Archive for July, 2008

Just A Few Remarks

July 24, 2008 at 11:28 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

Since I’ve been concentrating on our produce I haven’t been mentioning some of the other issues so I thought would just make a few comments.

Firstly, the blackfly attack on the beans seems to have petered out - I haven’t pinched out all the broad beans and many plants are untouched. The few plants that were affected and I had to take the tops off and/or rub out blackfly on the pods seem to have recovered. There were a few on the runners at one point but they seem to have essentially disappeared. So that’s all quite good.

I’m still harvesting broad beans but they will all need shelling now for cooking I think - there are still lots left as well. I suspect my son is going to get pleny of shelling practice!

The french beans grown in a pot in the greenhouse seem to have finished really, they aren’t producing many flowers after teh harvest - but I’ll leave them for a while just in case. The bush french beans outside are more or less at the end of harvesting, but the climbing ones are just getting into full production.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the sweetcorn is quite variable in height with the ones nearer the hedge being the smallest - not sure whether this is a result of dryer soil or shading I’m not sure - we’ll just have to see what ind of cobs the smaller ones produce.

For some reason all the newer salad clops don’t include lettuce, I’ll try and plant some more but I think there will be a hiatus - although the current lettuce crops aren’t bolting much yet so should last a week or two more. Rocket and other salad leaves are now harvest-able from inside the greenhouse - but the outside ones aren’t so good yet.

The peppers in the greenhouse seem less well developed than in previous years, though they are flowering now - but not as tall as I would expect at this stage. Still we’ll see.

Although the last courgette planted outside has finally started to produce a crop (thus adding to the glut…) - the one in the greenhouse is still producing male flowers only - why?

The weeds are really looking good now around the beans and sweetcorn - I really must have a weeding session I suppose - however the hedges and lawn are higher in the queue, plus the blackcurrants are almost ready- that’s an entire family picking session - then coolie or blackcurrant ice-cream - yum.

Anyway, another dry day so I had to use the hosepipe tonight, and give all the tomato plants a feed - and it looks like another sunny day tomorrow - it’s beginning to feel like summer at last…..

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Yes we have some Beans, and more

July 22, 2008 at 11:45 pm · Filed under Beans, Progress, tomatoes

Yes harvesting is in full swing now. We are eating runner, french and broad beans plus courgettes and for the last couple of days - mangetout peas.  The climbing french beans are now producing, just as the bush plants are beginning to come to an end.

Our salad bowl is full with lettuce (of several varieties), nastertium and recently some of the salad leaves planted in pots in the greenhouse. See picture below for a typical harvest:

Bean and salad harvest

My wife has just about managed to keep up with the courgette crop, we’ve had a couple of lasagnas filled with fried courgette during the last week - and very nice they have been.

It won’t be long before the tomato plants are producing ripe tomatoes - see pic below:

Immature Tomatoes

Immature Tomatoes

So I guess we’ll be looking at a few tomato recipes in a couple of weeks……

We’ve had dry weather for a few days now, and it looks like being dry for the rest of the week - so watering is now becoming quite a chore - particularly going round all the growbags.

The sweetcorn is just coming into flower - but there is quite a wide disparity in the size of plants, however all of them seem to be at about the same stage. See a typical plant below:

Flowering Sweetcorn

Flowering Sweetcorn

On top of all that - the blackcurrants are not far from being ripe:

Blackcurrants

Blackcurrants

 Along with all the crops, the weeds are growing apace - I’ve even pulled a few up - but finding the time to have a big weeding session is proving difficult, so the crop plants will just have to compete for now.

On the wildlife front a curious development the other day - I spotted a hedgehog near the back of the house in the morning around 9 am wandering backwards an forwards along the hedge bottom - usually carrying some leaves and twigs on its way back towards the house. Now, seeing a hedgehog walk about in the day is fairly unusual, but this went on for at least an hour - I even managed to video some of its activity. My theory is that is is a female and was building a nest to give birth. I haven’t delved about to check, and it hasn’t been seen since so we’ll see….

On top of that - the blakbird has been building yet another nest - somewhere at the bottom of the garden now! It’s beginning to smack of OCB.

And I haven’t got round to cutting the hedges again yet - even though they need it- been busy with a shed…..

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I Knew We’d Have a Glut…..

