Pottering

First carrots harvested

I haven't updated the blog for a while, partly because I've been busy at work, and partly because everything I've done in the garden recently has been odd jobs - usually an hour's pottering after work.

The bigger jobs have been taking up the last of the King Edward potatoes (a total of 12 lbs 3 oz) and digging the potato beds over, and taking down the millenium dome and digging that bed over. I've also cut down a small ash tree that was shading the tomato plants, and earthed up the leeks to make the base of the stems white. Regular tasks have been weeding, squirting soapy water on the runner beans to kill off blackfly, watering and feeding the courgettes and tomatoes, and keeping the the compost heap topped up.

I've also had a reasonable amount of produce: another two courgettes got to full size (one of 6 oz, one of 8 oz) before the plants took a rest - there are some more on the way but for a couple of weeks they didn't produce any female flowers that set - they just fell off. Beans continue to produce - 3 lbs 9 oz of runner beans and 8 oz of French beans, and I sampled some of the oldest row of carrots - 6 oz. I'll leave them to grow a bit more. The taste was great, but they could be bigger. I waited too late for the batch of turnips in the salad bed, and by the time I picked them they were woody, wormy or both.

The new plantings of rocket and French beans have come up nicely, although the beans may have gone in too late to crop, unless we have an Indian summer. The kale is also coming up, so that'll be something for the pigeons to eat.

Clearing and re-planting

Runner beans

Over the weekend I've got up most of the King Edward potatoes and disposed of the plants in the bin - not wanting to add blighted material to the compost heap. I did the same with the pea plants, which had developed black spots on the leaves and remaining pods, and then died off.

That left a fair bit of space in bed one, where there are just a few French beans growing, so I dug round them and planted more French beans there and in half of the potato overflow bed. The other half has been planted with lamb's lettuce. In bed two, where the Epicure potatoes were, I've planted two rows of kale and one of rocket.

I also did a bit of scything and shearing, partly just to keep the place tidy, but mostly to feed the ravenous compost heap. I noticed some earth sticking out halfway up the heap, which I thought odd, and on investigating found that it was full of ants, so they've evidently taken up residence in the compost. I don't know if this is a good thing or not - possibly they'll stir it and keep it aerated, but possibly they'll drive away the red composting worms who do most of the work.

The runner beans are doing well, and I picked just over 6 oz for supper.

First courgettes

First courgettes of the season

The two largest courgettes looked about ready, so I harvested them. That's 10 oz, right there. I'm going to slice them and dip them in gram-flour batter, and have them as a fried side dish to a curry. The curry includes some of the new potatoes, 1 oz of French beans from the garden, and a couple of cloves of home-grown garlic to give it a bit more oomph.

If I'd known in advance what the summer would be like, I'd have tried growing my own rice as well.

First French and runner beans

French and runner beans

The first of the French and runner beans were just ready for my visitors this weekend, and will be eaten with Sunday lunch.

2 oz of French, 7 oz of runner beans.

Potato harvest

'Epicure' potato harvest

Today I dug up all the 'Epicure' potatoes (with Steve's help) - the first early variety whose leaves were severely blighted.

The potatoes are mostly sound, but have spots of rot on the surface and probably won't keep. I'll have to cook and freeze them.

The total weight of the crop was 14lbs 12oz.

The maincrop 'King Edwards' are less affected by blight and also haven't reached a good size yet, so I'll take a risk and leave them in the ground for a while.

Re-dug brassica bed

Brassica bed with protective chicken wire

Bed eleven had become overgrown with weeds because of the chicken wire cage I put up to keep pigeons off, and the cabbages and cauliflowers inside had bolted.

This morning I took up the cage, weeded and forked the bed, and expanded it by digging turf away around the edges. I hope this will make it easier to keep under control - previously the edge of the cage was on the grass, and it grew up inside the wire.

I planted the last of the cabbage Advantage F1, which took up two and a half rows, and filled the rest of the bed with cauliflower All Year Round.

Blighted potatoes

Epicure (L) and King Edward (R)

I dug up one of each variety of the potatoes - shown left. There were a reasonable number of spuds, but they were quite small. Unfortunately there are unmistakable signs of Potato Blight on both. One of the King Edwards was squashy and disgusting, but the rest were unblemished. All the Epicure had the beginnings of rot on the surface, but were OK in the middle. Once I knew what to look for, I went over all the plants and snipped off blighted leaves and stalks, hoping to reduce the number of spores drifting down onto the soil. I hope this will slow the effects of the disease on the crop.

