Archive for June, 2008

I Knew the Wind was bad….

June 25, 2008 at 11:30 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

Yes that windy day left its mark - when I got down to the bottom of the garden yesterday I thought ‘that’s funny there’s a lot more greenery now’ - and there was - it was one of the lilac trees which had decided that lying down was better than standing up! So I had to spend a while yesterday and today cutting and sawing branches - and creating a large pile of bits. Now they will have to stay in a pile until autumn as there is nowhere to hold a bonfire in the garden at the moment, and there is the equivalent of several of our organic recycling bins full - which is full of hedge cuttings right now anyway - and I have other piles waiting to go in….

On top of that today I had to move 52 paving slabs from the front, where they had been delivered, to the back -  some of them are going to go under the shed, and others to be laid as paths in the veg beds.

So, not much actual gardening was done - mind I did put some plants (impatiens and petunias) into the front garden while waiting for the delivery. I did sort of weed a bit in the vegetable patches, but as the photos will attest, weedng is not my forte - I tend to leave it until I really have to do something about it, so my garden won’t ever be a ‘tidy’ garden.

One point has been running through my mind - I saw an article on another garden blog (sorry can’t remember which one) asking why we as gardeners grow veg that we don’t necessarily like. I was trying to think of examples in my case - but can’t really think of any. On the other hand growing too much of something - now that’s a different matter. We’ve still got runner beans in the freezer from several years ago and yet I have more growing now….. Hmmm - yes I know it’s better fresh, but runner beans in particular always seem to be in excess.

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Definitely not Summer Today

June 22, 2008 at 10:44 am · Filed under Beans, Greenhouse, Progress, tomatoes

Yes, another variation on ’summer’ the weather - we have gale force winds today (a deep low pressure over the UK) but at least it isn’t raining - here (heavy rain in Scotland). I’ve already had a close look at the runner bean support which are looking a bit under threat. It’s a good job the runner beans aren’t more developed so at least at the moment the wind can blow through the support netting. The trees around the garden are waving like mad at the moment. We had rain yesterday, but light rain all day so good for the garden really. Heyup though - this the summer solstice and all that…..

Elsewhere, in the garden things are moving on. Tomatoes are flowering in the greenhouse, and close to flowering outside. The coourgettes are producing - we had three yesterday - one curious point though, the courgette in the greenhouse is only producing ‘male’ flowers - I’m sure there must be a reason for this….

Courgete Row
Courgette Row in full flower
The french beans in the greenhouse have some baby beans already, and the ones outside can’t be far behind as they are flowering like mad.
I think there are enough broad beans ready now to harvest - they should be small and sweet as well, they do tend to be at their best when young. The blackfly menace hasn’t spread too much, I’ve had to cut off some badly affected stems but most plants are relatively unaffected. I haven’t had to resort to blasting them off with the hosepipe yet - pity that’s quite enjoyable…

Broad Bean Pods
Young Broad Bean Pods

The lettuce I planted in a pot in the greenhouse are finished now and I have resown the pot with more lettuce seed, so we are harvesting the lettuce outside now.

One disaster has struck though, I was watering section B the other night where the peas are planted (coming on nicely) and I planted other salad seed a few days ago - I thought ‘I will make sure I give the spinach-beet row (the only survivor of the first salad planting session and growing nicely) a good watering’ - and the more I looked the more they weren’t there! Except on close inspection the base of the leaves could be seen - they had been zapped by pigeons I suspect despite the protection. Very annoying - security has now been tightened over that section, especially as new salad crops are coming through just now. My annoyance was slightly reduced that day when I heard that Yorkshire had beaten Lancashire in the 20-20 cricket. Such victories are always worth savouring…..

I’ve also planted some other salad cops in pots to grow int he greenhouse - from salad ’seed collection’. Some Mizuna, which I don’t think I’ve grown before and some ‘land cress’, also new to me.

As for wildlife, a week ago or so I noticed the female blackbird was collecting nesting material again, but flying off to the other side of the garden from the ‘cat’ side - very wise I think. There always seems to be at least one house sparrow collecting for a nest as well. The great tits have suddenly started feeding on the peanuts again as well after ignoring them for a while. Toads have taken up residence in growing bags in the greenhouse and outside as usual - they get very upset every time I water. Oh - and I caught and evicted the squirrel so we are squirrel free for the moment.

Elsewhere in the garden, the apples and pears are coming on and it looks like a good blackcurrant crop this year. I’ve managed to tackle more of the hedges, though there is still more to do of course - bit like the Forth Bridge painting really. Preparing for a shed to go up (in the garden near the house) has meant removing the roots of a large forsythia bush and a mahonia - I’ve got most of it out but it has been a fair struggle but the ground is almost ready to be levelled off now.

Baby Apples
Baby Apples (Lord Lambourn)

We have got some flowers growing in the garden as well, mostly perennials but some annuals this year as my son planted a pack of ‘flower seeds for kids’ a while ago and he has kept the patch watered well - and now the mixture has started flowering - I even managed to cut the hedge above the plants without damaging them - so they brighten up he garden.

