29th July

In April I had Mustard and clover sown in the top of the field, this part of the field is get left as set aside this year, which is part of our crop rotation.

The clover puts nitrogen back into the soil and the mustard creates a dense cover which supresses the weeds, and when chopped up will improve the soil structure, the only thing that must be remembered is that Brassicas crops shouldn’t be planted after it, but next year we will be planting Onions and leeks in this area.

The mustard was now starting to flower, and what you also don’t want is for the mustard to start producing seed heads, because then next year we would have mustard in with the leeks and onions then we would be bed weeding it.

So on Sunday I put on the disc harrows , and chopped it all down, and it was a very dense crop with no weeds in sight, this area of the field did have Thistles and Dockins in it and there were no weeds visible anywhere, so it looks like the mustard and clover has worked.

We will now leave the chopped mustard to rot a wee bit, then I will plough it in, and I will go over the filed with the triple K to prevent any more weeds coming through till winter comes

All the crops are now looking really good, the weather has been very warm, but we have also been having a couple of huge thunder storms each week, which is giving everything a water, this year the weeds are some of the healthiest I have ever seen, we are getting on top of the bed weeding, but its been a wee bit harder than usual.

One crop that really doesn’t like the heavy rain is the Raspberries, it isn’t a crop that likes to be picked in the wet, they go like mush very quickly, but taste even better, but not very good to be putting in punnet, so we do try and not go near them in the rain, or watch the forecast and try and pick round it.

This week we are going to harvest the first of our savoy cabbage, we had one over the weekend, and you forget how tastie they are. So hope you enjoy it.

Also we are picking the onions fresh, so we are leaving a wee bit if the top still on, and they are strong, out in the open field our eyes are watering as we are dressing them, the Leeks are the same, so we are having a couple of hrs each day crying.