Monthly Archives: July 2013

success

snozzcumbers they aint: Cucumbers

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Must confess to not really paying an awful lot of attention to the cucumbers on the plot. We started out with nine plants. Three different varieties, which were Femspot, Marketmore and crystal lemon. Of the nine, we have three sole survivors. Survivors that at the moment are on the cusp of flowering. Have no idea what happened, there were six from the nine ready to plant out. One was on it’s way out when planted anyway. So that is one accounted for. No clue, what happened to the fem spot. They had all been so promising.

Have never successfully grown cucumbers. Last year, they go so big and then keeled over when we had a cold snap in April. I had thought that by now, they would be distinctly taller. I have heard rumours of them reaching five foot. I would soon know, if I had to eye ball a cucumber, don’t you think? With the heatwave, they are watered daily, and also fed with tomato food. The growth on the crystal lemon would suggest that would be working. Perhaps the level of watering needs to be upped; cucumbers-again, through hearsay-are thirsty creatures.  My fear, when watering, is that they will get too wet and then keel over with a rotten stem.

If they come, one will be amused!

Yours in anticipation,

Horticultural Hobbit

chillies, success, The Big Sunflower Project 2013

Triffid Tomatoes and Sunflowers

Another lovely day, so off to the plot I went. Managed to do a bit of newspapering and black plastic-ing, before the newspaper ran out.  Dandelion leaves were also chopped down. I realise that it is better to dig them out, or attack with weedkiller. This may well happen, in the not so distant future.  Further to the previous crop, in the efforts to tidy up; a few more bulbs of garlic were forked out.

There was also some trussing up of tomatoes to be done:

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Who would have thought, that after the tomato tantrums of earlier this year; they would actually take off. The one variety that I am aware of is Ukrainian Purple that was kindly given to me. There are quite a few flowers forming, indicating that some form of crop will occur. I can confess that I haven’t taken off any side shoots. Which is why, the raised beds resemble something of a jungle. There is a mixture, therefore, of bush and vine tomatoes.  Nestled around the edges, are smaller let spread out varieties.

Something else that has somewhat taken flight, are the sunflowers.

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I must confess, that I couldn’t tell you whether they are little ones or big ones. Yet, these seem pretty huge to me! I had been expecting them to be about ankle height. These are now very hobbit sized, and at a various positions on the plot and enjoying the sunshine.

Jack be little is one of the many squashes dotted around. Below is a image of a flower thrown up  by Jack. I will be keeping a close eye on the other squashes such as sweet dumpling, patty pan and yellow scallop. Whilst they have started to form huge great big habits, there are not many flowers of either female or male persuasion.

. jack_flower  Jack has sent out a singular vine, attached to which is one very small jack be little pumpkin. All very newly formed in the last few days. Jack’s colleague Hooligan, resides on the other side of the plot, and is very diminutive in comparison. Much smaller sprawl and much smaller leaves. A reflection perhaps of early child trauma as it did have to be moved when first planted out. The one squash that still resides in open ground is the cobnut, and this is only just starting to get bigger.

Ghost rider

bruno_babies_2013 These are very, very tiny, and were easily missed. Previously, we have seen up to five babies form. All bar one being taken off. It will be interesting to see how these develop over the coming months. The leaves are certainly getting bigger and the vine is starting to sprawl out over the side of the raised bed.

Purple Rainbow Chilli

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A few of the berries are starting to expand. I’m not quite sure as to how big they actually get, or how potent they might be. In the wendy house, the chillies and bells continue to be fed and watered. It is sad that to say that some of them have been a bit scorched by the sun. The Purple Beauty in particular. However, there are a few walnut sized sweet peppers being formed, and a singular, solitary thin chilli that may well be a cayenne or a long thai.

Yours in anticipation,

 

Horticultural Hobbit

Squashes, success

Bostin’ Bouncin’ baby

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Mama H cradling a very wonky striato Di Napoli courgette and a bush baby marrow. Only my mother would cradle it like a newborn. Have romped on over the last few days.

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Bit of weigh in. 3lbs and 7 ounces. A very Bonny, bouncing, Bostin’ baby.

Ma plans to curry it, I’ll have you know.

