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…

… but is now back up

thank goodness

my problem with june, is that once i start harvesting things i find it v difficult to plan some successional crops . we are harvesting enough now to have as ingredients for lunch and dinner, not just as snacks.

The broad beans have been really productive, and we are still harvesting from them.

The dwarf french beans that were kept in the greenhouse have also done really well and been v productive

The pak choi, along with the brassicas - see post below - have either been fab or died. I don’t think it is club root. just an odd failure. i love pak choi tho

the courgettes are harvesting - parthenon ready just before parador. the ones in the ground are actually far better than those in big pots in greenhouse and now outside, so think the extra nutrition from being in the ground outweighs the extra warmth from greenhouse. won’t bother with pots again.

the mangetout have excelled themselves - though they tend to get eaten directly rather than ingredients same for the peas

the salads have all done well, tho the first sowing rockets now bolted, and I sowed far too many!! the rabbits will be pleased however. Next year I need to sow less and more successional.

Strawbs and raspberries done well, but I must net the gooseberries next year…

just starting to harvest tomatoes - sungold has been the first. I prob could use a few of the chillis, as they are big and green, but prefer to wait for them to ripen to red.

nearly ready - potatoes

My elder girl made jam today, with negligible help from me, just some health and safety supervision . We have one of those purple leaved wild cherryplums in the garden [and numerous little ones appear that we have to chase after, as wild and widespread as the elders] . They are nearly nearly ripe - a bit sharpish. However, the village craft fair is soon, and she wanted to enter the jam section with the jam we made last year with these plums plus whatever [and it really was as laid back as that!] .

This year we more or less followed a recipe from this book, which I have had for many years and love

She sterilised jars and equipment, picked as many of the plums we could reach [and i sawed a few small branches off that stopped DD1 climbing up to reach a few more] - 1.3kg .

She put these into our heavy pan and covered with 750mls water and simmered until they were all mushy. DD1 and grandad [staying here as an emergency visit as nana has been admitted over the weekend to hospital - frantic is the name remember!] mushed through a colander and took out all the stones. DD1 wanted some bits in the jam, so then added some of the smushed stuff too.

  She measured and had 1.2l of pulp and water. So she added 1400g of sugar [eek!] and also as much grated ginger as we could [about 40g] from the dried knobbly bit lurking by the cooker [ :blush: ] .

   Then put on a good rolling boil until we reached jam temp on my sugar thermometer. Since this is the first time she has made jam, I had her trying the different ways of testing done-ness.

At her first call I thought we were prob slightly under, so filled 2 jars [I have a jam funnel, so much easier for her], and then she boiled some more, tested again and was much more convinced. She has a nice jar each of under and over [possibly!] and will try some of each from the not so pretty jars to decide which one to enter.

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.

we are on a water meter here, and i think the garden is getting more than we are! it does really need to rain. SO v british that weather thoughts are at the top of my head! it also needs to not go below 0 again! last night it was -0.5 , and although there are no tender veg in the garden, the girls have all their flowers out, and actually i don’t want any checks to growth. so there you are, i would like warm sunny days and showery/rainy nights please The gooseberries are really starting to swell now - and no sign of sawfly, there are fruitlets starting on the raspberries, and the strawberry plants have flowers. Excellent.

Sowing

I have sown the last 3 butternut squash and 3 experimental pumpkin seeds. Only 1 butternut squash out of 6 had germinated, and 1 pumpkin out of 3, so thought i would hope for them all to germinate this time, and if not have chance to buy another packet of seeds.

Sown directly were peas [twinkle] in DH’s bed and a row of carrots there too.

pricking out/potting on

have pricked out DH’s rainbow chard. i had thought he had sowed that number close in modules because they were going to be cut and come again or salad leaves. Apparently not, so now each has its own module, and will eventually get planted out . Also pricked out were the last sowing of alpine strawberries. [mmm] . The chickpeas now have a new home having been potted on. They are very beautiful plantlets at the moment and having sown them in a moment of whimsy from dried chickpeas from the pantry, i have now looked up their cultivation. A couple of aubergines and peppers got potted on, but most are waiting their final potting. planned for this weekend.I collected the spare night scented stocks of DD1 and put 4 in a pot for many pots, and also at the weekend am planning to put them on the library stand [we gave the library just over £8 for spare plants sold to date]

Planting out

the lettuce little gem and the rocket have gone into DH’s bed, and been surrounded by  bit of wire fencing to deter the rabbits DD2s pansies were planted out as well.

Maintenance.

the modules and pots etc were sorted, as wild sowing into modules coming to an end. Everything was watered [lots] due to lack of rain. We uncovered the area that will hopefully be hosting the bean hedge, and covered over a weedy bit.

