September 2019 in pictures

Another really good month for our home grown fruit and veg. I had to cut back the grape vine and found what seemed like an endless wall of grapes hidden underneath the leaves. There were far too many to eat so we made grape juice and that will probably continue into October.




And it is another successful year for tomatoes; indigo beauty, orange banana, brandywine and red pear are shown below.

The strawberries have finished now and although plentiful are all one early variety. So, we have ordered three mid to late season varieties from Suttons for next year.

June 2019 in pictures

Right at the beginning of this month we had one of what we call our first and last Sunday lunches. We had the first of the peas (mangetout), garlic scapes and cavolo nero of the year from the garden. We've been picking onions (in the bubble and squeak) and broad beans for a few weeks. We ate the last of the sprouting broccoli/brassicas (in the bubble and squeak) and the overwintered swiss chard. Pie, potatoes and carrots were from Reading Farmers' Market. 

Two of the bag beds had peas that were grown at the start of the year indoors for pea shoots. We usually manage to harvest three cuts before they start to get a bit tough, and then we plant them outside. In previous years we have had mixed results: some would just give up or show minimal new growth (cold weather conditions plus rodent activity perhaps?) whilst others would grow quite well and produce an average crop. This year they are going berserk and we are having to hack them back on a regular basis!

We've picked some more of the overwintered onions, the first of the garlic and the strawberries. The sorrel, both french and red-veined are plentiful as are the various herbs.

At the end of the month, temperatures rose to over 35degrees C and the forecast is for the hot weather to continue well into July. The pots will need regular watering, but I am hoping the mulch that we put on the main beds earlier in the year will help those retain moisture for longer.

February 2019 in pictures

February turned out to be a very strange month. We had a spell of unusually warm weather, which made it very tempting to start sowing outdoors. Bearing in mind that we had heavy snow falls in March last year, it was a temptation that was best resisted and we stuck to starting off veg seeds in modules indoors. 

The remaining cabbages were starting to form nice compact heads and there were some Brussels sprouts left. With outdoor temperatures increasing, temporarily at least, the brassicas and kales all started to bolt, and some even began to form seed heads. So there won't be any more solid heads of cabbage from the current plants. Looking on the bright side, though, we do have a steady supply of spring greens, sprouting "broccoli" type flowers, and plenty of young chard.  

The strawberry plants were flourishing and the weather was ideal for thinning out the plants and runners. They've been potted up for sharing with friends and local food growing groups.  

April 2018 in pictures

After a horrendous March in terms of weather, April brought better conditions but everything is way behind. The over-wintered crops are finally starting to grow again but we are holding off planting out most of the seedlings until we are certain we have decent temperatures and no more snow storms. We decided to chance it, though, with some of the lettuces and that gamble does seem to have paid off.

The strawberries seemed to have been unaffected and have been putting out runners. We had so many of them that we donated the spares to Southcote GrowAllot.

The rhubarb (Timperley Early) has also started in earnest and we have had our first stalks since we planted it about 18 months ago. We've also had our first home grown asparagus.

The damson plum and pear have blossomed and fingers crossed we don't have have too many heavy frosts before the fruit has set.

Pear blossom

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)

June - busy, busy, busy

Like 2015, 2016 started off cold and sometimes extremely wet. Everything, including parsnips, was started off indoors but May saw the start of warmer weather and planting out could begin. The good growing conditions continued in June and we had a continuing harvest of overwintered crops. We also had to play catchup over a very short time-span with sowing and planting out so there was very little time to relax and lounge around.

I started to clear and tidy up an area against the kitchen wall where, last autumn, I had dumped a couple of pots and piled up some wood. I abandoned the tidying up and replaced everything when I spotted this grumpy looking inflated toad. It could explain why the chard and brussel sprout seedlings that I had forgotten about and left out overnight had not been gobbled up by slugs and snails as they normally would have been.

I saw a second one at the other end of the garden but it could have been the same one having a wander around in search of alternative hiding places. May he/she and their friends continue their good work in the garden.

At this time of year not all the possible food growing areas are in use so if flowers pop up I leave them be. Like this poppy, they add a welcome splash of colour and encourage pollinators into the garden.

The potatoes bags right at the back of the garden are doing well and we've managed to plant runner beans against the fence itself. We still can't plant much in that strip because of  the sycamore tree roots. The trees that were on the other side of the fence have been removed but the substantial roots remain and are close to the surface. The beans do OK there but very little rain reaches them with the potatoes overshadowing the soil, so I have to remember to water them regularly.

The Babington's leeks have now reached maturity (it is their third year in the garden) and three of them have sprouted flower stalks. Hopefully they will mature and we shall have dozens of bulbils some of which will go back into the garden and the rest shared with other gardeners in the area.

Clouds of these beauties have been darting around the garden this month. Common blue damselfly Enallagma cyathigerum.

This was an experiment in growing potatoes from supermarket potatoes. It is not generally a good idea to try this as you cannot guarantee that they will be disease free and they are usually sprayed with chemicals that inhibit sprouting; but I decided to see how far I could get with some Ruby Gem. As expected, they didn't sprout very well when left on the dresser in the kitchen (my usual chitting area) but there was enough growth to encourage me to plant them out in a potato bag. Growth was rather leggy and it quickly died back. The total yield from 3 potatoes was 274g. Some supermarket salad potatoes fared even worse. They just sat on the dresser for two months and turned green.

The experiment supports the general opinion that it is not really worth trying to get a decent group out of the treated potatoes to be found on supermarket shelves.

The peas that I used to test viability and germination rates for the Reading Food Growing Network are growing apace in the bags alongside the kitchen and bathroom extension. This is what they look like from the kitchen window.












And here is the outside view. The runner beans in the tub are also starting to take off.

We have plenty of  overwintered pointed cabbages and onions this year. Last year the cabbages were a great disappointment but they have more than made up for that in 2016. I have been cutting the heads off but leaving the stems with a few of the lower leaves hoping to encourage them to regrow. We are now starting to see a second crop of looser heads of leaves.

We have a lot of wild alpine strawberries in our garden that were planted to provide ground cover at the rear of the garden while we decided what to with that patch. The area had, for the last few years, been overshadowed by sycamore trees on the other side of the fence and their roots still restrict what we can plant there. The strawberry fruits may be small but they are gorgeous little flavour bombs. Delicious with homemade yogurt and the first of this season's locally produced honey from 600 yards down the road.

The wild strawberries take over a patch of ground very quickly and are difficult to manage so regrettably they will have to go now that the ground is to be used for higher yielding crops.

Replacing the wild strawberries in some places are the larger "domesticated" varieties and the first of those are beginning to ripen.  

Two years ago I planted a small grape vine that I bought from a stall at a RISC Roof Garden open day. We may have grapes this year!

The tea bags for this year's Tea Bag Index Project have arrived. See my posting about last year's participation for details of what is involved. This year the pairs of tea bags are going into the strip of ground next to the back fence, the ground that is next to the composting area, and the narrow strip alongside the garden shed.