Quick update on my current fruit and vegetables!
I’ve managed to pick a good few now of everything, except the tomatoes but they won’t be long!!
Unfortunately the snails get all my courgettes just as they reach their peak.
I’m so annoyed and have tried to keep them away but they are still at it! Impossible!
Well my garden is growing!!!
It’s been a great couple of weeks for all my Vege, grass and plants, they (and me) have loved the spring weather!
The last time I posted I had just layed the paving at the back of the garden and since then I’ve been super busy.
The seeds I sown at the beginning of april are now steaming ahead!
The only things now left in the propagator are some little tomato seedings waiting for Emma to collect and the chilli and pepper seeds I planted today, every thing else is out enjoying the abnormal heat we have had!
I pricked out the tomatoes and re-potted them using emmas great tutorial!
Under cover are my salad leaves, courgette, broccoli, and cabbage. Last week when re potting my carrots I realised I had too many to fit in the tub so I found some space in the patch and put them there, I just can’t bear not to use them all!
salad
courgette
brocolli
cabbage
carrots
Today, to the vege patch, I added some pepper and chilli seeds and two little pea seedlings which I couldn’t fit into the pea pot!
The peas are just shooting up!
I had them in quite a small container to begin with so I pricked them out this morning and gave them a new home!
My strawberry are pretty happy in their new pots but need a good tidy! I didn’t really do to much with them when I uprooted them from the Vege patch!
The new additions to the garden are a cute little blueberry bush, raspberry bush, and garlic.
Today I also tidied up my Borders and re arranged the container Vege.
I’ve tried to get rid of as many places as possible where the cats can do their business but my borders are something I don’t really want to lose.
The main chunk of soil in the borders now houses the containers, dug in quite deep to prevent the cats from pushing them aside!
I also moved some plants I put down last year and re arranged the lily tubers.
To the rest I added some more flower seeds, not sure what they are but I’m sure it won’t be long till I find out!
My lavender is growing so happily in the other border that I decided to add some more seeds around it! Fingers crossed!
It has been so lovely to get out here so much, pruning, potting and just relaxing, my grass is growing well too, only a few patches which I touched up today!
My next step is to get some pond plants!!!
Fourth week of March
(22/03/2011)
As today was so beautiful I decided to continue with my garden pledge. I soaked all of the seeds I had planned to sow today overnight in organic seaweed feed ready for the big day!!
However before I could get the seeds in I wanted to put up the cold frame I bought a few weeks ago as the kitchen window ledge has no room for seedlings!
This proved a lot harder than I anticipated!
That damn cold frame was the hardest thing I have ever constructed and believe me I’ve put up my fair share of horrid flat pack furniture!
It took me an hour and a half and a great heap of my own sanity but I did it!
It certainly does not look as good as the one on the box but half way through the construction I realised that was because it was not the same as the one on the box, that one was a lot better quality!
Anyway I’m sure it will fulfil it’s purpose!
So with the cold frame up I got on with the seeds.
I now have 4 pots of coriander, 3 pots of San marzano tomatoes, 3 pots of budau taupe tomatoes, 3 pots of aisla Craig tomatoes, and a hugh tray of carrots!!
Those who know me and my tomato allergy may be questioning the amount I have sown! I just like growing tomatoes!! Anyway I can cook them and make lovely sauces for pizza and pasta!!!
Roll on germination!!!
I first made this soup a while ago with some left over Sunday roast veg, it was so good I decided to perfect the recipe and have now made it a lot.
It goes down so well and is perfect as a lunch or dinner for when the days get colder.
WARNING this soup is very spicy; for less heat use less chilli!!
ingredients:
2 pints vegetable stock
1 onion
1 potato
2 sweet potatoes
1 small squash
2 red chillies
3 cloves of garlic
1 tsp. chilli flakes
1 tsp. cumin powder
1 bay leaf
2 sprigs of rosemary
2 sprigs of thyme
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
method:
Roughly chop the vegetables, finely chop the chillies, garlic and herbs.