To Do

[1. find home for artichokes]

2. make the bean fencing

3. clear out the greenhouse of all that can go out

4. pot on all tomatoes and the melons.

our bees are happily buzzing around the garden. we have wild honey bees on a chimney [for the last 5 years] and  loads of different bumble bees, hairy legged bees and mason bees. All good for the garden . The drones must be out, cos there are quite a lot of confused honey bees on the floor of the patio and conservatory. The brilliant weather has continued [sunhat, suncream and shorts!!] And my DH has finished all the beds we will make this year [though hoping to make perhaps 4 more in the autumn as part of the bedding down…] .The church behind is flying the english flag, as we approach st georges day. Fantastic! [oh, and i am not at work tho have migraine it is nearly better ]

Also today, we had some of the spare plants potted up on the drive with a home made sign and honesty box. The proceeds are going to the local library. We did well, as there was 4.80 in the pot - we just asked for donations.we sold 3 tomatoes [sungold], 2 peppers [jalapeno] , 2 pots of 2 cauliflowers [violet queen]. We are in a relatively good spot, where ppl often park to go to the local shops, and the library is volunteer run, so ppl do like to help it out.We are pretty happy with that

My DD’s also painted lots of the tomato pots with acrylics, in a variety of ‘designs’ so they should look pretty jolly once out. I enjoyed doing a couple as well.

Germination

The sweetcorn has pretty much all germinated, and all the courgettes and pak choi. The latest twinkle peas in modules have, and 1 of the watermelons have. some of the climbing beans just started. it is darned warm now in the greenhouse, and they are in propagator [for the bottom heat] tho once they have germinated it will be switched off.

Planted Out

We did DD2’s bed. She decided where things would go, planted out 3 sunflowers, declared herself too hot and retired to the paddling pool, leaving me in charge! SO 8 russian giant sunflowers, 6 dwarf sunflowers [already flowering] 12 calendula, 7 foxglove [to flower next year] and 25 alpine strawberries went in. All of these sown from seed. Taking a chance with the weather as the sunflowers really did need to go in, will fleece if we have to.

Maintenance

As I said, DH finished making all the beds for this year - yippee!! We have the items to fill them We also painted the tom pots - as also prev stated

Pests

Seeing lots of butterflies now - glad we have the enviromesh

To Do

1. Potatoes - desperately!!

2. globe artichoke - nearly as desperate!

3. 4. DD1 and DH beds to fill - quite urgent

5. empty all weedy pots around patio and pop in spare flowers etc

6. buy climbers and plant infront of kitchen, and populate herb pots there

7. pot up tomatoes to final pots

8. sort out the beanfence.

Our greenhouse is looking like a jungle and things are bursting out! The ornamental cherry is beautiful, and myself and the girls had a go at watercolour paintings of the flowers. We also got time for some gardening. Am getting a bit worried that there are lots of things in the greenhouse - particularly flowers! - and I am not sure where they are going to fit. The girls got ‘ a bit’ carried away.

Sowing

I still did some sowing tho as I realised I hadn’t sown any ‘normal’  brocolli [calabrese], nor had I sown any early purple sprouting. So I remedied this by sowing in modules. I also, for a bit of fun sowed some dried chickpeas. They do sprout, I have no idea if they crop, and didn’t want to pay a lot until i worked out how well they did for us - so these are a real trial. Also sown into modules and into the propagator to join the sweetcorn, french beans and watermelon currently in there.

Sown direct [eek, something i am still not comfortable with doing after all those years in Leeds] are 2 rows of carrots, a purple variety and a supersweet variety. the broad beans sown way back when have all germinated and are growing strongly.

Can’t locate any runner beans - odd that! so we won’t be growing any this year.

Potting Up

the dwarf gold french beans have been potted up, there are 8 in each of the girls painted buckets [with drainage holes] and with limanthes in the middle. i thought they might complain, as they have so many flowers to find a home for, but I don’t think they realise they have a problem yet!

In the same root trainers were the mangetout, so in the end i popped 8 of them in another bucket with a cane wigwam and if we hadn’t run out of compost, would have done that for all of them. I think I will do that for them all when we have some more compost.

Planting out

DH has got all the strawberries in the ground - woohoo . Unfortunately he has taken all the area which i had earmarked for artichokes! I will have to rething there

I did plant out the brassicas. I was going to plant 3 across a 4 foot bed, but having updated myself on some of the square foot plantings, I have done 4. they do look v close together! If they look crowded, the successional ones will be planted 3 spaced. I only planted out 4 of each - white cauli, violet queen cauli and broc romanescu. They had all germinated, and I had 12 of each, but am trying to be a bit more sensible with growing to see what we actually eat, and sowing successionally a bit. The spare modules where each given a pot so that they can go in DD1s honesty box drive sale in aid of the local library.

