The Frantic Gardeners’ Blog

wow! this month we have had 1/3 of the annual rain. It has absolutely poured it down - which has been v good for the watering. Today, the weather has changed, just like a switch has been thrown. It is boiling/sweltering/hot hot hot!! And today was the day that I had set for completely weeding the veg plot, watering it if required and then mulching. hmmm!! I did have help from DD1 in the end and we took out a bottle of iced water to keep us going.

Planted out

spare alpine strawberries went in the gap just emptied by rocket

tomatoes grown from potting the side shoots - gone between the artichokes.

maintenance

weeded everything hoed, pulled and hopefully got the majority. then placed straw all over the top of the beds and plan to put membrane down on the ‘paths’ as we have a holiday soon v keen to minimise the jungle on our return!

sideshooted the toms.

DH put trellis on wall so can plant out clematis and honeysuckle that are desperate.

girls beds of flowers are really looking fabulous, and they are both v happy with them. DD2 not seen any strawbs yet - should come next year…

harvested

ooh, i like this time of year lots of our meals have been made with 3/4 of the ingredients direct from the garden.

broad beans - the first sown nearly all finished now, but second sowing of red epicure starting - funny to have pink beans!

rocket - all the last rocket had bolted, so we pulled it all out so can eat some leaves and the rest for compost. next year plant less!!

pak choi - all the first sowing now harvested, again some had bolted, but cut the flower stalk off and ate the rest - mmm i love pak choi

summer sprouting brocolli - harvested 4 large heads this week [2 meals for a family of 4] have other brassicas to come [despite the panic earlier in the year, it is def not club root]. this has been such a hit with the family, that next year should grow more.

tomatoes - the sungold has been first to be ready, and the most prolific. shame only 5 seeds to a packet. DH’s speriment as to whether ring pot in growbag or in big pot seems to be clear for healthy look as growbag option. however, nodifference in harvest as yet. or taste.

courgettes - the ones in the ground harvesting merrily. lots of courgettes in our lunch and tea menu currently as well. the 2 in pots are not as good, will see if they will crop longer as will put in greenhouse once weather starts to draw in.

potatoes - just about to start a harvest i think the girls in bags are ready [emerald and rocket].

peas and mangetout - tailing off in the mangetout, should have done a further successional sowing [remember for next year ]  however peas in between 2 crops as it were, so loads of pods to fill out.

french beans - pretty much between crops, v few left now on the pots in the greenhouse, tho will see if they flower and crop some more, some beans on the first of the climbing beans [cobra] v tiny yet, and the second dwarf beans are flowering. since we will shortly be having a holiday, happy for the break to be whilst we are away

strawberries - just a few as this is the first year, but loads of raspberries

Pests and Wildlife

we saw a hedgehog rootling around by the compost bins

less happy a sighting is some caterpillars on the brassicas. they have bee hidden under environmesh, the damage not huge, but obv at somepoint one has got in . we have had large and small before, think these might be from a small. good inspection by dd2 failed to find any. i prob should repeat the process…

so not so much time to even garden frantically. a quick water is really all managing, but most do a weeding shortly! today spent a couple of hours on essential maintenance, tho could get called into work at a moment’s notice, so can’t do anything too big or get too messy!

Sown

the rest of the twinkle peas in situ. think none germinated before due to parched soil. so soil where sown is as mud, and will try and keep topped up with water!

Germinated

the second emergency sowing of pumpkins are germinating too. should have a lot in the veg bed then! The climbing bean blauhilde have germinated. when a bit bigger will plant out

awaiting the climbing bean cobra and the direct sown runnerbean…

Planted out

the rainbow chard, into bed 4. look v nice there. there are a few that didnt fit, so maybe DH will place in his square foot bed.

Harvesting

the rocket and a few salad leaves. the peapods on the first twinkle sown looking big, so hopefully not long, we have some green tomatoes and some green strawberries. i think the goosegogs nearly worth a try. the broad beans are some way off tho.

Maintenance

Need to keep those pesky rabbits off the veg! so have gone round the outside with chicken wire with 2 ad hoc ‘doors’. Wouldnt keep anything really determined out, but hoping that it will work for our domestic rabbits, as they have loads of other interesting places in the garden they can go [and lots of dandelions to nibble!]

