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[20th July]

We’ve lifted a few of the first early potatoes already to go pretty much straight into the pan, but they are starting to get a bit large and I could use the space for something else, so I decided to lift the remainder (just five more plants I think) tonight. Quite pleased with the way these have done.

And the fruits of my labour:

I’m sure I have some old chicken feed bags made of paper somewhere that I can use to store them. I’ll have a look tomorrow and put them in the cellar. I might have to feed the haulms through the shredder for the compost heap as well. They feel a bit tough for going in without being chopped up.

The second earlies look like they’re not far off ready too — some of the leaves are starting to die back a bit, so I’ll probably lift those fairly soon. Maybe give them another week or ten days and see how they look then. Not much point leaving them in the ground once the foliage isn’t photosynthesising in any meaningful way though.

[19th July]

Planted another batch of radish and spring onions today as well as doing a little weeding. Caught sight of these this afternoon.

Far too obvious, I thought. Clearly there’s an attempt at misdirection here. So I had a quick look around and found single eggs dotted about as well. All gone now (I hope).

And on the way back to the house I couldn’t help but stop for these.

[18th July]

Spent most of today out in the garden. Finished shredding the laurel we “pruned” at last, and added it to the compost heap. Then planted out the last of the brassicas (some multi-coloured cauliflowers my daughter chose) and the peas that have been hardening off. Had to make some more patented plastic partridge-proof pea protectors for those. Handily I’d found some old 3mm-ish diameter fencing wire that was in the barn when we started the conversion that I could use for supporting the plastic mesh. It was a pig to cut, mind, even with fencing pliers.

I was also treated to a little reminder of nature in action. There were a few Large and Small White butterflies flitting around the brassicas looking for suitable places to lay eggs, and not far behind them a group of wasps out hunting for “baby food”. We’ve had very little caterpillar damage on the brassicas so far this year and whilst some of that is down to me getting rid of them when I’ve found them, I wonder if it isn’t mainly because the wasps are doing a very efficient job.

[15th July]

More garden veggies for dinner this evening 🙂 Including some of the multi-coloured carrots that my daughter wanted to plant. I didn’t realise quite how multi-coloured they were going to be. This is the top cut off one of them. There are white ones and yellow ones, too.

And earlier, whilst weeding in the polytunnel, I noticed this tiny little fruit on one of the sweet peppers. Our first one!

[14th July]

My son cooked us baked salmon for dinner this evening, with new potatoes, green beans, baby carrots, tomatoes and olives. The tomatoes and olives didn’t come from the garden (not quite enough ripe tomatoes yet), but the rest of the veggies did. The carrots are still the thinnings from the rows I planted in April and the potatoes are our first earlies. The beans were the first pick from our climbing beans and were lovely — it definitely pays to pick them young. I might have to go over the plants again at the weekend and take off anything that’s getting too big. They can always be blanched and go in the freezer if necessary.

It feels as though things are starting to accelerate now. We might get a decent picking of peas in the next few days and my wife made a batch of beetroot soup for the freezer on Sunday. The parsnips are really coming on (though obviously they won’t be ready to eat for some time) and it won’t be too long before we have broccoli to eat.

I’m starting to realise there are a few things I’m missing though. I would like to have had some sweet corn and I didn’t plant any spinach or broad beans. It was too late to plant garlic when I started, too. Some celery would also be nice, and to have some squashes for keeping over the winter. I may need a bigger plot next year 😀

I want to have a think about what I might be able to grow in the polytunnel over the winter too, though the last few years have been so mild here that the tomatoes haven’t come out until very late October or even November (we squeeze absolutely everything possible out of the tomato plants and bottle pizza sauce and passata to keep us going until the following summer).

[11th July]

We had a bit of family afternoon weeding and generally sorting stuff out in the veg plot today. Fed some lettuce that had run to seed to the chickens, pulled some beetroot that my wife is going to make into soup tomorrow, erected more partridge defences around the peas…

My daughter discovered the delights of freshly-picked peas. The first ones are not quite ready yet — they perhaps need a week more just to fatten up a little, but she popped a few of the fatter pods anyhow. Oh. My. God. Fresh peas, barely fifteen seconds between plant and taste buds. Is there anything in this world that tastes better? So juicy. So sweet. You just can’t buy that. It’s quite possible I’ll have to plant an awful lot more in the future as otherwise I don’t see very many of them making it as far as the kitchen.

