In my last posting I was expecting some cold weather and we certainly got it! On Monday 11th we had a late frost which was particularly severe and despite covering up our potatoes at the allotment, they did suffer; their exposed foliage withered and blackened. Where we had used a woollen blanket rather than a rather tatty woven plastic tarpaulin, things were much better and we saw only a little damage! The maincrop potatoes had not yet emerged from underground so were unaffected but the first earlies were much too advanced to earth up and suffered the consequences. They will recover but will knock them about a week to 10 days behind. Those with unprotected grape vines were more severely affected and those vines will likely not fruit at all this year following that sharp frost. Anyway – things move on and the warm sunny weather this week has meant we are able to start planting out all the young plants which have been confined to the greenhouse awaiting their turn. We will leave the most tender plants like courgettes and squash until the end of the month but first to go in are the sweet corn.
Last year we grew a variety called ‘Goldcrest’ which turned out to have a very good taste and delivered a bumper crop so we are repeating the same this year. 52 plants have now gone in – planted close together since they rely on wind pollination and this works better when they are planted in a block rather than a row. At the weekend just as I was planting out a new asparagus bed – with plants grown from seed last year and unlikely to produce any spears worth cutting for another couple of years at least – I heard a call from an allotment neighbour – “Tim, would you like some asparagus?”. Well, yes please, I would! One of the great delights of the allotment community is the generosity, not only in terms of produce but also in spirit as we delight in food grown and shared; offer each other advice and help – and of course commiserate when late frosts decimate our crops!
