Putting my back into it - and a little puzzle

A lovely day today, but I had to be cajoled into getting out into the garden - a reflection of my sheer indolence. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed it once there.

The lawn got its first cut of the year and, as expected, it was a struggle to get through parts of the grass. Our trouble is that a large part of the garden remains in the shade due to its position, the result being today that large swatches of the lawn remained damp and that harder to get the mower through.

No doubt it is our physical situation (not helped by a neighbouring property's lelyandii) which has caused my over-wintering onions to fail. There was no sign of anything, not even the bulbs. Perhaps something pinched them.

Even stranger, the sign saying onions had broken, leaving just ions. What do they know that I don't? And should I be very wary when approaching that particular part of the garden?

New year message

I haven't visited this blog for ages - which pretty much reflects the shamefully small amount of time I've spent in the garden.

Like last year, I resolve to get out there a lot more and put my back into it. After all, it is a very satisfying activity, isn 't it?

Come the summer everything will be transformed into the scene illustrated above.

Jottings on a windy day

The weather here has changed markedly since the end of last month and we are very rapidly descending into autumn, to be followed by the long winter months.

There's a bit of a breeze in the air today and I've taken the opportunity to hang out the washing and do some gardening. A good day for both. I wonder how many more there will be like it this year?

The crops are nearing their end, but I scarcely think that the produce I've gathered today counts as a good harvest. In short, a few beans, a courgette that just about does, a kohlrabi and some dwarf beetroot (they weren't meant to be small, but that's how they have turned out).

My two remaining courgette plants have come to the end of their life, I decided, so out they came. I shall definitely plant more next year.

The scene is set for winter and I have planted out some onion sets given to me by Kate and four spinach beet plants I have been growing in the conservatory. They join another six already in the ground, sharing the same part of the garden as the onion sets.

We had one of the kohlrabi the other day in a stew, a first for us, and thought it neither good nor bad - not having much of a taste at all. The one I dug up today is in the fridge now and I must look up some recipes. Another four plants remain in the garden, but seem very slow at coming to anything. Likewise with the broccoli, which I have left in the hope they will sprout.

Fewer and fewer beans have been available to pick over the last few days and I guess the two wigwams will be dismantled very soon. The runner beans have been very successful, the french beans less so. They climbed up the poles very well, but haven't really produced that much for eating.

My thoughts are turning to green manure. Must get some.

Using up the beans

I've got more runner beans than I know what to do with, so this afternoon I am making runner bean pickle.

It's a rainy, squally day as we head into autumn and the pickling activity seems just right. Soon the kitchen will be filled with the smell of vinegar, something which produces mixed emotions in this household. I quite like it, but I know the others will make a comment.

I'm using a recipe from the John Harrison Allotment website, a site I have mentioned before and which is invaluable for tips and advice, not just on digging and planting but also on cooking.

The mention of mustard powder in the list of ingredients sets me off back to childhood, when mustard didn't come ready mixed and every home had that yellow tin of mustard powder. Then, all of a sudden, there was a revolution and it came ready done in a jar. My mother was ever so pleased, although I don't think it had been a big job to mix it yourself.

One problem with the pickle recipe is that I don't have mustard powder, so I will have to get over that in some way. It's not very helpful of one website to tell me I can use wasabi powder instead. Oh yeah, we've all got that in the store cupboard.

I think I'll take the advice of one of the people who posted a comment on the recipe and add a handful of raisins - they're cheap in Lidl and we have quite a number of bags.

Here's wishing and hoping.

The tomatoes ripen

At last, at last...I've begun harvesting tomatoes. Just a handful so far, but I'm hoping the numbers will increase over the next week or so.

The Sungold variety have been first off the mark and it is only today that I have picked the first two of the Gardener's Delight. Very tasty too.

I got rid of the two pots of courgette plants on the doorstep today having witnessed them progressively ailing over the last week or so. That leaves two in the ground outside - one very tiny that has never produced anything and the other which has been a decent cropper and might yet produce a thing or two.

I also dug up the remaining lettuce and was told by Susan that I must at least pick what I grow. The point is well taken - I didn't take great care of the lettuce and we consumed barely any.

The weather has not been good today, being very breezy and showery. We have the fire on now. Time marches on.

Bountiful days

The shallots have been harvested and are lingering in a box on the cellar top. Not bad for a £1 net of sets from Poundland. Will try them again. I've planted out onion seeds in the vacant space. Not sure how they'll do at this stage of the year, but I thought I had better use up an unopened packet before it became out of date. No idea what sort of onions they are, it didn't say on the packet.

The remainder of my Desiree potatoes have also been dug up and there was a decent haul there. So too am I having a good crop of runner beans and courgettes. Perhaps we should hold a harvest festival service.

