welcome to my little suburban oasis, filled with flowers,fruit trees and vegetables

Thursday 27 May 2010

peas and beans

feltham first peas - if you look very carefully you can see the first pea pod has set.

















the autumn sown broad beans died in the very cold weather over winter but hopefully there'll soon be pods on these sown in February.

Sunday 23 May 2010

picked this week

first radishes of the year!!
lots of salad leaves - various types of lettuce, spinach and rocket
more leeks

more broccoli,
more rhubarb - made rhubarb, orange and ginger jam.
chives




Saturday 22 May 2010

sweet May flowers

oriental poppies



aquilegias

Monday 17 May 2010

flowering now

peonies











irises



















and lilac

Sunday 16 May 2010

picked this week

rhubarb growing well - it's had a lot of the horse muck/compost mix on it. picked lots early in the week in a panic about frost damage.
leeks and broccoli again - starting to get a bit boring.

Friday 14 May 2010

alderman peas

we're growing Alderman peas again this year. these are a tall variety - up to about 6' - which continue to crop over a long period. we have 2 batches of seed set - the first is last years' home grown seed, with a high germination rate and growing well,

the second tray is the purchased seed which is now about 4 years old - very few of these seeds are growing at all.

planting out

it's been cold overnight all week and most of the veg have been covered in fleece but hoping we've now seen the last of the frosts. started moving plants out of the greenhouse; Painted Lady runner beans ready to grow up a wigwam; a row of brussels sprouts; another of small french beans; and the largest courgette out into the coldframe. given some garlic bulbs and mint by granddad, so planted these out.

Sunday 9 May 2010

picked this week

actual leek-sized leeks this week - cooked with smoked haddock, then mashed into baked potato, sprinkled with cheese and baked. need to think about clearing them for space but some are starting to bolt.



first rhubarb of the year.
purple sprouting broccoli still cropping well. loads of salad leaves - lettuce, rocket, spinach

Thursday 6 May 2010

flowering now

just coming into flower yesterday and today - pink, white and blue bells




lily of the valley









clematis montana



























and welsh poppies

Monday 3 May 2010

apple blossom

all three apples now in flower - the pippin with lots of blossom











only one clump on the new tree





















the small tree is absolutely covered with flowers

Sunday 2 May 2010

picked this week

the glut of brassicas running to seed continues. we have a lot of loose cabbage leaves, popping brussels sprouts and their leaves to eat at the moment. I'm trying to avoid either throwing everything away or freezing it so trying to find interesting ways to use it all instead of living on a diet of plain boiled cabbage. have added it to minestrone soup, to pasta sauces and stir fry but best idea so far is using it as a replacement for spinach in curry.
also have; - early purple sprouting broccoli starting to come ready - slightly different to the brassicas but not very.
- leeks
- some over-wintered, very woody radishes. some just aren't edible at all.
- lots of salad leaves -various kinds of red and green lettuce, rocket, some spinach.
- oregano, lemon balm and mint shooting up.