Ravendale House » the vegetable garden

A New Year A New Me

Cloudybutnice — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 19:59:24 +0000

It’s the same every year, as winter approaches I’m always determined to continue gardening right through until Spring, let’s face it you can always find some jobs to do in a garden this size. But every year I don’t seem to manage it.

In my defence, it’s sometimes outside my control, for example last year we were under several feet of snow, and the year before I was decorating, but even so it seems to me the gardening switch in my head just turns itself off around the beginning of December, and refuses to fully switch on again until about March.

A lot of people don’t like January and February, but to be honest I quite like them, having a birthday towards the end of January probably helps a bit, but regardless of that, I feel the excitement of a new gardening year approaching and what’s not to like about that?

The trouble is I do tend to get a bit carried away, and as soon as even a hint of warm sunshine appears, I’m convinced Spring is here, and over-ride my gardening switch to go into the garden, even if it’s still February!

Consequently I have been known to come un-stuck occasionally, when I’ve tried to get things going a bit too soon, but this year it’s going to be different. Honest!

With that in mind, instead of rushing out to buy seed potatoes and onion sets, all I’ve done so far this year is plan the crop rotation in my vegetable garden. I’m going to plant a new strawberry bed this year, as the existing one probably peaked last year.

The ‘Lucifer’ seedlings that I sowed at the end of September and the ‘Rudbeckia’ experiment are both still hanging on in the conservatory along with flowering fuchsias and a few geraniums.

I’m going for long walks to keep me occupied until the weather improves and the switch in my head turns on and I can get back into the garden.

A Cabbage!

Cloudybutnice — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 19:55:19 +0000

I wrote some time ago of how I’d given up on my brassicas, my cauliflowers have been a disaster for the second year running, but today I’m pleased to report I harvested a cabbage.

Yes, that’s right, a single solitary cabbage. My first and probably my only one.

But, it looked like a cabbage, it smelt like a cabbage, and made into coleslaw with some home grown carrots and onions it was delicious. I might grow another next year!

All Is Safely Gathered In

Cloudybutnice — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 09:48:38 +0000

Yesterday I harvested my last crop of the year, sweetcorn. I didn’t think it had done too well, but when I came to pick it, things weren’t as bad as I had feared.

I ended up with several bags of kernels in the freezer, plus we had 4 whole cobs, with lashings of butter for our lunch. But oh my word, what a messy job it is to blanch and freeze 32 corn on the cobs.

Blanch the whole cob for 4 minutes, then comes the fun part, getting the individual kernels off. In the early years I tried to do this with as little damage to them as possible, but soon learnt that life is too short to take that approach.

Now it’s every man for himself as I slice them off with a big, sharp knife. White juice spurts everywhere, and the ‘silks’ end up all over the floor. Basically, I have to clean the kitchen when I’m done.

I could freeze them whole, but we don’t tend to eat them whole as a rule, plus the fact I don’t have the room in my freezer for 32 whole cobs, so I’m afraid I’m stuck with this method.

Finally, Happy Birthday to my sister who is 54 years old today.

An Apology

Cloudybutnice — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 10:06:37 +0000

It’s blowing a gale today, no change there then, so I looked for an indoor job to do.

For some reason this year my tomato plants have looked sad for weeks. I’m watering and feeding as normal, and the tomato crop is fine, but the plants are now a real mess, and in no danger of producing anymore fruit.

So I decided to take the 2 gro-bags, containing the worst plants, out of the conservatory. I’ll probably save the rest to do on another grotty day, the forecast for the rest of the week is rubbish. I started by picking all the tomatoes (red and green) and then consigned the plants to the compost heap.

In doing so I discovered a very small toad (?) living among the debris. I scooped him up and carefully popped him into what I hope was a suitable place for him in the garden.

Earlier in the year I wrote about tomato ‘Ildi’ and how it was proving difficult to germinate. Later on, though I don’t think I wrote about it here, I had serious doubts about it’s prospects of producing a meaningful crop.

