We’ve been enjoying some ideal growing weather in Cornwall. We had south-west gales and torrential rain on Easter Monday (which sent the tourists scurrying home early) followed by several days of spring showers and warm sunshine.

So we’ve been hard at work planting hundreds more onion sets and sowing radishes.

We’ve also planted out bunched spring onions and shallots, spring cabbage and some colourful ruby red and canary yellow leaf beet (perpetual spinach).

We’ve been busy sowing, growing and hoeing on our community veg patch over the past week.

We’ve weeded the polytunnels, planted out mixed lettuce to replace the pak choi, and sown an indoor crop of French beans.

More mange tout and carrot seeds have been put in to mitigate the mouse damage. Fortunately the field mice left the indoor broad beans alone for some reason, but the recent warm, dry spell in Cornwall has delayed germination of the outdoor crop.

The fine, sunny weather has enabled us to get more growing beds ready with our Big Lottery-funded  tractor and to plant hundreds more onion sets.

It’ll soon be time to plant out the spring onions, cabbages, sweet peas, shallots and leaf beet sown earlier in modules. We’ve also sowed more cabbage, calabrese, spring onions, rocket and kohl rabi.

Thanks to expert growers Bridget, Jane, Mark N and to Bob, Cath, Charlotte, Mark M, Mike and Tom.

Wee, sleekit, cow’ring, tim’rous beasties? Or nasty little pests that dig up our seeds and pee all over our polytunnels?

Sharing a vegetable-growing site with Cornish wildlife can have its drawbacks. We’ve been overrun by a plague of long-tailed field mice.

They’ve taken up residence in our potting shed amid the piles of cardboard that we’re using for our lasagne gardening. They’ve run riot all over the polytunnels and eaten everything from beetroot to onion seeds.

So it’s time to hang the seed trays from the rafters of the polytunnels. And we’ve decided to resort to more drastic action.

Camel CSA 1: Meeces 0

But as the war against pesky predators continues, so much for the best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men. Now we’ve discovered an entire newly-sown bed of broad beans have gone missing…

The unseasonably warm weather in north Cornwall at the moment is putting us under a lot of pressure.

Our many and varied jobs this weekend include: –
• Planting out the broad beans from the cold frame
• Sowing clusters of beetroot Boltardy outside
• Planting more onion sets
• Sowing a bed of French beans in the polytunnel
• Sowing tomatoes in modules
• Sowing half a tray of summer cabbages

We need to set up the cold frames, cut the grass and thoroughly water the early crops in the polytunnels. We also have to complete a couple of other important jobs we didn’t have time to get done last weekend.

Camel CSA’s growing team has another list of jobs to get through this Sunday, as the weather warms up.

Everyone is welcome to join in between 10am and 12 noon on Sunday.

Some of the jobs have been done by expert grower Bridget Gould but we still need to: –

• Plant the last of the gooseberries and raspberries in the soft fruit area
• Sow radishes in the root bed
• Plant turnips from modules into the root bed and cover in fleece
• Plant one and a half beds of onion sets (Cupido)
• Set up the cold frames

• Water the polytunnels (overwintered salad leaves and early crops of radishes, spring onions, carrots, broad beans, mange tout peas)
• Cut the grass on the paths and around the sheds (as we didn’t have time to last week)

Remember to wear stout footwear, bring a waterproof and don’t forget a snack! We will provide protective gloves.

We’re in the midst of our spring growing rush so we’ve got loads of things to do on Camel CSA’s community vegetable plot. Jobs this Sunday include: –

• Putting compost on onion beds
• Planting onion sets
• Digging out dock weeds (really important so don’t get bigger)
• Clearing the legume beds
• Sowing calabrese seeds
• Cutting the grass
And finally…
• Washing down the interior of the polytunnels

We also need to find time to tidy the sheds, carry out some simple repairs, and make an inventory of our tools and miscellaneous equipment.

Oh – and sort out the seed packets!

Camel CSA’s over-wintered cut and come again salad leaves are loving the longer days and warmer weather.

We’re growing a mixture of oriental and more traditional leaves – spicy red mustard, mizuna and mibuna, pak choi, curly endive, lettuce, rocket and parsley in one of our polytunnels.

We harvested several healthy crops before Christmas, then let the plants rest during the short dark days of mid-winter.

Now we’ve all got an enormous bag of healthy, crunchy, green leaves in our weekly veg boxes and should continue to enjoy a regular supply for several weeks to come.

You might think that Camel CSA’s growing team have their feet up indoors at this time of year, browsing through seed catalogues, surrounded by chilli garlands and sustained by large vats of vegetable soup.

No such chance! It’s time to do all sorts of jobs on our community vegetable-growing plot.

Apart from harvesting the over-wintered stocks for the weekly veg boxes, we’re starting to get the site ready for next season’s crops.

On Sunday morning expert grower Jane helped Sophie and Freddie, two of our junior members, to sow the first crop of early carrots in our second polytunnel.

While they basked in the warmth, the rest of us braved the cold Cornish wind and carried on preparing and planting our new soft fruit area. 

As the ground there is quite poor and stony, we’re using the lasagne gardening method. This was a great success in our tomato, pepper, aubergine and chilli polytunnel last summer where it helped retain moisture and improve the soil.

The rhubarb crowns are already safe in the ground. The rest of the fruit bushes – culinary and dessert gooseberries, red, white and blackcurrants, summer and autumn raspberries – have been heeled in. They’ll be planted next weekend.

We’ve gone through an enormous amount of cardboard  – big thankyou to Laura and Joe at St Mabyn PO and Stores. But we’re fast running out again. If you have any old boxes, please leave them in the potting shed, which is between the tractor shelter and the polytunnels.

Many thanks to expert growers Jane and Mark N and the rest of Sunday’s volunteer growing team – Cath, Charlotte, Danny, Freddie (6), Gillian, Mark N, Mike and Sophie (9).

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