A full plot and my first courgette!

In the middle of June all the crops were doing well apart from the kale and one row of broccoli. The kale had been stripped bare by the pigeons and I had given up on it. Next year I will net the kale over straight away. One row of broccoli hadn't been netted as I had run out of netting so I tied plastic bags to poles to scare away the pigeons. That method didn't really work at all. That's how I learn through trial and error, I like to try things out and learn from experience. Luckily I did have another row of broccoli under netting that was happy. The rest of the crops were thriving, the onions and shallots were shooting up, the beetroot was getting bigger and the broadbeans were growing well. I purchased a cloche net tunnel for the cabbages so that cabbage butterflies couldn't get to them. My daughter planted some carrot seedlings between the onion rows and they seemed to be sprouting nicely too. So overall I was really pleased with the progress. I did not envisage such an abundance of crops growing when I took the plot on a few months earlier.

Towards the end of June my first courgette had appeared on the courgette plant! It looked so perfect and I was in awe at that moment of the magic of nature. It's so easy to overlook sometimes. Photo on top of page.

#harvest #courgette #birds #netting