A few more firsts

The first aubergine flowers opened this week.

As pretty as they are, I am keeping my fingers crossed that I get some fruit this year.

The garlic took a battering against the wind this week. I wasn't sure if they had keeled over because they are ready for picking or if the wind did it.... so I pulled one up.

When I cut it open, it didn't look as if the cloves had separated properly so I'm guessing they are not quite ready yet. I'm wondering if this is what people are talking about when they mention wet garlic? I'll leave them in a bit longer but keep an eye on them to make sure they haven't been damaged and need to come up anyway.

My relationship with radishes is a strange one... I don't like them, but grow them because I have free seeds and they don't take up much room. These ones are called hilds blauer herbst und winter and I'd not grown this variety before.

I decided this time that if I didn't like them I would stop growing them and give the seeds away. I nibbled on a little bit and still didn't like it, but what if I cooked them?

A quick scout through my vegetable cook book found a recipe for citrus radish confit. I also had some turnips and had previously glazed them, so decided to make a combination of citrus glazed turnips and radish - what a difference cooking them makes... delicious!

They keep on coming...

... cucumbers that is. I've been picking 3-4 every day, all mini-whites, but yesterday the first marketmore was ready.

So far I have pickled some and made chutney, and I've got another batch being pickled today.

Saving Seed

The end of the mange tout and peas, signalled the beginning of my seed saving exploits for this season. I hadn't planned on saving legume seeds this year, but as I was cutting down the plants I came across numerous pods that I had missed when harvesting... they were too far gone to eat so I thought I may as well save them for future sowing.

Similarly I hadn't intended to save alium seed either, but my shallots persist in throwing up seed heads so I decided to collect them this time rather than composting them. I'm not sure even sure if it will work, but I may as well have a go at drying these out, collecting the seed and sowing next year.

Legumes... last and first

I picked the last of the mange tout and peas yesterday, and cut down the plants.

I'm not sure how long they are supposed to crop for, but having checked my records from previous years, the mange tout last for about a month before the leaves turn yellow and production slows down. Plus, during the week the plants took a battering from the wind and collapsed on themselves so were even more tangled than normal.

They always seem to stop just before the french beans start producing too... not sure if that's coincidence or design, but I'll be picking a few of these later today.

Three Pumpkins

My first attempt at pumpkins has produced these three beauties

During the week I removed the decaying / mouldy leaves and unpollinated fruit, and was left with one pumpkin on each plant.

Having read up on these things, you are supposed to raise them off the ground away from slugs etc., so this is what I have done.

They are jack o'lanterns which are supposed to produce huge, round, orange fruit ideal for halloween carving... one of them is a bit elongated but I'll just watch and see how they develop.  

Now this is an offenham...

... and it looks totally different to my first cabbage

I'm looking forward to eating it, just as much as the first one.

First Ripe Tomato

The winner of the first tomato to ripen competition is..... red cherry

They were eaten shortly after I took the photo and it instantly reminded me that home grown tomatoes taste so much better than shop bought. I'm so glad I persevered earlier in the season to get them to germinate.

I moved most of the tomato plants to the front garden and planted them in the ground a week or so ago... there isn't any ground space in the back, and the pots kept falling over. Doesn't appear to have done them any harm - this is a few of them behind the hedge

Go Peppers!

Peppers are doing really well at the moment. These were the bellboy plants a couple of days ago

I will pot on all of the sweet peppers at the weekend, because even though there are no signs of roots at the bottom of the pots, I'm sure the current ones are too small and it might inhibit future growth of the fruit.

These ones are apache chillies, although the shape of them on one of the plants is completely different to the other two.

Can't wait to start cooking with these.

Daily Harvests

I am really enjoying my daily visits to the garden to see what is ready for picking. This was today's harvest

and this was yesterday's

A quick cabbage update; contrary to my previous post, I think the cabbage was golden acre primo afterall. I have a couple of offenhams starting to "heart up" in one of the beds and they look completely different to yesterday's. It made a lovely coleslaw for lunch today.

I don't mind having courgette and mange tout on the menu every night and am coming up with more inventive ways to cook with them... might have to start looking up cucumber recipes soon.

First Cabbage...

... not just this season, but ever! It took me three years to successfully grow a cabbage and I'm over the moon.

The label says it's a golden acre primo, but it looks oval rather than round, so I'm guessing I mixed up my labels and it's an offenham. I don't really mind what it is. A third was steamed for tonight's dinner along with some mange tout, potatoes, a stir fry of courgettes & shallots and some salmon.

First Cucumbers

Earlier today I was thinking that the mini-white cucumbers should be ready soon, so I took a peek under the leaves

and found these

and there are plenty more on the plants that will ripen in no time, including this marketmore

Cucurbits are also making their presence felt in the front garden; whilst the courgettes are coming thick and fast, I haven't had any summer squash, and it's summer now!! The leaves are huge

and the pumpkin plants, which have small fruits on them, are starting to blaze a trail across the lawn

I knew that they grew large but I'm not sure I was expecting them to scramble so much.

View from the potting shed

The veg plot is pretty full at the moment. This is the view from the potting shed

More experienced gardeners would probably say that things are planted too close together... and they would be right, but I have a lot to fit into the space and it seems to be working okay so far.

I am now harvesting enough of a selection of veg every day so that I don't need to buy any from the shops. In the past few days I have continued to pick mange tout, peas, courgettes and turnips but also had the first potatoes (see patience is a virtue post), first shallots

and first pak choi (although I had to pick this because it bolted, I think they are supposed to grow bigger than this)

A couple of cabbages should also be ready in the next week or so.

I think I could still do better to keep it going for as long as possible. My successional sowing has fallen by the wayside, so I rectified this by sowing a selection of lettuces and salad leaves, chinese cabbage, chicory and some onions for pickling (the last lot didn't materialise into anything).

I also need to get some more root veg in the ground, or rather containers... for some reason they didn't grow in the raised bed so that got filled up with brassicas. The ones that I already have in containers are doing much better so I bought some builder's buckets today and need to get sowing.

Patience is a virtue...

... one which I do not possess.

I posted a couple of weeks ago that I had 5 more weeks to wait for my potatoes... well, various sources state that early potatoes only take 12-13 weeks from planting to harvesting and as today is 13 weeks I didn't need any more encouragement to have a furtle around in one of the potato sacks.

I wasn't disappointed.

A few of these were boiled and joined various other veg: pak choi stir fried with shallots, glazed turnips, steamed mange tout & peas, yellow & round courgettes lightly sautéed in butter (all from the garden), and a roasted free range corn fed chicken (not from the garden) on my plate for dinner - delicious!

Fruit

My garden hasn't been the biggest producer of fruit; so far this year I have picked a few strawberries, about a tablespoon of blackcurrants.

and a handful of cherries

By far, the biggest harvest has been gooseberries, which I picked this morning.

Check here to see what I did with them.