Fairweather Fallen

Without so much as a bat of an eyelid, the last few months seem to have flown by. To my disgrace, it has been nearly three months since I last went out to the plot, and also since my last post on this blog.

With the nights (and mornings) drawn in, and schedules busier than a potting shed in March, I found it increasingly difficult to find a good batch of time in reasonable weather to get over to the plot to check on progress.

Flooding in Kenilworth at the beginning of December

Of course, the weather has been horrendous - flooding and more flooding; the second wettest year on record... it was a genuine shock recently to have a day when it didn't rain and you could enjoy being out in the fresh air.

I have to thank Maggie and Anne that the plot has been maintained in my absence. As I write, I remember all those plants that I had laboured over last summer - the beetroot and the cabbages - which have stood outside in the wind, rain and hail, with no assistance from the grower who put them there.

I have absolutely no idea how these have got on - all I know is that the last radish that was left in the ground apparently is now the size of a large turnip(!). I'll probably go over there at some point soon with my tail between my legs, and confess my carelessness to the small remnant of neglected veg.

I guess in the next few months I will begin to heed my own advice from my posts last year, and start planning in advance for the forthcoming growing season. I was kindly given a grower's handbook for my birthday last week, from which no doubt I shall garner some more nuggets of wisdom...

Frankie hen and dandelion

In the meantime, it is a pleasure to announce that Em, my wife, has embarked on a blog of her own about domestic chicken keeping - called Happy Garden Hens. She has a great eye for a photo, and you can find out a lot more about the smallholder trials and tribulations we have faced with our brood.

Fading light

Although it has been a busy weekend, I have just enough time to show you what is going on at the plot - which to be fair isn't an awful lot...!

The days are getting appreciably colder now - the warmth and stillness of the summer mornings seems to have gone... the grim reality is that in this fading light there is not much time left for the plants to thrive.

There's a chance that these little french beans will just about grow enough to make a decent portion or two - as you can see from the shot below, the plants haven't really grown up the canes...more meandered around horizontally - I've done my best to tether them up now, but I'm not sure it will help.

The cabbages have not been eaten - which is a good start! They also appear to have straightened up and grown a few more leaves each, which is encouraging too (excuse the bricks - subtle as!):

As long as they continue to avoid being eaten, they should hopefully bloom and at the very least produce some tasty leaves. I would be surprised if they develop hearts, but you just never know...

The beetroot are still doing well - I'm really willing them on now to beef up underneath; a few appear to be showing signs of root growth. I've never liked beetroot out of jars - hopefully these will make a convert of me.

And finally, in what I will dub the 'rogues gallery', I have two solitary veg plants that have grown with little care or attention - and from seed, where all others failed - a lonely carrot, and another radish: 

Last (and only) carrot standing

The real problem of course with all veg that grows sub terra is that you can never quite be sure when the right time is to pull them up... I think the carrot will wait a little longer, but perhaps this radish is not far off (not that I really care, the last one was pretty foul!):

The radish 

I decided not to show you the fennel seedlings - the picture was pretty unclear... you'd probably also make out more than was actually going on! Sadly, at least one has fallen prey to a gastropod, and to be honest I don't think the others will survive much longer. Perhaps a poly-tunnel will be a worthwhile investment next year.

Planting out at the plot (part 3)

Well, it has been a while since my last plot update, so here we go...

(If you haven't already, you can catch up by reading parts 1 & 2)

I had the opportunity yesterday morning to go over and plant out my cabbage and fennel seedlings... but first thing on the agenda was to have a look at how the existing plantings were doing...!

These are my beetroot seedlings under the netting... they are now flying! Each one has at least doubled its number of leaves, and they are lovely mix of rich red and green. I'm in serious reach of actually producing a decent crop of these - slugs and snails, please extend some mercy now...

The french beans are still growing... not as tall as I was expecting, but perhaps leaf loss earlier in their life has stunted their growth a little... they have started to produced little mauve flowers which is an encouraging sight.

Not doing so well are the peas - one plant has managed to grow reasonably, but the other (above) looks like it has been shredded! I had this problem when growing them directly from seed earlier in the year... looks like I will have to leave pea growing to the back garden at home.

