The Vegetable Garden is Doing Well

It has been a little while since my last blog but now I will attempt to catchup on the news.

Everything I planted is doing incredibly well with the exception of one thing and that is Marrows.  I have grown them very successfully in the past so why they have rejected my tender loving care this year I have no idea.  Never giving up totally on anything, I have this week pushed a few more seeds directly into the ground and will live in hope.  The courgettes are thriving so I suppose I could allow them to grow large and just pretend they are marrows.

We are now reaping the benefits of our labours and are enjoying lots of salads, spinach, cabbage, turnips (surely the most under-rated of all vegetables) and swiss chard.

This is the first year we have grown swiss chard but it certainly won't be the last.  This week we picked some and cooked it by the simplest possible method, just steaming, stalks first for three minutes, then adding the roughly shredded leaves for a further five minutes.  Absolutely delicious and my only regret is that we didn't discover this delightful vegetable years ago.

We have also had quite a surplus of spinach but, not wishing to waste a thing, I discovered a recipe for spinach and celery soup and this proved to be really good. I have now made a batch and put it in the freezer ready for cooler days.

The runner beans have begun to climb very nicely up the canes and the tomatoes, both in the greenhouse and in the garden, are beginning to fruit.

One very small problem has been the lack of rain so my long suffering husband Peter (no gardener himself) has spent many hours standing holding the hose pipe. Maybe I should buy him a sprinkler system for his birthday, now there's a thought!.

A Dry Week In The Garden

Not a drop of rain this week which means Peter has had to get the hose pipe out at the crack of dawn each morning.  It is now over two weeks since we have had any rain at all and I am seriously thinking of doing a little dance to the rain gods, praying for a real downpour.  (My apologies if you are currently on holiday enjoying the sunshine).

Unfortunately, we are still experiencing ground frost at night so all the plants currently  hardening off outside have to be tucked away in the greenhouse each evening. The runner beans are now a good size and I am anxious to get them in the ground but the tender plants will have to wait a bit longer yet.

The peas "Kelvedon Wonder" have come through a little erratically so I have just pushed a few more into the ground filling up empty spaces. I use the very technical method of wearing a rubber glove and using my thumb, simple but it works.   I had to do the same thing last year but we ended up with an excellent crop.

The Alpines are looking particularly pretty just now with their gorgeous colours but I must admit, although they look wonderful , later in the season I will have very few in bloom.  I guess that is just bad planning on my part but if anybody knows of late flowering alpines I should be delighted to hear from them.

A dear little Olive tree that was a gift to us for Christmas 2008 has now been brought out of the greenhouse and put into the garden for the summer.  It is still very small and I am not optimistic that we will see any fruit for the next couple of years at least but I shall continue to lovingly tend to it and eventually I am sure our patience will be rewarded.

I still find it impossible to resist the temptation of buying salad and vegetable bags every time we go out and they are now in every available space in the garden.  Surely they are the best way of container gardening ever and you only need to spend a fraction of what you would pay for large tubs.    I must admit seeing the little seedlings popping through never fails to thrill.

A Busy Week In The Garden

At this time of the year there is always plenty of jobs to be done in the garden, most of them really enjoyable.

This week Peter has put the blade down on the mower and we now have a really nice looking lawn rather than the somewhat miserable grassy area we have been looking at for the last few months.

My contribution to the flower garden this week has been limited to walking round admiring the spring flowers.  Surely tulips are amongst the loveliest of spring flowers and the pretty primroses which bloom year after year, in spite of following a very hard winter.

Although I have done little in the flower garden, I haven't been totally lazy and potted up lots of tomato plants grown from seed.  The only problem I have is that I simply cannot resist potting up every single brave little seedling that germinated and always end up with far too many plants.  I shall have to try really hard to find good caring homes for the surplus.

I had five tiny little seed potatoes left and, as I can't bear to throw anything away, I went out to buy yet another potato bag to grow them in.  Unfortunately I accidentally picked up and "extra large bag" and when I opened the pack was astounded at just how large it was.  I promptly went out and bought another small bag and the potatoes are comfortably settled in their new home.

The extra large potato bag has now been utilized as a "mobile garden" which we filled with compost and have sown cabbage seeds in.  In fact I am so impressed with this that I think we shall buy some more bags to put in any available spot in the garden and therefore obtain extra growing space for yet more delicious vegetables and salads.

The runner beans in the greenhouse are now growing strongly and, in the next few days, will be put outside to harden off prior to, planting out.

Beans (Runner and French)

Beans are our absolutely favourite vegetable and we try and make room in the garden to grow as many as we can. Apart from having generous portions with almost every meal during the growing season, we also freeze them for use during the winter months.

We grow two varieties, one of which is Scarlet Emperor, the most vigorous of all the runner beans and it never fails to produce huge super crops regardless of weather conditions, although we do use the hose pipe during very dry spells.

I start these off in the greenhouse and plant twice as many as I am likely to need. The reason being that as soon as I put them outside I guarantee the slugs will come along to claim their share. I replace each one as soon as the (now very fat) slugs have finished their tasty meal but always end up with plenty of healthy plants for our own use so I am not complaining, well not too much anyway.

This variety does have "strings" but I have discovered an absolutely fantastic gadget which not only removes the strings but also slices the beans beautifully. This is a "KRISK, French style bean slicer", very inexpensive and really easy to use.

Even Peter, my husband, although not exactly kitchen orientated, needs very little persuasion to sit preparing beans for the freezer.

Each year I also like to try a different type of climbing runner bean simply because there are now so many to choose from and I love experimenting. I have had moderate success with the purple and yellow varieties and will certainly be trying those again next season.

The gorgeous little french beans I plant directly into the garden and, by waiting until the ground has warmed up a little, we had a good crop this year in just about eight weeks from planting. Every couple of weeks I push a few more beans into any available space, or even a container, therefore ensuring a continuous supply.

We always grow far too much of everything for our own use but get enormous pleasure from "showing-off" and sharing out the surplus with friends and family.

To digress, it really is amazing to have reached December and the geraniums are still in bloom. I am sure all the clever scientists would attribute this to global warming but I just think how very lucky we are that the hard frosts are late in arriving this year.