November 23

Harvest Monday 23rd November 2020

Oh it has been wet here in the south of the UK and that means I haven’t been able to get out and ‘do stuff’.  I haven’t even really wanted to go down to the allotment so the harvest this week is from the garden.

I started growing vegetables in the garden this spring when I decided in the autumn that now would be a good time to start saving my own seed.  I didn’t want to grow the plants on the allotments because the chance of cross-pollination is very high.  So, I have grown some veg at home.

On Thursday I picked the very last of my tomatoes and removed the plants.  Surprisingly, these have semi-ripened so a few days on the window sill should see them completely ripe and ready to eat. The tomatoes from left to right are Black Russian, Rosella, Costoluto, Sungold and Shimmer.  All are delicious and I will grow them again next year.

The lambs lettuce is grown outside and has reached a good size. It is Vit and I am going to leave a few plants to set seed to see if it is possible to save seed from it.

The really strange harvest this week is my mahooooosive beetroot.  I built a hugelkultur bed in the spring and planted 6 beetroot at the short end of the bed and left them to grow until next year when they will flower and I can collect the seed.  It was a sunny day and so I cut the grass but caught one of the beetroot on the lawn mower which pulled it out of the soil. They have very small roots which don’t seem to cling to the soil much. Anyway, this beetroot is a whopper.

It weighs just over 3.5 kgs and I do not know what to do with it. I am not sure it will make great eating so I think I will have to chop it up and put it on the compost heap. I don’t want seed that makes enormous beetroot as I prefer my beetroot to be tennis ball sized.  The only thing we can say is that Boltardy beetroot really do not bolt.

In my next post I will be reviewing the hugelkultur bed and planning my next steps.

I have linked this post to the Happy Acres blog where Dave hosts a Harvest Monday series every week. It is a fascinating place to find out about what other people are growing.

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Posted November 23, 2020 by alijoy in category harvest monday, november

4 thoughts on “Harvest Monday 23rd November 2020

  1. ediblegardens52/Sue Martin

    What a lovely format for your blog. Hope you’ll continue to link to Our Happy Acres. Very interested in your recent 18-day compost article. Thanks.

    Reply
    1. alijoy (Post author)

      Thank you Sue. I have a feeling the compost will take more like 30 days at this time of year but feel like it is worth trying.

      Reply
  2. Dave@HappyAcres

    That beetroot is huge! I had no idea they got that big, though I don’t grow them often here. I’ve never done a hugelkultur bed but I have done ‘lasagna’ beds on occasion with good results. It’s an easy way to start a new bed with layers of organic material.

    Reply
    1. alijoy (Post author)

      I have read about lasagna beds but am not sure about the layering and slugs. I can really only mulch with compost because everything else seems to attract them. We can get quite wet in winter and slugs and snails seem to hide in the mulch and pop out in spring!

      Reply

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