Kohlrabi
After the hot and dry weather in July, the first half of August has been a bit cooler with some welcome rain giving great growing and ripening conditions. This has meant that most of the garden work has been harvesting with some veg crops coming thick and fast.
Harvesting Kohlrabi and Some More Familiar Veg
This year’s unusual vegetable has been our great crop of kohlrabi which was new to quite a few of our customers so we were giving out some ideas for recipes for people who were trying it out for the first time.
The potatoes, beans and tomatoes have been popular with our veg box subscribers and there’s been a great crop of onions, shallots and garlic.
Pests in the Garden
The brassica cage housing the cabbages, cauliflowers, broccoli etc has been resisting the attention of the cabbage white butterflies but unfortunately some of the potato varieties have succumbed to underground keel slugs. These pests burrow into the tatties through a tiny hole then proceed to eat a large cavern inside. We had to carefully inspect every tattie just in case to make sure no one got some unwelcome protein!
An organic method to control the keel slugs, which we will be trying over the coming months, involves using the affected tatties as bait to try to trap them in next year’s potato grounds by burying the tatties in small sections of reused carrot bags. We will also be monitoring which varieties seem to be most resistant to attack. Find out more about the results so far at our upcoming Tattie Tasting event on Sunday August 29th 2021.
Our Volunteers Have been Busy
More pleasant tasks for the volunteers have included harvesting, sowing catch crops and green manure seeds, taking cuttings of shrubs, the tender bedding plants and herbs, they have also been seeing the process through by potting up the rooted cuttings and, best of all, picking and eating the berries from the fruit hedge!
Collecting Seeds
Now and next month is an ideal time to be collecting ripe seeds from wildflower and annual mixes as well as perennial plants. Dry them quickly on sheets of paper before storing them in a cool dry place. Please feel free to come to the garden to pick some if you want to make your own wildflower patch.
Getting Ready for Pumpkins
We will need volunteers to help harvest the pumpkins next month as they’re getting bigger week by week and may be very heavy by then! Email Ali on volunteer@tayportgarden.org to come and harvest with us.
Garden Q&A Session at Tayport Climate Festival
The harvesting will continue into next month and we will be planning for Creative Climate Garden Open Day – PLANT’s contribution to the Tayport Climate Festival on Sunday 26th, part of which will be a Gardener’s Q & A session. If you have any questions or topics you would like to have covered please let us know in advance by emailing Peter on gardener@tayportgarden.org.
Great blog Peter. I will be very interested to see the results of the keel slug traps next year!