It's been hot in this corner of Surrey, but at least things are starting finally to grow!
For those of you allergic to mention of vegetables, look away now.
so, this year is a mixture of the random, the gifts, and the things I Just Like Doing.
For those not in the know, I have a 12 foot square veggie patch at the bottom of my garden, where I grow a little of lots of things as it's relaxing, mostly fun, and intensely satisfying to Eat stuff we've grow. It's also great to show the kids where veg comes from other than the supermarket or the veg box.
I've thought many times about getting an allotment or larger plot, but the ease of access is whay keeps my little patch going. Also, you really don't need much space to grow quite a lot if you are cunning with a mix of pots, containers/ raised beds, and some in-ground growing plus a little crop rotation.
So, this year we have...
1) salad leaves. Bit of a cheat as so easy, but an oriental salad mix and some in-ground rocket is coming along nicely annin the early stage of harvest. And so far no slug probs-guess they don't like Asian cuisine.
2) baby cucumber plant courtesy of
frax. this is in a floorless pot and is just starting to climb up the tripod I've put it next to.
3) The Messiah Rhubarb. Up to 5 weeks ago I though me rhubarb (x2) had joined the choir invisible , Dad was teasing me something rotten about it... But then up they came a full two months after his did (he lives half a mile away!) and now they are happy and whinging for access to custard. I hope to start pulling next week!
4) courgettes of Doooooom. Sadly my 3 climbing courgettes were victims of the late frost last fortnight. Two are dead as some doodoos, the third has a tiny green shoot with two little leaves emerging from the shrivelled outer wreck and I'm optimistically watering it in case it recovers. As I love courgettes I have planted two other varieties (5 seeds) to try and get a few more germinated. But booo for late frosts.
5) tomato plants- mix of moneymaker and two Heritage varieties from Frax -also a few smaller plants that I *really* need to plant out soon if they are to have a chance. I am not optimistic but we'll see -last time I did tomatoes they got blight and we lost the lot.
6) mange tout- yay, have maturijg plants and actually rememberd to successional sow the next row which are just sprouting. Hope to have yummy mange tout and peashoots soon.
7) broad beans 3 plants, -another present, from my friend L. Already a target for *** black aphids (we get a lot of aphods around here). I am a non-pesticide user wherever possible, so its bi-daily squishing and washing off with the hose to try to keep them at bay. Never done em before so lets see.
8) Raspberries. Lots of shoots, lots of buds, lots of watering and let's wait and drool slightly...
9) garlic! Another first, but they seem to be happy, nice green leaves and no sign of the dreaded rust.
10)Jerusalem Artichokes. I love these which is just as well as they get everywhere. Including the garlic patch. Whoops.
11) potatoes. A little frost damage but they seem to have recovered.
12) asparagus.... Nope, it's gone for a burton. Not too surprising as it was tiny last year and has been sorely neglected.
13) french beans. Sadly due to the cold have been verrrryyyy slllllooooow and still at the 2-4 leaf stage. Watch and wait.
14 ) swiss chard and perpetual spinach. Finally getting going in a shared container after a very slow start.
15 plums... Lots of buds thisbyear, I hope they all grow into actual fruit this time...
Phew!