Problems

1/2 our pak choi look really brilliant, 1/4 have died and the other 1/4 look pathetic. on uprooting one, there were hardly any roots. is this a pest? or just unfortunate??

something has been nibbling our pea leaves again, and it isn’t rabbits.

To Do:

1. plant out sweetcorn and the single pumpkin that is big

2. pot on all the new little pumpkins and squashes

3. get tomatoes supported.

Hmm, we have still been v much lacking in the rain department. however, have spent a little while frantically watering, plus a bit of good news about the germination of squashes and not so good re bean numbers!

Sowing

T and M had a half price seed sale, so I bought and sowed some runner beans moonlight, direct into the ground [eek!]

Germination

All the brassicas sown have germination. 1 pumpkin of those sown with old seed has germinated, and 2 of the new butternut squash. waiting for the winter squash and any others. so tiny and so far behind . the carrot sugarsnx [or something similar] has germinated well, but the purple variant hasn’t [both sown direct in rows] so wondering whether to resow or not.

Potted on

not quite potting on, but the side shoots of the toms had rooted, so potted on 4 for my mum to take home with her she has no greenhouse, so the perfect size for her to have on windowsill a bit longer and then go out.

Planted out

4 courgette plants [2 parador and 2 parthenon] , DD2’s 2 gourd plants [poor germination] and all the climbing bean cobra and blauhilde. There should have been 30 of each, but 5 destroyed detangling and a further 5 looking v sorry so a quick bit of resowing to plant in gaps if they appear, and the above runner beans, as our bean hedge has space for 70 plants. The early purple sprouting and normal brocolli has also gone out.Next year i need to sow the blauhilde 2 weeks later than i did, and cobra prob 1 week later than i did, and remember to sow so I have 25 of each of cobra, blauhilde and the runnerbean.

Pests

the rabbits have managed to decimate the leaves of the strawberries, so are confined to their pen currently, pending some fencing.

Maintenance

the pots have been emptied of dead stuff, yew and bay trimmed and we are ready to plant up the flowers again.

Jobs

1. tomatoes pole and strings

2. plant out sweetcorn [have to dig over the bed first]

3. pot up flowers into patio pots

I must get my photos onto flickr so i can add some here, as it has been far to long since i posted a pic, and I have taken loads! We did have some rain in the night. Not a huge amount, but at least some. Haven’t watered outside today as hoping for some more tonight. However, the sunflowers do have a bit of a droop to the lower leaves.

Sowing

OK, i am seriously worried about a lack of pumpkins and butternut squash as we love them. So, I can’t wait for the last sowing to germinate [no sign yet] and bought fresh seed and sowed 4 of each. Hopefully this will mean all will germinate and I will have too many.

Maintenance

I pruned the grape vine in the conservatory. It is thought it was planted when the conservatory was added to the house, approx 1850, so we try and care for it well! the main ‘trunk’ comes out the side of the wall and into the ground outside. It was v rampant when we bought the house, and in no particularly trained fashion, tho had about 50 bunches of grapes. We had to replace the conservatory last year due to falling down issues so pruned it back very hard and then built the conservatory around it. last year we allowed two fresh shoots of the main ‘trunk’ become the permanent horizantal cordons, and are spur pruning. However, we need to cut back the huge old loop, so are not actually letting much develop this year, just enough to keep the plant healthy, and will prune the big loop off in the winter and hopefully get the verticals up next year. There are lots of bunches of flowers currently.

DH got the bean fence set up, and i will plant the climbing beans next week as we would be v unlucky to get a frost - always seems a bit risky tho! [coming from living in Leeds I think it takes quite a while to adjust to the difference a few weeks makes, as well as soil type and rainfall]

i felt a bit bad about taking over DH’s bed, so have made him a square foot bed, just need to add compost to it - think we might have enough in our earliest compost bin.

had hoped to do a bit more in the garden before we go away for the BH weekend - making the most of it thanks wills and kate. Argh for frantic weeks really - where we get the blog name from.

Germination

still waiting for the butternut squash, caulis germinated tho and the chickpea plantlets are really pretty. [must take a pic]. when we return think i will resow butternut squash if not come up.

potting up

having not got the desperate artichokes into a place in the veg bed, i potted them up.

I also potted up DD2’s fur balls - must look and see what they actually are as to what to do with them when they are a bit bigger. Also took pity on DH’s datura and echinacea and potted them all up. disturbed a nest of teeny tiny spiders, so now am suffering from overimagination and feeling them crawl everywhere.