In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil and fry the onions and chillies until the onions are translucent. Add the potatoes, squash, carrots and garlic and season with the salt, pepper, cumin and chilli flakes. Cook on a medium heat for 10-15 minutes.
Drain off the excess oil and return to the heat. Now add the stock, herbs and the bay leaf and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 20 mins.
Serve chunky or blend for a smoother soup.
Enjoy with crusty bread and a dollop of cream.
It’s been an awkward time in the garden of late. Due to the late frosts, it wasn’t really until late April that I began even seriously thinking about it. Since then, the weather has been totally up and down, which means my poor little veggies don’t know if they’re coming or going. It seems to be at least becoming somewhat consistent in its inconsistency in any case!
The air is warm, but there’s not heaps of sun; the rains (until this week) have been infrequent, but heavy. All this means that my root veg and most of what might be considered winter veg are doing OK, but the more summery foods are pretty behind on where they were this time last year. That said, it makes discovering real signs of life hugely exciting. Because, Houston, we have cauliflower!
And strawberry…
And carrot…
And (finally!) signs of tomato.
I’ve been really worrying about my tomatoes, but in the past week they have finally started flowering, hurrah! I’ve got my fingers crossed that come July we’ll actually start seeing something resembling a bit of a bountiful garden!
For a while now I have been complaining to Emma about the lack of courgettes on my plant. Every time I heard about or saw a fruitful courgette plant I was overcome with jealousy thinking that I had let mine grow out of control therefore preventing it from growing veg.
However while rooting through the overgrown foliage the other day I was confronted by this huge, and I mean huge courgette hiding away!
How wrong was I?!
The rest of my garden is progressing beautifully — including the weeds! — and Emmms is taking good care of Chillimena after her trip to the craft fair, I am missing her dearly, though, so need to go and pick her up on Friday!
carrots
cabbage
The provisional cast-on tutorial for toe-ups on DPNs I’ve been planning will have to wait until tomorrow because this morning I found a carrot in my garden.
I was watering the carrot tub and some earth shifted and suddenly there it was! A real carrot!
I nearly fainted, because when I looked up there was a teeny green tomato on my Romano!
And then I noticed how much my red onions are starting to swell!
What makes this all even more exciting is that yesterday I discovered zucchini flowers had started blooming, and with them a very small zucchini!
And today, at long last I’m going to harvest the first my my strawberries — I was going to do it last weekend, but then the weather turned so I decided to wait a few more days until the sun came out and rounded off the ripening.
I can’t believe how healthy my garden is looking these days. Even the mystery flowers (from some mixed seeds I sowed back in April) has taken off.
Of course, now the slugs will take over completely or it’ll be ravaged by wild bears or the council will decide it’s violating zoning by-law 1231097046, but on this day in June my little patch of concrete is looking like a real garden!
Wow it has been a busy two weeks! However in that time not only did my carrots come back to life but they are thriving! And I the second batch of carrot seeds I planted have already shown their heads!
Chantenay
Paris Market
I re-potted them in larger containers, ones they can fully grow in, and they seem to like it. Using the tollet rolls paid off as I was just able to prepare the soil, pick up the roll and place it in to the pot. I then padded it out with more soil, gave it a good water and set it down. I havn’t moved them at all since then and it seems like that is the way to do it!
The rest of my garden is loving the nice april weather too.
I also re-potted the tomatoes in some tomato grow. They were so delicate, when I was pricking them out I was sure they were just going to collapse but they were stronger than I thought! I think I need a little bit more faith in my baby seedlings! The other thing I have noticed (and am not sure if it is the right thing for them to be doing!) is that they have sort of stabilizer leaves. They seem like training leaves that once the second set of leaves are fully grow they drop off! It happened to both the seelings I planted so ill wait and see if it happens to the new ones too! If that is the case it is pretty cool!
Rocket
Basil
Tomato
Pepper
The following are all from seeds sown 21 March and they are all coming up roses!
Brocolli
Garlic
Coriander
One pot Tomato and Basil
I have sown courgette too but they havnt woken up yet!
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