It had plenty of flowers, but unlike the other varieties where you could see the young fruit swelling, on the ‘Ildi’ they looked for all the world like they were withering and dying.

How wrong could I be. ‘Ildi’ is obviously a late starter, because whereas the other plants are now way past their best, ‘Ildi’ is festooned with small yellow fruits.

So, ‘Ildi’ I’m sorry I doubted you.

A Mind Of It’s Own

Cloudybutnice — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 13:07:17 +0000

They say a weed is just a plant growing in the wrong place. Whilst I would argue there are some exceptions to this, I do think it perfectly describes the Speedwell that grows in one part of our garden.

I quite like it in some ways, light green leaves, pretty blue and white flowers and terrific at ground cover. The problem is it insists on growing in 2 of my vegetable beds where it is not welcome.

A couple of years ago it occurred to me that Speedwell might be exactly what I needed to fill the ‘no mans land’ between the grass in the field and the hedge. Not a huge area, perhaps about 9″ wide running the length of the field, it is neither one thing nor the other, and I’ve never quite got to grips with it.

It needed something that was good ground cover, half decent to look at, and tough as old boots. It seemed to me that Speedwell fitted the bill perfectly.

So I began a programme of repatriation. Each time I weeded Speedwell out of the vegetable beds, I replanted it immediately in the soil by the hedge. The idea was, if I got enough ‘clumps’ of it started, then it’s natural propensity to spread, would mean it would eventually join together to make the bare soil less ugly.

It never occurred to me for one moment that it wouldn’t grow. Imagine my surprise when every single transplanted bit died. It was still growing and spreading like fun in the vegetable beds, which are only a few feet away, but refused point blank to grow in the soil between the grass and hedge.

So, two or three years down the line I still have my bare no mans land. Speedwell clearly has a mind of it’s own.

Tomatoes

Cloudybutnice — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 14:52:35 +0000

I don’t really think you can say you’ve had a tomato until you’ve eaten one, warmed by the sun, straight from the plant.

Here we have ‘Red Pear’, ‘Orange Berry’ and ‘Ildi’.

Tomatoes, don’t you just love ‘em?

Busy Busy

Cloudybutnice — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 14:58:24 +0000

Now that the hedges are cut there are lots of other things that need attention, so today I had a proper gardening day. What with my knee, my shoulder and the weather, these ‘proper’ days have been a bit thin on the ground this year. It’s a wonder things look as good as they do.

I started first thing by collecting the twigs from yesterday. We’d been shopping and when we got back Peter decided to have his first go this year at licking the arch into shape. I can’t collect the twigs as we go along like with the hedge, because I have to hold the ladder. It was teatime by the time we finished, so the twigs got left until today.

Still needs work but we’re getting there.

Then I re-dug the potato bed to retrieve any stragglers that I’d missed the other day. Needless to say there were plenty. Then I dug up my shallots, and pulled out a few big weeds. My final job before dinner was to pull out my cauliflowers which have been a disaster. I’m just going to have to accept the fact, I can’t grow caulis.

After dinner I got the big mower out and mowed the field. Tomorrow I intend to neaten the twiddly bits with the Flymo. Busy, busy!!

Peas, Beans and Wind

Cloudybutnice — Mon, 16 May 2011 19:09:19 +0000

Being at school in the 1960′s I was taught ‘domestic science’ by the feisty and fiery Miss Barbara Hirst, who drilled into me that peas, beans and lentils are pulse vegetables, a fact I will never, ever forget. However, today I want to talk about peas, beans and wind, a bi-product of lentils.

Don’t worry, it’s the meteorological type I’m referring to! It feels to have been windy here forever. Add to that the severe lack of rain it’s a wonder anything is growing at all.

I’ve always had good results from broad beans, but a few weeks ago we had a severe overnight frost, and to be honest I thought I’d lost all of them. I’d gone out the following morning only to see my healthy young plants sadly hanging their heads.

Thankfully they rallied and yesterday I noticed how strong and vigorous they are despite the frost scare and the strong winds.

I wish the same could be said about my peas. Over the years I’ve had less and less success with peas, and last year was just a disaster.