 

 

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Seeds and Courgettes

June 14, 2008 at 10:08 pm · Filed under Progress

Well the weather has stayed relatively dry, so I managed to get a few jobs done in the garden yesterday. The main achievement was to finally get some more seeds planted - so I now have rows of rocket (2 rows from different packets), carrot (different variety from the previous planting), pak choi and mixed salad. They are all in section B - more or less where the original rows were planted. Hopefully this lot won’t get eaten by pigeons as the protection is there now.

I’ve also had to take off the tops of half-a -dozen broad bean plants as they were infested with blackfly, but so far only one plant seems to have blackfly on the main part of the plant. I rubbed off as many of the blackfly as I could on that one -I may have to resort to the water spray method if the blackfly spread much more. I’ll need to take the tops off most of them over the next few days I suspect.

Today, I harvested four small courgettes for use in a stir-fry so the courgette glut has started… Broad beans are only a few days away from being harvested at the stage where the pod and beans can be cooked so production is beginning. I noticed that some of the tomato plants have flower buds now as well. Lets hope the weather stays reasonable for the next week or so to help things along.

 

 

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The Blackfly have arrived

June 12, 2008 at 11:54 pm · Filed under Beans, Progress

Yes, just because I said the other day that there didn’t seem to be much of a blackfly attack on the broad beans, now a few plants are heavily infested. It could be a lot worse though and the ones most affected can just have their tops taken out, but it isn’t nice nevertheless.

Broad Bean Blackfly
The dreaded blackfly on broad bean plant

Meanwhile the weather has returned to changeable, well it is the UK after all - temperatures are now 10deg C lower than the other day, with some rain showers. I have managed to get on with a few garden jobs though.

So I’ve added more string support to the broad beans, they are quite tall now and beans are now growing fast and producing pods (see below) so it won’t be long before we should be eating them.

New Broad Bean Pods
Broad Bean Pods

 

The french beans are now starting to flower, both those inside the greenhouse and those outside (see below). I noticed to day that the runner beans are in bud and will be flowering withing a couple of days.

 French Bean Flowers
French Beans in flower

I’ve planted all the peas from the greenhouse now, the remaining ones left to fill in gaps in the row sown direct into the ground. Also, the growbags are now full with tomatoes or peppers (one pepper only lasted one night - the slugs got it!, there was a replacement available though). So I’ve still gor a couple of tomato seedlings and peppers left. I’m loth to throw them away but it looks as if I’ll have to, still makes me sad though after all I’ve seen them grow from just a seed….. (sob).

Row of Peas
Peas (from greenhouse planted seed)

To move on - we’ve already had some lettuce from the pot full grown in the greenhouse, and the plants outside are just about ready to surrender a few leaves. The radishes in the grenhouse are poor mainly because they weren’t thinned out - I need to plant some more plus some rocket as well since none of the previous sowing appeared.

The courgette plants are now flowering madly, well two of them anyway, and courgettes big enough for eating can’t be far enough - followed by a glut no doubt….

Away from the veg, I finally got round to planting up our hanging baskets, two of them outside the kitchen. A bit late in the day, so the choice at the garden centre was pretty poor but they both have a red and white theme and when they develop a bit more should look ok.

I’ve managed to fit in a bit more hedge cutting - and I  have the scratches on my arms to prove it, but there is still plenty more to go at.

 

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Suddenly it’s Summer again!

June 9, 2008 at 11:36 pm · Filed under Beans, Greenhouse, tomatoes

Yes it’s amazing what 3 days of fine weather, the last two with full sunshine and temperatures up to 25degC today, can do to change things compared with last week. We even had lunch ‘al fresco’ in the garden yesterday. Now I’m having to water the garden and some of the tomatoes have looked a bit stressed. It was so sunny that working in the garden was very hot and sweaty today - fortunately I didn’t need to be out in the full sun for too long.

Inside the greenhouse the tomatoes, french beans and peppers are coming along fine. The lettuce is ready for harvesting and the radishes have had some harvested - though not many were actually useful. The courgette seems to have settled in fine. I’ve just got 3 tomato and 3 pepper seedlings to find a place for now. There are also a few pea seedlings waiting to fill in gaps outside.

Outside, the broad beans are already producing proto-beans and only a few signs of blackfly attack so far. It is just about time to start nipping the tops out - some of them are quite tall. The runner beans are well up the netting with one of them already above the top. The climbing french beans are not quite as developed. The other french beans are simply growing, no sign of flowers yet.

The tomatoes outside the greenhouse are looking fine (see below), though one of these has been damaged since the photo was taken and may need to be replaced. The empty growbag now has two sweet peppersand a tomato in.

