Garden Harvest

What I gathered from the garden....

 Not particularly a good garden harvest this year but that is down to little effort, little gain.  This year I haven't paid much attention to the garden - flowers or vegetables.  Some of this is down to being pregnant throughout the growing season (my tum was growing too!).  I didn't know how big I was going to grow and wanted to take it easy as this was my first pregnancy and not being very young anymore, (put it this way, I'm born in Year of the Tiger and I'm no longer in my twenties - let you work that one out!) didn't want to over exhort myself and regret it later.  Some of it is also down to enjoying card-making.  Last summer I started going to card-making workshops and I really enjoy the classes.  Not only do we make beautiful cards, it's a lovely chance to relax and chat with some very lovely ladies.

 Anyway, despite my lack of efforts we have had some courgettes this year.  A Lebanese variety, hence the paler green colour than what is sold in the supermarkets and it (should have) has a slightly bulbous base.  Okay, this one is a little backward!  I blame it on being probably the last one of the season.  The plant is still slowly growing but less vigorously now.  I can see fruit-bearing flower buds at the tip but with the absence of male flowers these fruits not only will not grow larger, they will wither and rot.  Maybe I should grow a variety that doesn't need pollinating.  That will ease the suspense of will it grow or will it rot? 
I only had the one courgette plant this year.  Will definitely plant more next year as it is tormenting waiting for that one courgette to grow larger before you pick it!  In our first year here I had 4 courgette plants and had courgettes coming out of my ears!  Well....you know how the saying goes!  I had plenty to share amongst family and friends and this year it was take it in turns to give courgettes out as there were never enough to go round in one hit!

 I grew onions again Stuttgarter - wanted an easy crop that didn't need any looking after from me.  Might be the reason why the onions are as small as gobstoppers!  I actually pulled these out of the ground during my confinement month when I was supposed to be resting!  They have spent the past 4 weeks drying in the shed.  I tidied them up by removing the loose papery skins and excess stalks.  Weeny looking onions but they sure are strong!  My eyes don't water when peeling chopping onions because I find wearing contact lenses protect my eyes from the vapours.  These little powerful little marbles are the exception!  Won't be eating these raw in a salad!

I usually grow potatoes too.  Another easy to grow crop and the best bit is harvest time.  Scrabbling around on your hands and knees in the dirt looking for buried treasure - or so it seems to me!  I love seeing the pale glint of skin in the dark earth and it feels as if I've struck gold!  I grew these in potato bags.  Black polythene sacks with a few drainage holes in the bottom.  The varieties I grew were Red Rooster potatoes and Charlotte.  Roosters are available in the supermarkets and I like them for roasting as they are slightly floury and roast up well.  They don't disintegrate on boiling either.  Charlottes are a lovely, creamy waxy salad potato.  Great in cooking when you don't want them to disappear to mush.

Garden Update

Golden Shallots growing in garden trough

In early April I had visions of having an easy maintenance vegetable garden. Knowing I would be supporting a swollen belly in the summer I knew I couldn't expect to be on my hands and knees weeding and harvesting salads and chinese vegetables like I do most years.

Sugar Snap peas that have germinated
Looks like we'll get a good harvest!

Well, all I can say is that our chickens had other ideas! Just when I thought the warm Easter weather had given the garden a good start, the chickens (well my 2 babies, I have 3 chickens. I call them babies as they were newly acquired last July when they were 17wks old and reaching the stage when they would start laying eggs,) had other plans. As the farmer in Chicken Run said to Mrs Tweedy, "The chickens are revolting!"

The same bed 2 days later - trashed by chickens!

In my veg bed 1, (18 x sweetcorn kernels, and 60 x peas) Stan Laurel and Daffy Duck managed to find their way into the covered veg bed and scratch, eat and trample everything in site! Maybe I could've sprouted some more peas indoors and planted them outside but I was so disheartened (especially as Daffy Duck got stuck in the bed again the following day and finish of any remaining plants they missed the previous day!) I didn't bother!

WANTED! Have you seen this chicken?
Called Stan Laurel as the feathers on top on her head
reminded me of Stan Laurel's hair that stood up on end!

My chinese veg in pots didn't fair much better either! I had choy sum and pak choi growing in pots. I sprinkled crushed eggshell on top of the soil surface in an attempt to deter slugs and snails from getting a free buffet. It didn't work. I was soon left with stumps and no veggies for me!

Partner in Crime!
Daffy Duck as she made some odd clucks that sounded more like quacks!

The squashes and courgettes that I germinate indoors did well. They germinated (not 100% success but sufficient to plant) but I was too lazy to transplant them outside and they were too weak and lanky to survive and needless to say have long since died.

