Relaxed Farming - our farm in your classroom

One of the benefits of planting crops in the autumn (see 4th November) is that the vegetables may be ready for harvesting in the spring, thus creating space in the polytunnel for other plants. Our onions have been very successful this year and have now been 'pulled' and laid on the ground to start the drying process. Many vegetables are ready to eat as soon as they are picked, but some - butternut squash, onions and garlic to name a few, have to mature or ripen before they are fit for the cooking pot. As the onions are in the polytunnel there is no danger of them getting wet when it rains - though we must make sure that when we water the other plants we do not let the spray reach the onions. After a couple of weeks we will transfer them to a light airy space, well spread out until the necks wither and shrivel - at that point we can plait them (see 4th August) and hang ready for 'plucking' and eating! If our drying procedure is not good enough the onions will rot, often when this happens they maintain the outer brown skin, but inside is a mushy mess full of little white flies - ugggh!
The spring planted pumpkin and peas are both doing well. These plants grow in very different ways - the peas are tall and slender and have tendrils which wrap themselves around the netting which has been put in place to support them. As we are in the northern hemisphere the tendrils will wrap in a clockwise direction - which way do you think they will go in Australia? As the peas grow quickly, and to make sure we have young sweet pods we will be planting seeds every two to four weeks until autumn to give us a regular supply. The pumpkin on the other hand spreads out and can, if not trimmed, take over the polytunnel. Our photograph shows a lot of growth since 18th April when we featured the emerging seed and when they were ready for planting out on the 3rd May.
Around both plants you may be able to see little blue pellets. Like most gardeners we have a constant battle with slugs - and the slugs always win! More on this subject later...