Bolting

It was the driest April since records began and in London and the southeast the dry has continued into May. This is very serious for farmers (and us all, as food prices will go up further still) and my bolting spinach is hardly a big deal by comparison.  Bolting is a plant's response to dryness or a sudden change in temperature.  The plant aims to flower and set seed  before it dies.  A flowering spike shoots up, often in the space of a couple of days, in a pre-programmed last ditch response to drought. Spinach is prone to bolting, even if you think you're watering carefully, and it's worth looking for bolt-resistant varieties. Typically you sow in early spring and again from August to avoid the dry season.  Anyway, I've lost this lovely variety (from a seed swap, no label, forgotton the name) which was pretty, unusual with its sagittate leaves and tasty.
Nothing to do but take the remaining leaves and toss with a dressing and baby broad beans.  I have sown Florence fennel in its place - also a notorious bolter - but May/June is the time to sow in this case to as cold is the bigger trigger to bolting.

Late May - looking back, looking forward

Crimson flowered broad beans

Chard 'White Silver'

Pea, flower still attached

Beetroot - 'Chioggia', I think.

Viola 'Heartsease' for salads

Stem of bolting sorrel

Rows and rows

It's always worth listening to more experienced gardeners, even if you don't 'hear' the pearls of wisdom straightaway. Kate, who does other people's gardens, observed how the quality of the soil makes such a difference.

I took over the land where this raised bed is two to three years ago. I've mulched as much as I can with my own meagre returns of compost -relatively small amounts but super-rich. I really feel the patch has turned a corner in terms of fertility this year. It seems to be full of life. It took Kate's comment for me to notice and 'click' with this patch.

From the top:

Spinach 'Matador' - Food Up Front www.foodupfront.org

Carrot 'Primo' - I think, from a friend in a seed swap

Escarole 'Cornetto di Bordeaux' - Franchi sementi. Always interesting continental varieties; usually expensive but a really big packet, so good to share http://www.seedsofitaly.com/

French parsley - Tuckers Seeds http://www.blogger.com/www.tuckers-seeds.co.uk
Beetroot 'Boltardy' - Suttons seeds and top-selling variety for a reason. Homegrown beetroot is so sweet and buttery of texture.

Baby leaves are great in salad.

Rainbow chard - seed swap. This is ready to eat, 10 - 15cm; too 'chardy' when bigger

Broad bean - March-sown 'Witkiem Manita', Tuckers. Charming picotee edge from some member of the munch bunch. Nowadays I not only pinch out black-fly prone apical (top) bud, but also later on de-budded top part of the stem if black fly come back. It concentrates the plant on the flowers and forming beans it has anyway.

Broad beans are in

In between today's showers these were harvested, photoed, podded, steamed and scoffed. A small handful each, but sweet and with that unique taste.

These are November sown 'Super Aquadulce'. It is so nice to be able to sow something outdoors at the end of the growing year, and wonderful to harvest them early in the season.

'Super Aquadulce' is an extremely hardy variety. In this winter's cold snap the plants survived being frozen when the nearby water tank pipe cracked and filled up the raised bed. The plants looked very droopy on defrosting but came back to life.

I'm quite impatient to move on with the beans and free up space, but that's no hardship - just raw baby beans with crumbly feta cheese and lots of oil.