All caught up

I finally feel as if I have caught up with everything; all of the fruit and veg I had planned to grow this year is now underway... some of it a fair bit later than previous years, but who says those dates are rigid anyway?

Today, I finally sowed carrots (nantes 5 & autumn king) and parsnips (albion). I also came across an unopened packet of butternut squash which had a sow by date of 2016; there were only 5 seeds so I thought I may as well sow them all.

To mark this momentous day, a couple of cucumber seedlings decided to make an appearance.

I am making some configuration changes this year, moving a few beds around and still haven't decided where everything is going to go, but as a result the poor raspberry canes have just been sat in the original packaging I brought them home in for over a month. So, I made the executive decision for this year to grow them in sacks alongside the potatoes. I have no idea how this will work out, but the roots looked quite healthy so fingers crossed.

Whilst I'm mentioning potatoes, they have put on some good growth since I planted them at Easter. The ones in buckets are doing just as well as the ones in the sacks.

Might start sowing flowers this weekend.

End of Year Review

So, here it is... my end of year review. First things first, lets get the disappointments out of the way:

Beetroot - what on earth happened there? I had new varieties, burpees golden and chioggia to try but they came to nothing more or less; partly because next door's cat thought that the freshly sown bed was put there for his benefit, but even subsequent sowings were poor. Old faithful boltardy did better, but I still didn't get as many as I should have done.

Brassicas - the less said about these the better; I'm not even going to detail them separately as absolutely nothing grew.

Broad beans - my first proper attempt was devastated by blackfly.

Courgettes - not a single fruit formed on any plants... actually, that's not strictly true; there were a couple but they just shrivelled up, and I have never failed to grow courgettes before.

Cucumbers - after the first couple the plants just seemed to give up so I also gave in and pulled them up.

Herbs - failed to germinate... end of story.

That's enough of that, now onto the good stuff.

I had more berries than previous years; a constant supply throughout the summer, from strawberries

to raspberries

and blackberries

Onions were spectacular

and tomatoes were consistent; they kept cropping until November

This year I also kept a tally of how much it would have cost to buy all of the fruit and veg that I produced; excluding the few things that never made it to the kitchen scales the grand total was.....




... drumroll




... £115.85 and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. I'm under no illusions that I'm near self-sufficient (especially not this year), or have broken-even but still, it means I didn't spend it on produce.


The highlights were:

Potatoes £29.00
Tomatoes £15.31
Parsnips £10.55
Raspberries £8.62
Onions £8.54
Peppers £8.48
Strawberries £8.29

So, onwards and upwards to 2013 and next season!

Glorious Parsnips

This year's parsnips definitely warrant a post of their own; I eagerly harvested one in August and wasn't disappointed, then waited until November before pulling up two or three each week

However, the amount of wet weather we were having and the waterlogged ground started to worry me, so in early December I decided to pull them all up; this was a mammoth task in itself as thinning out is not something I tend to engage in

and I wasn't expecting so many

So, what to do with them all? Half of them were blanched and put in the freezer for roasting later; the rest of them became one of the easiest soups I have ever made.

I simply, chopped them up and fried them with some onion, sea salt, cumin, paprika and a couple of whole chillies

Added stock and cooked until softened

Removed the whole chilli and blended; it was quite thick so I needed to add a bit more stock to get the perfect consistency

It kept us fed for days!

Mighty fine haul

Today has been a good day... the sun was shining and I harvested a mighty fine haul from the garden.

Emptied the first sack of very pretty bonnie potatoes; this is the first time I have grown this variety and am very pleased with the results

A lovely selection of beetroot had reached picking size, so they came up

Tomatoes are ripening quite frequently now, so this is what gets picked on almost a daily basis

I have never been known for patience and my lack of it got the better of me today; I've been admiring the foliage on the parsnips and wondering what was happening under the ground so pulled one up

I should also be harvesting cucumbers and courgettes right now but it just isn't happening; so far I have only had 3 cucs and the plants aren't producing anything else so I made the decision to put them out of their misery and pull them up. On the courgette front I have not had a single one... I'll probably end up pulling them up as well, but saw a ray of hope on one of the plants this afternoon so will give them another week or so.

But, I don't want to finish on a negative so here are first blackberries of the year

It may only be a grand total of 3 at the moment, but there are loads more just about to turn so watch this space...