I potted on DD2’s gourds - only 2 out of 4 germinated and the courgettes, parador and parthenon [all germinated] and the pumpkin.  Also potted on the watermelon - all 6 germinated!!

To Do

1. find home for artichokes

2. plant up DH bed

3. pot on all tomatoes and the melons.

[think the big list before not achievable!! so putting the 3 most urgent on my to do only]

and the weather is gorgeous. there are a few things i have forgotten to do tho, and so am behind. mostly the chitting potatoes that i forgot that are in the dining room. hmmm. hopefully they will catch up a bit. The brassicas also need a home, and DH bought some strawberries - apparently - which should have been planted. 90 of them!! The toms need potting up urgently too, and we are off away on holiday for a week. eek! SO the potatoes get left in the dining room, the girls heel in the strawberry plants as a temporary measure. I pot up tomatoes and give everything a good water and off we go!!

SO currently everything growing, even DD2 has 2 gourds that have germinated. when i return, i will need to go through greenhouse and take out those things that need an outside bed now, pot up everything that can’t go out, and try and find enough space to empty propagator of the peppers and aubergines so that i can sow the french beans, sweetcorn and cucurbits. will ask DH very nicely to continue to make the beds and also to say where he is thinking the strawbs will go!

yes, this is our major harvest/glut. we are freezing some so that at some point i can pull out and make jam or smoothies! yes - the 4 of us can’t keep up. the peas are plumping up, by the end of next week we will be harvesting those! i spy baby courgettes as well.

i think this is the most organised this garden has been since we moved here. i must add some piccies into this blog. certainly the investment in mulch and clearing has worked, and i am trying to regularly hoe. i have also been pruning the bay and yews - well, starting anyway.

it is clear that we need to put bed structure in though, so that we don’t compact growing areas.

sadly, a plum minarette appears to be dying. it is dying back from the top and growing brown. no idea why?

must add some photos at some point to this blog.

today i have planted out into the veg bed the first sowing of celebration peas. [the endeavour have been composted] also the broc early red and cauli autumn giant. they are watered in nicely [waterbut] and environmeshed over, otherwise we have a plague of caterpillars. the peas also environmeshed as last time we had pea thrips. hopefully this will help.

to help me get to the veg, DH has been hacking away at one of the fabulous shaped yews. it feels sad and a bit of a desecration, but it is too big. they should shoot well from the woody bits, so we will have it as perhaps a simpler cylinder.

i am going to use the last of my compost now to pot on a few more toms.

we have some early cherries on the cherry minarette, and loads and loads of blossom on the apple minarettes, so hoping for a good crop. the strawbs are in full flower and looking v healthy, and all the bush fruit has settled. one of the raspberry canes appears to be doing nothing though.

But not been entirely idle on the gardening front!

Seeds - the artichoke, sunflowers, indoor broad beans [now being experimented upon!] have all germinated , also the yellow tomatoes ilidi. i have sown peas endeavour and celebration today, some sweet peas and yard long beans.

outside - the fruit bed is all nicely weeded, the minarette trees trained, fed and pruned. [as an aside, i am never getting minarettes again, it is a big fib that they don’t need pruning and training! should have just got a cordon and been done with it!, at least they were part of an offer, though as 4 out of 10 died, still not entirely impressed] . the beginings of the industrial raspberry support has been done. this was less than planned, as i was also goldilocks to the children’s improvised 3 bears story, plated hide and seek, chased all spiders out of their den…

outside - the veg bed is all safely under that permeable plastic mulch awaiting using time. All the winds blew it around, so now it is truly fixed down. the broad beans and carrots not germinated yet.

wildlife - the birds def liking the new birdfeeders! have seen goldfinches for the first time - yippee.

And what a rainy while it has been too. The sweetcorn not looking too happy as a bit waterlogged.

beans and peas done really well. we have been harvesting loads of broad beans and strawberries. the french and runner beans are flowering. Soon we will harvest the first potatoes - lovely.

Florence fennel is bulbing up wonderfully, carrot tops looking healthy.

The greenhouse is luxurient too, with flowers on peppers and aubergines, and toms ripening.

Pears and plums and cherries ripening, and loads of grapes on the vine. Our weird red leaved ?wild plum type trees are full of sharp but edible fruit. lots of chutneys to make!

Still sad for the sweetcorn though.