Ready.

But for what? The recurring question on my mind, and will be for the next 5 days. Vegetables of some kind. Courgettes? Cucumber?   Potatoes (too late?).  There is certainly a lot of room without tomatoes, which I think I have figured out a plan for, to put into action next weekend.  It requires a deal of compost, which is always an issue without a car.  I hope to find some of those compost blocks, just add water.

I'll just have to see what delectabilities my local garden centre has on offer when I visit on Saturday.

Ah, next weekend, four whole days of it. Plenty of time to get everything planted.

I was given some leftovers from the Bristol Affordable Art Fair - I never get to go, but it sure must have looked pretty with the wide assortment of flowers on offer.

On the other side, very exciting these lillies. There was only one last year, with one flower.  How wonderful all those buds!  I think perhaps when they bloom and fade, I may move them elsewhere, to make room for the desired shrubbery (will it fit?  Another burning question).

And the poppies are coming up nicely too.

The delphinium is blooming, but I may have to move that as well.  We shall see.

Did I show you my Ceanothus?  Yes?  Well, here it is again (did I mention my favourite colour is purple?).

Fabulous weather, fingers crossed it lasts .... very excited about next weekend!

Meagre Harvest

It's a good thing I'm not trying to live off anything I grow.


So far, this is the sum total of what I have been able to harvest from my garden.





Not too impressive, huh?

There have been perhaps 10 ripe tomatoes overall from this lot. And those, as you see, are the smaller variety. Not even a meal, really.


The foliage looks impressive, but apart from the one plant, every fruit is green. Green, green, green.

The big question is: why? I checked back and they were planted the second to last weekend in May. Maybe a week later than I would wish, but it's now September and none of these are red (or whatever colour they are supposed to be), or even approaching being so.

Who do I blame? Homebase and Jamie Oliver? Maybe I should have stuck with the rather uninspiring variety from my local garden centre, instead of buying mass-produced plants from a nationwide DIY conglomerate, even if Jamie did put his name on them.

Maybe, like my sister's patch in France, 4 years in a row of tomatoes in the same place does mean the soil is tired, and it's time to move to a new location.

I may have to rethink gravelling the whole top, and consider putting some raised beds in.

Or how about the crap summer? It's official - The Met Office confirms it was the coolest summer in 20 years.

And one courgette?

There are a few other possibles, very very small, and though promising, time is most definitely running out.

And those cucumbers - I had one in a salad last night. Quite seedy. Not inedible, not much flavour though.

Back to those tomatoes - I'd better dig out that recipe for Green Tomato Chutney.

Weekend and Recent Activity

I had one day of the last beautiful (weather-wise) weekend to do some work. But firstly, I finally went out and bought ourselves a sun lounger, so I didn't get out there as early as I wanted. But it was ever so popular with the feline population.

What I did do was get right down with the weeds, and pick them out by hand. No hoe-ing, but sitting on the soil and pulling them right out.

I was wondering why, in the patch that should have been most weed-free, where the tomatoes were last year, I had so much to pull out. Do you know what? There were plenty of tiny tomato plants that must have self-seeded last year. But they would do nothing to speak of, so they had to come out.

What was an absolute weed fest one week ago, is now clear.

All of that work took me an hour and a half. What is left is the spring onions, the purple sprouting broccoli at the back, the lettuces, and the tomatoes.

But this was bothering me very much.

Right by the shed. I thought I really should do something, especially what was encroaching on the vegetable patch.

Well, guess what? Yer man upstairs went to town today, and cleared that patch.

WOO HOO! The garden is nearly "finished"! It just remains to keep it clear of weeds.

When I arrived home from work, I discovered the clearage. And then he came back down in the evening, and had, what he so eloquently put, " a beer and a burn". Man and fire. Can't be beat, they love it.

And I say, why ever not?

The Great Vegetable Plot

Well, as I recently mentioned, the vegetable plot has been greatly expanded this year.



This is back in January of this year, when just for fun I decided to deal with the weeds that were waist high (at least). I'm afraid it doesn't look quite as good as this right now, at least next to the shed. Where we have that 12 ft. plot (and it's about 10 ft down to the lawn) is, of course, fine thanks to my wonderful tiller, but next to the shed ... well, that will be dealt with in time. What the upstairs couple want is a swing for their little girl, which will be sweet. So I haven't touched that part of the garden at all. Hey, I've done enough digging elsewhere, right?

So in the newly expanded vegetable plot

I have planted the following:

7 Brussels sprouts

8 broccoli

10 cauliflower

5 tomatoes (Moneymaker, Alicante, Beefsteak, Gardener's Delight, Juliette)

9 purple sprouting broccoli

2 rows of lettuce

1 small row of spring onions

Beans

plus some lettuces in pots.

Very exciting.

It's hard to see from these pictures, but they are all there, in the ground. And twice to three times the size already, since planted! I will share some pictures soon of the growth.

Now, since I had ordered a bumper pack of veggie plug plants, I had to find some extra space (it's amazing how quickly one runs out of space - when you need two feet around each plant, it goes fast). So in two "patio planters" I have the potatoes, and also beetroot.

Okay, they're not massively attractive, but did I mention the credit crunch?

To round it all off, the raspberry I planted two years ago is bearing some fruit - not a bushel full by any means but it is yummy! And I've planted up a strawberry pot and have my fingers crossed for that, too.

Fingers crossed for everything!

A Nice Harvest

Not a bad haul, on Saturday.

I have officially stopped purchasing tomatoes from the supermarket, for the duration. Yum!

Here's my thoughts on the various varieties.

Hmm, now I had a little map of what was what but I can't seem to lay my hands on it now. And looking back, I don't see that I told you exactly what I planted - but from memory, here goes:

Left to right, Shirley, Plum, Marmande, Beefsteak (oh no they weren't!) and the one on the right I cannot remember, but I shall dig out the labels and let you know. None of them on the far right have even started turning red yet, which is interesting. Hope they do, or I'll be having lots of lovely fried green tomatoes, and may even make some green tomato chutney.

Shirley. Nice and round, on the small side but I think overall I didn't pinch out enough side shoots to get some nice, big juicy ones. Ripening nicely.

Plum. Again quite small, again I believe the same problem. Lovely flavour of course.

Marmande. This was the first ripe baby from a few weeks back, and there are plenty more to come. The meatiest of the lot, with very few seeds. Gorgeous flavour, and I will certainly be growing this one again!












Beefsteak. Hah, hah, fooled you. No, fooled me! I should have known when the plant was half as high as the others - this is some kind of cherry variety, clearly the pot was mis-named, as I'm sure can happen in a busy garden centre. They are lovely, though, just not what I was expecting!

Potatoes of course are next, and I'm sure it's time to start digging. If (1) I can get a sunny day at the weekend, and (2) I have a chance to use my natural arachnid remedy. I will, of course, be digging in my wellies, as to get amongst all that foliage I'm not taking any chances of foot contact with anything eight-legged!