Vegetable Garden Update July

I have accidentally let two months pass without writing about my vegetable garden. I am busy picking raspberries, loganberries and strawberries every day, and my one small gooseberry bush is fully laden. Somebody told me gooseberries and strawberries combine to make a nice jam, so they are being popped into the freezer until I have enough. The trees in the orchard are also looking good, and I am hopeful that this year we may even get some plums - there are lots of green ones on the tree.

I will start with the positives, which this is year is my broadbeans. I followed advice and picked out the tops of the plants, and not a sign of any blackfly. Also the sweetcorn seemed slow to start, but I can now see the corns husks forming.  

But I have a lot of trouble with pests this year. Despite the chickwire fence around the garden I have caught the odd rabbit inside, but even mending the holes is not going to stop squirrels, whom I have also seen. My peas were doing fairly well, and I had picked for one meal, but then found that the plants and pods had been completely eaten. The rabbits, combined with slugs and snails, mean I am on my third attempt at runnerbeans. I think the first ones were eated by a rabbit, as the stems were biten through. I now have a combination of netting, tubes with copper at the bottom, beer traps, coffee and eggshells. Throwing everything at protecting this lot!

My first courgette plants also got eaten, so I have them under a cover and with sheep fleece around. It does not make the garden look great, but it is all I can think to do. 

Seeing the seedlings that you have nurtured get eaten up is quite sad, and has made me a bit reluctant to plant things out. I have hung onto my butternut squash plants in the polytunnel, just potting them on, but decided a few days ago that it was time for them to face the big outdoors. My sunflowers are also still in the polytunnel. I must be brave, but because I lost them all last year, I am still waiting for them to get a bit bigger.

I am trying a few new things in the garden. I have two purple sweet potato plants from the village. Apparently they need a lot of water. Also growing some pak choi seedlings, which are coming along. Some lovely cosmos flowers are making the garden look pretty.

Sweet potato plant, pak choi seedling, and some of the cosmos

Other things in the polytunnel are going fairly well. I have a new friend at Oxfam whom I am swapping seedlings with, and the exchange of plants in the village continues. My friend gave me two cucumber plants, and we have just eaten our first cucumber, which was delicious. 

The tomato plants that I grew from seed seemed very slow, so I bought two plants from a garden centre. They are a little ahead, but my seed grown ones seem to be catching up. 

White onions are looking good, but my red ones have not grown very well, and seem to have had the tops nibbled off now. I had always thought of onions as a fairly safe bet. Yesterday I planted out some of the leeks. It has been so dry it was quite difficult to dib into the dug soil. I have another pot of seedlings in reserve.

Vegetable Garden Diary May

I have realised that I perhaps should have started my sporadic garden diary.  Seedlings are under way in the polytunnel, and I have a new friend at the Oxfam bookshop, who is doing swaps with me. So thanks to her for the two cucumbers above, and she also gave me some peas and spinach for outside.

Someone (a rabbit I think) has been nibbling things in the polytunnel, so I have had to put some of the seedlings on the table and cover the troughs with netting, and need to reinspect the fence. I am turning into Mr McGregor.

The indoor strawberries are looking good, all grown from my outside strawberries last year. And we are already eating some American land cress leaves.

Outside things are coming along. Below shows the outside strawberries, and potatoes and raspberries behind. My husband's loganberry has even more berries coming than last year, so hopefully we may get more than the one jar of jam. It has also produced another bush a little way off.

Other things planted outdoors are runnerbeans, peas, sweetcorn, broadbeans, onions and carrots (which I planted near the onions as I had heard this might help, but as usual the carrots came up, and the nearly all disappeared over night).

And below is my "scarestork". Chris Packham was on the radio talking about the reintroduction of storks to Cornwall, and I thought this year rather than the scarecrow man we usually make (which the birds sit on) I would try and made something a bit more frightening - with light and noise. We will have to see how this works out.

Vegetable Garden Diary Update

I have just realised that unlike other years, I have not been keeping my vegetable garden monthly diary. I did try doing a little video, which seemed like a good idea, as it was me showing the garden warts and all. But I did not seem able to upload it, so am doing my usual photo catchup.

Like most years some things have gone well, and other not so good. I think for a lot of things the large amount of rain that we have had has been good, and we are now having a bit of sunshine as well. Also we have had the benefit of chicken poo, and four big sacks of free horse manure from a local stable, which I think have really helped. 

After my rabbit invaders, I covered all of the peas and runner beans with netting or mesh, which seems to have worked. So despite the invaders we have had a fair crop of runnerbeans and peas, and the broad beans have been much better than any other year. For the broad beans I picked off the growing tips of the plants, something I saw on a TV programme, and this year no blackfly problem at all.

 

I also was pleased to try some new vegetables - parsnips and pak choi, both of which have been great. Beetroots as well have at least grown to a reasonable size this year.

 

For salad leaves the American land cress and rocket have kept us going all summer, and I have had better radishes by doing a few small plantings. My tomatoes are way behind, but the plants look good, so hopefully eventually we will get some.

The raspberries have perhaps not been as many as other years, but most evenings I pick a little bowl to have on cereal at breakfast. The one tayberry bush has produced a lot of berries, all of which have gone into the freezer and will be made into jam. We bought a new gooseberry bush and built a fruit cage, with the blackcurrants. These have not produced much, so I cannot blame the birds this year. I think perhaps they need a bit of love and attention. The outside strawberries have been good, and I have high hopes for next year for the plants I have put in a trough in the polytunnel.

