{"id":17666,"date":"2023-07-29T19:28:39","date_gmt":"2023-07-29T18:28:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ossettweather.com\/gardening2022\/?p=17666"},"modified":"2023-07-31T11:17:06","modified_gmt":"2023-07-31T10:17:06","slug":"weve-reached-a-turning-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ossettweather.com\/gardening2022\/susan\/weve-reached-a-turning-point\/","title":{"rendered":"We’ve reached a turning point"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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It seems that no sooner have we planted up all our allotment beds than we start to clear them.\u00a0 The period of time during which the plot looks its best is short-lived.\u00a0<\/p>

We may not have enjoyed the weather during July but the weeds certainly have. We spent much of last week when we were not harvesting, clearing weeds. Several barrow loads were popped on the compost heap. We have separate bays in our compost area. One part is where we compost weeds and another for more desirable composting material. Guess which heap is the larger! The weedy compost is usually left for longer before adding it to the beds, Many advocate not composting weeds, but that would leave us with the problem of what to do with the vast amount of weed growth and also we reckon that weeds will continue to appear regardless of whether or not we spread weed generated compost. On an allotment site, there are plenty of weed seeds travelling from other plots.<\/p>

To try and control the weed growth, once beds have been cleared and dug over, they will be covered with weed control fabric. This will be removed over winter when weed growth has more or less stopped and the beds will be recovered once the weeds start to reappear. We have found that leaving the fabric on overwinter can adversely affect our soil.<\/p>

\"\"<\/p>

Martyn has started to lift our potatoes.\u00a0<\/p>

\"\"
July 27 – Winston potatoes<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Generally, the potatoes haven’t grown very well this year. and most of the tops have already died back.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The sweet corn has produced the female tassels so I am giving the wind a helping hand by shaking the plants to make the pollen fall from the male flowers. I dare say that this year the wind doesn’t need a lot of help but it’s something that I do every year.<\/p>

\"\"
July 27 – Climbing Fench beans – Cobra & Blue Lake, Dwarf French beans – Pongo, Runner beans – Moonlight & St George, Blueberries, Courgettes – Defender & Sunstripe, Shallots – Longor, Raspberries, Potatoes – Winston, Tomatoes – Sungold and Mangetout – Kent Blue<\/figcaption><\/figure>

\"\"<\/p>

The shallot harvest was modest although better than expected. I think the sets had been kept in too warm conditions and they had dried out quite a bit.<\/p>

\"\"<\/p>

Unlike last year, which was a poor year for runner beans, this year promises to be a bumper year. The plants are loaded with flowers which are setting well.<\/p>

\"\"
July 29 – Potatoes – Casablanca, Mangetout – Kent Blue, Climbing French beans – Blue Lake, Runner beans – St George<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Casablanca potatoes usually do really well for us, but this year they hardly produced any top growth, so we were not surprised that the harvest was modest.<\/p>

\"\"
30 July; Runner beans – Moonlight & St George, Climbing French beans – Cobra & Blue Lake, Blueberries, Jostaberries,, Cabbage – Cabbice & Greyhound, Tomato – Buffalo Sun & Sungold, Peas – Onward, Sweet peas and Dahlias<\/figcaption><\/figure>

I bought some dwarf chilli plants this year. They are advertised as suitable for growing on a windowsill. They have produced a few chillies and some had turned red so I took them off and they have been frozen. I forgot to take a photo as I was too busy making sure that I wore some gloves to handle them. The last time we grew chillies I prepared them with bare hands and suffered for it. I also cut off some green chillies and prepared them in the same way. I’m hoping the variety is as mild as advertised. The chopped chillies have been frozen.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The buddleias are now flowering so I was hoping some butterflies would pose for me but I only managed a photo of a comma. The wind blowing the branches about wasn’t ideal for taking well focussed photos.\"\"<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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In the garden, the patio pots are being buffeted by the winds. I’m being kept busy dead heading the pansies in order to keep them flowering.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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At Temple Newsam there was a more dramatic casualty of the wind. I’m guessing that the tree was not a healthy specimen.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Nostell was a very different place last week. It’s usually quier mid-week but now that the schools have broken up the crowds flock in. The ice cream stall was taking advantage. It’s usually closed.<\/p>

The cattle all seemed to want to browse the same area of grass. I wonder what was so tasty in the midst of the herd.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Although the six cygnets are now well grown, they keep close to the parent bird who is still very protective towards them.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Finally, onto how we used some of our produce last week. I made a chicken stir fry<\/a> into which went some of our cauliflower, broccoli, courgette, garlic and onions\"\"<\/p>

I used some of our cabbage,onion, garlic and frozen pepper in another stir fry<\/a>. I added some yellow courgette to the recipe.<\/p>

\"\"<\/p>

A turkey dish<\/a> used some of our shallots, courgettes and frozen pepper.<\/p>

\"\"Well July has been a complete washout. I’m hoping August will at least try to remember it is actually summer!<\/p>

That’s all for another week so as always stay safe and well.<\/p>

Once again I am linking to Harvest Monday<\/a> on Dave’s Our Happy Acres blog.<\/p>

By the way if you click on any of the smaller images you can view a larger version of the photo.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It seems that no sooner have we planted up all our allotment beds than we start to clear them.  The period of time during which the plot looks its best is short-lived.  We may not have enjoyed the weather during July but the weeds certainly have. We spent much of last week when we were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17662,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_eb_attr":"","ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"ocs-susans-post-sidebar","ocean_second_sidebar":"0","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"0","ocean_custom_header_template":"0","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"0","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"off","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-susan","entry","has-media"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ossettweather.com\/gardening2022\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/DSC01371.jpg?fit=1000%2C563&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ossettweather.com\/gardening2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ossettweather.com\/gardening2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ossettweather.com\/gardening2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ossettweather.com\/gardening2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ossettweather.com\/gardening2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17666"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/ossettweather.com\/gardening20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