immature shoots beneath the apple tree, there are 12 good plants in the greenhouse starting to flower and a further four potted vines I’ve had to move outside for lack of space. They’ve all been shooting up armpit branches faster than they can be trimmed, so I gave them a good going over last night to knock them into shape. I also staked them up as they’re getting too big and gangly to support themselves now, although it’s obvious now that one of the weekend’s most pressing jobs is going to be heading out to buy longer canes.

Spacing them out meant moving the lettuce troughs up onto the bench, so I had to put the cucumbers outside at the back of the outhouse to make space for them. They were due for moving anyway as they need support for the creepers, which are already starting to put out thin wiry arms, looking for something to hang on to. So I built them a climbing frame from 16 canes right where they can enjoy the best of the sun. Sitting there, though, they’re going to need some serious watering over the summer months as it looks like things are – finally – starting to get a bit more settled in the sky.

Cucumber plants
The cucumber frame looks a bit big for its occupants right now