 

I realise I am being a bit too positive, so here is the one sunflower that survived the rabbits. I also have some very tiny sweetcorn plants, which have always been successful in other years, but I am really not sure are going to catch up this year.

  

Here is a photo of one of my favourite bits of the garden. The courgettes seem unstoppable, and I also like the self-seeded nasturtiums. The pak choi is on the left, netted peas in the background, and as you can see I have been doing a bit of weeding.

 

I am not too great as a flower gardener, but here is a little collage of some flowers in the vegetable garden. My sister gave me two dahlia plants. This one has settled in and is a gorgeous colour. I also saved love-in-the-mist seeds from last year, as they are one of my favourites. I've also included some courgette and bean flowers - useful and beautiful.

Garden Update June

The vegetable plot is looking pretty good, despite us having a little trip away during the very dry spell, which was a bit of a worry. But with some early morning watering before we left, nothing seems to have suffered too much. I have been very thankful for some of the heavy rain we have had recently.

As usual some things seem to be thriving, and others not. I am pretty pleased with the sweetcorns, and the runnerbeans, which are almost ready to pick. And we have been picking some stawberries, which are under the netting. Despite a combination of straw and fleece they are still getting eaten by slugs and snails, so some I am ripening on the kitchen windowsill. On the left, near a poppy that I just let grow because it looked pretty, you might be able to see the carrots, which have not been eaten at all as in other years. Are they just some more resistant type? No idea, but it has made me pretty happy, so I have planted a second row.

 

 

One thing I forgot to mention last time, is that my husband bought 6 grape vines. We thought quite hard about where to plant them, and in the end decided that in the vegetable garden was best, to keep them from the deer and rabbits in the field. There are three different types, and although we will not get grapes this year, they seem to be doing well. Arrived as little sticks in the mail.  

 

Although the veg garden and polytunnels seem to be my area, he is in charge of the tomatoes and peppers in the greenhouse nearer the house, but now he has a special reason to come over to the veg patch.

Other things are doing fine - potatoes, courgettes (only 3 plants this year), pumpkins and squash. But I have been worrying about my brassicas. There is a great plant exchange in the village, and as well as giving, I took three lovely cauliflower seedlings. They were doing really well, but now the leaves are being eaten. Is it the same little pests that completely ate the kale? My plan was to pick off any caterpillars from the underside of the leaves, but so far I have not seen any, and on some plants there is no underside because there is no leaf! Same thing started on the sprouts and broccoli, so I have covered these with fine mesh, but perhaps I have just made a nice breeding ground for butterflies.

The other thing that is usually really reliable are the raspberries around the edge of the veg plot. I did my usually pruning last year, but the plants are really sparse. I have just looked up that raspberries live about 10 years, so as we have no idea how long they have been there perhaps they have just come to their natural end. I am picking a little pot every evening, and adding it to the freezer, and perhaps will have enough in the end for one pot of jam. We may have to buy a few new canes. The other fruit that was abundant last year, were the cherries. But this year I think I may just get a cupful of fruit. No idea why, perhaps it was something in the weather when the blossom was out. No point worrying, perhaps next year will be better.

Cucumber Plants

 

In the polytunnel I have some tomatoes, lettuces, and tiny cumcumbers on the way. Also some aubergine (from the plant exchange), which have grown a lot, and a cucamelon! 

Aubergines

Lavender and Crochet Bunting

That time of year has come again when lavender has been picked. I had a tiny amount from my own garden, but this was added to by the lavender from the communal gardens of the sheltered flats where my mum lives. As no one else seemed to want it she claimed the whole lot.

Both these sets of bag were made from old blouse material. The bird blouse was a favourite, although I think I prefer the traditional little pink bags.  I will explain below the reason for the rather curiously shape triangular bags.

You may have been wondering if I was going to continue with my Crochet Diary. It has been a few weeks since I did any crochet. So much crafting to do, and so little time.

I was shopping with my daughter when we saw some lovely bunting, with was made of little triangular lavender bags. It was quite expensive, and as I knew I had quite a lot of lavender this year, said I would have a go at making one. So that is the reason for the bags being triangles. The extra bags were just the ones we had left over.

But to add a bit more colour I decided to alternate with some crochet granny triangles. Not the granny squares on my to do list, I know, but I think I am confident enough now to go on to some squares.
 

The garden fence was not the final display place, and the bunting is now in my daughter's bedroom. It just never seems light enough these days to get a good photo indoors.

Crochet Diary One - First Steps

Crochet Diary Two - Teddy Puppet

Crochet Diary Three - Country Flowers 
Crochet Diary Four - Bowl or Hat?

Crochet Diary - Hat or Fruit Bowl?

I tend with knitting to write about projects that I have finished, and that have worked. But with this crochet diary, I think I need to show you the failures as well, as it is meant to be an honest look at my learning.

I wanted to try and make a crochet bowl. I have seen some really beautiful bowls and baskets online, but couldn't find a pattern I could follow. So I thought I would just busk it. The bowl caused much hilarity among the family, as it did not have any rigidity, and was not even very nice to look at. More of a shapeless bag than a bowl.

So I changed the plan, and wondered if I kept going I could turn it into a stylish hat. This also caused another bout of teasing, and threats that no one would ever go out of the house with me if I wore it ...

So I think I have learned something, and that is that I am not ready to crochet without a pattern.

The old problem of how to photograph yourself in a hat

The whole thing has been unravelled, and I am back to thinking about granny squares and blankets.

Crochet Diary One - First Steps

Crochet Diary Two - Teddy Puppet

Crochet Diary Three - Country Flowers