Most of the asparagus is progressing well – Backlim is shoulder height, just starting to fern, Ariane (early variety) made it to above knee height and is quite ferny with berries, but the Purple Stewart isn’t happy – lost 2 crowns entirely, the rest has a bit of fern, but is skinny, shriveled, you wouldn’t want to eat it. Main concern now is keeping the stems upright in the strong winds. Have put a Heath-Robinson frame up but it needs to be more substantial and able to be dropped into place each year. Will blunder along this season hoping nothing snaps off and get something organised for next spring.
Onion sets all seem to be okay, we have lost a couple at most. Main job is to keep the bed weeded and to deter the soddin cat that confuses a raised bed with a litter tray. I think I will try 2 things, bits of spiky twig laid around on the soil – lots of that available in the hawthorn hedge and perhaps a net surround – cats don’t like to jump over things apparently, just onto things, so that might help. Also thinking of some evil solutions if the humane ones don’t work, as I am not prepared to sacrifice our food just to be kind to someone elses cat.
Strawberries have coped well with being moved from a planter to a permanent bed. No idea which variety is which any more, but some are clearly going to fruit sooner than others, so that might help me work it out. Added half a dozen alpine/woodland plants which may not fruit this year but will be delicious when they do.
Potatoes are looking good, first tubs should be ready from the end of this month then at 4-6 week intervals. We have only done Anya, Charlotte and Juliet this year.
Carrots are okay but no roots yet, just early foliage.
Parsnips I am a bit worried about. They are supposedly quite difficult to germinate so I was pleased when my first attempt was successful, but the rain and quite cool temps of the past 24 hours seems to have traumatized them a bit. One has disappeared completely, a few are wilting, only half the row looks robust enough to make it. Might put a cloche over some of them for the rest of the weekend. My second sowing of parsnips seems to have failed totally as the soil dried out, so we could end up with none ! I will put some more into pots and others direct sown to see if we can manage some for Christmas day lunch.
Rasps are coming along nicely. Autumn ones are ready to flower, summer canes have finally started sending up shoots that will fruit next year.
The rhubarb, or rather one of them, is looking lovely but we can’t eat that this year, needs to establish. The other has failed, probably the soil is too poor there so I will move it for next year. The soft fruit bushes are not doing much, a few berries/currants but should now be setup for next year.
Lots of work to do clearing space for more beds ready for summer and autumn planting and it will soon be time to put the brassicas and winter roots into their beds. Salad crops should be in but aren't, so next fine day that has to be done or we'll miss out on summer salads.
Some of what I had hoped to do will have to wait a year, it's taking a lot of time and effort to get control of what is essentially a pile of weed strewn rubble.
I forgot about the trees ! No flowers on the cherry this year, that can take a couple of years to start fruiting, loads of tiny plums - will lose most over next couple of weeks as the tree sorts out what it can sustain, a few applets (is that a word outside of IT ?) which have to go, to let the apple trees build up for next year.