Something fruity

The weather today was glorious, so I took pictures of the various blossom as it looked particularly pretty...

Pear

Cherry

Blueberry

I did actually do some fruit based gardening today as well. The strawberry planters were looking really sorry for themselves; full of leaves and last year's woody runners weren't helping, so I removed all of the debris, leaving just the healthy plants, topped them up with fresh compost and then planted out some new plants amongst them to fill in the gaps.

Just waiting for the apple and plum blossom to show up, but I am already really looking forward to the fruit harvest this year.

The plan was...

So, an absence of little green seedlings in the potting shed meant that I had planned to get a couple, one or two plants just in case my re-sowing also produces nothing.... a couple of garden centres on Easter Monday later I am the proud purchaser of five tomato plants

a small forest of chillies and sweet peppers

and eight strawberry plants

 

I also need to replace the raspberry canes so whilst I was there thought I may as well get them as well 

I did stick to the plan where the potatoes are concerned, to get them 'in the ground' at Easter and they are now planted in the usual sacks but also a few buckets; just thought I'd try something new this year.

Re-sowing will have to wait for another day. Hopefully the weather will stabilise over the next few days as I really need to sort out the raised beds and would prefer a decent period without rain.

A good day!

Today was a good day to start sowing, so I did; 4 varieties of chilli, 2 varieties of sweet pepper, 4 varieties of tomato, cape gooseberries and strawberries. The sun has gone in now, but fingers crossed the potting shed is warm enough for the seeds to germinate in the next couple of weeks.

I don't think I have ever successfully grown strawberries from seed, but I do recall sowing them in the past... maybe 2016 is the year?!

I'm not planning anything particularly radical or new this year, just hoping for an abundance of produce to keep us well-fed, the freezer well-stocked and enough to make some chutney along the way.

Hopefully 2016 is also the year that I keep up with this blog and don't let it become neglected, again.

What's fruiting?

The strawberries have come on leaps and bounds in the last week or so... all of a sudden the plants have shot up; this was a couple of weeks ago...

... and this is today

Strawberries everywhere!! I also spotted a tiny cucumber or two making an appearance; these ones are passandra

I've got a good feeling about this season.

Where on earth have I been?

It's been ages... not posted since January; so far this year it's been a slow process but hopefully things are looking up with the weather and it shouldn't take too long to catch up.

So, what's doing well?

I have a fine selection (if a bit slug & snail munched!) of courgette, pumpkin & squash in the greenhouse; some of the larger ones should be ready for planting out soon.

Cucumbers and a couple of watermelon plants are also coming along nicely.

 

 

Tomotoes are coming into their own after a very slow start.

There is a very fine tray of various lettuce needing to be planted out...

... a few peppers and a couple of cape gooseberries coming up behind everything else.

The potatoes (for Easter) clearly didn't arrive in time, but they are looking quite healthy; I doubt they will be ready yet, but I might have a bit of a rummage in the sacks to see what's there.

And finally, there are loads of flowers on the strawberries so hopefully that means there will be lots of fruit.

 

 

There is still a lot to be done though; haven't sown any peas or beans yet, only have a few brassicas, sweetcorn germination was very poor so need to resow, not sown any leeks, parsnips or turnips either as it's been too cold... I am going to be very busy for the next few weeks!

Let's get this sow(ing) on the road!

It's been quite a nice weekend, apart from the torrential wind and rain overnight on Saturday (when I wouldn't have been doing much gardening anyway!)

So, got started with a bit of sowing; 3 each of moneymaker, gardener's delight, red cherry, green zebra and cream sausage, along with some mustard and cress which surprisingly I have never grown before.

I also purchased seed potatoes; maris bard & bonnie and set them out on the kitchen windowsill to chit until ready to plant in the spring.

Strawberry plants were delivered. A couple of weeks ago, the fruit bed was cleared out as I am relocating soft fruit elsewhere in the garden, so I ordered some new plants at the same time; 6 of the variety vibrant are in in the potting shed with the roots covered in moist compost until I plant them out.

