Garden Roundup
Sep. 11th, 2011 11:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jaceyWe grow all our veg in raised beds to save my back - though I do still have problems, so tend to weed for only short sessions, but I go out fairly frequently and have more or less kept up with it this year.
Results?
We had great peas, and broad beans a-plenty, but due to me missing the planting time we had no French and runner beans, and we didn't get the supports for insect netting in place in time to plant brassicas, so no brussels sprouts this year. (The cabbage whites ate the lot last time, hence waiting until the netting frame was in place and missing the boat.) The beetroot did quite well, though, and since BB doesn't like it in any way shape or form I've been making soup with it. Not quite borscht, but mainly beet + a little onion, parsnip, carrot and fresh tomato with a base of vegetable bouillon from Kallo granules (and a splash of red wine). Mmmm... gorgeous. The carrots started out brilliantly and I had loads as they were all starting to grow to a useful size. Much better tasting than last years - which were a bit strong. But last week I discovered that all the ones left in the bed had horrid black threads in them. Carrot root fly, I think. Bugger!
Unfortunately The onions haven't done very well this year. Last time they were brilliant, grown from seed but a variety that didn't keep very well. This year I went for a good keeper, but germination was very hit and miss. Ditto the garlic, despite buying expensive garlic sets. I probably only had one in four come up. I should have shoved in cloves from the supermarket - it would have been a lot cheaper and a friend tells me they do just as well.
We only had two strawberry plants, shoved into the raised beds after overwintering in hanging baskets. One did nothing at all and the other is still giving me strawberries, about half a dozen at a time (if I get them before the wasps do). But I've ordered a dozen of the variety 'Marshmallo' (from Marshalls) which is supposed to be excellent. They are due at the end of September to establish ready for next year.
In early spring we planted 3 espalier apples, one (each) fan-trained plum and pear. The pear yielded nothing. The plum yielded flour tiny but beautiful plums. The Bramley has one apple on it, but two of the (desert) apples are doing brilliantly. One is a September cropping one and they are just about ready now. The other is due in October and it's already laden with good-looking fruit. It's a bonus, I didn't expect to get much in the first year.
About the same time BB put in 150 mixed English hedging plants (a hawthorn base, but with lots of interesting stuff such as forsythia, field maple, and rosa rugosa as well) all around the garden walls, but at the top end, within what has now been fenced off as a veg garden, he made sure that there was a high proportion of hazel, cherry plum and crab-apple. It may be a few years before we see (and taste) the advantage of having them but... yum!
And I should mention the rhubarb. We're close to the rhubarb triangle and have two crowns which were here when we moved in in 1980. They were moved in 1988 and BB wanted to get rid of them this year in order to plant the hedge, but I like rhubarb. (RHubarb and date pie, yum!) He tried his best to kill it off - dug it up when I wasn't around and dumped the crowns in a plastic bin. Even without water and with only the soil clinging to the crown (and even though they were upside down) they made their presence felt by throwing up stalks, so eventually with much grumbling BB halved the biggest grown and planted the two halves in huge tubs. Result? Rhubarb enjoying a second coming! There's even a tiny bit of crown that got left over throwing up stalks from the corner of the wheelbarrow. You can't keep good rhubarb down!
Results?
We had great peas, and broad beans a-plenty, but due to me missing the planting time we had no French and runner beans, and we didn't get the supports for insect netting in place in time to plant brassicas, so no brussels sprouts this year. (The cabbage whites ate the lot last time, hence waiting until the netting frame was in place and missing the boat.) The beetroot did quite well, though, and since BB doesn't like it in any way shape or form I've been making soup with it. Not quite borscht, but mainly beet + a little onion, parsnip, carrot and fresh tomato with a base of vegetable bouillon from Kallo granules (and a splash of red wine). Mmmm... gorgeous. The carrots started out brilliantly and I had loads as they were all starting to grow to a useful size. Much better tasting than last years - which were a bit strong. But last week I discovered that all the ones left in the bed had horrid black threads in them. Carrot root fly, I think. Bugger!
Unfortunately The onions haven't done very well this year. Last time they were brilliant, grown from seed but a variety that didn't keep very well. This year I went for a good keeper, but germination was very hit and miss. Ditto the garlic, despite buying expensive garlic sets. I probably only had one in four come up. I should have shoved in cloves from the supermarket - it would have been a lot cheaper and a friend tells me they do just as well.
We only had two strawberry plants, shoved into the raised beds after overwintering in hanging baskets. One did nothing at all and the other is still giving me strawberries, about half a dozen at a time (if I get them before the wasps do). But I've ordered a dozen of the variety 'Marshmallo' (from Marshalls) which is supposed to be excellent. They are due at the end of September to establish ready for next year.
In early spring we planted 3 espalier apples, one (each) fan-trained plum and pear. The pear yielded nothing. The plum yielded flour tiny but beautiful plums. The Bramley has one apple on it, but two of the (desert) apples are doing brilliantly. One is a September cropping one and they are just about ready now. The other is due in October and it's already laden with good-looking fruit. It's a bonus, I didn't expect to get much in the first year.
About the same time BB put in 150 mixed English hedging plants (a hawthorn base, but with lots of interesting stuff such as forsythia, field maple, and rosa rugosa as well) all around the garden walls, but at the top end, within what has now been fenced off as a veg garden, he made sure that there was a high proportion of hazel, cherry plum and crab-apple. It may be a few years before we see (and taste) the advantage of having them but... yum!
And I should mention the rhubarb. We're close to the rhubarb triangle and have two crowns which were here when we moved in in 1980. They were moved in 1988 and BB wanted to get rid of them this year in order to plant the hedge, but I like rhubarb. (RHubarb and date pie, yum!) He tried his best to kill it off - dug it up when I wasn't around and dumped the crowns in a plastic bin. Even without water and with only the soil clinging to the crown (and even though they were upside down) they made their presence felt by throwing up stalks, so eventually with much grumbling BB halved the biggest grown and planted the two halves in huge tubs. Result? Rhubarb enjoying a second coming! There's even a tiny bit of crown that got left over throwing up stalks from the corner of the wheelbarrow. You can't keep good rhubarb down!