Anyway, onto planting out the new subjects...

Thanks to some sage advice from my friend Maggie, the section of the plot that I had planned for brassicas would have been overrun had I not covered it a while back with a length of carpet. Lifting it yesterday I was amazed at how well it had prevented any weed growth.

After a little forking and tilling, I planted the five seedlings in a zig-zag pattern... I'm now just hoping that the netting I've put in place around them will stave off cabbage whitefly and anything else that would take a fancy to them.

Finally, I also managed to plant my fennel seedlings... I was in a bit of a rush before work to get these done (as the cabbages took ages to net), so I quickly dug over the soil and got them in... four in a row. Then - sensing how delicate and feathery they were - covered them with a length of heavy duty wire mesh as a quick means of protection. 

And there we have it - a semblance of order has returned to the plot. You can see in the wide shot above the wigwam of netting over the cabbages at the back, and the wire mesh over the fennel. The beetroot are under the netting front left, and the various beans and peas along the right-hand side.

That's pretty much it now for things to plant out, unless I decide to get some winter potatoes in some of the empty space - of all the things I've grown over my short experience, they're pretty forgiving, so it may be worth a shot.

Greater taters and abject neglect

Over the last week I've not been up to much in the garden or up at the plot - I turned my ankle quite hard the weekend before last, and the only tending I have been doing is to a swollen and bruised foot!

Still, I have managed a few notable harvests from the garden:

I'm not sure which variety these potatoes are - they look a little Anya-like, but with a white skin rather than reddy-brown... if anyone has any idea, do please let me know... 

The yield was about the same size in weight as the white round variety I pulled up last month, but the quality and overall size were improved. Harvesting them was a challenge in itself, as there were not one, but two ants nests in the grow bag! Thankfully, they were not able to nip quick or hard enough to leave any bite marks!

I also found some more runner beans on my seemingly evergreen runner plants - the three to the right were particularly pleasing, especially as they had hid from my attention until I spotted them when harvesting - all on the same shoot! I don't go in for shows, but they would be a reasonable effort for a matching trio.

However, with the good comes the bad and the ugly...

After harvesting my only radish from the plot a few weeks ago (and not being overly keen on the smell or flavour), I neglected my radishes in the greenhouse, and they have wilted and run to seed. After all the effort keeping snails away, I've let them go to ruin... shameful.

My cabbage seedlings are looking decidedly anaemic... they have also had some visits from caterpillars/white fly larvae, as you can see. However, before these seedlings completely fade and die, in the next few days I will plant these out at the plot to see if they can kick on and produce anything of a decent size...

Lastly, I have just two or three fennel seedlings that have survived the lack of care and attention - I will get these planted out too. To be honest, with it now being September, it may prove too little effort too late, but again, we'll see... I did have five seedlings, but another snail put pay to two of them.

Hopefully there'll be another update from the plot soon... will be interesting to see what a week or so has done to the plants there...

Holiday harvests

It seems like a long time ago since my last post... I am currently on a two week holiday from work, and the first week Em and I spent in a holiday cottage in Somerset, which was amazing. This was the sunset there the first night...

It was wonderfully relaxing, but it has been equally relaxing and rewarding being back home and  returning to some steady seedling progress and some encouraging harvests(!).

Recently we had to move the hen house from the back of the garden to the front, and so I decided to relocate my plants and greenhouse to the space vacated by the chickens. A bijou potter's paradise, if you will...

It's starting to look very promising in the greenhouse, with radish and beetroot front on the top shelf, dwarf beans and kale behind; cabbage at the front on the second shelf, fennel and spring onion behind - all growing well... I had to re-pot the dwarf beans and fennel as they seemed top heavy to me - in other words, needing a little more room to grow down under...

You could see in the left of the wide picture the runner bean plants, which are still producing flowers higher up the canes. I took my first handful of beans from them the other day - perhaps a little undersized, but I prefer them on the tender side. They were delicious in a sticky rice I made - the recipe for which will follow soon...!

I also emptied one of the potato grow bags - the leaves were looking decidedly pale, and they were beginning to droop and go brown, so I decided to cut my losses. I was happy with the result though - about a kilo of white potatoes. Still not sure about the variety, but I used them in a vegetable curry and they were a lovely texture.

