CATCH UP PART 1 up to 15th June 2019

   It has been five weeks since I wrote my last blog. A lot has happened in the garden in that time so I have decided to split the update into two or maybe three separate blogs. Here is the first issue!
   Now we are into June the efforts of the previous month begin to bear fruit, well, vegetables any rate! Broad beans, lettuce, rhubarb, carrots, asparagus and first early new potatoes, variety ANOE all being picked, pulled and dug. The ANOE potatoes have been a success and I will most certainly plant them again next year. For once my Great Lakes lettuce (Iceberg type) have also been a success with the weather conditions ideal for them. The usual tasks of weeding and mowing grass took place. Gaps in the climbing yellow haricot resowed, Red swede sowed, more Touchon carrots sowed. The carrots are looking good this year too. Another lot of summer cabbage transplanted to my brassica bed so hopefully they will follow on from my initial lot which also have been very good. The first sowing of beetroot have been thinned out and a number of the thinned out plants transplanted to another bed. 
   On the animal front all ten sheep sheared. Tragedy on the chicken front. Our perdue coq Bonaparte was killed along with one generic and our Buff Orpington hen, Mrs Buffy, leaving her seven chicks orphans. Her surviving chick from her first clutch, now some twelve weeks old took on the task of looking after the chicks!. To save anymore losses all the hens are now confined and the chicks put with our incubated chicks in a secure enclosure. The large hen was placed with the main flock and is now part of that group.
  So that brings me up to the middle of June. Unfortunately I am unable to put up any pictures as I still need to sort out the mess that is my file system on my laptop! Next catch up blog soon.

COMING SOON! CATCH UP BLOG!

     I am sorry that there has not been a blog for quite a while. My laptop hard drive decided to fail and my attempts at recovery failed. I had to get help and I am now in the process of recovering my laptop with my customisations etc. Getting my blog up to date is getting higher on the list so hopefully it will not be long!

regards,

Rodger

Technology is great when it works!

    My apologies for the delayed blog. I went to the UK for week to see my youngest daughter, her hubby and my two grand daughters and came back to discover that my Internet connection had failed. Well it ought to have been a quick fix but unfortunately the engineer appointment was made and he tried to contact me on my mobile! I have no mobile signal so a rearranged appointment had to be made and that was another week gone by. Oh well all is good now.

    I have been working hard in the vegetable garden. Of course that includes mowing the 

grass. Mostly weeding but a good deal of transplanting as well.

Marketmore cucumbers and Noiree Crimea tomatoes.

Early purple sprouting plants

   So the last blog was the 5th May. For the time of year the weather has been cool and damp. Grand growing weather but not what we expect. Usually the average temperature is in the 20C region. Not this year. Good for the garden, cool but warm with a little but frequent rain.  What tomatoes I had and that was not many have been transplanted within the poly tunnel and also a few outside. There are a few more to follow but no where as many as I usually have. Started to pull lettuce from the poly tunnel, Batavia Blonde, plants bought from the local market. Marketmore cucumbers transplanted and I have some Wautoma to go outside when they are a little bigger. One issue I have with this type of weather is everything grows! Plants, weeds and grass! So lots of weeding done and as I write this there is still more to do! Never ends to be honest. Generic cauliflowers (no name on the label!) bought from the local market and transplanted to my brassica bed. This bed has had manure on it over the winter and as I prepare it for plants I add lime and 10:10:10 fertilizer. That should make them grow! 

Rhubarb

   The asparagus has finally started to produce. Seems late to me. Melons and squash plants (Crown Prince, Long Island Cheese, Kuri, American Tonda). transplanted to what has become their usual beds. I have sown some melon seed in the poly tunnel this year just to see how it does. Broad beans are all but ready to pick. Crop looks a little disappointing as I think it was a little cool for the plants to be pollinated.
   On the animal front all the chickens continue to thrive and the sheep are needing to be sheared! Looks like the next week is going to be hot with temperatures in the upper 20C.

Middle Great Lakes lettuce Right Mange toute

Pointy cabbage!

Early purple sprouting transplanted

x4 Great Lakes lettuce in the poly tunnel

1st Early potatoes Anoe about to flower

  

Charentais cantaloupe melon

Busy busy busy!

