Veggies and yet more veggies....

  The amount of produce becoming available is becoming more that we can eat! Cauliflowers, cucumbers, peas, potatoes, courgettes, radish, lettuce, cabbage, kohl rabi, onions and beetroot  are all ready to harvest. I have frozen over two pounds of peas and there are more coming. The second sowing of peas and sugar snap peas are now showing. I am a little concerned that I might have a lettuce gap!! Time will tell.
   The chickens are still being a pain making dust bowls wherever they can find some dry soil. They have caused damage in my herb bed destroying a couple of sweet majoram plants. I have tried to get wise to them and not plant anything too close to the edge of a plot. They do seem to like the beds that have high edges. Guess they can rub their bums against the ridge!

Pair of Cauliflowers

Marketmore 76 Cucumbers

Sweetheart melo

   Tomatos inside and outside the poly tunnel are in profusion. How long before the chickens get wise? Umm, probably as soon as they start to turn red. Chickens like red apparently. Forage cabbage and beetroot for the animals has been transplanted but not as much as I would have liked but some is better than none. The sweetcorn has cobs on some of the plants and it will not be long before we are eatting that too. Today (30th June) I have dug up the first shallots sown from sets. Not a bad little crop but I think a little early. The shallot leaves had died down so they were not going to grow anymore. Maybe I will keep some of the larger ones and plant them in the autumn.
   Strawberries have been a disaster this year. I am afraid I ignored them when I should have been tending to them and now I suffer the consequences - no strawberries! Red and black currants are fat and sqeshey but they too have suffered from neglect. Note to self do better next season!
    So on we go. Lots to eat, lots to do!

First crops being harvested, second lot under way!

   Twelve days since the last blog entry. Umm.  I have frozen 4lbs of broad beans and so far 16oz of peas. These are ones that are surplus to our current eating! Rosebelle second early potatoes are now being regularly harvested and eagerly devoured. There are plenty! Carrots are being pulled. I have been a little disappointed with the early carrots in that the quantity has not been what I would have liked. The main summer crop is looking good though and should provide some baby carrots for the freezer. Over winter onions and garlic have been harvested and are hung up to dry. Very pleased with the garlic, disappointed with the onions. I doubt if I will plant over winter onions again. The sets planted earlier this year are also looking poor but those grown from seeds are looking fine. Shallots from sets look ok but not great.  Lots of weeding and forking being done. Marketmore 76 cucumbers in the poly tunnel are just wonderful. I have already cut two and there is another ready. They taste just great. My compost heap grows.

Weed compost heap -  over 2 cubic metres

   Runner bean sticks are up and beans sown. More Golden Primo cabbage sown in modules, mid season peas and sugar snap peas sown. More carrots and borlotti beans sown. Most crops are looking good with the weather being damp and warm everything is growing fast. I looked at last years garden log and read that I was picking haricot vert in June. So far this year my current haricot vert is just coming into flower. I still want to sow some haricot buerre (yellow) and need to find space somewhere! The sweet peppers are showing signs of flowering and the sweetheart melons are setting. Forage crops, cabbage and beetroot, have been sown although not in great quantity.

One of many sweetheart melons that have set

   All in all though I am quite pleased with the progress of the season so far. It is now time to start to plan for winter crops and first in will be the Limousin turnips and another attempt at parsnips. I sowed parsnips at this time of year in 2011 and they grew well only to be mostly eaten by moles or mice. So I will try again and see what happens. Two sowings so far have been an abject failure. I have winter carrots to try called Eskimo but still far too early for those. I think I may try more of the later variety of peas just for a laugh! In the poly tunnel I have transplanted some F1 Lion King white cabbage which is normally a white winter cabbage but I want to try and get some in the autumn. Further sowings of beetroot, primo cabbage and curly parsley have been sown.
 

Rain, rain go to Spain...

   New arrivals at Watermeadows! Firstly my third grand child, Toby, safely arrived on the 31st May. He is just a cutey. Also three Barberry/Mallard cross ducks and a goose have been added to our animal collection.