I think I'll harvest them as needed now - the potatoes won't be full-size, but I won't run the risk of the whole lot being ruined. I hope.

Tomato developing

Tiny tomato

One of the tomato flowers has set, and there is a tiny green tomato about four mm in diameter ripening. The leaves smell great if I brush past them, so I hope it will grow into a good one. All five plants have flowers now, and are between three and four feet tall.

The runner beans are mostly doing well - one plant has died and another isn't long for this world, but the remaining five are all flowering and there are a few beans growing, now about two inches long.

There are a couple of French beans almost ready to eat, with more on the way, but I'll probably not get many at any one time.

Finally, three of the courgette plants have small courgettes growing on them - getting bigger surprisingly fast, and they are continuing to put forth big orange flowers.

Courgette flowers

Courgette flowers

Most of the courgettes are now flowering well, and tiny courgettes are starting to develop. The flowers only last a day, and they are at their best in the morning (when I took this picture).

You can apparently eat the flowers, using them to make parcels, but I think I'll leave them to grow into courgettes.

Bed five re-planted

Today I took out the sad remnants of the plants in bed five - bolted turnips, withered broad beans, and some good, healthy weeds - and re-planted with turnips (because the last batch did well) and beetroot (because the last batch did badly.) It's a logical business, gardening.

I also sprayed the runner beans with soapy water, since blackfly were starting to gather on a couple of the flower stalks, and tidied up a few nettles and bits of long grass that escaped yesterday's tidying session.

Since there has been no rain since Friday (unheard of!), I watered half the potatoes and peas, and the French beans and carrots. I mixed in a little comfrey tea into each watering can, to add nutrients to the soil. It's been in a fermenting bin since last autumn, and it certainly smelled nutritious.

Mowed grass

Garden in sunlight

Today I mowed the grass and sheared round the edges of the beds, providing a lot more green material for the ever-hungry compost heap.

The neighbour to the south has trimmed a lot of his trees and hedges, so a lot more light is getting into the garden now - I hope the courgettes like it. The larger ones are just coming into flower, and there are flowers appearing on the tomato plants as well.

More produce

Peas and turnips

Fresh peas

Haggis for lunch

Today I harvested three turnips and another lot of ripe peas. The turnips needed to have a few grubs cut out of them, but had a good flavour. I got five ounces of peas, and there are more pods on the way. I notice that if the pods rattle, the peas haven't grown to full size and should be left on the plant.

For lunch I ate the turnips and peas, with shop-bought carrot and mashed potato. The onion and mushroom gravy was made with my own onions, and was delicious - it went very well with the excellent MacSween's vegetarian haggis.

And yes, that is a huge meal, and yes, I did have seconds.

Pottering

Despite a steady drizzle I pottered about for an hour in the garden after work. The holly and some brambles were encroaching on the path to the compost, so I cut them back, and added some more nettles and goose grass to the compost heap. The compost continues to be warm to the touch, and the rate of decomposition seems very high. I keep adding green waste alternating with layers of crumpled newspaper.

I also re-potted some thyme and a chilli plant. The season hasn't been favorable to the chilli, but it might survive the winter if I bring it indoors.

Produce: Over the weekend I pulled up five more garlic bulbs which looked as if they'd finished growing - only one was visibly mouldy, and I hope the others will dry and keep. I had a good portion of peas, about four ounces (shelled), very tasty, and there are about twice as many pods left on the plants. However, some of the plants are starting to go yellow, and they may be moribund.

Garlic bulbs

Two of my garlic plants had fallen over, so I pulled up the bulbs beneath. The stalks had rotted through just above the bulbs, and I'm not sure if the bulbs will moulder away or dry out and be edible.

In any case, I'm pleased with the size of them.

Legumes developing, basil dead

Growing French bean

Runner bean flower buds

There are now several French beans on the way, even though the plants are tiny - I knew they were a dwarf variety, but I expected them to grow to more than a foot tall before flowering.

