Friday 9 August 2013

Turnips out, PSB in

I pulled up the last of my Turnips last weekend. Another 8 "Golden Ball", and they were still mostly undamaged by bugs and weevils, which is well nigh a miracle considering my previous experiences with this vegetable.


In the space were the Turnips were, I have planted some seedlings of  Lettuce "Webbs Wonder", a big Iceberg-style lettuce.

 
To the left of the lettuces in the photo above you can just see a few of the Radishes, which I sowed a few days previously. They germinated very rapidly in the warm weather:


In another bed I had put in four seedlings of Purple Sprouting Broccoli, joining the Cavolo Nero that I planted the previous week:


The PSB ones are those next to the wooden stakes. I decided this year to grow only four PSB plants because the six I had last time produced rather too much broccoli for the two of us. I think it is time to apply my "Quality before quantity" approach.

This time I have two plants of "Red Arrow" and one each of "Red Spear" and "Early Purple". I have kept loads of spare seedlings, just in case I get problems with the Cabbage Root Fly, although I'm hoping I won't since I have applied a dose of the relevant nematodes.

Another job I did at the weekend was to provide some support for the Asparagus ferns, which are very tall now. I put six bamboo canes around the bed, and fixed some wire to them at a height of about three feet. Hopefully this will be sufficient to keep the Asparagus broadly upright.


Today I also want to show you my "Conference" pears. Not many of them remain, since not only did my tree experience the usual "June drop", but also a "July drop" too. The unusually hot weather put the tree under a lot of stress, and it obviously knew it would not be able to support much fruit. I think there are nine pears remaining. They look good though:


8 comments:

  1. What pretty pears. A neighbor of mine has a ton of pears on his (or her since I've never met). But most of them are way too high to reach. I wonder if anyone but the squirrels get them that high.

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  2. I looked up through the garden greenhouse roof today to see lots of conference pears hanging threateningly above so no doubt we will end up with more broken panes!

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  3. Sounding slightly off topic but isn't really, I've just started reading "A Year in the Village of Eternity" by Tracey Lawson. It describes the food and seasonal recipes of the people of the Italian village of Campodimele who are famed for a long and healthy life. really well written with recipes that I'm already planning to cook. I suggest all serious growers of veg and eaters of food to have a look!
    (and no I have nothing financially to gain -just thought Mark and his readers would be interested)

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  4. Love the look of your turnips, it is hard to get seed of turnips here in NZ, but yesterday I finally found a seed company online that seels them. Ive ordered Golden Ball and Purple Top Milan. Those conference pears look wonderful.

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  5. Nice looking Turnips Mark. I lifted most of mine early this year but still half a dozen are still growing to a nice size. I usually get flea beetle damage on the early foliage which slows their growth but not this year. Good choice with the Lettuce. Webbs is the first one I usually sow and give plenty of water to.

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  6. The golden ball turnips are very pretty. I cooked beetroot and turnip in chili and it was really tasty!

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  7. Your garden is rocking...I can see you are planting for fall. I have a few weeks before I get there.

    Velva

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  8. There's always something to inspire me from your veggie plot Mark ;D
    I'm just busy pruning and trying to reign everything in just now but will be planning next year's plot very soon.
    Thanks for sharing :D

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