July 15, 2008 at 12:02 am · Filed under Beans, Greenhouse, Progress, tomatoes

Well yes - though I’m not really complaining - but of course everything is now ready to harvest at once. So I am harvesting broad beans, french beans and courgettes. However, these are still not overwhelming the cooking ability of my wife - though we currently have four courgettes in the fridge waiting for the next meal. An example of typical harvest shown below: Tonight we had fresh courgette, broad beans (with their shells removed - my son is now an expert at the task) and french beans all lightly fried up with garlic and served with pasta and pesto - yum!

Beans and Courgettes
Beans and Courgettes

So what else - the tomatoes are coming on it’s just the ususal bsiness of keeping the side shoots in check. I’ve been feding them with tomato fertiiliser now they have fruit set. Which reminds me - why are tomato seeds always present in compost and survive? Wherever I use my compost in the garden tomatoes always come up later (I’ve pulled up 3 or 4 so far this year) and yet I swear hardly any go into the compost heap….

The lettuce are all doing really well, though lots more than we (and the guinea pigs) can deal with, but very nice. and the other salad seedlings are coming on, though I suspect need a bit of fertiliser to hurry them up a bit.
Runner beans are within days of having beans worth picking -  though I did see one today that really was ready. Another crop to eat then….
Sweetcorn is ok - though some variation between the plants in height - I suspect they may need a bit of encouragement as well.
The only real disappointment is the remaining sweet pepper outside the greenhouse in a growbag - it’s looking very sick and hardly growing. Meanwhile the ones inside the greenhouse are ready to flower.
The blackcurrants are startig to ripen now and looks like a good crop - provided we get them before the birds do.
Speaking of birds, our blackbirds are nesting again in bushes close to the back door (I suspect they have worked out they are safer there) - they are well used to me in the garden so don’t pay much attention to me now.

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Not just growing but cookery now….

July 8, 2008 at 11:20 pm · Filed under Beans, tomatoes

Yes this could become a cookery column as well… I harvested loads of broad beans over the last few days. Some on Sunday and others on Monday (see pic below).

 Broad Bean Harvest
Broad Bean Harvest

We had the Sunday ones in a stir-fry with some french beans and several courgettes from the garden (plus other stuff of course). The ones on Monday were treated rather differently. I had found a recipe in a Sophie Grigson book for broad bean and prawn pilau - but this meant shelling all the beans after blanching them, which took a while for about 12oz of beans (with the help of my son), see pic below.

 Shelled beans
Shelled Broad Beans (and their shells)

It was so successful that we may cook it again soon (only this time with chicken and probably courgette) - very easy to do as well. Also, it helps use the broad beans which are almost all ready to eat - I can see a freezing session coming on….

What else, well I actually did some weeding - and the weather again has saved me the effort of watering. Tomorrow looks like being a very wet day as well - such is the British summer….

I have spotted some tiny tomatoes already on some plants as well.

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I feel a glut coming on…

July 4, 2008 at 11:53 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

We’re stll having rather variable weather with rain forecast for the next few days - still it saves doing a lot of watering - though I’ve had to the last couple of nights.

Of course the intermittant raiy days and sun have kept things growing well and now harvesting is in full swing. We’re having lettuce most evenings - but hardly making a dent on the crop - I just cut a selection of leaves plus some of the older ones for the guinea pigs - but you’d hardly know. They’ll be ‘bolting’ next of course…then only the guinea pigs will benefit. Still there are some seedlings coming up as well.

The courgettes are in full production we’re going to have to start being inventive over usingthem. I think my wife was considering a ‘mixed veg’ quiche or omelette over the weekend to take care of some of the production - if only she could see the rate they are coming on (not a part of the garden she visits too often though….). On top of that the broad beans are in full production (we did have a few in our salad tonight). The french beans in the greenhouse have enough ready to use in a meal as well and the ones outside aren’t far behind.

The runner beans are flowering like mad and I can see small proto-beans already - the climbing french beans are in flower as well but a bit behind the runners. The tomatoes are flowering everywhere but their production is a few weeks away.

Growbag tomatoes outside greenhouse
Tomatoes outside greenhouse

All the salad crops both inside the greenhouse and outside are growing well now - even a row of Kohl Rabi planted as an experiment seem to be coming on. The peas are just starting to flower and almost all have now got the idea that they should be climbing up the twigs.

Pea rows - coming on...

The pea rows - just about finding the twigs

The weeds of course are also growing well and I’ve even managed to pull some of them up but most of my time over the last few days has been spent on dealing with an overgrown bush, the lawn and other clearing up jobs in the garden.

Meanwhile the hedges at the front and other bits at the back are just about ready for cutting again. That’s the trouble with the plant world in summer - they will keep growing - especially the ones you would rather they didn’t.

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