A July Day in the Life of My Vegetable Plot

Posted on 30. Jul, 2010 by Tracey in My Veg Plot

In vegetable growing, a lot changes in a month so I thought I’d show you a snapshot of what is happening right now in mid summer on my plot, what pests and diseases I’m suffering from, what is being harvested or sowed, what I’m looking forward to and what I’m doing next.

Plot 1

Currently Growing: French Beans, Kohl Rabi, Broccoli and Kale.

Kale Caterpillar Damage

At First Glance – Pest Damage – Caterpillars
The first thing I see when I look over my Plot 1 at about 8.45am this morning is pest damage on my Kohl Rabi, Broccoli and Kale seedlings, I think it may be caterpillars as the pests have completely stripped the seedlings of leaves, just leaving them stem behind. Some leaves have been eaten and remain.

Action: I check around the soil surface for signs of tiny green or brown caterpillars and cannot see a thing, then I check on the underside of the leaves and still nothing.

Two hours later I spot them and they get squished. The kale seedlings have been devastated so I pull them up and re-sow them again. Kohl rabi and Broccoli look like they can survive so are staying.

Caterpillar on Kale

Pest Damage from Blackfly – French Beans
Blackfly are in ever increasing numbers with ants farming them on one particular plant of yellow french beans. They have not spread to any other plants although the lettuce I planted underneath the beans have been chewed at the edges. As the blackfly has taken over the plant, I am removing it to stop them spreading to other plants.

BlackFly on French Beans

Weather Damage on French Beans
My french bean leaves are showing signs of weather damage by blackened leaves only occurring on the tips of the plants over hanging the plots. I think this is either wind or sun damage.

Harvests

Currently Harvesting: Green ‘Maxi’ Beans, Yellow ‘Major’ Beans, ‘Gauk’ French Beans, Onions and Shallots.

Yellow Bean Harvest

New Sowings

2 Rows of White Carrot ‘Kuttiger’
1 row of Green Dwarf Curled Kale
2 small rows of replacement Kale ‘Nero de Toscano’

Whats Next?

I’ve just found out from reading The Cottage Smallholder that Courgettes can still be sown until the end of August, as I forgot to sow mine earlier in the year, I’ve chosen Courgette Striato D’Italia from Seeds of Italy (which is a company I have wanted to try for ages). This courgette is stripy with medium sized fruits.

I’m also going to be sowing some Pak Choi – Variety also from Seeds of Italy called Joy Choi. The Pak choi will be sown in August.

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