Several of the runner beans have reached the top of the cane wigwam, and are starting to flower. I'll have to pinch off the tops soon to make them bushier.

The broad beans have almost all died, and the surviving plants are looking brown and unhealthy. I think I've had a net loss of broad beans this year - planted about thirty, and got to eat about twelve.

And the last basil plant has been critically injured by a snail. It was doing OK, with about six proper leaves, but a snail somehow climbed up the inside of the greenhouse, across a wire mesh shelf, and shredded it. Annoying. No home-made pesto for me this year.

Onion harvest

The onion harvest

I spent ten minutes today getting in the onion harvest, shown in almost its entirety in the photo - I had already cooked with one, two were rotten when I pulled them up, and three have produced a flower stalk, so I'll leave those and see if I can get some seeds. This is the second year I've had disappointing results with onions, and I will probably not bother to buy any more next year.

Today I also did a bit more scything, and weeding, and pulled up some more bolted turnips. This was mostly so that I could feed the compost heap, which is warm to the touch and which processes new green matter very quickly.

Tasty tasty peas

A few days ago I ate the first batch of peas to ripen - there weren't many of them, but they were very flavoursome. The portion I ate for supper was even smaller than it need have been, because I ate quite a few of them raw while I was shelling them.

Produce

Broad bean pods

Tiny potatoes

Last weekend I picked the small number of mature broad beans, and ate them on toast. Very good flavour, but because of the small number of plants which have survived this long, I will probably only get a handful of beans at a time.

The largest turnip turned out to be inedible - the plant bolted and produced flowers, and the root became very tough and woody. It had a good smell though, quite like horseradish. I dug out and composted the other turnips in that row, as they had bolted too.

It looks as if the onions have grown as much as they intend to - the tops have fallen over and have started to die off, so it's time to harvest the onions. The largest is about the size of a billiard ball, maybe a little bigger.

Today I excavated under one of the early potato plants, and found two potatoes the size of small marbles. The plants are in flower, but I guess they haven't finished growing the tubers yet.

More sowing, potting on and planting out

Tomato plants in final pots

The two largest tomato plants are now in their final pots, and will sit outside in a sunny corner by the house. It's a bit sunnier after I pruned some hawthorn hedge and cut a big bough from an ash tree nearby.

I planted out another courgette seedling (only one out of three germinated from the second batch), and I put three chitted seeds in the bed to make up the six originally planned for (its actually seven, but two chitted seeds are in the same spot. I'll pull out the weaker one if necessary.) I'm not very impressed with the germination rate of these courgettes.

Lastly I planted another row of carrots in bed six, the radishes that were there temporarily having been thrown away yesterday. That finished up the packet of Early Nantes, and nearly finished the Nepal F1.

Putting a few more weeds on the compost heap I noticed that the top is warm to the touch - probably mid 30s C is my guess.

Dry day at last

Garden, post-tidying

Compost heap, rotted down quite well

Refilled

A nice, sunny day today, and the neighbours have given me a key to their shed, so I can borrow their mower. I borrowed their mower, and eventually worked out how to start it. Once running, it made short work of the long grass, even the lumpy bits. Sadly it also made short work of a frog who I didn't spot and who didn't get out of the way in time.

I sheared the grass round the edges of the beds, and a lot of nettles and fumitory which was growing between the fence and the long row of beds at the bottom of the garden. The clippings have filled the compost heap to overflowing, even though it had sunk about two feet since I last filled it up (three weeks ago). I'm pleased that it is composting so fast - it must be hot composting, although I haven't got a thermometer to check it. Mild weather and lots of rain is probably just right for fast rotting.

Quite a few weeds went into the heap as well - I hand-weeded the carrots, onions and leeks, and I harvested the last of the first batch of radishes, and composted the tops.

More tomato potting, new sowing of salad plants

Tomato plants

The three tomato plants from the second batch were poking roots through their peat pots, so I planted them into bigger pots. These pots are probably too big, but they're all I could find.

I also tore out the bolted rocket, choy sum, and pak choi from bed ten, and planted more mixed salad, lettuce (two rows), choy sum, rocket and radishes.

Nom nom nom

Kale leaves

I picked the largest of the kale plants, because it had grown almost up to the level of the chicken wire protecting it from pigeons.

