Following on from the last garden report the progress has been phenomenal with all the jobs on the rota being undertaken and completed very quickly to the point that the job list had to be updated sooner than expected.
This has been due to the fantastic commitment of all of our volunteers who, it seems could not get enough of gardening tasks as part of daily exercise.
We were also blessed with the most amazing Spring weather, the only downside being the amount of watering which was required to keep all of the young plants alive!
In the polytunnel the super early tatties were harvested at the beginning of the month yielding 75 Kg, the varieties with the best weights were Abbot, Rocket and Winston. They have been very popular with volunteers and people who attended our plant and seed swap event at the end of May and at the time of writing there isn’t many left so if you didn’t get some give me a shout. However, the outdoor tattie plantings are growing away strongly so there should be lots available early in July. Fraser shared a couple of lovely new season tattie recipes here and here.
The vacant beds were topped up with our home made compost, seaweed meal, organic fertiliser and rock dust ready for the summer crops. This year we are continuing with our usual tomatoes and the three sisters, courgettes, French beans and sweetcorn. The tomato varieties to look forward to tasting this summer are Gardeners Delight, Crimson Crush, Costoluto Fiorentino, Money Maker, Yellow Delight, Cuore di Bue, Principe Borguese, Golden Sunrise , Alicante, and Black Russian.
Also planted in the beds are cucumbers and, as an experiment this year, melons! Here’s hoping for a good summer. Other polytunnel crops for pot growing are aubergines, sweet peppers , chillies and basil.
Out in the beds the volunteers were busy planting young plants such as cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, calabrese and cauliflower. Other veg plants which were started in the tunnel were lined off such as runner and broad beans, celeriac and leeks. The pumpkin patch was also planted with pumpkins, Turks turban and summer squashes.
Volunteers also sowed a wide variety of veg which were found in polypockets in their allotted beds and the germination was generally good despite the difficult conditions of unseasonably high temperatures.
Other work successfully carried out were the construction of various plant support and protection structures, the fruiting headge mulching and the planting up of our floral displays in the garden and the boat out by the roadside.
Finally, this year’s novelty veg, apart from the melons, is asparagus pea also known as the winged bean which has attractive pea flowers followed by strange looking winged pods which are supposed to taste a little like asparagus apparently, you’ll be able to test them for yourself later this Summer.
If you are looking for advice on how to grow at home, have a look at recordings of online workshops we helped organise, together with Ninewells Community Garden, Strathkiness Community Garden and Transiton Edible Campus St Andrews which are available here. The next workshop on 23rd of June will cover soil types and improvements – you can RSVP through Eventbrite here.
Happy growing and keep safe.
