The Frantic Gardeners’ Blog

how wonderful is that! Unfortunately DD2 also ate several more greener ones. We have changed the envir0mesh to proper fruit netting raised up to give little fingers more trouble! Also had some more podded peas and mangetout - eaten raw in the garden.

I am pleased to announce most of the sweetcorn are in. I should have grown more - might try and pop in a few late ones! Some of the cucurbits also in, and the onions well weeded.

Chris potted up the last toms and they are now in final position so ready to romp! We also sprayed with organic stuff the buildup of blackfly on the cherries, and assorted aphids on the apples.

The roses round the veg bed are looking nice as well, and the elderberry in full flower.

In the children’s plot, noticed DD1’s round carrots are also up. we don’t seem to have a problem with carrot fly - famous last words!

but… we did harvest the first peas today, strawberries are getting temptingly red [and are covered up!] there are pods on the broad beans too.

harvested a few more asparagus spears. potatoes are very leafy. cucrbits going out tomorrow.

propagator can be dismantled, as 100% melon germination, growing on a bit before going out. Also have the spare beans for the canes, and further spares can be sisters for sweetcorn and cucurbits

lovely sunny weather isn’t it.

It doesn’t take long to get behind does it!

this rainy weather has been fantastic for weeds, we have a veritable jungle coming up. Some determined weeding ahead I think!

Veg patch

Also coming up are the potatoes, planted under cardboard, which is good. I feel sad that they aren’t all nice and earthed up, but hopefully this will work, and we will put grass clippings on top as well.

The brocolli still don’t look that happy through cardboard, so won’t prob do that to the caulis. They are one of the behind items, as should have been planted out ages ago, so worried that they wont make a head. oh well.

Onions looking good - have kept on top of the weeding there, and we have picked the last of the asparagus. we will need to save seeds or buy crowns for a new bed next year as these have gone past sell by.

however, must turn the huge nettle bed into nettle tea, and then get it ready for the sweetcorn and courgettes and other cucurbits that are desperate to go out. Also in the wings are some leeks and spring onions.

Fruit Bed

well, the strawberries a tempting size now though still green. DD2 picked one, but pronounced it ‘not tasty’. hopefully she will leave the rest alone until red! We have fruitlets on the minarette trees.

The broad beans have flowered well. Though the imperial longpod has far less flowers on it than the sutton. The peas are doing well, and I got the runner beans in the ground today. Unfortunately some pest has had a go at a few of them, so popped some seeds in the gaps. wanted to get the french beans out too, but they will wait till tomorrow.

The squashed florence fennel seems to have mostly recovered, and the carrots are looking healthy. pulling most of the radishes now.

lots of weeding to do!

Under Cover

well, most things are in the right size pot, so that’s a bit of a relief! SOme of the toms don’t look so healty though - not sure why. better find a book to diagnose. the aubergines and peppers looking good. About to clear the final contents of conservatory into greenhouse and dismantle the propagator for this year. just waiting the melon to germinate.

So there you go. Shame I have very few days to do this in. frantic indeed!

well, it is only radishes, but it’s the first harvest of sown this year veg [we still have some broccoli and leeks from last year]. They are only grown as a line marker for other seeds - in this case carrots, as the girls, particularly BB walk over bare earth and emergent seedlings.

Under cover

today I potted up most of the cucurbits and about half of the toms. most of those left won’t get potted up - they haven’t made the final cut. I’ll take them to colleagues at work, and if anyone thinks they may survive the journey to legoland I’ll be happy to take them. peppers need potting up soon too, but the aubergines that survived Chris’s neglect don’t yet.

Chris worked hard to finish clearing out the greenhouse, and is going to revamp the staging in time to empty our conservatory before we need to semi dismantle it to fi it.

Fruit bed

still a slight misnomer! this year it still has strawbs and minarette fruits, but also the legumes. The broad beans are doing well. No flowers yet, even though the ones in the fields on the way to work are in full flower. I guess the farmers were more organised than me - it being their livelihood! Something’s nibbling the peas though. not too dreadfully, will keep an eye on them. doesn’t look classical slug though. I also popped in some florence fennel today. Back to fruit, I think I might espalier a bit the minarettes - well, the bits that I should have pruned already! We have lost 3 of the original 8 - 1 never grew, 2 died last summer. Anyway, will maybe get some more, but some side branching like we did for an archway in Leeds sounds a good plan. I did some weeding of strawbs as well.