Let's hope the last of the snow has fallen and I can continue as I have started.

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!

Berries Galore!

Well, not quite; although we have had a couple of punnets worth of strawberries so far this year. This batch was picked today

It is a constant battle to beat the slugs and there are so many more that they get to first... they don't even eat the whole fruit, but damage them just enough to make them unfit for human consumption! Then the woodlice get in there and have a go at the decomposing ones.

Partly my fault as I have let the soft fruit bed run wild this year; I didn't cut down the raspberry canes, or remove the straw that I put down last year, or weed it, so I have created a haven for creepy crawlies to thrive in.

So much so, that picking anything that doesn't naturally rise above the mayhem is like a bush-tucker trial. These gooseberries had the added complexity of thorns hampering their collection (the redcurrants got pulled off during the process and are not quite ripe yet)

So, learning point for next year... keep on top of the general garden maintenance!

A more positive fruity note...

... berries and currants are doing rather well.

Raspberries in particular just keep coming :-)

Trug back in Action

The trug is out of hibernation as today is the first day I have harvested a selection of produce.

The onion leaves started to bend over a week or so ago which I think means they are just about ready to be picked.

I don't think the weather has been warm enough to pull them up and dry them out so they are still in the ground apart from this one, the biggest one.

The carrot was also in the onion bed... don't know how, but one solitary seed found it's way in there, germinated and grew.

I picked the courgette smaller than normal as it should encourage others to follow. Similarly with the mange tout, the more regularly you pick the more prolific the plants.

This is also the first picking of redcurrants and blackcurrants; the bushes are surrounded and overshadowed by the strawberries that ran and rooted themselves and the raspberries that I forgot (or rather left it too late) to cut down last season, but are still managing to crop quite well.

Big Gardening Weekend - The Results

Where does the time go? It didn't help that today was almost a complete washout... this is how I performed against the plan:

lettuce to sow - nope

lettuce to plant out - yes, a selection of little gem and reines de glaces now reside in the wicker bed

brassicas to plant out - sort of... well, 50% of the ones I intended to plant out have been; 2 romanesca nautalino, 3 flower sprout and 2 savoy cabbages are now in a raised bed. The rest are still in the potting shed.

tomatoes to pot on and/or plant out - yes, 4 moneymaker have joined a slangen longoda and a mini-white in the reusable growbags

chillies to pot on - yes, all done... no photos though.

sweet peppers to pot on - yes, all done and they are flowering / bearing fruit already

squash to pot on - nope, but on closer inspection they didn't need to be

melons to pot on - again nope, but didn't to be

courgettes to plant out - yes, the final all green bush is now planted outside. Had to dispose of one of the earlier ones though and I'm not sure if it was a tondo di toscana or a gold rush... as I only had one of each of these might have to resow a couple of each.

cucumbers to pot on and/or plant out - yep, see mini-white above... the other ones, marketmore, marketer and a gherkin aren't actually ready to go out yet.

peas and beans to plant out (and work out why some of the ones already planted out appear to be dying) - nope, urgently need to to this during the week, but the good news is the earlier ones seem to be perking up.

sweetcorn to plant out - yes, all done

a raised bed that needs clearing - yes, this is where the newly planted brassicas are.

a fruit bed that needs weeding - yes, and I also put down some straw to hopefully keep the remaining strawberries clean.

nematodes to spread... that will teach those damn slugs! - oh yes, all out war has begun.

Fruity Friday

I have been picking strawberries for a week or so now and there are plenty left on the plants waiting to ripen. This was this evening's pickings along with the first of the raspberries

I decided to take a slow wander around the garden to see how the rest of the fruits are coming along, so here a few photos of apples

pears

plums

cherries

redcurrants (with a few blackberries sneaking into shot)

and the surprise of the evening... cranberries

...okay, so not enough to make a jar of sauce but I'm happy all the same. Last year's attempt produced nothing.