Missed a 'snip

Don't know how, but I managed to miss a parsnip when I thought I had dug them all up earlier in the week. I spotted a lush green tuft in the raised bed this morning and upon further investigation discovered this stocky root underneath

As I type it is parboiling and will be getting a roasting in rosemary and honey as a lovely addition to tonight's dinner. I think that is definitely the last one now so intend to enjoy it.

First Seedlings

Yes they are tiny, but earlier this week saw the appearance of the first seedlings. You can just about see the rocket in here

Slightly easier to spot is the mixed salad

In harvesting news I pulled a few leeks

and dug up the last of the parsnips

on the same day that I sowed a row of white gem into a recently re-built raised bed.

I also sowed 6 mini-white cucumbers in the greenhouse. I have returned to this variety because they have always produced perfect results for me and in large quantities. I seem to struggle with the more traditional longer cukes so have decided to stick with what works well for me.

Now for a confession... I had to re-sow some broad beans. My autumn sown batch that were doing so well were killed in the frosts. My own fault; I kept reminding myself that they needed to be fleeced but never got round to it, so there are six new sutton sowings in the greenhouse alongside the cucumbers.

Christmas Veg

So, what became of my attempts at potatoes for Christmas? Well, a couple of weeks ago I thought I had failed miserably... I had some friends over for dinner so decided to liberate one sack of red duke of york for roasting and discovered that 99% of them were covered in what I think is scab and the remaining 1% were rotten. Peeling didn't bring the scabby ones back to edible status.

Completely my own fault I think; I hadn't been taking care of them properly for a while and kept telling myself that I needed to move them undercover but never got round to it. The sacks had been waterlogged and I just left them to their own devices.

Anyway, I left the remaining sacks outside to deal with another day; one more red duke of york and two charlottes.

Today, I went out to pull up parsnips for tomorrow's dinner, more about them in a minute, and decided to empty one of the charlotte sacks just to see... well, I was pleasantly surprised.

There were a couple of dodgy ones in there but the vast majority were practically perfect. Now, the yield was a bit smaller than I got from the summer spuds, but as I have never successfully grown Christmas spuds before, I don't know if that's normal?! I will empty the other two sacks after Christmas, just to see what they are like.

Right, back to the parsnips... the final row has now had a couple of frosts so should be sweeter that the ones I have previously pulled up. This row was sown too close together so are smaller in size individually, but were much easier to get out of the ground than the earlier mammoth ones... I got these up with my bare hands.

Today's final harvest was a few lettuce leaves; these will be joined by some prawns for that classic starter we all know and love.

I already have my own carrots, sprouts, swede, romanesco and french beans in the freezer and am so excited about bringing it all together for Christmas dinner.

I hope everybody has a good one!

Good Roots

I've had some whopper parsnips so far this season, most of which I have had to fight out of the ground

Other roots; carrots and beetroot have been pretty good too, producing a constant supply

I ended up having to pull up all of the carrots at the start of October because something started eating them in the ground. These were the last ones that came up.

Swede is technically a brassica but they look and grow like roots so I'm including them here. I have only had a couple of decent ones this year but as that's more than last year I'm treating them as a success.

I have a freezer well stocked with both carrots and parsnips and also another row of parsnips still in the ground. The remaining were sown quite close together and thinning out has never been a strength of mine so at the weekend I pulled up a few of the smaller ones

Very tasty there were too.

12 rounds with a Parsnip!

Harvesting my first parsnip a couple of weeks ago was a bit (well a lot) of a struggle. I was huffing and puffing, trying to dig round it with a trowel without damaging the neighbouring roots and using sheer brute force. It did not want to budge.

I did have images of a cartoon-type end to the fight where I pull it out of the ground and fall flat on my backside... the time it took, I would have settled for that.

When it finally came out of the ground I still didn't manage to get it out in one piece; the tip remained it the soil.

I really, really enjoyed eating it I can tell you.

P******s

Parsnips aren't the easiest root to get started and after my lack of success last year I am determined to get some this time around.

So, today I started with a brand new pack of tender and true seeds... if what people say is correct, I don't want to be using old seed. I sunk the tubes from some toilet rolls into the soil which was already moist and had been nicely warmed up by the sun, and sowed a solitary seed into each tube before covering over with soil and patting it down.

All I can do now is wait...

Succession Sowing

I am trying to get into the habit of succession sowing this year; this weekend I have sown another row each of white gem parsnips, chantenay red cored carrots and mammoth snowstar leeks in the raised beds along with a large tub of white gem parsnips.

