Vegetable Growing 2024

I grew Charlottes in our second year here - 2018 - but another drought hot and by th etime they were big enough to bother eating they'd gone floury. Haven't bothered since but it's been a very wet winter so OH insists we try again. Just need enough of a dry spell to get them planted.

 

It’s incredibly wet here too for late March .. lots of roads are flooded by run off from the fields. Must be a nightmare for local farmers presently ! We have a stream which runs into a culvert under our garden lawn and it’s more like a river at the moment !

 

@burnie we are at the opposite end of the UK and cannot even think about planting out our shallots. We have had so much rain and again rain rain rain. Even with wellies we sink and so have to keep of the ground.

 

I haven't even started weeding the vegetable garden, it's still so wet.

@pete a few years ago I tried main crop potatoes again in Dordogne and they were absolutely decimated by Colorado beetles.

 

I grow almost all my veg in raised beds, so water logging is not too much of a problem.
See here........................

 

While I agree with @pete , I think you could consider adopting the no-dig technique for at least the areas you would wish to plant early crops. By this I would work out the area required, clear it in late Autumn(or prior to your return to UK), mulch with 25-40mm of compost or fym and cover with a light excluding tarpaulin well weighted down.
When you return to Dordogne in Spring, withdraw the covering and having lightly stirred the surface ,you should then be able to plant as required. Your clay will become more friendly over time, especially if protected during winter

 

Some people are quick to dismiss raised beds. If you have certain conditions - ie a very wet climate, they're invaluable, especially with heavier soil. The secret is to keep adding organic matter though.
Our March weather has been much the same as any other March, although we can get anything and everything, but rain is never far away in this part of the country. Feb. was a bit wetter than last year, but only because it was so warm, so the snow/ice/frost, was rain instead. Snow/frost etc is far better because it allows plants to have a proper dormancy too.

 

For some people @fairygirl a rasied bed is simply a slightly raised bed of earth that doesn't even have a formal boundary or edge. Ours are marked out with paths in beween but the wood we've used to "conatin" them is only a few inches high - enough to make anedge and to attach insect netting/hen barriers when we need them.

In really wet places you need a more elaborate affair with high sides in order to get the drainage and then there's the whole ornamental thing of wicker walls, wooden beams, rusty metal sheets to lift them to knee height.

Agree about a decent cold snap to allow dormancy but it doesn't always happen this far south or near the coast so we have to adapt our ways. We are going more and more no dig where we can and the compost heap supplies allow.

 

Yes @Obelix-Vendée , I was really meaning the more constructed type, rather than just some raised ground with no defined edge.
I've noticed a lot of crows/magpies/jackdaws getting stuck into grass round here recently. Normally, the leatherjackets aren't much of a problem, and I assume it's because it's normally not suitably mild enough for them to survive winters. We haven't had what I'd call a 'proper' winter round here for a few years.
Adapting is certainly the way forward now, regardless of location.

 

Funnily enough @fairygirl we spotted a murder of crows pecking vigorously in the grass between the covered parking and the play area at the SM we use. It's the first time I've seen them going for grubs like that since we moved here but we have had an unusual series of severe downpours during storm Nelson and the ground was already sodden from all the previous rains.

We have to don boots to squelch our way to the veg plot.

 

I suppose we're just used to it in this area @Obelix-Vendée
I just stay off any ground as much as possible. I had to trample around in the front garden recently, as I was putting in some new bare root hedging. It's just grass though- it'll recover, and I can't get too excited about it!
Having the back garden gravelled, and with raised beds, makes it easier if there's anything to be done at this time of year. Only one longer border is directly in the ground, and that has a lot of shrubs/trees etc, which helps with soaking up excess moisture.

 

60 modules of multi sown leeks sown today, 5 varieties. To follow the first earlies probably

 

Talking of leaks, this morning while taking our dog for his walk we passed a market garden field. The farmer looks to have grown leaks, and brassicas over winter. He usually picks his veg on market days to sell. Haven't noticed before but he's grown two leaks together in a hole. It seems a good way to me to make the best use of resources. The farmer obviously knows what he's doing, wonder if anyone else grows two leaks together. The later crop on the left does look to have only a single leak growing in a hole though.

On a side note, I never noticed the monk (top left corner) saying his prayers

 

Hi all,

I have a question re mycorrhizal fungi.

When would be the optimal time to use it ? When putting my plants into their final positions? Or could I use it earlier in the season (ie now) - when potting on?

The plants I specifically plan to use it with are pepper/chilli, tomato and aubergine - if this makes a difference.

Many thanks!