Tomatoes outside greebhouse
Tomatoes outside the greenhouse

The sweetcorn is coming on, thoguh a couple of plants are still lagging behind and don’t look too healthy. The courgettes have started to flower, and it looks as though they  are producing courgettes (see below).

Courgette in flower
Courgette in flower

The peas I planted direct into the garden have started to come through (see bwlow) though it looks as though there will only be a 50% germination rate (this seems to be about standard in this garden and I’ve never been able to determine why). The ones planted in the greenhouse pretty much all came through ok, and I’ve planted them out in section B parallel to the other row.

Peas coming through
Peas just coming through

Some of the carrots sowed in section C, have come through but no sign of the rocket at all. The row of what I thought was mixed salad turns out to be turnip…. So looks like I’ll have to try some other salad seed - at least there is room in section B where the other seeds failed to come through.

I must do something about getting some plants for the hanging baskets this week I think the chance of frosts is past now.

With the blackbirds gone I’ve been able to cut that section of hedge, there is still about 10 metres to go though and of course the grass is growing…..

 

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No Rain Today!

June 4, 2008 at 11:50 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

Suddenly sunshine greeted us today. So I was able to fit in a couple of garden jobs at the end of the day (I was working on something else most of the day) - I managed to plant out some of the extra tomato seedlings - one to replace one of the rather sick looking tomatoes in the first growbag outside the greenhouse and a couple of others in another growbag on the garden near the greenhouse (these came from a Christian Aid seed packet, but I don’t know the variety). Also, one straight into the garden. If they all produce we are going to be up to our necks in tomatoes later in the year….

I’ve planted a couple more sweet peppers into a large pot to grow on in the greenhouse and I’ll add a chilli pepper to them as soon as I can. That still leaves several pepper and tomato seedlings and one growbag - hmmm…

All the tomato plants in the greenhouse have needed staking now and have even been producing side shoots already.

Meanwhile, the sick climbing French bean that was poorly has definitely popped its clogs - but hopefully the rest will make up for it - they look ok anyway.

On the wildlife front - the blackbirds definatleey have chick as I’ve heard them and the parents are foraging wildly on our lawn for food - but they are still ‘alarmed’ a good deal of the time, with all the calling I’m surprised they have enough time for feeding.

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We Had A Dry Day!

June 2, 2008 at 12:13 am · Filed under Beans, Greenhouse, tomatoes

Yes Saturday was dry, which was a change for the last week or so. Also a bit of spare time to get into the garden after a week of taking my son swimming, more swimming, and what else.. oh yes - swimming, but ending today with climbing (in the rain - yes raining again). So yesterday (Sat) I managed to catch up a bit in the garden, even cutting some hedge and mowing the lawn!

I’ve planted out three more tomatoes into a growbag outside the greenhouse - that still leaves several more rather large seedlings which I’m loth just to throw away, so they will probably go into the garden somewhere. One of the two leftover courgettes is now planted in between two of the others already in. That leaves one more which I may try to find room in the greenhouse for it to grow there.

The beans are all coming on well (apart from the sick climbing French bean, which looks pretty terminal now) - see below for runners:

Runner bEAN pROGRESS

Runner beans and climbing French beans beyond ( the gap is where the sick one is)

Most of the lettuce planted recently seem to be surviving, and I noticed this afternoon that some seedlings are through in one of the short rows recently planted (may be lettuce - I didn’t check).

In the greenhouse, the tomatoes are doing well and the peppers also. The dwarf french beans in a pot are quite tall now and may need staking, so some canes are in already. I’ve still got (apart from the tomatoes) some chilli and sweet peppers to plant somewhere (there are still a couple of growbags not used yet) but will have to do some clearing up in the greenhouse if I’m to fit them in there. Meanwhile, the lettuce growing in a pot are at the point where I can harvest elaves from them, and the radishes are big enough I think. I think the peas I planted in pots are sarting to some through now. The grapevine in the greenhouse is now in full flower and the branches now starting to threaten to take over - but they leaves do produce shade when it is needed at the height of summer, I’ve just got to keep trimming the branhes back before they really get in the way.

Plot B, where the original salad rows were planted, now has several potato shoots showing, and I’ve already removed several potatos. Whenever I grow potatoes despite all my efforts when harvesting there always seem to be several left behind to come up next year - in this case it looks like a decent meal of them!

Elsewhere the headges need a real going over, though a section near the house has to be left as the blackbirds have moved ther after their original nest was destroyed. This has caused a problem as they are almost permamnently in an ‘alarmed’ state whenever next door’s cat is out, or indeed there is any movement in the garden near the house - and the alarm calls start from about 5am (right outside our bedroom) …. Unfortunatley the cat seems to be making a real effort to get them again, I caught it inside the hedge the other night trying to get to the nest. It’s a real pity, after the blackbirds have already had one set of chicks almost certainly taken by the cat.

On the wildlife front, we have collared doves paying regular visit to the bird table - rather too many visits as they seem to be living entirely from the seed feeders - see pic below.

 

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