It would probably have grown bigger if I'd left it, but I was hungreh! I was expecting a stronger flavour for some reason, but it was like spring greens.


I noticed that the first pea flower has now become the first pea pod, although it's only about an inch long at the moment.

Earthing up potatoes

Out early this morning to earth up potatoes. Not as big a job as I'd thought it would be.

Some were earthed up just using the soil around them, and some using a mixture of soil and pig manure. We'll see if there's any difference in the crop.

I also planted out the three courgettes which had grown too big for their pots. There's space in the bed for another three, and I have some more planted in pots indoors, but they haven't shown yet.

I did a few other small jobs - a bit more scything and hand-weeding, and putting in canes to support a couple of  broad beans which were beginning to tip over. While I was pottering about, I noticed that the blackcurrant bush now has a dozen or so tiny green currants. Funny, I didn't see any flowers at any point. The apple tree didn't produce any flowers either - I think they should have been out in late April or early May, so perhaps I pruned the tree too hard.

Completed digging... really

Courgette bed

I've written "that's the last of the digging" posts before, but this really is the last of the digging for this growing season. I'd planned to put some courgettes in bed zero when the turnips and spinach currently there had come and gone, but the almost continual overcast of the last few weeks has meant that they've hardly grown at all.

My courgette seedlings are now getting too big for their pots, so I had to dig a new bed for them.

The other advantage of a new bed is that I can take a couple of inches of earth from it to mix with the pig manure, which will give me enough soil to earth up the potatoes. That's tomorrow's job though.

French beans planted out, slugs attack broad beans

Legume bed - peas, broad and French beans

The last batch of French beans were showing good enough root growth to go into the ground, so they have gone into bed one - the seven seedlings just fitted into the available spaces left by dead broad beans. That makes ten dwarf French beans planted now, with the three in the overflow bed. That should be enough.

While doing this, I noticed that some of the developing broad bean pods have been nibbled, and the culprits left behind a slime trail. Now I'd like to garden organically, but I'm not going to mess about with crushed eggshell, sharp sand, copper foil, or any of the other traditional, ineffective anti-slug measures. And as for wasting good beer... that goes against my religious beliefs.

 It's Blue Chemical Death time.

Scything

A bit tidier

I'd been wondering whether to borrow a lawnmower from one of the neighbours, but I left it too long and the grass shot up to knee-height. So I borrowed a scythe, and mowed the larger patches of grass the old-fashioned way. Good exercise, that.

This produced enough grass cuttings to fill up the compost bin, when mixed with six or seven scrunched up newspapers. I will urinate on the compost heap when I remember, to add a bit of phosphorus and nitrogen. 

Potting up, planting out

Tomato and courgette seedlings

Runner bean seedlings

The first batch of tomato seedlings were getting big enough to show roots out of the bottom of their peat pots, so I planted them into bigger pots. They will go into their final pots when they put roots out of the bottom of these ones.

Today I also planted out the runner beans. All eight of the chitted beans came up when planted in pots, and I'd made a wigwam wit six canes. I planted one in the middle of the wigwam - it may be able to grow up the central support, but I suspect the other beans will shade it too much. The last (smallest) bean seedling I planted in the pig manure to test for pesticide residues - the cress I planted to do that got covered with grass cuttings by the neighbours' gardener.

First pea flower

Pea flower

One of the peas which were started in paper pots has produced a flower, and several more of the broad beans are flowering too.

The runner beans are ready to go into the ground, and the remaining French beans are growing too. Three of the courgettes in pots are emerging, so I'll have to dig a bed for them soon.

Under my tender care, there is now one survivor of the three basil seedlings. A seedling has appeared in one of the seven pots with chilli seeds, but it may just be a weed.

Now I'm off to do a bit of watering, since we've had blazing sunshine for about a week now and the ground is drying out. I intend to do one or two beds thoroughly every day, which should be enough to keep the plants alive.

Bolting

Bolting salad plants

Quite a few of the salad plants in bed ten are bolting. At the front in the picture, there is a purple choi sum with a yellow flower. Behind it is a rocket plant, which has flower buds forming before a decent amount of leaf has grown. On the other side of the red and green mixed rows, the first two pak choi also seem to be bolting. This is disappointing, as they'll not put much effort into growing leaves now. I wonder if the lack of sunlight over the last month has something to do with it.

