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.