Some spinach beet and more onions have gone where the potatoes were. I could have used green manure on this bit, but it seemed a bit early to put this bit of soil out to grass. I wanted the space to remain productive and get its nutrients that way. I've also set some spinach beet off in the conservatory, ready to plant out later.

Waiting in the wings are the french beans, kohlrabi and broccoli. They seem to be coming on and should be ready soon.

But the tomatoes are the big if. Precisely two have ripened so far (the sungold ones). There's plenty of green ones, but they are remaining stubbornly green.

I'm looking now for inventive ways of using runners beans and courgettes. One thing that worked well today was something called Greek runner beans, taken from the marvellous allrecipes.co.uk website. Pretty tasty dish.

Taking stock after a week's absence

Our daughter did well in looking after the vegetables while we were on holiday, even to the extent of tying up one of the courgettes when it started leaning dangerously in its pot on the doorstep.

A few more tomatoes have appeared on the plants in the conservatory, but they are still some way off ripening. I wonder if they will.

Jobs done this morning before the rain came on were to dig up lettuce which had bolted and lift a few dodgy looking potato plants. This is the first time I have tried Desiree spuds and I was upset to see some of the plants seeming to be ailing, with leaves going very yellow and spottled.

Three of the plants seemed to be in such a bad way that I had to dig them up to see what was happening. I was very surprised to get a healthy haul of this red-skinned maincrop potato, having thought that it would not be ready for harvesting until September/October. Scouting around to see other people's experiences with this variety, I was reassured to read this comment posted by one satisfied customer on the website for Marshalls seeds:

Very good cropper even in dry conditions, with no need for extra watering. Suffers some scab, slug damage and also the dreaded blight, but well worth growing for delicious, heavy mash. Desirees are often ready for harvest by the end of July in my garden and they store very well right through winter.

Hurrah for that.

And also hurrah for the beans, which have come on during my absence and which I began picking today. A bit of a tangle in the wigwam, but I believe I got all those which were lurking in there.

We're all back from our summer holiday (although one of us never left)

We're back from our week's holiday in Switzerland and this is the view we had every morning from our bedroom window (there were a few snow-covered alps further in the distance, but I knew most people would want to see this snap of the vegetable patch).

The area where we stayed in the Valais region is reputed to be the country's warmest and it certainly lived up to that claim, getting hotter and hotter as the holiday went by. It's a climate conducive to wine making and it is  amazing to see grapes grow on almost every slope.

This is the site of Europe's highest altitude vineyard and we were lucky enough to have a look inside the the St Jodern Wine Cellars at Unterstalden, Visperterminen. Top-quality wine there.

Practically everyone had space where they grew vegetables of all kinds, a reflection of the country's spirit of self-sufficiency. And the produce was thriving. Every patch seemed to have an outdoor tap for watering, with most people having automatic sprinklers to do the job for them.

Little wonder that they are so industrious with prices as they are in the shops. Switzerland must be the most expensive country on earth.

I returned home determined to work a lot harder with my humble veg. Should I try growing grapes for wine? Mmm...running away with myself a bit there. Perhaps.

We're all going on a summer holiday (except for one who's staying behind)

I've well and truly nettled one of my arms after a session in the garden in my short-sleeved shirt. Good job I don't keep bees.

We're doing the things you have to do preparatory to a week's holiday in Switzerland. Little does my 23-year-old daughter know that she will be the keeper of the courgettes and tomatoes while we are away. A crash course awaits.

The courgettes have been cropping well, but it is only now that the first of the tomatoes have appeared, both Sungold and Gardener's Delight. They'll have to be fed and watered while we are away if they are to come to anything.

So it's Switzerland here we come. It's probably not fashionable to go in summer rather than winter, but we don't care. We're devils, us.

Seed of delight

You know how it is with seed packets. You spend ages choosing which to get, you open them with eagerness, you plant the seeds, they grow (with luck). Then you put the packet and remaining contents into a box - and promptly forget about it.

I came across a packet of squash not so long ago, with precisely one seed in it. Why I hadn't used it, I don't know. But it seemed right that I plant it and throw away the empty packet.

Now the squash is growing quite handsomely and I have potted it on. There's still a long way to go, but I'm hoping it will develop into something.

Moral: Waste not, want not. Me old mum would be proud of me.

I'm dreaming of courgettes

After a long day's toil in the field, the first of the harvest produce has been brought home.

May this courgette be the first of many. Already I am dreaming - like other gardeners - of the use to which I can put these veg when they come rolling in day after day. I even made a courgette cake last year, but don't think I will be repeating that.  It tasted perfectly nice, but you had to be told it was courgette.

And here's an idea planted by someone, somewhere along the line:

Have you ever eaten the courgette flower?  It is wonderful, stuffed with ricotta cheese.

