Glass Houses (Tomatoes, Peppers and Chillies, Aubergine, Melons, Cumumbers)
All the vegetables in the glass houses turned out really well this year. This was helped by the environment in which they are grown, with the glass houses protecting the vegetables against the elements – the wind and vast amounts of rain that we have had! Overall all the vegetables grew well, however for the aubergines it was quite a bad year and there wasn’t much sun to ripen the peppers and so they didn’t turn out as well as the other vegetables – the tomatoes, chillies, melons and cucumbers.
Polytunnels (Beans, Peas, Courgette, Early Potatoes, Corn, Aubergine, Chinese , Cabbage, Baby Roots, Herbs, Celery, Celeriac, Baby Roots, Peppers, Chillies, Early Roots, Early Brassicas, Salads, Asparagus, Tomatoes, Pickling Cucumbers)
All the vegetables in the Polytunnels did brilliantly this year; there were no problems with birds eating the peas like in the Walled Garden as all the vegetables are nicely protected from these animals. The sweet peas proved to be very popular this year with customers in the farm shop. Unfortunately, a lot of the cabbages were eaten by slugs, and there wasn’t much sun to ripen the peppers and so the peppers weren’t as successful as a lot of the other vegetables. It was also a fairly bad year for aubergines, meaning that not as many aubergines were sold in the farm shop.
As usual, the courgettes turned out wonderfully again, with lots growing and tasting lovely. The corn this year also proved to be a massive success, with everyone saying that the corn has never tasted better!
Walled Garden (Jerusalem artichoke, Roots bed, Chinese artichoke, Mixed bed, Rhubarb, Globe artichoke, Peas and beans bed, Flower border, Rock dust trial, Brassicas bed)
This year in the Walled Garden we had a disaster with all the peas being eaten by the pigeons! Despite this, in the peas and beans bed the runner beans and the broad beans turned out wonderfully. We also had great success with the brussel sprouts. The stalks were sold on in the shop, and lots were bought so must have been very popular!
In the root section in the walled garden, the leeks proved to be a great success. Lots were sold and tasted lovely. In the mixed bed, the onions turned out very well, almost as well as the garlic in the herb bed which had huge heads, a very good sign for garlic!
Overall this has been a brilliant year for vegetable growing. As always we have had to spend a lot of time weeding this year. The vast amounts of rainfall have meant that weeds have grown quickly, and so we have needed to keep on top of it so as they didn’t get out of control! However the rain, although bad for making the weeds grow, proved really helpful in the watering of the vegetables, ensuring that they grew big and strong. This also meant that we have only had to use the sprinklers a few times, mostly to spray compost tea.