Some Good, Some Bad. June19th 2020

It’s beeen an amazing year for strawberries. We started picking about three weeks ago and still have a few weeks left judging by the plants. We have eaten loads, given lots away and my freezer is filling up fast.

Broad beans are not so successfull and the onions are even worse. It’s normal to have good and bad crops each year, often weather dependent but also bugs and blights play their part. We are not sure what happened with the broad beans. The plants are meant to be about 2-3ft high whereas they have only grown to about 18 inches. They look healthy but only have beans on the bottom 6-10 inches so perhaps all the fertilising insects stayed away when we had a week or so of frosts. We will have a few pickings to eat fresh but my favourite broad bean and courgette soup is going to be missing from my freezer this winter.

The poor onions had to go. Our plot has always suffered from a blight that affects onions. It’s in the soil and can’t be eliminated especially if you garden organically as we do. Normally it means that the onions don’t keep well so we never grew too many but this year the plants were attacked as they grew and started rotting and becoming deformed. We dug them up and I think that may be the last time we try to grow them.

My courgette which I planted early and nurtured in order to have some early courgettes has done well but my husbands which he planted later are catching up fast. I’m disappointed as I wanted to win the race and I probably will pick the first courgette but it does confirm what my husband always says – you can’t beat nature.

Despite the ups and downs of growing we have loved having the allotment this year and it has been my husbands saving grace during lockdown. We learn something new every season and get a great deal of pleasure from watching nature at work.