Compost

The reason I didn't post all of yesterday's exciting news at the time is that a friend turned up with a lot of roof laths (for kindling) just as I'd finished in the garden. When we'd unloaded those, we went and collected a couple of dustbins full of well-rotted pig manure, which I added to the small amount of compost already in the first compost bin. I sprinkled a few cress seeds on top, as a test for persistent herbicides, which can be present in manure, but since there were lots of nettles growing out of the pile I got the manure from, I doubt this will be a problem.

The other compost heap has been topped up, as well - more long grass from around the beds, and some nettles and goose grass which were growing over the path to the compost heaps, and some newspaper (a bit of 'brown' to balance all that 'green'.)

Beans in the ground

Dwarf French beans.

Three of the dwarf French beans were starting to poke roots out of their pots, so it was time for them to go in the ground - I put them in a gap between the overflow potatoes yesterday, as I'd made that bed longer than it needed to be. That freed up two plastic pots, and I put a couple more of the chitting runner bean seeds in them, so I now have eight seeds in pots, to fill six spaces. (One of the French beans was in a peat pot, so that just went straight in the ground.)

Tomato seedling

One of the first batch of runner beans has appeared above the soil today, as has one of the second batch of French beans. There are now seven tomato plants in small pots, from quite sturdy little plants to tiny seedlings, and there are also two basil seedlings - there were three, but one dried out. They are quite difficult, it seems. The last batch I killed by over-watering (I think), this batch the only casualty so far has been from the opposite cause.

Produce!

First produce - radishes!

Yesterday I ate the first of the veg that I've grown myself - radishes! Ate them with just a dab of salt. Tasty!

Runner beans potted

Today I potted the six runner beans which showed the best roots into three inch pots. Yesterday I did the same for five of the dwarf French beans. The soil I used is a 50/50 mixture of soil from the garden and seed compost.

Hoeing

Carrot bed, hoed

Today there was a bit of sunshine and it wasn't raining, so I went out and did some long-overdue tidying.

The grass round the beds was getting long and thick enough to shade the smaller plants, so I cut it back with shears. I then hoed round the carrots, potatoes, spring onions, peas and beans. :)

I haven't recorded weeding on this blog, because most of the time I've just done a bit from day to day during my morning inspection. However, what with the solid rain over the last few weeks, I've fallen behind with this and the weeds have taken advantage.

The boughs groan under the weight of produce

Tiny broad bean pods

On two of the broad bean plants (the ones which were planted in November and survived the winter) the flowers have set and tiny pods are developing. Excellent!

Goose grass soup

I tried the goose grass as a food - as a soup to be precise, just substituting it for the nettles in the recipe I followed last month. As soups go, it was a bit too fibrous. "Waiter, bring me a bowl of your most fibrous soup!" is not a phrase you often hear, and this is no doubt why goose grass isn't a popular soup ingredient. If I'd bothered to strain it, it would have been OK (and I'd have made a sheet of folksy craft-paper as well), but I like soup because it's quick and easy.

Probably when civilisation collapses, people will fight over a good patch of goose grass, but I doubt I'll eat any more until then.

Courgettes sown

6 courgettes just sown, 3 tomato seedlings and a French bean

Today I planted six courgette plants (shown, with the under-performing tomato and French bean sowing). I don't think the bed where I intended them to go will be ready in time to plant them in June, since the spinach and turnips there haven't grown as quickly as I'd hoped. I'll have to dig another bed just for courgettes.

Wigwam for runner beans

Wigwam for runner beans

Various salad plants

A couple of days ago I started some runner beans and some more French beans chitting indoors - this is just soaking them and leaving them on damp kitchen roll until they germinate. I will plant the six strongest looking runner beans in pots, then transfer them to the garden. I did a few more French beans because from eight planted in pots a few weeks ago, only three have grown. (I have space for only eight in the garden, but if I'd started 24, they'd no doubt all have sprouted.)

The runner beans will be grown up a wigwam, which I've also just constructed. The ground is quite soft there, so I've tethered it to the fence with wire.

Growth notes: Chives and parsnips have just become visible, and there are a few hollyhocks starting in the front garden. The hollyhocks I planted in the back garden have been swamped with goose grass, couch grass, and other vigorous ground plants, and I may have to cut those back and re-sow, but it isn't a high priority because I can't eat hollyhocks.