We're progressing (part two)

Well, I've put the broccoli seedlings where the new potatoes were and also some kohlrabi I had been cultivating in the conservatory. The last is a bit of an experiment as I have never knowingly eaten it and would be interested to sample the taste.

Also, some french beans have been transplanted from the conservatory to one of the wigwams.  The previous lot had been directly seeded, but didn't take off that brilliantly. Slug pellets have now been brought into use.

And, rather belatedly, we have had some of the lettuce from the garden. Finest lettuce in the world, if you ask me.

We're progressing

Can you see something in this photo? Yes, it's the beginnings of a courgette in one of the pots in front of the doorstep. We're in a fingers-crossed situation and hoping it's going to be the first of many from my four plants.

I've been in the garden a good deal for me today, punctuated by rests for lunch and to escape the heat. All of the new potatoes have been dug up now and they are looking, and tasting, fine. The bare patch where they were growing has been refreshed and watered and my plan is to put the broccoli seedlings in there tomorrow.

I've also cut the lawn and started off some new dill because the stuff I've got is looking past it (probably dead).

Browsing through one of those marvellous books featuring Adam the gardener from the Daily Express, I see he mentions applying Bordeaux mixture. The only thing I know of that nature comes in bottles from France, is generally red and alcoholic. I could do with one now.

Trouble with potatoes

My early potatoes which may or may not be called Javelin (given to me by Kate) have been causing me a bit of bother.

Looking at them the other day, I noticed that the leaves on two of the plants were yellowing and had black spots. I don't think my photo gives a true likeness of it, but the nearest I could come to it in the book was mosaic virus.

There was only one thing to do - dig them up as fast as possible and don't let the debris anywhere near the compost. That deed duly done, I was surprised to find that the two plants wielded nine extremely healthy looking potatoes.

They are in the kitchen, ready to accompany a suitable meal. Result (subject to taste)!

I can see clearly now

The markers Dorothy made me are in place. I can't get things mixed up now. A really useful Father's Day present.

On another note, Kate tells us she's eaten the first of her early potatoes - and jolly nice they were too. She gave me some of the same batch to plant, but I would say mine are nowhere near ready. Maybe another couple of weeks, I would estimate. Must be something to do with living 14 miles to the west of her (I hope).

A brilliant present

Trying to remember which seeds you have put in which tray is a nightmare - that's why they invented marker sticks.

But it's unhelpful when you're scratting around with silly little plastic markers and a blunt pencil, as I have been doing. So I was delighted with the Father's Day gift from my daughter Dorothy - a set of markers she painted herself.

Using some slate pointers and some wooden pointers she bought from Wilkinsons, she painted the names of the produce she thought I was growing. Jolly good guess too, only the sign for peas not useful at the moment.

I shall be out there in a minute with the markers. A very pleasing gift.

Pride and joy

Well, it's looking good so far with a few of the crops.

My two courgette plants standing in pots either side of the front door are thriving, one especially so, and the tomatoes are going on well in their growbags. Might have to think about staking them soon.

It has to be said, though, that the two courgette plants I planted out on the garden veg patch aren't doing so well, despite copious amounts of rain over the last week or so. Perhaps an indication of how duff the soil is. A moment of sadness this morning when I came across a dead frog next to one of them. It certainly wasn't there last night. Wonder what the cause of death was?

Looking good - courgette on the doorstep

Sungold tomatoes on the left, Gardener's Delight on the right

Weather alert

One minute we are talking about a drought and a possible hosepipe ban, the next minute it pours down with rain.

As I write, I am sitting with a pullover on in bitter cold weather, listening to the sound of some quite harsh rain. Not like June is supposed to be, but it means I don't have to do any watering this evening.

But - and there has to be a but - I did a lot of sowing yesterday in the conservatory. Let's hope the cold doesn't have a great impact.

Now then, me old china

A pleasant 90 minutes in the garden and conservatory this morning before it got too hot for me through the glass. I can't take too much heat.

Among the jobs I did was earthing up the potatoes, both earlies and mains, and transplanting a courgette plant from its pot into the garden. Not for the first time, I fell to musing about the sudden appearance of old china in the ground.

It's not as if I was digging deep. It was just there on top. Why? Why?

I'm thinking while I get a job done

Today's musing was on that vital question: Is growbag one word or two? A search on Google reveals the world to be evenly split. Indeed, some cop out of it altogether by using the description planting bag or some other term.

Anyway, the point is that I bought some today - a snip at 3 for £8 in the garden centre - and finally got round to transplanting the tomatoes into them. So now I have three Sungold variety plants and six Gardener's Delight. Two Sungold plants are outside in pots.

Let's hope they take off this year after the disappointing blight of last summer.

Did I say Gardener's Delight? That's a minefield as well - look it up and you'll see Gardener's Delight, Gardeners' Delight and even Gardeners Delight.

This growing lark is getting harder and harder.