One crop comes out, one more goes in
This past month has seen the vegetable garden and the potager bursting with produce. As fast as we are picking, more keeps coming. And as soon as one crop finishes, we are clearing the ground for new sowings of seed and for plants of winter greens.
When we have a piece of land that will be lying fallow over winter, we like to protect it from the Devon rain with green manure. After a bit of experimentation and accidental discoveries we have found that the option that works well for us is to sow Phacelia tanacetifolia. At this time of year it will produce dense growth which is then knocked down by the first frosts and produces a straw-like cover that protects the soil over winter. As a bonus it might even flower! By spring it has gone down to almost nothing.
Clearing away and sowing new crops
During August, Garry cleared away previous salad crops and sowed winter radish, land cress, corn salad and radish ‘Mooli Neptune’ in their place.
We have cleared away the dwarf French bean trial ground and planted winter greens in their place.
Harvesting
The main crops we harvested during August were runner beans, French beans and tomatoes. The blueberries did very well this year and are being made into jam for sale in the shop. We are now harvesting autumn raspberries, apples, nectarines and peaches. The first sweetcorn was picked at the end of the month.
Another routine job carried out at this time of year is tidying up the fruit tree pits; here you can see Warren our work experience student trimming the edges.