Our vegetables didn’t do that well this year but it’s been a great year for fruit and nuts. We had a huge quantity of plums; so many in fact that I had to thin them out to try and stop the weight breaking the branches of the tree: Plums growing on our Victoria plum tree The hazel tree has also produced a good crop of nuts: Hazel nuts still inside the husks Hazel nuts after... Read on
The weather was quite nice today and there was even a bit of blue sky. I thought I’d take the opportunity to replace the supports for the raspberry canes. I bought some met-posts and put some 50mm square posts into them. I then treated the wood and ran wires between them. Hopefully these posts will be more sturdy than the others and won’t allow the canes to be blown over as happened last summer. Whilst... Read on
I’ve not been able to spend much time in the garden recently and it was starting to show. Fortunately, a weekend at home and some good weather today meant I could get out and cross a few jobs off the list. The first thing I tackled were the Vervain (Verbena officinalis) and Red Valerian (Centranthus ruber) plants near the house. These flowered beautifully in the summer but needed cutting back as they were getting a... Read on
Over the last few days the weather has definitely turned colder and today we had our first frost. I’m sure the frost will put pay to any late flourishes from the remaining veg in the garden. It was always unlikely that our butternut squash would reach a harvestable size but the frost will almost certainly have killed the plant now. Read on
We had some good weather this weekend so I took the opportunity to put another coat of paint on the back of the house and also tidy up the veg plot a bit. I dug up the shrivelled remains of the beans, tomatoes and sweetcorn… all have been a disaster this year. I’m not sure if it was just the weather (a bit cold and very wet) but we’ve had very little out of the... Read on
Our first gherkin has appeared in the greenhouse. I’ve tried growing gherkins before but not had much luck. I’m hoping that the greenhouse will help produce a bumper crop this year. The variety we’re growing is called Adam F1. Our first gherkin takes shape Read on
The first produce to come out of the greenhouse was this bumper crop of radishes: Radishes grown in the greenhouse Read on
This weekend I planted the first of our vegetables. In the main veg beds I planted the climbing French beans, the runner beans, sweetcorn, leaks and onions. I also planted the Scallopini squash and some courgettes in the other veg bed. We’ve still plenty of seedlings coming through in the greenhouse and some of the plants are getting quite big now: Compare the above to how the seedlings looked in mid-April. Read on
OK, so the title might be a bit grand but the warm weather we’ve had recently has really helped the flowers in the garden. Almost everywhere you look there are flowers or buds about to burst. One flower I really like to see at this time of year is the Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris). It has masses of beautiful yellow flowers: Not to be out-done, the Bog Bean (Menyanthes trifoliata) in the pond is also... Read on
I must admit I’ve been very surprised by how well the seedlings in the greenhouse have been going so far. I’ve had much better germination rates than I had with my cold frame and everything is growing up very rapidly indeed. Read on
It was a warm day today and it obviously brought out some of the early spring insects. There were many solitary bees buzzing around our daffodils. They looked like mining bees to me so I suspect they’ll be looking for bare patches of earth to dig burrows in too. I also spotted this adult green shield bug (Palomena prasina) crawling along the branches of my loganberry: Having now received my veg seeds for 2008 I... Read on
The Victoria plum tree at the bottom of our garden is covered in blossom. Well, given that it only produced a handful of flowers last year I’d say it was covered… It certainly has more than ever before and hopefully we’ll get to eat the plums this year. Last year the tree only produced a couple of plums and these disappeared shortly before reaching full ripeness. I suspect they fell off and were eaten. Read on
I’ve now ordered my veg seeds for 2008. As in previous years I’ve ordered them through The Organic Garden Catalogue. This year I’m going for: Brussels sprout Cabbage Roulette F1 Carrot Nantes 2 Cauliflower Snowball Climbing bean Blauhilde Courgette Partenon F1 Cucumber Gerkin Adam F1 Fennel Finale Hot pepper Early Jalapeno Hot pepper Habanero Leek Pandora Lettuce Salad Bowl Lettuce Tintin Marrow Scallopini Yellow Melon Sweetheart F1 Onion Red Baron Parsnip Turga Pea Ambassador Pepper... Read on
To celebrate the New Year I lifted the remainder of our parsnips. Parsnips were one of the few vegetables that did well this year. For a lot of our crops the summer was just too wet. However, the wet summer did produce the best parsnips we’ve grown so far. We also had two parsnips that had intertwined and grown in an interesting sprial. Having lifted the parsnips V then did a fantastic roast with them... Read on
We didn’t have much luck with parsnips last year. This year the above ground growth was looking pretty impressive but I wasn’t sure how they’d turn out. You’re supposed to wait until after the first frost before pulling up your fist parsnips. Given we had our first really good frost this week I thought we’d give them a go. As you can see the first three I pulled up were really pretty good and were... Read on
Last week I put a max/min thermometer in the greenhouse. On Saturday the temperature peaked at an impressive 29°C, pretty good for November! This has been beneficial for the long-chilies as one of them has now started to turn red. On Sunday I went round filling the gaps between the base and the ground with concrete and also ran silicon sealant round the edges of the greenhouse frame. This should keep the draughts (and rain)... Read on
I’m taking a day off from the greenhouse build today, mainly because I need some help with the next steps as they can’t be done by just one person (and V is at work). Anyway, I had a wander round the garden as it’s really sunny and quite warm for October. Despite sowing my green manure late, the plants seem to be coming up well. If it stays reasonably warm for a bit longer then... Read on
Admittedly it’s not that newsworthy but our scallopini squash plant has produced a second squash. It’s hardly going to see us through winter but, given the dismal summer we had, it’s not bad going. The first squash was really tasty so I’m looking forward to this one too and will definitely be growing more next year. Read on
I’ve officially declared this year a dead-loss when it comes to veg. The wet weather and the slugs & snails have taken their toll. A summary of the fruit and veg ‘production’ for 2007: Blackcurrants – did well, a fair few bunches and were tasty. Cherries – a handful of good-looking cherries – all eaten by birds. Chilies – not a great success. However, the long peppers which I’ve not grown before are still doing... Read on
I took advantage of a bit of fine weather to do a bit of a tidy up in the veg patch ready for winter. This essentially entailed clearing some of the old veg and putting the plants on the compost heap. I also cut back all the old wood on the raspberry canes since they won’t fruit again. I was quite surprised how few old canes there were given how much fruit we had! There... Read on
I’ve done it…. finally ordered my greenhouse! I’ve ordered an Eden Highline 8×8. It’s almost square (8′ 5″ by 8′ 6″) and has high eaves (so I don’t bang my head). I’ve opted for polycarbonate glazing as I suspect it will be a lot safer. I bought the greenhouse through Taylors Garden Buildings, who’ve been exceptionally helpful and answered all my questions about the greenhouse really quickly – I’ve been very impressed by them. It... Read on
Well, we’re back from Canada and the garden is looking pretty good. Apparently there’s been a lot of rain and that’s helped. Unfortunately it’s really helped the slugs and snails in that most of our veg has vanished. Looks like we’ll be going without courgettes, squashes and any brassicas this year. Thankfully the sweetcorn is doing ok. Read on