With all the recent rain the garden is looking lush, but the lack of sunlight seems to have slowed growth. Except of the goose grass, obviously, which is now forming dense thickets. Apparently it's edible when boiled, but it would have to taste particularly good for me to want to eat the amount I've got.

Something starchy this way comes

Young potato plant

Young spring onions

Young radish plants

More sowing and planting out today: seven of each of basil and chillies in paper pots on the windowsill to replace the unsuccessful first batches.

I've planted out the last batch of leeks in bed zero, and since they took up a row and a bit, I finished the row with leek seeds. That's almost finished the packet of Carlton F1, almost all of which have germinated, and that bed is now full. I hope the spinach and turnips there hurry up - I will want that space for courgettes in about six weeks.

In bed nine I've sown two rows each of beetroots and turnips, leaving space for a couple more rows of something.

Bed five is now full, after planting another row of carrots (half a row each of Early Nantes and Nepal F1), but the radishes ought to be out of the way in another month and will be replaced with a final row of carrots.

Bed eight is also full - I put in another row of spring onions (White Lisbon Winter Hardy), but again there will be room for another row when the radishes (pictured) have been eaten. The second row has done much better than the first - although I protected the first sowing with garden fleece on frosty nights, they probably went in a bit early.

Finally, just to empty the greenhouse, I put three odd lamb's lettuces in the very corners of the runner bean bed.

Growth notes: The first potato plants are above ground now, all Epicure (the earlies). The maincrop spuds haven't appeared yet.

Three of the dwarf French beans have sprouted on the  windowsill, but still only two out of the twelve tomatoes, which isn't a great germination rate.

Tomato seedling

First tomato seedling

The first of the tomato plants has appeared in one of the pots on my windowsill. In one of the other pots there are two seedlings, but they appear to be weeds - they don't have the tomato's hairy stem. I used soil from the garden mixed with potting compost to make the bag go further, and some weed seeds must have been lying in wait.

In other news, the second rows of spring onions and carrots have appeared, the rows of lettuces and other salad leaves in bed ten are thriving, but something has eaten the turnip seedlings planted out in bed zero. I suspect it was pigeons, in revenge for the wire mesh over the brassicas. The spinach directly planted in bed zero has mostly appeared now.

The beetroot, spinach and turnips in bed five is mostly doing well, although some of the turnips went reddish-green and didn't grow as fast as the others. I suspect some had an easier time than others pushing roots through the paper pots, since some of the pots had a large hole in the bottom  and some were completely closed up.

Nettle soup

Nettle patch

There are a lot of nettles growing in the garden, and at the moment they're putting forth fresh, tender new leaves. Later, when they're tougher, I'll make a nettle tea fertilizer, but today I made nettle soup from the young tops.

Recipe: I fried a chopped onion (and a chopped leek) lightly to soften, added a couple of litres of stock, a chopped potato, and half a carrier bag full of nettle tops. Seasoned (tarragon), boiled for 15 minutes, then blended. Delicious. :)

Potatoes in

Chitted potatoes ready for planting

It's traditional to plant potatoes out on Good Friday, but I left it a bit later because the weather was cool that week, and because I wanted to put up the mesh cage over bed three without having to worry about trampling the potatoes.

Now they're all in the ground, the earlies in bed two and the maincrop in bed four. In the end there were 23 of each type to go in, 18 of each in the main beds, and five of each in the overflow bed.

I also planted out some spinach from paper pots (in bed zero), a row of chives in bed eight, and eight dwarf French beans in large pots. There's enough space in the overflow bed for four dwarf beans, and enough space in bed one (where some broad beans didn't make it through the winter) for another four. The chives and the French beans were impulse buys when I was getting the chicken wire.

If the chives and the early potatoes are ready at the same time, I can have potato salad. Mmmm!

Broad bean flowers

Broad bean flower buds

I'm rather surprised by the appearance of flowers on two of the broad bean plants which survived the winter. I was expecting the plants to get bigger first, and the blooms to appear later. Never mind, it will extend the cropping period if some start producing flowers this early (assuming the bees are up and about enough to do the pollinating.)