January 2019 in pictures

January is always a quiet month with very little to do in the garden other than keep everything tidy, minimal weeding and watch out for heavy frosts. We had a few overnight this month and I did wonder if they would affect our rhubarb which had already sprung into action. It seems to have survived the freezing temperatures as have the overwintered broad beans that have been planted amongst the Brussel's sprouts.

We decided, though, to cut the remaining overwintering lettuces that were growing in a pot but I wonder if they would have survived the cold snap had I left them.

Most of the garden work has been indoor - checking seed catalogues and taking an inventory of what we already have. 

May 2018 in pictures

The bluebells were starting to take over the herb patch and were probably responsible for killing off the chives, which had been there for years. They might be pretty but they were in the wrong place so out they came. In any case, they were the Spanish bluebells and not the native English variety.

After a late start, because of the consistently cold weather, the lettuces and peas are catching up in the gro-beds and I've risked planting out the first few tomato seedlings. The overwintering onions are also starting to fill out. 

In the main part of the garden the broad beans (Eleonora) are doing well. This is the first time I've tried to grow them. Underneath the beans I've scattered some mixed salad leaves seeds together with some carrots.

By the end of the month the beans had really taken off, the potatoes in the grow sacks are surging ahead and the overwintered garlic looks as though it will soon be ready for harvesting.

The rhubarb now seems well established and there was enough for me to experiment and make some rhubarb and citrus marmalade.

June 2017 in pictures - it was hot!

It was hot this month!

One of the parsnips was overlooked during the winter harvesting and started to sprout leaves. We decided to leave it to go to seed. When they get to this stage they are euphemistically referred to as "architectural plants", that is they are big! We managed to harvest a good quantity of seeds and will see how worthwhile the exercise was next spring when we sow them. 

A good year so far for our raspberries and our handful of strawberry plants. The strawberries are beginning to multiply so we should have a good harvest next year.

Garlic scapes, onions and peas. Plenty of garlic scapes this year and delicious steamed as a vegetable or chopped and added to salads.

Regular supply of lettuces that were planted earlier in spaces in pots and between other veg.

First potatoes of the season from the garden. I had a gentle rummage around the top of a few of the containers and came up with these beauties. Also some onions and various greens.

Onions!

And wonky carrots. Really pleased that we are finally starting to get some even though they are "individual" in appearance. They were delicious!

Brandywine tomato

White Versailles currants

Gooseberry - Winham's Industry

Perfect weather for drying washed duvets over the kitchen wall

Goatsbeard (Aruncus dioicus)

May harvests

The garden is starting to really take off. More of the overwintered onions have filled out and a few are starting to produce seed heads.

The peas and the mange tout are now producing pods. Most of the plants are at the back of the portable grow beds next to the kitchen and bathroom extension. Many of them started out earlier this year as providers of pea shoots on the kitchen window sill (see http://cavershamgarden.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/pea-shoots.html) but are now doing very well outside as normal pea plants.

The lettuces around the base of the fig tree are doing well but are perhaps a little too close together. I should thin them out a bit more.

And while we are on the subject of thinning out, I have pulled up some of the garlic that I have been growing from bulbils. I allowed a couple of my garlic plants to produce flowers and bulbils and planted them in pots to see if and how many would grow.

It seems that almost all of them have produced young garlic plants with the result that the pots are overcrowded. So I am pulling up a few and using both the small bulbs and the young leaves in cooking and salads. They are now in their second year.

The sprouting broccoli and kales are going to seed. I generally let them get on with it as the flowers encourage insects. They self sow around the garden so all I have to do is transplant or remove any surplus new plants. I usually put them in pots and eventually offer them as plant swaps. 

Veg bags

This is one of the veg bags alongside our south facing kitchen/bathroom extension. It's all concrete along here so raised beds of some sort or pots are the only realistic option for growing plants. For many years I grew chillies and tomatoes in pots but then thought I would be able to grow a greater variety of crops using a raised bed. I wasn't sure if it would work so rather than build more permanent beds made from wood I opted for the bags to start off with. They also makes it slightly easier to access the wall should we need to for maintenance purposes. If the experiment didn't work I could use them elsewhere in the garden or Freegle them. I have three bags altogether that I bought from Unwins but there are plenty of other sources on the web that sell them. They are now into their third year and are still intact but they do tend to "sag", so I have to kick the front facing side back into shape and prop it up with planted pots. I'm happy with them as an interim measure but I'm now considering a more long term replacement.

All three of the bags have tomatoes and onion/garlic borders but I also plant chillies, lettuce, beetroot or carrots. The one in the photo contains tomatoes, garlic (about to be harvested), onions (about to be harvested), lettuce, plus a couple of things (squash/marrow?) that popped up out of the compost added to the bag earlier in the year. Throughout the year there is always something growing in these bags, which are in our permaculture zone 1.

I add a thin layer of my own compost to the top twice a year and when stuff starts to actively grow I water them once a week with a very dilute feed of comfrey fertiliser (around 1:100). I've stopped the liquid feed now as I have added some shredded comfrey leaves to the surface.

I was thinking the other day that I wasn't having many problem with pests in the bags. I assumed it was because of the the mix of veg I had planted and the onion-garlic borders. Then this morning I spotted a frog, no doubt just having finished her breakfast and thereby zapping a few more pests for me. This is the third frog I've seen hopping around the garden. We don't have a pond - just some areas that are shady and covered in foliage, a couple of wood piles, and a few plant pot saucers containing water dotted around.

So, the veg bags are still looking good and I'll probably continue using them until they fall apart.