I also added to the brassicas by sowing some more kale and purple sprouting broccoli as I'm hoping they will provide fresh veg throughout the winter and into spring when there is not a great deal around - essential if I'm going to achieve self-sufficiency.

On the subject of brassicas, I planted out another batch into the raised beds; mainly cabbages, golden acre primo, offenham flower of spring and kalibos, along with some kale and purple sprouting broccoli. 

My plug plant enterprise has had a 50% success rate so far; the beetroot has germinated very well, but not one single turnip has come up. I'll give the beetroot another week before planting out though, hopefully that should be okay; they are still a lot smaller than the plugs sold in the garden centre and I need to strike a balance between them being strong enough, but not so advanced that the roots are damaged by transplanting.

More outdoor sowings and a cheeky little taster

Encouraged by the evidence of new growth this morning I got on with a bit more outdoor sowing today; into the raised bed went a row each of:

• Carrot (Chantenay Red Cored)
• Carrot (Early Nantes)
• Beetroot (Boltardy)
• Parsnip (White Gem) - didn't use toilet roll tubes this time, but I did pour boiling water on the soil first.

I used one of the spare bulb crates to broadcast sow Kamal and Sweet Spanish Yellow onions. Depending on how they get on I will thin out at salad onion size as necessary and leave some to grown on to full size. I'll also compare these ones to the ones I sowed undercover last month (below) that will be planted out into the raised bed.

I also thought I'd sow another row of Paris Market into the bulb crate with the others as I need to get into the habit of succession sowing.

The rocket was looking rather tasty and I couldn't help myself... I only pinched a couple of leaves, just to try them and they were delicious.

Must exercise more self control!

The Germinator... or should that be germinated?

Yep, just the one. Of all the seeds I have sown so far, only one has germinated... can you spot it?

It's a cauliflower (all year round). What are the others waiting for?! Having checked my notes from previous years, germination has taken about a month, so I guess I am being a bit impatient... good things come to those who wait and all that.

Anyway, one or two of the garlic cloves have already put up shoots so there is some action in the garden.

So, what did I do today? In the potting shed I sowed:

• Onion (Kamal) x 5
• Onion (Sweet Spanish Yellow) x 5 

in little individual pots, and some rocket in a trough.

Outdoors, I planted the shallots (Golden Gourmet) x 12 in the raised bed, and also sowed:

• Carrots (Paris Market) x 2 rows
• Radish (Prinz Rotin) x 1 row
• Radish (French Breakfast) x 1 row

in a free bulb crate that I got from the local garden centre, and finally parsnips (White Gem) x 10 in the raised bed. Now with the parsnips I have sown in toilet roll tubes (which I did in my first year), and poured boiling water on the soil before dropping in the seeds (which I did in my second year... can't remember where I got that tip from), so hopefully the two in combination should work wonders.

Busy Winter Day

Now that the bulk of the Christmas festivities are over, I couldn't escape the fact that I had a bit... ok a lot of tidying up to do in the garden. So as the sun was shining (on and off), and it wasn't raining I decided to get out there and make a start on it.

So, first task was to dig up the last of the parsnips... they'll make a nice addition to today's roast dinner.

OK, they are a bit smaller than I thought they would be and not as impressive as the ones that came up on Christmas day.

But the soil is so wet I didn't even have to pull hard to get them out. I would rather eat them now than allow them to rot in the ground and I'm sure they will taste just as delicious.

Next on the list was to plant out the recently delivered cranberry plants... having looked up their soil  and growing preferences I opted for hanging baskets and made a trip to the garden centre to get some special compost. I hope they like their new surroundings.

 

 

It was also time to dispose of the sweet pepper and chilli plants that have been looking very sorry for themselves in the greenhouse... clinging on for dear life amongst the drooping foliage were these three little specimens.

I thought it was only fair that I bring them into the kitchen and give them the chance to fulfill their culinary destiny... probably a bolognese sauce.

Before the heavens opened I managed to address the leek bed. I have never been any good at thinning out... I think that if a seed makes the effort to germinate and become a seedling it is unfair to remove it just because the seedling next to it is bigger. Anyway, as a result of being too close together some of them are quite thin, but baby veg are all the rage these days.

So that's it, the last crops for this year have been gathered, and even if I say so myself, look pretty good when they're all cleaned up.

There is still a bit more to do out there... for a start I need to deconstruct and reconstruct my raised beds. If I'm brave enough I might even start sowing next week.