The girls plot.

they helped me weed a little bit, and the onions are sprouting. of all the sunflowers, only 3 have made it to planting - which is very disappointing! We gave everything a good water though. They also did a bit of encouraging with the other jobs.

We had a look at our previous sowings, and a few broad beans have germinated, and we have a very thick row of radish seedlings - hopefully marking some carrot ones to follow! We also harvested loads of early sprouting brocolli - yum.

we reconvened to sow peppers, tomatoes and sunflowers. Watered in very well!!

half onions harvested, nust do the rest!

the plum/cherry things are indeed cherry plums, and what we got of them was very nice - luckilly put some inf reezer for chutney making, as came back after a week away to find tre stripped bare!

blackberries being harvested at the moment, figs hopefully nearly ready.

on the veg front, some of the sweetcorn, but not popcorn, courgettes, french beans, toms. Must look and see what’s happening to potatoes.

brassica’s not too decimated, but if still here next year, will invest in netting.

Have been doing both really. the thoughts of being made redundant seem to have frozen me in many ways at the moment, so thought a bit of gardening therapy might be in order.

So, whilst i drink my medicinal glass of red wine, I’ll blog.

My elder girl and I planted out the remaining brassicas and florence fennel - at 5 she is getting the hang of planting out, though I usually say a brief prayer to Demeter that the plants aren’t too gentle minded. We also planted out 2 extremely tall sunflowers.

We took this opportunity to do a fair bit of weeding and hoeing - another prayer to Demeter that the onions will have some roots left!

finally we came in and gave all the aubergines and most of the peppers their last potting on. No prayers needed here as she is most skillful. they both have flowers, so will hopefully fruit at sometime. chris can do the final tomatoes.
Our cucurbits still all have male fowers only - sigh. Hopefully they will catch up soon. Some peas have germinated in the trench of doom - so will hopefully do better than their dessicated predecessors, and we may have a late pea harvest after all. The broad beans continue to be harvestable.
When we’ve weeded the other onion/garlic bed enough so they are visible, I am hoping that the garlic will nearly be ready to harvest.

This weekend we will try and do some more weeding etc. If time, I will look at packets to see if anything apart from salads worth sowing at this time - ? leeks??

well, the peas did bite the dust while we were away - pretty much all of them - sigh! Weeds rampant [hmm, could be a heraldic badge for us] anyway, a stab at weeding and tidying up a bit. the apple trees are also all totally infested with a number of different aphid varieties - hosed them all off. They each have a couple of fruitlets. Also, the minarettes have had a good soaking, as this years trees and been a bit dry. One strawberry plant has died, the rest going strong and fruitlets appearing.

We are harvesting broadbeans and some wok brok at the mo [though not much of that] and made my husband laugh with my excitement at one asparagus pea! I am amazed at how well the lettuces are doing, as in leeds the slugs decimated them overnight.

It seems to me that our biggest problem here is weeds. They really are hugely rampant. you hoe and every millimeter sprouts again. instantly. never seen anything quite like it. not helped by us being frantic rather than leisurely gardeners.

I think over the winter we may bed down as it were, with manure and cardboard on top, only removing to plant. If we have the finances, i will plant through that gardening brown paper and mulch with whatever on top, to try and minimize things. if not, will just go for spaced row planting, as opposed to my equidistant, as will be FAR easier to hoe!

Where is that work life balance when you need it?

The weeds have romped away, and today we have both made huge inroads in them.

The strawberry plants all got planted asap! and the brassicas are all in - however, haven’t made any later sowings. [well, wehn you’re not getting your planting done, you do have t break until thats sorted!]

plan tomorrow to finally put potatoes in [arrgh, yes I know!] and also the sweetcorn and squashes, beans and peas that are all leggy, and hope they do OK. well, the sweetcorn and squash should be fine.

toms, peppers and aubergines all need to go into final pots.

when this is done, will finally sow some of the ’sequential sowings’ that I’m not too late for.

So far, harvested asparagus [yum!] and radishes. The broad beans are tall and handsome, with lovely flowers, but nary a pod ready yet.