It was the first time I have emptied a potato bag, and it was like digging for treasure! I also guess that's the reason that no matter how small, I kept them all (note a few of them that are no bigger than marbles). I'm sure someone could start a business selling the little ones as 'popcorn' potatoes... seems a shame to think that on an industrial scale they may go to waste for not being the correct size...

I also took a chance on what surely must now be the last good rhubarb of the season - I last said that around a month ago... unprecedented growth from the rhubarb patch this year. I have frozen it and I am using it in a number of experimental dessert/baked recipes(!). 

This picture has an unusually soft focus - not sure why...?!

Elsewhere in the garden, the honey bees seem to be enjoying the buddleia - Em was sat nearby watching the chickens and came up with these shots... there are some even better shots  of bees taken by Sue at Green Lane Allotments.

We have two sets of bee traffic in the garden (they have been very kind in pollenating my veg, so it seems rude not to give them a mention!) - the bee top right is one of the ones from under our shed; whereas the other three are clearly a different breed... someone down the road sells honey from their drive, so I think they may have found their way along from hives there.

On the plot front, it won't be long now before I'm over there again, planting out some of these seedlings - the dwarf beans are pretty much ready, and I think the beetroot are almost there too... I'll keep you posted...

Seedlings progress

Just a brief update on the current goings on...

I went over to the plot yesterday evening and it's not good I'm afraid. The only things that are really growing are various types of weed; I've identified one carrot seedling, a few measly rocket stems and the very last beetroot seedling which survived a partial devouring, but hasn't done much since.

Still, ever the optimist, I thought I would show you how the seedlings back home are doing, which will replace what I've have sown currently at the plot...

The radishes, having survived the advances of Mr Snail are doing really well now, with the second set of leaves starting to develop.

This is the first time I've see what fennel shoots look like(!), as the packet didn't have a picture (as is usually customary for Johnsons seeds). I've since had a few more poke up through the soil after some recent doses of nettle water.

In fact, all the seedlings have benefitted from the nettle water, which is providing some much needed sustenance - I'm waiting for these cabbage seedlings to harden up a little and develop into the next phase of growth.

The beetroot seedlings are coming on too - these are already looking much healthier than the single half-eaten one I have at the plot.

And finally, a nice angular shot of the runner beans, which are on the home straight now... last time I grew them the flowers were quite sparse - but not so this year... I have five or six clusters of flowers that are developing pods. Looks like I will have to work on a variety of recipes in which to use them, as they are looking like my only bumper crop this season.

Overcoming the gastrop-odds

I'm a bit miffed if I'm honest.

I've visited the plot a few times recently, and whatever encouraging growth there was the previous time I visited has been stripped bare by slugs, snails and whatever else - despite best attempts to halt their progress with garlic water, slug traps and so on, the tender veg shoots are just getting devoured...

(From  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slug) 

...and the rain just keeps coming and coming - my well tilled earth is becoming like a quagmire, and I'm feeling desperately concerned for anything in the ground that the seed packets advise shouldn't be overwatered.

Still, I'm not the sort of person to give up lightly, and to be honest if you are a gardener in the U.K. it is probably par for the course (can I hear an 'Amen'?). If you can't weather the downs you have no right to enjoy the ups... and I guess it makes it all the more rewarding in the end.

In fact, I'm feeling positively Churchillian about it - 'We'll fight them on the raised beds, we'll fight them in the greenhouses'... basically, they aren't going to win... even if I have to set up an entire moat of real ale around my plot and patrol by night with a headlamp and speargun!

So, I've got back to my mini greenhouse and sowed some more drills and pots with the veg seeds I have already sown a few weeks ago in the ground. I figure that if I can get some decent seedlings going and get them past the tender stage, they will stand a much better chance of dodging becoming breakfast or supper for the passing gastropods...

As well as the fennel, radish and beetroot, I have sown some spring onions (White Lisbon) and cabbage (Hispi F1). I will also be doing some kale, and perhaps also some broccoli or cauliflower thanks to some encouragement from Sue@G.L. Allotments the other day.