A bit of warm weather and a bit of rain has really kicked things off in the vege patch.
Bush beans
Pumpkin
Almost ripe strawberries
Broad beans
Lettuces, so far not eaten up by slugs
Beetroot and Red Chard
Florence fennel
The surest sign of spring in our house is the lack of bench space, as seedlings take over the kitchen. We had a damp, dull winter, with not much snow but lots of rain.
It’s now been dry for a while, the soil has defrosted and the sun is coming out. Down in the vege patch I measured the soil temperature at 9 degrees C. So I have started sowing seeds down there and hopefully we’ll be hardening off all these seedlings soon!
We get these plastic containers from our local sweet shop. They always have plenty to give away, and they’re quite perfect for the job. Plus the kids can see the roots of their plant babies (they got seed packets from the Easter bunny).
After teasing my mother-in-law about how many different seeds she had ordered, I went ahead and ordered 9 packets for myself. I still have a huge stash of seeds from previous years, but I had no broad beans or thyme, and I wanted to try a few different pumpkins this year since we have lots of good flat sunny growing space for them.
In the pile above are:
- Sunflowers “Giant Yellow”
- Poppies, “Siberian”
- Marigolds (Tagetes) “Tashkent”
- Creeping Thyme Thymus serpyllum
- Yellow Crookneck Squash
- Broad beans “Witkiem” and “Super Aquadulce”
- Pumpkins “Buttercup” and “Red Kabocha”
I have also bought some clover seeds, as I want to experiment with growing clover as a ground cover among the pumpkins. I can’t wait for spring!
It doesn’t look like much … but next year this patch will be thriving with vegetable life. THRIVING, I tell you!
Our neighbour and friend ploughed it up for us. To the right you can see the corner of our other paddock, which he has also ploughed and where he will be growing grains for the next two years. We kept the rest of this paddock as is, in case we decide to acquire some lambs in the spring and need somewhere to fatten them up.
I raided the greenhouse today looking for edibles. We have had so much rain that the greenhouse is flooded, and the few remaining plants are starting to go mouldy. So I picked these padron chilis and brought them in. Previously we’ve always picked padron green, and fried them. But many have gone red due to inattention. We taste-tested a red one last week and it was lovely. I think this lot will be fried tonight as a starter, with lots of flakey salt. Yum!
Our house has been scattered with chilli plants since the spring. Finally last night I picked 3 cayennes and one padron, and we had a tasting and then sprinkled them on our curry. The cayennes had me dancing around the kitchen!
Pears, blackberries, tomatoes and a big zucchini
Despite not putting much time or effort into gardening this year, we have managed to harvest a decent amount of fruit and veg. This is mostly thanks to the previous owners of our house, who planted many fruits & berries. These grapes were all harvested from one (quite overgrown) vine. They are not great table grapes, so most have been squeezed and the resulting juice is fermenting into our first ever grape wine.
Today’s harvest: eggs, broad beans, and french beans.
All of these roses are growing in our garden. The previous owners really liked roses! They have chosen some with really outstanding scent – a big bunch of them is making our kitchen smell fantastic today.