Yours in anticipation,

Horticultural Hobbit

construction, Taking stock

Even Baldrick had half a plan

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half baked plan   The only difference between that which was developed by Baldrick, and the one by me; is that his was at least cunning. Mine is for an easy life.  The last month of so has seen a field of weeds arise from the now very concrete clay. Beaten down by the rays of sun, and at times boggy by the flash precipitation that we had, the weeds are seeking to lay claim to the plot. This happened last year and the weeds took over. It was difficult to see even where the raised beds were.  It took a lot of weedkiller, and then subsequently newspaper mulch to help keep a dampener on the evil misplaced plants. All very demoralising, when trying to make to make things work.

As the plan states above, this is the starting plan, for the summer work. It can not be achieved quickly. This process will take time and hard work.

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The pictures evidence part of the achievements for today. The one the left, was a marked improvement on yesterday, where that view was obscured by bamboo cane and builders net. The runner beans planted there have been an abject disaster. The first job, was to get the bricks. Rescued from a skip. It took a while to wheelbarrow those to the plot. Then came the process of laying down newspaper, placing black plastic onto it; and then using the bricks to weigh it down. There are no doubt right ways and wrong ways to this. To use black plastic as a weed suppressant. The plastic that I have used, probably isn’t UV stable, and I should probably use green manure. I have used newspaper and cardboard before as barriers, so this is in addition to that.  Above all, the plot is about experimenting, and seeing if this works. I have yet to use green manure other than the fenugreek already sown for consumption.

Hopefully, the broad beans that you see above will be felled and then covered to decompose. There is a lot of open ground on the plot, and hopefully this will happen in the coming weeks.  By which time, it will be the autumn term, and a different plan will be required.

Yours in anticipation,

Horticultural Hobbit

chillies, Squashes, success, Taking stock, The Big Sunflower Project 2013

Summer Sortee of the Sukh Shanti garden

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That’s Peace and Happiness, before you have to go translate it…

 

 

To the untrained eye, this looks a mess. However, if you were to ask me nicely; I could tell you what most things are and where. The gallery above, is a walking tour if you like of the half plot. I will try and get some specific bed pictures up. I appreciate that it looks like a great big green mess in the gallery. Today is the first day of the Summer holidays for me, so an opportunity to see what I need to do. It goes without saying, that weeds are a problem. This time last year, we had a deluge; and the weeds were well up to ankle height. As well as that, I didn’t have so filled raised beds. They are there now, and they contain crops.

Two more raised beds have, thanks to Pops, been constructed. I had scavenged last week, bags of garden waste. Sat on the plot for best part of a week, these were emptied today in the beds. I know that these are upside down, before you point it out! The pots are on the spikes, so that hopefully no one gets hurt. It is safe to say, that having raised beds has been a boon. Whilst the clay is fabulous, full of nutrients; the position of the plot means that the whole thing gets flooded. This brings pools of water, slugs and other things that eat crops. With the battle against the weeds. The areas of open ground where there are no raised beds, have been choked by weeds. The plan is to now pull up the weeds, cover with newspaper, and perhaps even black plastic on top of that. I have been avoiding that, thinking that raised beds are enough. At least the black plastic can be planted through, the newspaper and pulled up weeds can help the clay composition.

This is going to be one of the big battles. To be clear of as many weeds as possible, and cover the ground. With the beautiful weather that we have had, the clay is like concrete. There is now way a magic fork or spade is going to slice through it. It is just as bad, when it is winter.

As I sit here, the weather lady has just delivered her forecast. For the moment at least, the nice weather will remain. A bit of harvesting was done to today. A small amount of Florence Fennel. A crop, that I had forgotten that I sown. So was very surprised to the see the dill hovering amongst the leaves of the Astia Courgette right next to it. The Florence Fennel was sautéed with the Kestrel potatoes. Lovely looking first second earlies, with pink smudges that look like little faces.

In the wendy house, you will see the vast array of chillies and bells. We have in there a huge number. We have just to name a few, Nigels outdoor chilli, lemon drop, frauzauber, spanish mammoth red, early jalapeño, purple beauty and long red marconi to name a few. Those are the ones that were at least labelled. I think a few of them, have thrown a bit of a tantrum in the wendy, having moved from the classroom. They were perhaps not used to the different temperatures. As mentioned previously, we are having nice weather. A few of the chillies, have been a little burned, and perhaps are sulking because of that too. They are watered and fed regularly. I am still not convinced of treating them in a mean fashion. The resplendent purple rainbow chillis remain in the kitchen at home. There were seven of these altogether, only one of these is in the wendy.