Goose with its bum to you and three ducks

   In between the heavy rain showers I have been moving along on the sowing, transplanting and harvesting front. Broad beans have now been picked, eaten, frozen (x4 1 pound bags worth!), cleared away and the in their place the next crop sown! (Sugar snap peas and peas). Carrots and peas are coming on stream along with cabbage in the poly tunnel. New potato's have been dug and boy are they delicious! My over winter onions have been a disappointment and I have started to pull them up. The onions are small. I have to harvest my over winter garlic very soon. The leaves are starting to die back and that apparently the sign they are ready to dig up. Well, I need the space for runner beans so any day now I will dig them up. I have weeded the tomato bed  and removed shoots. The bed is now looking very healthy and flowers are to be seen on some plants.
   In the poly tunnel tomato's have formed and are very visible. The chicory has been removed and some of the Little Gem lettuce. No one liked the chicory and the Little Gems were starting to go to seed. Coriander and radish sown. Greyhound and Chou Rouge cabbage transplanted.
   I have managed to transplant some flowers! Makes a change. Hopefully the chickens will leave them alone long enough for them to get established.
   White sage and sweet marjoram have a most delightful scent. I am really looking forward to these plants maturing.

The eating is good and getting better every day!

   Man, has it been two weeks since I wrote my last post? Time just flies by!
   Well, it has been another very busy two weeks. Those darn weeds grow so fast! I just cannot keep up despite spending hours clearing weeds. Plants just grow so fast here. My compost heap must now be a good 2 to 3 cubic metres and still growing.
   So what has been going on? Well the good news. At least 95% of my frosted tomato's have recovered. Even the Vilma bush tomato's that I thought were goners have grown back. I have just lost time it would seem but hey ho with the long season here I do not think that will matter too much, however, I did loose most of my sweet corn but the second sowing has germinated and is growing well.  In the outside garden I have harvested the first potatoes (Rosebelle) (9th June), cast eyes over the peas, pulled a few carrots, picked broad beans and cut lettuce. We have eaten lots of salad! Other jobs done are transplanting Cape Gooseberries, celery, La Diva cucumbers and celeriac. The melons have a number of male flowers on them but no sign of a female yet. The bad news. Well, onions grown from sets have done poorly this year. Too wet? Wrong bed? The onions grown from seed are looking good and I think next year I will not bother with sets. Several of the new apple trees are suffering from aphids.

Rosebelle potatoes harvested 090612

Common Thyme in flower

   In the poly tunnel harvesting, sowing and transplanting continue. Lettuce, herbs, cabbage have all been gathered. Purple and lettuce leaf basil has been transplanted. Purple basil is good for making pesto apparently. The Market 76 cucumbers have already set a couple of cucumbers much to my surprise. I have transplanted some sweet marjoram into a poly tunnel bed to compare performance with that outside. The scent of this herb when you squeeze the leaves is just lovely. The white sage is going well and that too has a very strong scent. I am looking forward to seeing and smelling both of these herbs when the plants get bigger. Cauliflowers are growing well as are the tomato's. I had to remove Pak Choi that went to seed without having eaten any of them. Guess you cannot eat everything! Lemon coriander and more radish sown. Batavia lettuce transplanted, Webs Wonderful, salad bowl and Rocket sown.
   As you can read from the previous paragraphs it has been a very busy two weeks and I do not think I have included everything that I have sown, transplanted or harvested. The grass is being mowed at least once a week as the weather has been warm with rain showers which is very good for growing. I have been looking at last years log and noticed that certain crops, for example, haricot vert, surprisingly, are two to three weeks late. My daughter tells me that this year in France it has been unusually cold and wet. This years haricot vert are not in flower yet! Looks like it is going to be a poor apple and cherry harvest this year. The Limousin "Golden Triangle" (where a lot of Limousin apples are grown) have lost a lot of fruit to "black" frost. Well, I have to admit this spring has been very different to last year that's for sure!