Rooster potatoes in a potato grow sack - makes harvesting easier

The only garden success I have had this year is the one courgette plant that I sowed outside next to the onions in Veg bed 2. Well, there were 4 seeds, only one came up to say "Hello!". Still, I have harvested 2 small courgettes and threw away one brown wrinkled specimen (they wrinkle and don't grow if the female flower fails to get fertilised by the male flower). I haven't even been religiously watering and feeding the courgette plant either - only the occasional long watering! Today, I was overjoyed and rather surprised to see an over-sized courgette snaking it's way along the soil hiding under the canopy of speckled leaves. The leaves of a courgette are large and the underside is a bit prickly too. I find that if my hand brushes past the leave they make your hands smell a bit pongy too! Nasty!

I'm pleased with today's find and am hoping it's the start of many more courgettes! I only wish there were more than 1 courgette plant!

The prized green wonder! It's the size of an aubergine and the small wrinkled ones are fruits that didn't get fertilised so won't grow but will shrivel go brown and eventually rot.

What do you suggest I do with this lovely pale green wonder then?

Spring has Sprung!

I think Spring has arrived!  It's certainly been warmer this week and now the daffodils are in bloom with their sunny yellow cheerfulness!  The crocuses aren't much to chase away the winter blues but sunny yellow always brings happiness to me!

With this warmer weather it's also time to think about getting into the garden - tidying it up, pruning, digging, planting.  All things I can't bear to do if it's cold, wet or windy outside!

When we first moved into this house I was keen on growing my own veggies.  Did not attempt much in our first year.  Our second year led to the construction of two raised beds for veggies.  Last year, I started gardening in all keenness and enthusiasm.  By late summer interest with the garden had waned as I discovered a new hobby - craft workshops.  They are mainly around card making in different forms, stamping and embossing mainly but I have learnt parchment craft and beading too.

Was looking forward to an afternoon of beading today (we learnt to make a lovely bracelet in class yesterday.).  Hubbs had mentioned how nice the weather was outside and I figured I'd best go out and get my free fix of vit D. 

We keep three chickens in our back garden and they are garden destructors!  They nibble most things green - which is fine if they only stuck to grass but they ate the tulips last year and we did not get a single flower!  They also dig and scratch the flower beds so there are bark chips and soil in all places but the borders!  After sweeping the patch I thought I'd set to work on the veg beds.  I dug over and raked these about 3weeks ago.  Would be even better if I'd put some home-made compost on it too - but I was too lazy.  Anyways, as I'm now 23wks pregnant and my belly is not staying hidden under my clothes anymore, I figured I'd best stick to low maintenance veggies in the beds.  They are raised but only about 6 inches so you still have to kneel to attend to them.  They are 1m wide so stretching forward to reach the other side is a necessity also.  I can imagine this being a problem in the coming months as my melon sized bump grows bigger! 

So, what did I plant?  I don't often stick to rigid spacing of veggies - I thought the idea of raised bed is cramming veggies in small spaces?  I have planted 40onion sets (Stuttgarter) in veg bed 2 and with the remaining 1/2m x1m space I also popped in 4 courgette seeds.  Yes, early I know, but hey ho, if they germinate then YAY!  If not, well, I'll stick some other squash/courgette in later.

Veg bed 1 is another low maintenance plan with sweetcorn and sugar snap peas.  I think I ended up putting 18 sweetcorn seeds in and finished the packet (Lark F1 - very nice they were too last year!) and in the other half of the bed I put in 60 sugar snap peas in.  I usually germinate these indoors under damp kitchen paper but I am being lazy again!  I have some spring onions that live permanently in a corner of this bed but the chickens have been pecking and trampling on it.  I have pea/bean netting thrown over each bed to keep the pesky digging chickens out.  There are netted side panels that hubbs built a few years back.  They were intended to keep the local cats using the beg beds as giant litter trays and it's great for keeping chickens out too - as long as you cover the top as the chickens will hop/fly on to the side panels and jump in if they had half the chance!

I have also a pot/tub garden by the side of the house.  This came about as the chickens would eat the pepper plants in previous years that were grown on the patio.  They are partial to their leaves and also anything red such as ripe tomatoes!  We have a tub of asparagus and this year is year three so it's the long awaited sampling time!  2 pots of strawberries, 2 troughs of goji berry shrubs (got 'em for mum but she said I could grow 'em in my garden - why did I bother?!?!).  I have also planted up a potato bag with 5 rooster potatoes and two small bags with Charlotte potatoes.  I like grow your own spuds.  So easy and I love the delight of finding 'gold' under the dark soil - well, finding potatoes actually!  I now have a tub of 18 baby sweetcorn (maybe too many here - but hey ho!); a pot of kale (nero di toscana - praying that don't become slug food yet again!); pak choi and 2 pots of choy sum - different varieties.  I still have plenty of seeds to sow but they'll have to wait til I'm back from hols.

Oh, and I'm germinating a few seeds indoors.  I have 4x courgette clarita; 6x courgette romanesco latin; 3x butternut squash and finally 3x squash turk's turban. 

All in all a busy afternoon's work and my back aches!  Wish someone would cook me my roast leg of pork for dinner but that's only going to be done by me!