Home grown lunch

It's that time of year when growing-your-own really starts to reap rewards,even if sometimes you end up with odd combinations. So here I am eating home grown salad of red oakleaf lettuce, rocket, fresh peas and strawberries. OK I had to buy the feta :)

Almost like Spring ... Saturday in the garden

Today has been a glorious day, with the sun almost high enough to shine over the neighbours' leylandii and let a little more light into the garden, so, in keeping with my attempt to spend an hour outside each day of February, I've been out weeding and clearing, and generally pottering in the garden.

I'd expected to just spend a few minutes at things then head back inside so I didn't bother changing to 'gardening clothes' - which is how I ended up with my rather impractical shoes caked in mud!

The snowdrops are nearly in flower but many of them are throttled by 'weeds' - though when I say 'weeds' I actually mean this creeping invasive campanula. I planted it long ago for its pretty blue flowers but I've since got tired of its spreading habit and can't seem to get rid of it.

As its entwined itself round snowdrops and daffodils, each tiny plant has to be pulled out individually, which isn't fun when the soil is cold and damp. Still, I got quite a bit out today and got a shock at the same time. I thought at first that I'd disturbed a mouse, but no, it was a frog! It's probably come from next door's pond but I'm very surprised to see one hopping round the garden this early in the year.

When I'd had enough of the 'close work' of pulling out campanula, I got a spade and turned over a small area of veg patch to plant out some lanky red cabbage seedlings. I should have done this before winter rather than after, and they may just bolt without hearting up, but I'll see. I've had to protect them with chicken wire as birds are proving very troublesome this year, pecking at the larger cabbages. 

With the sudden lettuce shortage this week I was delighted to find spinach growing well and some small self-set lamb's lettuce, though not enough of either to keep me in salad. It's early to set lettuce but it was very warm in the greenhouse today so after the next few cold nights have passed I might set some rocket in trays in there.

Pottering in the sun

 The sunshine drew me outside today but proved deceptive and after half an hour or so I was getting cold!

 Spring seems to have really arrived with snowdrops, primroses and daffodils.

 I'm taking advantage of the good weather and starting some lettuce in the greenhouse

and today I got the first of the small vegetable beds turned over.
Mud on my boots and dirt under my fingernails makes it feel really like Spring!

Happy pickings

 As the nights turn cooler it's time to protect crops at the allotment, so we're now closing the greenhouse doors and windows, and popped a cold frame over the late lettuce - anything to lengthen the cropping season!
This afternoon though was warm enough to potter about in short sleeves - a great day to have just lazed in a garden chair but things needed to be picked.



 A lot of plants are reaching the end of cropping - tomatoes, runner beans, the 'bean' beans - borlotti, cannellini, red kidney - peppers, chillies, courgettes, sweet corn ..... all summer crops that won't survive a frost, so I'm picking them all as fast as I can!

 The sweetcorn has been slow to ripen but has at last! I've also picked some of the cobs as small 'baby corn' for stir fries - these had no chance of developing into larger cobs, and picking them might help the others grow and ripen.

Peppers seem to be the best we've ever grown - we've actually got a surplus right now. Although in a greenhouse, the tomatoes have a touch of blight so I'm now picking green ones before they're affected

cauliflowers have been disappointing though - this one looks good, but is barely bigger than a tennis ball 

 some of the lettuce from the cold frame - I'm pulling odd leaves rather than waiting for a whole 'head'

 courgettes keep coming, though a little slower now - and the weird curled up thing is a cucumber!

Out allotment is at the edge of the plots, next to a hawthorn hedge now turning to suitably autumnal colours, glowing in the afternoon sun.

Just half an hour.....

peas in their new wigwam

leeks

I started the day intending to have a gentle morning in the garden, maybe half an hour or so, just plant out my purple podded peas and do a little weeding - but somewhere along the line got carried away. So, I planted out the peas, pricked out the kale, pricked out Elefant leeks (a full tray then about a dozen straight into the garden), potted on some Primo cabbages, set more cabbages (Golden Acre for summer, Langedijk, Winter Ling and Late Flat Dutch for autumn through winter), set a dozen Tendergreen French beans, moved some carnation cuttings into the flower beds, planted a couple of lettuce outside and some in a hanging basket (currently in the greenhouse but I may move it outside later, and hopefully the plants will be too high for slugs to reach).

hanging basket with lettuce

By the time I'd finished, I ended up with a very late lunch at quarter to 3!

Picked this week - 2nd November 2014

You could easily be forgiven for thinking this was a post from back in summer - a bowl of raspberries, radishes, tomatoes, a courgette, spinach and baby lettuce leaves!

and rubeckias and sweetpeas to pick.

 

Ok the leeks and savoy cabbage look more autumnal.

...as do these massive carrots - about 3 inches across. Sadly these aren't ours but the un-wanted crops from another allotmenteer.

August in the garden -veg

 The veg patch is edged with marigolds - to add colour and to keep greenfly at bay. There's a single lettuce seedling, some very small brussels sprouts, a row of leeks and a couple of cabbage in this bed

with nasturtiums running through them

 rhubarb filling this patch

 small autumn/winter cauliflowers

 and newly planted celery and red cabbage. This is the first year I've managed to grow any celery - but even if it doesn't crop well, its bright green should look good against the cabbage.

 Tomatoes are filling - on the left are 'normal' red ones Moneymaker or Alicante







On the right are yellow Poire Jaune













 Not many grapes this year but they're filling well




 







and nearly forgotten, by the old playhouse, Blauwschokker peas - purple-flowers and green peas inside a purple pod

Picked this week - 13th July 2014

Quite a lot of goodies from the allotment this week, much of it small-sized veg.

 I'm thinning the turnip row and eating these baby sized ones as 'radishes'.

Having to eat up the lettuce while still small as it's trying to run to seed. A lot of it is bitter and not at all pleasant so going straight in the compost bin.

Courgettes are another veg I'm picking young and tender rather than waiting for the marrow-sized

...and peas - though these are sugarsnap/mangetout peas intended to be eaten small

These are there more grown-up relatives

Tiny cauliflowers picked before they too burst, and the merest sprig of broccoli




The small cherry tomatoes are ripening but it takes a lot to fill a sandwich.









Not so small - broad beans.

But there are small apples from thinning before the branches break

and small alpine strawberries that are still fruiting even though the larger types have finished








and small grapes, accidentally cut off when I was pruning the vine. I have found a use for them though - in salsa, with cucumber and cherry tomatoes.

Full sized raspberries but tiny gooseberries - luckily my parents have full-sized goosgogs to share.