oh yes, we have been away for a holiday, but things are moving on!
planted out: runner beans; french beans; courgettes; squash; sweetcorn. actually the beans were planted out by M-I-L, who seems to have planted the squash up the poles too. oh well, i am sure i can transplant!
harvesting: strawberries [yummy]
Need to do: sow some more beans, weed [actually this might be a crisis!], final pot up toms [another crisis!] and sow some salady bits.
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.
beautifully chitted!! we have planted charlotte and pink fir apple. we don’t need to do much in the potato line, as a farm on the edge of the village sells so many diff varieties. infact, we have that many farm shops that we are spoilt for local grown organic [though not yet able to be labelled as such] produce.
We have planted through cardboard again, as that seems to be reasonably successful, and we are hopeless at weeding!
I am looking at the caulis and brocolli and peas and thinking they are also ready to go out. hmm, they’ll have to wait a bit!
toms have been happy with the repotting, and getting a move on. the yard long beans at least haven’t sulked too much!
the first of the squashes are already germinating - butternut from the supermarket. the girls always like to sow some saved seeds.
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!
So the french beans went in. I had some gaps so i put in some italian yard long beans from t and m as seeds, and hope they will germinate now the good weather here.
Also did some weeding - not quite as much as i needed too though!
Chris put cardboard down over the area we are going to put Courgettes and Cucurbits in, and will plant through.
Did harvest a few more asparagus spears, and can see some peas podding up - goody!
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!
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.
We went out in the garden to play and plant. Chris did potatoes [still!!] and I did hoeing and brocolli. Both girls bobbed about helping. The ground is too hard really for them to make good holes though, so got a bit bored.
we planted up SB’s flower garden. SB and BB bailed out of digging fairly quickly- the soil was too hard! Its funny that the archaeological dig hole gets bigger and bigger. [both found dinosaur bones and flints today - cavemen. hmmmmm]. Anyway, i dug loads of holes [while they dug for treasure], and SB then planted up beautifully, and watered in. She also sowed up some more of her veg patch - a row of carrots and some onion sets.Chris came back from the supermarket and made us berry smoothies and muffins for a snack - yummy, and dug a patch of the veg bed over. They all then played wild things, and i planted out the peas. I’ve been impressed with the germination rate in the propagator its near 100% of everything so far. I think that’s ‘cos we had the temp up a bit to start with all the harder to germinate seeds, and have now reduced it. The temp control I think has made all the difference. Even the florence fennel has all germinated.