5th March, 2012

A rainy weekend and family commitments precluded much work getting done.  Usually on miserable days it's a good time to catch up on some cooking.  I'm clearing out the freezer for this season's bounty and came across some blanched parsnip chunks.  What to do with them apart from the same old roasting? Well we have this marvellous vegetarian cookbook which doesn't appear to have a bad recipe in it, so I tried the parsnip casserole for the first time.  I have to admit it didn't sound appetising, but it tasted wonderful.  Quite a surprise and definitely one to have again.

I also made a leek pie from the same book, again an absolutely lovely meal.

As you can probably work out, the meals are based around what is available (isn't that what veg gardening is all about anyway?).  I decided it was time to start eating the leeks.  They look like this.

They aren't very big at about 6" long in the picture above.  But they are tasty and seem to not be infected with the allium leaf miner that I had last year.  Maybe planting out late (July!) helps?

The potatoes are chitting nicely.  It's probably not necessary but it's fun to mark it in the blog and share with other chitters.  It's what veg growers do to mark the season's beginning.

27th February, 2012

In contrast to last week's blog photo of a snow covered garden, here is a complete contrast with the first signs of warm weather which is that the greenhouse vent has started to open.  Time to fill the staging with seed trays then.

I sowed some leeks (porvite) into two large pots, but decided to wait until March (another week) before starting anything else.

The purple sprouting broccoli is coming along nicely.

The redcurrants have nice fat buds on them.

The floppy broad beans are hopefully going to straighten up.  I need to sow them later (December?) so that they don't grow too much in the greenhouse.

There are plenty of small leeks which I shall use up to make leek and potato soup and a nice pie recipe I want to try.

The garlic is showing through with strong shoots.

I also started to remove more of the Leylandii hedge that borders the side bed.  Most of it is dead, not nice to look at and a pain to keep in shape, so it has to come out.  I aim to try and do this before the beds fill up with veg so that I won't be walking all over them.  The upside is that I can remove the couch grass that grows under the hedge and I will gain as much as half a metre of ground as that is how wide the hedge is.  So more lovely veg!

20th February, 2012

I managed to get out in the garden during half term break. I tidied up the front garden so not a lot of work was done on the veg plots, but then there is not so much to do yet.  Mind you the weather was quite mild and it was nice to be active and outside. The week before was not so good with a deep covering of snow.  Beautiful to wake up to though.

I pruned the apple and pear trees.  The apple tree was hard work using the extended loppers.
The raspberries were cut down and I continued to collect the leaves to make precious leaf mould.

The broad beans were planted out as they were getting quite leggy and flopping over in the greenhouse, so I decided to plant them outside even though the nights are still frosty.

The kestrel seed potatoes (and fertiliser) have arrived and have been set out in egg boxes in the cool conservatory for chitting.

The apples have stored very well. Most of them are pristine like this one.

18th January, 2012

Nearly 2 months since my last post! I haven't been very busy in the garden so not much to report really. I've done the following on occasional weekend when I can becase it has been quite wet.
Cut down the asparagus and weeded the bed.
Collected the leaves for leaf mould.
Emptied compost bin contents and spread it over the bed to break down over winter.
Harvested the parsnips.

In the greenhouse the broad beans are growing rather too well. Here they are flopped over after a frosty night. But I think they will be OK.

Here is part of the side bed where I have lad a relatively thick layer of the compost.

The purple sprouting broccoli are safely protected under netting. The unprotected ones (I don't have enough netting) have been stripped bare.

The parsnips have grown good tap roots this year but haven't fattened up much. They taste fine though and were a lovely addition to the roasting pan for xmas dinner.

21st November, 2011

I haven't posted in some time as I have not got around to taking photos of the garden. My excuse is that I leave it too late in the day when it's too dark to take photos. Anyway, I have harvested the apples and carefully identified those that were unmarked and these were then wrapped individually in newspaper. The marked ones will be eaten first hopefully before they go rotten. Here are the apples nicely wrapped and stored in the shed.

The tomatoes were still being picked in November. It's been very warm and I still haven't recorded a frost.

I cleared out the greenhouse and cleaned the glass properly this year to remove the algae that had built up. I have chillis, broad bean seedlings, peach and cyclamens in there and they will need a much light as possible so clean glass will help. These are the chilli plants which may or may not survive. I always try but they haven't survived a winter in the greenhouse in my hands.

Peach and broad beans.

Cyclamens which I dug up from the front garden; they may make nice gifts for my friends or to spread around the garden.

I've managed to dig over the parts of the garden plots that are clear of veg. This is a first. I've spread over the compost that was rotted enough to do so. But it doesn't go far.

The warm weather has encouraged the onion sets to shoot. I also planted some garlic but that hasn't shown yet.

The leeks are small; I may have to wait until spring before they put on some growth.

But we have been eating some nice pak choi.

The asparagus is finally turning brown (another sign of the warm spell) and it's time to cut it down.

The leaves have started to fall and I must collect them to make valuable leaf mould.