This year it was going to be different. We rigged a fleece on some canes to surround the bed of peas, the idea being it would provide a physical barrier to prevent the wood pigeons from gaining access.

Putting it up was a task in itself given the strength of the wind, but after several abortive attempts and a lot of hard work, it was finished.

I’m amazed to report that it’s still there, even though it’s been blowing a gale ever since we put it up. Are the peas any better?

Well, I suspect if you could compare them to the plants at this time last year, they are much better, but are they vigorous and healthy like the beans? No. Still, it’s not a beauty contest, as long as they produce some peas I’ll be happy.

Tomatoes

Cloudybutnice — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 09:33:23 +0000

We love tomatoes and grow lots every year, and this year is no exception. We grow the plants from seed and germination is not usually a problem. In fact they are normally trouble free, but this year has been a bit different.

As well as the old favourites of ‘Moneymaker’, ‘Plum Roma’ and ‘Gardeners Delight’, and our new favourites ‘Tiger’ and ‘Red Pear’, we decided to try 2 new varieties. New to us that is.

‘Orange Berry’ described on the packet as ” very tasty, bite-sized cherry tomato with intense orange coloured fruit and sweet flesh” plus

‘Ildi’ described as “unusual, small, tangy sweet flavoured grape-sized fruit in great abundance”

I sowed all the seeds at the same time, and whilst most of the others germinated without a hitch, the ‘Ildi’ only produced 1 seedling. So I sowed some more.

Nothing.

So I sowed some more, still nothing. In a last ditch attempt to get some germination I sowed another 7 seeds. Still nothing.

I mentioned it to Peter, who doesn’t like to be beaten, and he ‘sowed’ a few seeds on a moist kitchen towel, just like children do with mustard and cress.

Would you believe it. Within a couple of days I had 4 germinations in my ’7 seed’ plant pot. (I bet you thought I was going to say all Peter’s seeds germinated didn’t you? ) So now I have a total of 5 ‘Ildi’, more than I intended, but as things turned out, not a bad thing.

The first mishap occurred when one of the ‘Plum Roma’ plants on the kitchen window-sill decided to lay down. I propped it up and hoped for the best, but it just died. It seemed to have rotted at the base of the stem.

The second mishap occurred when the local stray cat got into the conservatory by mistake, panicked and couldn’t get out. He knocked several pots to the floor in his attempts to escape and one of the ‘Tigers’ was snapped clean in two.

A few days later a blackbird got into the conservatory by mistake. He also panicked but thankfully only caused minor damage. Why do scared animals gravitate towards my tomato plants?

I’m pleased to say that most of my plants are now safely planted in gro-bags, so hopefully no more mishaps. I just need the 4 ‘Ildi’ to catch up and then job done,

Counting The Cost

Cloudybutnice — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 18:06:48 +0000

It’s still probably a bit early to do this, but today I’ve been counting the cost of the harsh winter.

As well as losing most of my geraniums, I’ve also lost my gunnera and the 2 cotoneasters in the field that we almost lost the winter before. They must have been too weak to deal with a second, destructive onslaught.

On a lighter note some delphiniums and hollyhocks that I grew from seed and planted out last year, have survived. I didn’t expect them to. I fear for the Crocosmia Solfataire, thankfully I have some in a pot that survived in the conservatory. Also the Agapanthus that I unceremoniously dug out and put into a pot last year, to stop it being overgrown, has also made it through.

Continuing with good news, the ditch is finished, or at least as finished as its going to get. We could dig deeper into the compacted, dead leaves along the bottom, but when we tried we kept disturbing toads, so decided to stop.

Potatoes, onions and shallots are planted, broad beans, peas and leeks are growing nicely in the conservatory and tomatoes in the kitchen window.

Finally, we have a very handsome male pheasant who is a regular visitor along with his 3 wives. At this time of year he is simply majestic in his Spring plumage.

But the icing on the cake for me is a pair of bullfinches, who I hope are nesting nearby. I’ve seen them eating the buds off my apple trees. I do hope they stick around.