Still cool and damp

     So the weather continues to be on the cool side with rain showers. There has been a couple of nice days but the weather favours the garden! I have been hampered by pulling a muscle in my lower back while digging up potatoes. Sure is hard to get out of the chair!

   ANOE potatoes dug, picked peas and mangetout, pulled a lettuce and cut cabbage. Had to cut nine heads of cabbage as they had split. They will be fine stored in the cool . Dug up my lets put it in and see Violet garlic and a usuable crop has resulted. In a last ditch effort I have sown Champion Red Swede, Sangiuna beetroot, and early purple sprouting seed in an outside bed. Who knows they may do something! More Touchon carrots sown (they have done particulaly well this year) and more Great Lakes lettuce. As is normal this time of year went round the tomato plants tieing up and removing shoots. The plants are looking good and tomatoes have set. Of course, grass mowed. The battle against the dreaded Colorado beetle continues with adult beetles, larvae and eggs squished when spotted. As I write, famous last words, the amount of beetles etc currently is not high.

  On the chicken front one chick has been lost. Found dead where the hen and chicks were overnight. Egg production is still on the low side with an average of 2.7 eggs per day, same as last week.

Golden Bantam sweet corn

Golden Bantam sweet corn

 

Cool and damp

     The weather does seem to be a major topic these days. This last week has seen the weather get cooler and wetter. Not that the vegetable garden minds (nor the weeds and grass). Everything is growing well including the colorado beetle and grubs which I look out for to squish every morning and evening and whenever I am walking through the garden. They are definately more prevalent. 

    The broad beans are now finished with around nine kilos in the freezer. Very pleased with the broad bean crop this year. Their bed has been forked and weeded and haricot vert sown, sanquine beetroot transplanted and the last three Black Mountain water melons put out more in hope than really expecting anything from them. They will have to take their chances as no special treatment has been given to them as I did with the other plants. Also put out were some probable chilli plants with some sweet peppers. They have not grown well in the pots and I believe the seed compost was rubbish. By now they should have been quite large plants. Cabbage cut, ANOE potatoes dug up and mangetout picked. Nothing quite like frying up a pan of cold new potatoes with a couple of scramble eggs! Champeau breakfast!!

   On the chicken front we have chicks! Eight out of ten hatched. One did not make it completely out of the shell and one we had to rescue. We believe it was the last to hatch and did not get under the hen succcessfully and got cold. I rescued it and my daughter warmed it up with a hair drier and it recovered. Twenty four hours in the incubator to make sure it was ok and alert enough to rejoin the group. It is now back with mum who has accepted it without issue. An improvement of egg production this week with an average of 2.7 eggs a day. Still not as good as it should be!

   Plenty to do and as always not enought time or decent weather to get it done! Hey ho!

Mother hen and chicks

Hot then wet

     The weather takes the biscuit again this week. Starts off hot and sunny ends up wet and cool. Grand growing weather, grass, weeds and oh the veg too!

     So, this week has seen the usual tasks being done....mowing grass, hoeing and weeding! Along side also picking broad beans, cut a cabbage, pulling lettuce, picking peas, digging new ANOE potatoes and picking delicioius Maris de Bois strawberries. I have been very pleased with my strawberry "no dig" bed despite the pain of weeding it. The strawberries have been excellent and the plants are continuing to produce more strawberries. Runners have been thrown out so that means I will be able to fill up the bed with new plants. Fingers crossed next year could be a bumper crop! Some transplanting done. Three spaghetti squash, the last of the tomato plants, a couple of Burpee tomato shoots that I managed to get to root and my very miserable looking Perfection cucumbers. I have been very disappointed with the cucumber plants this year. The season marches on and the Colorado beetles have appeared. So it is out and about squishing beetles, eggs and larvae when found in an effort to at least contain the outbreak. 

    Chickens are being chickens and unfortunately I had to despatch a hen who to me had given up on life. She had had an injured leg (too amorous cockeral!) and seemed to be recovering. The broody hen is still sat tight and it is possible by the next blog entry there maybe some chicks. Egg production has been poor more likely due to the hot weather. Average daily amount: 2

Pea vines

Broad beans

Burpee tomato plant

Oh no!

    Not good. Ran out of english beer! How can I garden in this heat without the thought of a cool english bottle of IPA at the end of it! Oh well I guess I will have to manage till I go shopping again.

   Good morning (12th June 2021) from a sunny and very warm Watermeadows in Champeau de Bas, La Creuse! 

Mara de Bois strawberries

First dig of ANOE new potatoes

   I am feeling quite please with myself with the no dig bed constructed last autumn now producing delightful Mara de Bois strawberries. More than I thought there would being it is the first year.  The first dig of new potatoes has been done with 1.70kgs dug up with the help of my youngest grandson, Toby. Prehaps a little disappointing at the quanity but hey not bad! This was eighty two days from planting to the first dig which is at the top end of when they should be ready. 

   Ok that was the exciting bit. More weeding, more grass cutting. I have set up a framework for my cucumbers which are being very reluctant to grow to a point where I am happy to plant them out. If they do not buck up soon they will go out regardless! My Touchon carrots have done well this season and I have three rows germinated with another row sown this week. I have had to sow a couple of 5 Dessert melon seeds to replace a sickly  plant in the hope that they catch up. Nothing ventured nothing gained! Autumn cabbage plants bought from the local market, Chou Brady, planted out in the brassica bed. I have transplanted some Great Lakes lettuce in an outside bed but I am not hopefull. Too hot! I have dug up my Champeau Violet garlic (Champeau violet because the bulbs were from garlic grown at Watermeadows last year and not bought in ones) and it is drying in my porch. Oh my my the smell of garlic waffs into the house!

