Archive for the ‘Garden’ Category
First planting of forest garden
The second, and probably the most important stage, of the development of our forest garden is now underway. The pigs were the first stage – brought in to help clear the ground (although being as lazy as they were this wasn’t done as well as we had hoped!). The second stage is the planting of the trees that will form the canopy layer of the forest garden. For those unfamiliar with forest gardens (although it does seem to be all the rage now) an overview can be found here. It is one of a number of ways to incorporate permaculture design into the garden, and one I’ve been most looking forward to setting up. It’s been in the planning stage for a few years now, and was initially going to incorporate the whole field, but due to budget constraints (fruit trees are expensive), time, and bad drainage at the bottom of the field, we’ve scaled this back to just one-third of the field. Nevertheless this has meant buying and planting 18 fruit trees… which is only the start. Read the rest of this entry »
Planting garlic
It’s the middle of November and I’ve realised I haven’t posted anything on the blog for some time. That’s not because we haven’t been doing anything, but more because it feels like a lot of the things done in the garden are just a repeat of what was done last year – so nothing much new. Today I planted out the garlic – around 100 cloves of Solent Wight, a softneck variety that is meant to produce large bulbs and stores well (hardneck varieties don’t store so well). I’ve purposely grown quite a lot so that I can try using some of the cloves produced to plant out next year. Other jobs to do in the next few weeks are to prune the apple trees and fruit bushes and trim the hedges. Other than that there isn’t much else to do at the moment…or so I thought! Read the rest of this entry »
Why are the best ones always furthest away?
The end of October is usually the time for us to harvest the apples from our one dessert apple tree. In fact this was one of the first things we did when we moved here almost three years ago, surprised to see the apples still hanging into November. We don’t know what variety the tree is (the previous owners told us their son had planted it from an apple pip), but it tastes okay and importantly they store very well. My records show we were still eating them in May! Read the rest of this entry »
A bountiful harvest!
The first frost of the autumn has been forecast for this week, so to avoid a repeat of last year we decided to pick all the peppers now. We didn’t realise quite how many we had, as pepper plants have a surprising amount of foliage that disguise all the green peppers. The sweet peppers I’m cutting up and putting straight in the freezer, and they can be used directly in stews and soups. The chilli peppers we freeze whole and then cut them up as we need them. I’m also on the hunt for a recipe for a chilli sauce, as this would probably use up a large quantity at once. Read the rest of this entry »
Sweetcorn in polytunnel
The year seems to be flying by, and the veg garden is in full swing. I’ve been busy picking the gluts of peas, mangetout and broad beans and getting them into the freezer. Any that have gone over, along with the pods, we’re giving to the pigs, adding a bit of variety to their diet. The tomatoes have at last started to ripen in the polytunnel, and so we’re now able to enjoy proper salads and tomatoes in our sandwiches. This year I’ve tried growing climbing French beans and sweetcorn in the polytunnel, and both have proved very successful. They are weeks (if not months) ahead of their outdoor counterparts. The sweetcorn is twice as high as those outside, and have produce lovely fat cobs that are covered in kernels. They’re very sweet as well, particularly when they’re cooked within a few minutes of picking, before the sugars start to turn to starch. The French beans have grown all the way to the roof and are sending out new shoots and producing new flowers and beans all the time, despite being watered only twice a week. Read the rest of this entry »
Strawberries galore!
We’re in the middle of the first glut of the season. The warm weather is doing wonders for the strawberry crop, both inside the polytunnel and outside. I’m having to scour the internet for strawberry recipes (I’m not a big fan of strawberry jam so can’t use them up this way) but one solution may be to try making some strawberry wine (more on this another day). However, despite a good crop, the strawberries inside have got whitefly (Trialeurodes vaporariorum). Every time we go to pick some fruits clouds of little white specks come flying off the leaves. I’ve planted French marigolds as a deterrent (but clearly this hasn’t worked or I was too late), so my next option was to try a biological control. Read the rest of this entry »
Lush new grass...but for how long?
I don’t know where the time has gone. May is always a busy time in the garden, but it seems more so this year. I think the main reason is the amount of watering I’ve had to do. This dry weather couldn’t have come at a worse time for gardeners when lots of seeds are relying on damp soil to germinate. Our water butts (including our two 1000 litre tanks) had almost run dry, until a few days ago when we at last got a deluge of rain. However, even with a few hours of rain the soil was still pretty dry underneath. It looks like the dry spell is coming to an end (at least in this part of the country) and we’ve had a few days of rain. Read the rest of this entry »
First of many...I hope!
I just managed to sneak the first harvest of new potatoes into April. These are the potatoes in bags I planted in the polytunnel back in February. They haven’t produced the most abundant crop, but there’s enough for a meal. Now the potatoes in store have just about run out, it’s good to be able to run seamlessly into the new potatoes. Definitely an experiment I will try again next year.
Asparagus crowns
Now we’ve got plenty of room in the garden, I thought I’d have a go at planting asparagus. As a perennial vegetable, it stays put year after year, so it isn’t something that many people can find the room for in an average sized vegetable garden. It’s also a bit of an investment, as the plants aren’t cheap, but hopefully once they’re established we should be rewarded with a good crop of asparagus spears for the next 20 years or so. I earmarked a space for them in my perennial veg plot, where they should get plenty of sun and the soil is (relatively) free of stones. I worked in some manure over the winter to try to enrich the soil a bit, and I’ll add a mulch of manure or compost each year. Read the rest of this entry »
This year's crop in the making
It’s been a busy few weeks. The start of spring means things are starting to happen in the garden, and there is a flurry of activity at the potting bench. The recent warm weather has seen shoots appear where they should and shouldn’t have. So it’s now the start of the battle against the weeds and slugs to make sure the garden is as productive as it can be. I usually start my morning rounds off now with a slug hunt, some of which are fed to the chickens, and the rest are given a salting. As long as I keep up the routine for the next few weeks I should be able to keep the worst of the slugs at bay. I’m also leaving a few strategic pieces of wood and rotten vegetables around the place, as the slugs will hide under the wood once the sun comes up, and also gravitate to the smell of the rotting vegetables so can usually be found in its vicinity. Read the rest of this entry »