Catching up - veg patch news

How quickly the year has whizzed past - although this year the fruit season (and everything else) is nearly 4 weeks ahead of 2010 and we found ourselves back in the orchards thinning pears and apples as early as 16th May (as opposed to 14th June last year).  This unaccustomed 7 hours work per day explains why little else is being achieved at the moment but we only have about 4 days ahead of us and we will be back to our normal rather lackadaisical way of life as a couple of retirees in the French countryside.....

The sun has shone without let-up since early April - some rain during the night a few times has filled our rain butt only to have it emptied again as we struggle to keep our garden alive - wonderful working in the sunshine but it does get hot in the afternoons.  Whilst the farmers are praying for rain we are hoping that the sun continues to bless our forthcoming bike ride along the Loire - something we have been planning since last summer when we met a few cyclists on the Loire valley bike trail during a camping trip to Gien (near Orleans) and became inspired with the idea of having a go ourselves.....

The veg plot is fully planted up and I'm hoping to make some automatic water drip feeders (out of plastic water bottles) for the tomatoes and courgettes - be sad to lose them after nursing them for so long.  Our baby lettuce plants still keep getting attacked by some fiercesome grub that chomps through the root and kills them - seems to be a problem with a plot newly dug into a lawn.  We are presently using neat nettle juice - smelly but hopefully effective, to protect all new plantlets.  We also have a brew of rosemary juice humming away, so will see if that serves any purpose in the 'natural' war against bugs and slugs...

The 'companion' system seems effective and we are sticking to the rule of not putting bad neighbours too close together.  Good neighbours are: beans & brassicas; tomatoes with onions, parsley, brassicas, celeriac, kidney beans; carrots or parsnips & onions, lettuce with radish, beans, cucumbers, kidney beans, beetroot; peas & brassicas or celery; potatoes & all brassicas, peas, broad beans.

The system we are following is that of Gertrud Franck - who published her book 'Companion Planting' in the 1980's.  She recommends a spacing of two metres between row A (red marker) and plants tall bushy plants from May to end of season - tomatoes, runner beans, cucumbers, late cabbage, broad beans, potatoes, courgettes, peas.

Row B, also spaced at 2 metres (green marker);  leeks (sown rows), onions, cauliflower, celery, kidney beans, spring greens, beetroot, parsnips, onion sets raised from seed.

Row C (blue marker), spaced at 1 metre - short growing time and low growth - early carrots, lettuce, onion sets from seed, cabbage lettuce, endives, kohlrabi, fennel, radish.  If you look very hard you might just make out the little markers at the end of the rows....

The rows, using the coloured markers, are red, blue, green, blue, red, blue, green etc at 50 cms spacings. Then, between every row you plant a row of spinach for early leaves and green manure (see the photo above, left, where the spinach leaves are thriving).  Those leaves that we don't eat are picked off and laid on the soil surface to encourage the worms and also to shelter the moisture in the soil.  Seems to work and also gives us a fortune of spinach for early veg during the 'hungry gap' - I use it in my morning veg juice.  Pop-eye was onto a good thing...

Merle