  Busy busy time with lots to do as always and never enought time or energy to do it all! Hey ho all work and no play.....

  On the chicken front Mama hen is sitting tight! I have had to despatch one sickly hen. She had suffered a top of the leg injury some time ago and looked like she was recovering but over the last week or so gave up on life. Otherwise all is ok with an improved average of eggs laid this week of 3.29 daily.

Looking good

Batavia Blonde Lettuce

    The weather this spring has been very good for the vegetable garden. It has rained at the right time (least for me it has!), it has been warm at the right time and despite the poor germination of some seeds most seeds have germinated and the plants are now well established and growing well. As can be seen from the photos below lettuce, peas, potatoes and broad beans all growing well. It will not be long before I will be digging up new potatoes and very likely withing the next week. My experiment with spacing out main crop Desiree potatoes in the large triangle is looking very good with the plants really large. Fingers crossed for large potatoes. 

   So what has been going on this last week. More transplanting, Aurora bush tomatoes and  sweet peppers and the usual mowing grass and weeding! That is one downfall of the wet and warm weather....grass and weeds. Sowed an unusal herb...Stridolo Sculpit Silene Inflata. An realively unknown herb grown in Italy used to flavour pizzas, quiches and risottos. Going to be interesing to see if it germinates and grows. Most plants are looking like they are about to burst into growth. There are peas on the pea vines and the mange toute is going well. My experiment with spacing out main crop Desiree potatoes in my large triangle plot is looking good with the plants large and about to flower. I have found one or two Colorado beetles but so far there is not an infestation. Unfortunately beetroot plants that grew over the winter and I transplanted went to seed. Also the same has happed to parsnips I transplanted. Still I have some parsnips that did eventually germinate. Finally got around to making some Comfrey tea. This will be a liquid fertilizer that I will use for my tomatoes particularly those in the poly tunnel. 

   Chickens are being chickens although they have really slowed up this week with laying. I suspect the weather has not helped. There have been some quite servere thunder and lightning storms and I think that has put them off. Also I have noticed that the rats are back and maybe they are nicking some too.  Another hen has gone broody and I have put ten eggs under her. She has made her nest in the plastic coop which at least means she has more protection from predators overnight.  Average lay this week 2.6, roughly half of last weeks average. Still, not complaining have plenty to eat anyway!

Broad beans

Peas

Desiree main crop potatoes

Weather turns

    Seems all I do at the moment is talk about the weather. Sorry here we go again. The weather has turned sunny and warm. Delightful. About time. The garden is loving it. The soil is damp and warm and the sun is shinning. Ideal for growth, however, the downside is the grass and the ever present weeds. So, more grass cutting running around on my ride on and unfortunately having to use the push petrol mower to get to those bits I cannot reach with the ride on. Hey ho! Courgettes (round and straight) have been transplanted to an outside the poly tunnel bed, more 18Jour radish sown, Sanquine beetroot sown in modules, very small chilli plants transplanted to pots and spaghetti squash (just for a laugh) sown in modules. I have continued to take the side shoots off the Burpee tomato plant which is growing well in the poly tunnel and plant them in modules with the hope of getting more plants. The brassicas are doing well and the pointy cabbage is starting to firm up. The potatoes look good. Black fly continue to infest the broad beans but I am hopeful for a reasonable crop. A good number of my early sown beetroot has gone to seed as have the transplanted parsnip seedlings. Fortunately where I sowed parsnip seed a reasonable number have germinated much to my delight. 

   Chickens are being chickens and an average of 5.43 eggs being laid daily. A slight drop but still more eggs than we can eat!

Ripening strawberries

Egyptian walking onions

Weather dominates

    By this time of year I expect the temperatures to be in the 20c range, however, that has not been the case this May. The temperature has been in the teens and it has been damp, windy and on occassion very wet! This has meant slow germination of many seeds and in fact quite a few not germinating at all. Even so some plants have thrived in the cooler wetter condtions and I have broad beans, summer cabbage, beetroot, sweet corn, potatoes, onions, shallots all thriving. Those requiring warmer condtions, tomatoes, sweet peppers, courgettes, squash, cucumbers and chili have been slow to grow and will require a little longer to get to the point where they can be planted out. Weather forecast for this week (23-29th May) looks promising with the temperature being the mid twenties centigrade by the end of the week.

   In my frustration of not being able to get stuff planted out I have planted out some tomato plants that I sowed early in the year and for reasons known only to the tomato seed actually germinated and thrived in the cooler condtions. Also a few sweet pepper plants given to me that really were asking to go out. Hopefully they will produce whereas I think the ones I have sown I will be fortunate to  get anything. One can tell the season is moving on as I have sown winter cabbage in modules (variety Milan - a savoy type) and the swede has germinated in the poly tunnel. More weeding, more grass cutting it seems to never end at this time of year. I have decided to join two of my smaller beds together by digging up the path between them. I have pulled rhubarb (making a delicious rhubarb crumble) and dug up beetroot which I have cooked and pickled in malt vinegar. My new no dig strawberry bed is doing well with the plants having lots of flowers and there are some strawberries ready to ripen. Who is going to get to them first? Me, chickens or slugs! 

   The chickens are being chickens and there have not been anymore losses to the fox thank goodness. Average daily lay this week is 5.86 eggs a slight increase on last week but for us good enough!

Golden Bantam sweet corn

Starting to joing two beds