Triffids rise again, on the plot. Not only are there squashes, but also sweetcorn and sunflowers. I had though that the sunburst sunflowers, were relatively small. Yet these are nearly as big as me. No quite giant, but bigger than I had expected. Very leafy, and yet to form any flowers. I do believe that the squashes may take over the universe. I have long expected and anticipated the leaves getting as big as dinner plates. In my experience, that is a good thing. That is happening, yes. Now, we are on flower and fruit watch. Already, we have had a few striato di napoli and astia already, in addition to two beautiful tennis ball sized summer ball. I have never sown a yellow courgette, so this was a lovely crop. Mama H and I are still at odds over the bush baby marrow. Resting on a brick, it is as big as it should be. Mama H wants me to wait for various dishes to have been eated, before I harvest it. If it explodes, it’s not my fault, all right.

 

Tomorrow is another day, and for the moment; it is summer.

 

Yours in anticipation,

 

Horticultural Hobbit

classroom experimentation, success

Pretty, purple, potted chillies

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Aren’t they lovely?

These two pots contain six blossoming and burgeoning purple rainbow chillies. The seeds of which were from Real seeds. I am so very glad that these came home from the classroom, as they have really taken off whilst sat on the window sill of Mama’s kitchen.

One small purple chillie was spotted yesterday, and another was spotted this evening in taking the above picture. They have reached the heady heights of 60 cm. That is how high the green plant supports are. I firmly believe that the current heat wave has inspired the blooming nature of these beauties. They previously looked altogether weary and not so full bodied.
There are more leaves, more of the lilac rimmed flowers bursting into life. I had been wondering as to when they would all kick off.

The tiny little chillies are little round domed bubbles. A lot like berries, I suppose.A beautiful shade of mauve; not really Cadbury purple. I’m intrigued as to with what the colour changes will be. I have never seen a chilli or a pepper start off with a coloured fruit. So used to seeing them start of as green fruit. Bit of an opposite process with these.

It remains to be seen as to how potent these will be. And being in the kitchen, best place to find out.

Yours in anticipation,

Horticultural Hobbit

construction, roses, success

Pods and pretty flowers

Bolting mooli pods are now waiting for us. Mooli seeds were sown, when the packet advised. However, the weather has sent them into a free for all. A tiny root, but wild foliage with flowers and pods forming. I remember these from my childhood, when they would form on a bolted mooli in the garden. We’d pluck them off and eat them like sweeties. They were potent, and firey. Crunchy, like radishes and with a kick. I think Ma even curried them at some point. Apparently, they are eaten with beer in Germany.

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Two Sisters and the rise of the triffids in the one bed. With the warm weather, this bed has burst into life. Has a few purple anemones bloom, but as you can see the foliage is now really quite strong. There are eight Incredible F1 Sweetcorn plants in there, with four squash plants. There would be nine sweetcorn plants, but one was a diddly little thing that didn’t quite thrive as it’s peer group did.  This is two sisters, rather than three as there is no Running beans in this formation.

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Making more of one’s beds, just won’t be lying in them. Two futher raised beds. This are altogether odd, with the spikes that need to be put into the ground. There for security, I know, but I will have to dig up the concrete like clay to sink them.  No, I didn’t construct them. Pops did. I asked for the drill, so that I could. Alas, pops took it onto himself to do the job to his exacting standards.

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Pascali rose  and Kestral potatos. There are nine roses on the plot, posh ones that is. Eight of them are in bloom. I think Ruby wedding is the only one of the ten that has failed to get any foliage. Still looks brown and sticky. That leaves one, the name fails me, that has died completely. I am anticipating, the one blue slash purple rose to bloom. Whilst I’ve been looking for a bona fide, blue, bloom. Blue moon is one concocted by scientists. Blue roses don’t exist by virtue of Mother Nature.

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The Christian Dior rose, has a lovely bright red bloom.

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And this one is harry wheatcroft apparently

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The summer holidays will soon be upon us, and with that, there is plenty to do and to observe.

Yours in anticipation

Horticultural Hobbit

Squashes, success

My Courgette, is your Zucchini

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Here we have the first batch of summer squashes. We have Striato Di Napoli-those would be the stripy ones, astia would be the uniform green ones, and summer ball which is the yellow one that looks a lot like a tennis ball. Is in fact the same size as one, so was harvested.

Striato Di Napoli is the product of seeds from Real Seeds, and I am honestly quite impressed by them. In a week, we have what four or five of them. Yes, I know that the the Astia look a bit tiny. I think with the last week or so, it has decided that it wants to produce babies. Only it was caught a bit off guard by the weather, and has only produce what would be termed baby courgettes. They’ve all been taken off, so that the one or two that remain on the plant might get bigger. I have know Astia to produce courgettes that are like truncheons.