Desiree main crop potatoes

Various squash varieties in my poly tunnelf

   A gift of a rhubarb root that was destined to be thrown away has sprouted leaves. It is amazing how resilient plants can be. So what have I been up to? Well, of course, the usual grass mowing and weeding neither of which I am able to get on top of at this time of year! It is a merry go round of mowing and weeding! More lettuce pulled from the poly tunnel, very nice too! First sowing of haricot vert made and I discovered much to my pleasure a french    equivalent to White Lisbon spring onions. A row has been sowed. My planned cabbage patch has been primed with agricultural lime and variety Cabus (bit like Greyhound cabbage, pointy!) bought at the local marked planted out. As the year progresses then late summer and winter varieties will be also planted in this bed. Looking forward to cabbage. It is so expensive here. More Touchon carrot sown. Blooming chickens have been having a fine time scratching up my rows of carefully sown beetroot and carrot! Weeded and started to prepare another bed for more carrots and beetroot. This bed had some of last years salsify growing in it so I have transplanted those and I will see what happens. I discovered that I had not sown any basil yet this year and found that I did not have any seed! Bought a french variety, Marseillais, which I had not realised until I looked it up that it is a miniature basil ideal for growing in pots and very fragrant apparently.
   On the animal front the sheep are now needing to be sheared. On the chicken front Mrs Buffy sits tight on her eight eggs, her Ixworth chick is growing as are the two still over at my daughters under a brooding lamp.
  So on we go!
   

And now the rewards start

   The first lettuce have been pulled from the poly tunnel. That's lettuce and radish now being harvested. Potatoes are showing and I am running around covering them up as fast as they push themselves above the soil. Frost is still a retreating threat up until the middle of May! More weeding done. It never ends to be honest!  Bit like the grass mowing at this time of year. I have joined up three of my small beds and sowed cosmos, woad and marigolds with a thought to encouraging pollinating insects. Part of the bed has an established population of comfrey used for making liquid fertilizer. It will be nice to have some flowers. While preparing the bed for the squash plants I came across "volunteer" Violet potatoes planted some two years ago. I have now moved them to their own bed in hope of getting a boiling or two. More tomatoes transplanted to pots and from thinking I will not have enough tomato plants this year I will have at least fifty with more to come so I am content! More lettuce sown although experience tells me that growing lettuce after May is not very successful. It tends to be too hot! I have sown sweet corn in modules with a thought to planting up a bed with the plants and also seed to hopefully get a bit of a succession. First row of Sanquine beet sown and I noticed that my transplanted parsnip seedlings have taken. All in all a busy week and still plenty to do! Oh yes, there was grass mowing too!
   On the animal front nothing happening with the sheep. Mrs Buffy (Buff Orpington hen) has decided to go broody again and I will need to keep an eye on her chick. The chick is six weeks old and should be ok. We have some eggs given to us by a friend in an incubator and one has hatched with another not making it and it would seem one more about to hatch. Hopefully we will get a few chicks.

Eagerly awaited broad beans

Mowing, forking, weeding.....

   Plenty of weeding, forking and grass mowing done and to do! I have joined up three of my herb beds to make one continuous bed. I will sow some flower seed, comos and marigold, along with woad. Should make a pretty picture! A friend has provided me a rhubarb root that will add to my now two year old crowns grown from seed. I have transplanted Great Lake lettuce to an outside bed under cloches. I have grand hopes for these! Ha! In the poly tunnel I have transplanted some tomato seedlings to pots and I notice today that I have a few more that I can do. Tomato seed germination has been very poor this year.
   Today (14th April) we had the Champeau Easter egg hunt! Not all the eggs were found so that is a surprise waiting for me when I am out forking and weeding! Next week will see me sowing more seed probably in the outside beds. It is about four weeks to the end of the risk of frosts so it is worth a gamble for the first sowing of french beans.

For the Easter egg hunt 140219

Great Lakes before transplanting

April showers

  Well the weather stayed fine for a few days. The cherry trees have finally blossomed and I reckon they are late this year. The warm weather did not help my transplanted parsnips though. It has taken three attempts to get a reasonable row. Once the weather became cooler I had more success. Here is hoping that my resowed row of parsnip seed do something. I fear it will depend on whether or not the chickens leave them alone or not! With the continued good weather lots of forking and weeding done. The Egyptian onion bed now looks a lot better! In the onion beds the sets are growing well and I can now see defined rows of  growing onions. Finally got around to lighting my bonfire, probably the last one and of course more grass mowing! Lots of work done in the poly tunnel. The poly tunnel fleece cloche is now set up and populated with a variety of sown seeds and transplanted tomatoes. This year I am growing a variety of squash seeds given to me in exchange for some Egyptian onion sets. Varieties sown are American Tonda, Kuri, Long Island cheese and my own Waltham butternut. Just for fun I have also sown some Sankt Martin pumpkins which hopefully will do for Halloween. Cucumbers, Wautoma (always a favourite) and Marketmore also sown. Tomatoes Noire Crimee and Poitron transplanted to pots. Despite all I am getting an increased number of tomato seedlings but I still sowed another couple of seed trays as a backup. With to such a long season here sowing tomato seed late should not matter too much. 
   On the animal front all is ok. Mrs. Buffy and chick are fine, hens are laying well. Sheep are enjoying the spring and the new grass. We have a set of hens eggs in our incubator and await to see what appears in a couple of weeks. 
   So its hope for good weather, a little rain and there will be plenty to do!

Great Lakes lettuce seedlings