Also into this bed went the purple pak choi [at approx 4 per square foot] and I sowed the 2 carrot rows as above. At the end of the bed went out the twinkle peas. I love the guttering thingies! made the peas a doddle to slide across. Should have done them far earlier tho, as the roots had made a bit of a mat at the bottom. hmmm. These weren’t quite the square foot spacings, as had been in the guttering. next time will try and do them, asI think i have planted too closely.

The whole of this bed was then covered with enviromesh. Our peas have been decimated before, and i saw one white butterfly! SO thought would start off v covered and will obv release peas from this when they start to flower. it also will protect them from our rabbits until we sort out how to stop them getting into the veg patch.

The weather has been absolutely gorgeous, and the plants have grown well. The broad beans are flowering, and those sown in situ have all germinated and are growing up. the garlic is growing well too.The apples and pear tree have been absoluted covered in flowers, so hoping for a good harvest in the Autumn.

Sowing

Today I have sown sweetcorn ‘lark’ , climbing bean cobra and blauhilde and dwarf gold bean all in roottrainers, hoping to be not to early and not too late so we can plant  out in about 4-6 weeks. [lets see!] . I have also sown pumpkin [T and M experimental] Courgettes parthenon and … and butternut squash in module, again hoping for 4-6 weeks and out. As a gamble i have sown some watermelon seeds into pots - you never know!! I also sowed a second sowing of pak choi, broccolli romanescu and white cauliflower. only 3 of each, as think i sowed too many the first time, and really should think about when we are going to eat them! Next year I would like to work out how many of each to sow at a time. A second sowing of peas too [twinkle]

Potting On

I have potted on 5 each of the different peppers [inferno, jalapeno, mixed grill] all 6 of the aubergines [mixed] , 2 of the multiple cape gooseberries, 4 of the 5 melons and 1 more of each tomato [sungold, gardeners delight and golden sunrise] to make 5 of each. Hoping this will be the right amount of everything! I also potted up the last of DD 2’s short sunflowers - a week has made a noticeable difference between them and those potted up before we went on holiday.

Into the coldframe

go the brassicas and pak choi, and the mangetout. plan to be into the ground on weds.

Maintenance/DH

DH has finished this eve the first of the marked beds - not quite raised as our soil drains so very freely! but a marked out zone, one each so that we can be putting our chosen plants in.

So, To Do:

Sowing:

locate the runner beans and sow! then see what other wierd and wonderfuls i have bought and if there might be space

Into the veg patch:

Strawberries into strawberry planter and along veg bed wall. artichoke also along veg bed wall

Potatoes - into bags and into the ground

beds 1 and 2 of the 4:

Brassicas - into bed and enviromesh around them

peas/mangetout - into bed and need supporting structure

carrots - into bed if there is space! otherwise consider sowing into pots?

beds 3 and 4:

get ready really, some of the girls plants could go out, tho quite small ? better to pot on further before planting out? never sure of optimal size. DD2’s sunflowers are ready, but not sure whether not too early?

into pots:

dwarf french beans

discuss with girls and DH all their flowers and herbs and where they are hoping to put them!

Maintenance

lots of weeding!!

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!

well, we are carrying on and actually the greenhouse is turning into a mini garden of eden.

 Sowing

DH has been sowing loads of herbs and some lettuces [he says he knows which ones and will blog ]

Pricking Out and Potting On

This was the main focus of my gardening this weekend. DD2’s seedlings have all been pricked out into individual modules - 0bviously not by her! She does have 36 foxgloves to house tho in her flower bed, [16 sunflowers potted on before], 24 alpine strawberries and the gourds, yet to germinate

DD1 was going to do hers… but will remind again tomorrow she seems to have sown a good number of most things except sweet peas. might suggest she sows some more.

I also potted on all the remaining tomatoes and the melons. The propagator within the greenhouse is groaning, and the barely germinated marigolds have had to come out to keep the toms in. have a couple in greenhouse to make sure that they do ok with the colder nights before they all come out.

Germinating.

DH’s eryngiums seem to be finally germinating, and when enough appear to have poked their heads out, they too can be removed from the propagator. The pak choi have germinated really quickly, as has the rocket.

Veg beds.

we have to get the first ones done this week, as by the weekend loads of stuff will really have wanted to get out there. Peas and nasturtiums being hardened off currently.

Fruit

lots of buds and leaves on cherries and apples and pears, so that is good. must get a pic [and weed!!]