Having never had yellow courgettes, we have one of two. This is summer ball, one ball is producing little babies as we speak. Beautiful round tennis ball thing, that was almost jumping off the plant. Mama H been huffing and puffing, that she’s not going to curry it. Of course she will, will not be left by its lonesome.

Now, I spoke previously about truncheons. Well, not one of these things, summer ball aside, is straight. Their beauty lies in their wonky-ness.

Today, was Mama H’s day of birth, so that mean bhajis. She’s just had some, made from the caulis, spinach and spuds from the plot. Were most definitely enjoyed. We have waiting on the plot, a bush baby marrow. It’s currently look at us, but mother is trying to work out when to cook it.

Yours in Anticipation

Horticultural Hobbit

success

Bonanza Bountiful

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The last month or so, has meant that a suspension of major play. Whilst an eye has been kept on the plot, and things watered; there has no been the windows of opportunity to have some major undertakings. This week, however, was a turning point. With the weather here in Blighty becoming brighter and more summery; the plot has seen a bloom of bounty occurring. There are of course weeds, that is to be expected. In some places though, the weeds are as thick as they are high. So this will form the basis of the much of the work done over the summer. I would not want to be in the same position as I was this time last year when the whole plot was carpeted top to bottom with weeds.

What we have seen, is a bounty and a booming one. The warmth and the light as caused something of a surge.

Potatoes and Cauliflowers makes for Aloo gobi. The cauliflowers were from Aunty tish, white excel. I believe. To date, we have had two healthy shaped and sized specimens. Mother was excited enough harvest and text me a picture. I was at a concert at the time!  That was the first. The second, was harvested for Aunty Indra. But it was not alone. No, it came with orla new potatos. We had already harvested a dozen or so, that Ma curried with some snowball turnips and ruby swedes. These were beautiful potatos, really very creamy and I found them to have a distinct salted flavour. As though they were ready salted crisps. There are kestral potatoes to take up, in the next stage of harvesting. All the potatoes in the raised beds are currently flowering. Well behind, are cara and sante potatoes. These are however, in open ground. Must harvest the third, and also have broccoli to come home too.

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Garlic and Shallots

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Been a busy day today, trying to get the various garlic and shallots up. Most of one bed has been cleared, but there is still a harvest remaining. There is quite a variance in the size of the different crops. The shallots are really quite small in their clumps, but a vast improvement on the crop from last year. Half a dozen clumps compared to three or for last year. The garlic, is the most interesting. Some of the beautiful pink bulbs are huge! Easily as big as my fist. There are also those that are tiny, no bigger than say a onion set. These are also the ones more difficult to dig out. I daresay, that this is weather variable, and a dependent on when they were sown. I have yet dig up any onions. A disappointment, as hundreds were sown. Garlic is now sat drying with the dry weather; the foliage will be chopped shortly.

Beans and peas are a sticky point. There are broadbeans, with their flowers following you around the plot as though they were eyes. But no beans and peas, in that there is one runner bean plant, and one pea. My fault, as I haven’t paid as close attention to them as I could have.

Courgettes and marrows are getting altogether exciting.

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Really must get around to harvesting them. The foliage is ever expanding, with leaves now being as big as dinner plates. The summer squashes are certainly doing well, though the like so patty pan and yellow scallop are somewhat behind. Have yet to see any sweet dumpling, or cobnut and any of the pumpkins.

Roses

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Chillies and peppers

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That would be Nigel, he is on a roll.

With Moolis and radishes, I have established, that I don’t like them. Dad likes radishes, so he had a few of those. The moolis, however, have been a challenger. And have bolted faster than a prized horse. Rather than chopping them down, have kept them for the seed pods. These can be curried or eaten as a snack.

Swedes and Turnips have been going well. Lots of foliage, and small half tennis ball sized fruits that Ma curried. Tasted quite nice these.

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There are loads of weeds, and cabbages to be sunk at some point. I am rather sick of lobbing caterpillars too. One of the broccoli plants was completely obliterated by the little critters. I will be constructing further raised beds. The level of success, is in my mind, a product of raised beds. A good part of today was spent collecting bags of grass to fill them with.

Things are most definitely looking up!

Yours in anticipation.

Horticultural Hobbit