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 Lovely Week In The Garden

With some lovely spring weather this week, at last we can get really busy in the garden.  Yes it can be hard work at the beginning of the season but oh so enjoyable and worth every bit of the muscular aches and pains that come with it.

This week I have planted four short rows of spinach in different varieties so that I can compare the results.  These are Lazio, Toscane, Mediana and Galaxy and come in one pack from "Garden Extras.  I also sowed in the garden "Suttons" Beetroot, Bolthardy and Turnip Atlantic both of which I grew very successfully last year.

Until last season I had never grown, or even bought, turnips but then we discovered how very easy they are to grow and how absolutely delicious they are cooked in a variety of ways. Not only are we growing them again this year but will massively increase the quantity.

I have also planted some more potato pods and put even more to chit ready for planting in the next two or three weeks. Hopefully they won't all be ready together as we have no desire to eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner just to avoid waste. However, I feel sure we will find some willing hands to relieve us of any surplus.

The seeds in the greenhouse are thriving with tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, courgettes and lettuces all growing strongly.

We do have considerable problems with cats and foxes who seem to take an absolute delight in digging up everything I plant but I have discovered, quite by accident, a really excellent way of protecting them. This is gutter guard mesh from Garden Extras and at approximately seven inches wide covers beautifully a row of newly sown seeds.  Not intended for the purpose I know but it is cheap, it works, and I am incredibly proud of myself for making the discovery.

This Week In My Garden

This week the weather has varied from beautiful spring like days to bitterly cold wintry evenings making gardening a little difficult. However I have now made a start on some seed sowing in the greenhouse and have lettuce, peppers, tomatoes, cucumber, courgettes and thyme on the go.  I also potted up some swiss chard that I sowed a week or two ago.

I had started four bags of potatoes in the greenhouse (on reflection this was far too early) and have now put them outside hoping this will encourage them to grow, something they seem particularly reluctant to do..

When I did this the weather was glorious for a few hours but that evening I heard a forecast that sub-zero temperatures were expected that night.  Help! panic stations.  Hastily I groped my way down the garden in pitch darkness to tuck them in with some garden fleece.  Although I have a feeling that I may have lost this crop, totally down to my impatience, I did notice one little shoot struggling through the surface of the soil so, who knows, I will nurse them along for a bit and see what happens. In the meantime I have put a few more in trays to get them to chit before planting.

I have taken the anti-frost fleece off of the onions and the little garden ornaments/scarecrows seem to be doing their job beautifully as the birds have not touched them.  On previous seasons I have constantly gathered  onions up from all over the garden and re-planted them.  I also planted just a few shallots this week.

We spent one day at a garden centre admiring the many gorgeous things on offer and wishing we had a garden the size of a park. There are so many lovely things available but I contented myself by buying some "Westlands John  Innes Sure Start" seed compost which I find is excellent plus some seeds.  I am sure we will be making lots more visits in the coming weeks.

I notice the rhubarb is beginning to sprout beautifully and I do not hasten this along, as many people do, by covering with cloches or forcing.  I allow it to develop in its own good time and look forward to the days when we have delicious crumbles and pies, not too far in the future.