[6th July]

My wife came in from the garden today and brought me these little bursts of sweetness:

Alpine strawberries. Tiny little things, but so tasty…

I did a bit of weeding and caterpillar squishing in the brassicas this evening and found a few other things to look forward to. We have broccoli on the way.

And a few beans, though they’re not even 10cm long yet.

Inside the polytunnel there are butternut squashes clearly taking shape.

And some of the chiles are looking pretty good

Flowers on the bell peppers are within hours of opening, too.

More weeding is required in both the brassica and legume beds and the peas need more supports to climb so I’ll have to try to get that done this week. I took a third picking off the courgettes before they got too big, so we’ll have those later in the week. Need to sow a few more radishes and spring onions too, I think.

[5th July]

My wife has been making (raspberry and gooseberry, though not together) jam this weekend, and cherry pie filling to go in the freezer.

We also picked the largest of the beetroot and had beetroot soup for lunch today (complete with predictable side-effects 🙂 It was very pleasant: beetrooty but not excessively earthy. Whilst checking on progress in the polytunnel I also noticed that we have the first flower buds on the bell peppers. They’ve taken a fair while longer to get started than the chiles. My final planting of peas are also sprouting. I’m keeping them in the greenhouse/cold frame until they get to a few inches tall to keep them away from the slugs and partridge.

Talking of pests, I checked the brassicas where I caught a small white laying eggs last weekend. Clearly I missed some of the eggs as a few leaves are heavily eaten. No sign of the caterpillars however, so I’m guessing that birds or wasps have taken care of them. There are also signs of carrot fly in the carrots. Not much I can do about that now, sadly. Next year I shall grow them under fine netting or fleece.

[28th June]

Well, it’s been a bonkers day today. Every time I went outside there was (often horizontal) rain and when I moved into the greenhouse or polytunnel the Sun came out and it was boiling hot!

However, I managed a little planting outdoors and planted the last of the peas in pots in the greenhouse where the partridges can’t get at them: once they’re big enough I’ll plant them out. I also staked up the taller chile and pepper plants , did a bit of thinning of the carrots and took the protective “cages” off most of the brassicas now they’re tall enough to survive the birds. I did however notice a Small White butterfly laying eggs on some of the leaves. The eggs are almost impossible to spot unless you see the butterfly laying them so I shall have to keep an eye out for the caterpillars over the next few weeks. Next year I think I will plant some nasturtiums as a “floral shield” 🙂 And of course they’re edible too, so clearly they belong in the veggie plot. Between them my wife and daughter also picked cherries, raspberries and sugar snap peas. I’m hoping there will be enough raspberries by the end of the season to make some raspberry vodka. I shall pass on the “peapod burgundy” though.

Oh, the thinning of the carrots means we now have a load of baby carrots about ten to twelve mm across the “shoulder” and about 10cm long to go with dinner this week. I’m looking forward to those…

[27th June]

Spent much of today out in the garden, but trying to do jobs that didn’t matter when the weather turned ugly or could be abandoned easily — it’s varied between lovely warm sunny skies and driving rain here today. I do plan to get stuff done in the veg plot this weekend, but most things required time so I restricted myself to weeding in the polytunnel. Otherwise my daughter and I spent a fair bit of the day feeding chunks of a large shrub into the shredder prior to putting it on the compost heap. We did a few small pieces of it last week and were somewhat taken with the amazing almond smell when it was shredded. Today we had enough to fill a trailer with the shredded material. It wasn’t until after this evening’s dinner that we thought we should try to work out exactly what plant it was. As things turn out it’s most likely a cherry laurel and the reason it smells so strongly of almonds is that it’s rammed full of cyanide. Bit late to start worrying about that now 🙂

I did lift one of the first early potatoes (International Kidney). The crop was a bit underwhelming though. I think they need a couple more weeks at least. Quite possibly we won’t have a decent crop until the end of July. We’ll have to see how the weather goes.

On the subject of compost heaps I’ve decided to open up a second one. I found some scabby wrinkly tin to put over the top of the first to keep the rain out, held down with some offcuts of concrete block. The new one has started with the laurel chippings followed by some rotting grass clippings, then some of the stuff from the third compost bin that my father-in-law filled last year that hasn’t broken down yet, and some more grass clippings.

The forecast for tomorrow changes every couple of hours, but I’m hoping I can get a bit of planting and other maintenance work done in the veggie plot if the rain will hold off.