The Frantic Gardeners’ Blog

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!

We spent most of the rest of the day outside working and playing in the garden.

Fruit bed

I weeded and also did a bit of pruning and training of the minarettes. The cherry seems to have a goodly supply of blackfly on them, so must go out and get some soap solution. The strawberries are doing very well. lots of little green strawblets! must put the mesh on them before birds start to get interested.

the broad beans all in flower, with no obvious difference between those planted in the soil through crdboard boxes, and those module grown and popped in later. the peas are better now hidden with mesh, but a few flowers are appearing, so should change to chicken wire. chris and the girls spread muck for the french and runner bean trenches, chris put in the canes. We have put the runners and french beans currently in modules into the cold frame for final hardening off.

children’s plot

SB and BB sowed some round carrots. Actually there is a half price seed sale on the thompson and morgan site! [cough]SO I bought some more seeds [cough]. SB was ecstatically happy with the round carrot seeds as she has wanted some for ages, as well as the dwarf french beans that can go in her plot! That’s my girl. She danced about with the packets in excitement! Actually, the carrots they sowed in their plot ages ago have started to come up, as have the runner beans [goodness knows where they will run too! might give each a cane!!]

main veg bed

hmmm, this needs some SERIOUS work! the potatoes are starting to come up, a few asparagus spears made it through the weeds! I have hoed the onions again, and popped some sets into the gaps. We really need to sort out some more of it though.

Under cover

well, the cucurbits and sweetcorn are getting keen to see the outside world but it isn’t ready for them - as well as it being a bit early . peppers and aubergines are in the colder bit of the conservatory to get them ready for going out into the greenhouse [both unheated]. The broccoli and flowers have germinated. The toms in the greenhouse are shooting up nicely. Must sow melons and a few etra runners and frnch beans, plus salad bits and pieces. getting there!

I potted up the final cucurbits, aubergines and peppers. SB then helped pot up some final toms to take to people. BB returned and also sowed some seeds - calendula and sunflowers.

found chris had put bricks holding environmesh directly on top of my florence fennel, and I have no more seeds. humph!

I planted peas. B***** pigeons have eaten off tops of half the previous peas, so environmeshed until we get some chicken wire put up to protect.

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.

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.

Always makes a difference! my dad gave the topiary a number 1. if we ever move, think i wouldn’t buy a house with topiary, as unless you are really keen or have a gardener, it is just too much work teetering on a ladder! Chris helped with that.

I hoed and weeded, and elder daughter watered. Mum weeded and watered as well. The fruit bed is looking quite respectable. the brassicas and onions in it are doing well, the srawberries are coming along nicely. rather typically my dear husband trod on some newly planted brassicas as he didn’t expect them there - what is worng with eyes? Its bad enough having an 18 monther doing that!

we went and bought a trachelspernum asiaticum to grow ovver the arch by the door [south facing and sheltered]. I think the jasminoides have better flowers, but a x3 price tag.

the veg bed is OK - not as good as i would have liked. aphids and blackfly and all that type of horror seem to be reaching epidemic proportions. we never had to pinch the top off broad beans in leeds, but we do here!

A question - i would like to rmove some of the ivy on the house wall. is there a special way of doing this to not destroy the brickwork?

photos to follow, as finally taken a few more.

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!

well, I guess not really since we are camping, but aaargh, must get everything planted.

found some very sad a leggy mangetout languishing in coldframe - so have buried them deep and watered well, and with fingers crossed! Also was the leeks I had lost, so have done that. The two sisters are finally three!

I have sown some more peas and planted french beans, as well as sowing some of those direct. will go out now and try and plant final brassicas although getting dark.
I have some sweet peas and asparagus peas I’d like to plant out, and the globe artichokes [but I haven’t decided where to put those!] - but they will now have to wait until I get back, and hopefully not too leggy.
then I guess a mad sowing of salads and last things when we come back.

oh, and weeding at some point!

in the fruit bed, the apple minarettes have fruitlets and the strawberries flowers. There are 2 fruitlets only on the nectarine though. The minarettes are covered in aphids, although we have loads of predators in the garden being organic. I will get some soap solution and spray them - again when we get back. It might be because the are close to an ivy wall, and this seems to be the perfect pest habitat. Hmmm - I think that might be another job to do on our return!