tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-301045152024-03-13T22:54:24.180+01:00Pushing up the daisiesAn Aussie stranded in France tries her hand at an allotment - can she grow those parsnips, or die trying?antipodesgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00148573728536495597noreply@blogger.comBlogger377125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30104515.post-60808994661853767292014-11-18T10:07:00.003+01:002014-11-18T10:07:51.602+01:00BACK!AFter a long spell in which technical problems were preventing me from using Blogger I have finally managed to get signed back in! Sorry for losing touch and annoyed that a lot of gardening info has been lost.
The mild autumn has made a lot of greenery grow so a bit of weeding has been needed. The summer is way behind us now. It was a good year for tomatoes and squash and cucumbers, not very good for brassicas which I couldn't seem to get started and beans which did not give good yields. My big water tank is finally in place and already full. I have removed one of my old rain barrels and I will use it as planters, if I can work out how to cut it in pieces!
Already planning for next year - the garlic is in and growing extremely well. I am thinking on where to plant the onions at the beginning of the season and what potato types to buy. My ideas to have a fuller winter garden have not worked out very well - I still cannot manage the watering regimen to get root veg growing for autumn and this year the very dry September put paid to autumn lettuces and green crops. Perhaps next year...
I am currently harvesting rocket, Brussel sprouts, NZ spinach and Jerusalem artichokes.
antipodesgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00148573728536495597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30104515.post-31472045148094662612014-06-29T23:06:00.001+02:002014-06-29T23:06:42.165+02:00Rain at lastThis weekend finally saw some decent rainfall (why always on the weekend?). I went down on Saturday, under a little light drizzle, and managed to pull up a few potatoes, pick peas and courgettes and trim and tie in the tomatoes that are already getting unwieldy. Some of them have small fruit on them! Cool!!!antipodesgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00148573728536495597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30104515.post-18124455227663227332014-06-29T23:05:00.000+02:002014-06-29T23:05:00.765+02:0025 JuneWe are in the middle of a very puzzling dry spell. Of course that is good news for humans that want to sit outside drinking mojitos and getting tanned but bad news for a veg garden.
So it's been water + mulch for the last fortnight.
Some things hate it - the lettuce have gone AWOL. But surprisingly the garden is still thriving.
Picking our first courgettes - they are very early this year.
The spuds have been wonderful. i pulled up the first rows of belle de Fontenay and they have been replaced with two butternut plants and a row of some unidentified brassica which may be broccoli or caulis.
The achocha is finally liking its sunny spot and has started to climb its stakes. I like its pretty light green colour and fine tendrils.
The beans are doing well. The runners are about 20cm high and starting to twine around their supports and the French beans will be flowering soon, good, beans before our holidays.
More carrots, turnips, beets, lettuce have been sown, tricky in this hot weather.
The tomatoes are getting very big and I have the first baby fruit (again very early) and plenty of flowers. The peppers next to them also are doing well and are close to flowering.
Afraid that the broad beans were heavily affected by rust and aphids so I ripped them out, added fresh compost and sowed some beans and peas in their place.
Now I need to get cracking on some swiss chard plants and buy in leeks and brussel sprouts which failed from seed for me, as usual. The grapevine also needs tying in. antipodesgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00148573728536495597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30104515.post-60603451345424887192014-06-09T22:30:00.000+02:002014-06-09T22:30:00.995+02:00New potatoesI am not sure there is any crop as magical as potatoes. You put a potato in the ground and three months later - it has turned itself into 7 or 8 potatoes! There is also the fun of digging round to see where the spuds have actually grown.
The Belle de Fontenay planted between the last week of February and the first ten days of March are ready. The crop is even better than last year perhaps because we had a lot of rain but some bright patches too. They are sweet and delicious. I even had again some purple Vitelottes come up. I sowed those once two seasons ago and yet they still seem to keep growing!I tidied up the ones still growing, taking off old leaves, weeding and spraying wit Bordeaux mixture.
I realised why I was not getting more artichokes. The plant has been infested with aphids! Grrr how annoying. I have tried washing them off with a spray of water, see how that goes. The broad beans too have been particularly affected and I took out 3 plants which were infested.they are also harbouring some kind of fungus, The leaves have turned a bronze colour. I took them out, fertilised and sowed some climbing beans in their place.
The leeks have not worked again so I will have to go get some plants. I will not sow them again, it's a waste of time and space and seed.
The courgettes are looking great, they are in flower already. The accocha is still fairly small but it has grown and is putting out tendrils, so I put in some pea sticks to help it climb. The tomatoes are very sturdy and I tied them in and mulched as best I could.
This weekend we have eaten - lettuce, baby leaves, chives, rosemary and mint, the first snow peas, some broad beans and a few strawberries and more rhubarb (the best crop ever). The weather has been very warm but with some night rains and this seems to make the plants thrive.
Soon we will be harvesting gooseberries and red currants and the garlic will probably be ready in a week.
On holidays recently I saw something very unusual - a field of artichokes! Pics to follow...antipodesgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00148573728536495597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30104515.post-88475075745531805142014-05-27T21:51:00.000+02:002014-05-27T21:51:01.676+02:00Beans and squashThe summer planting is finally done. This weekend, I managed to get a good bit of work done, it was rather satisfying!
As I had covered the patch where the runner beans were to go, it was a doddle - turned it over, dug a trench and filled it with a box full of kitchen scraps - newspaper, veg peelings, rotten fruit etc - then filled it in and planted straight over the top. That should keep their feet moist and give them lots of nutrition over the summer! I bet anything that when I dig it over in October, I find nothing but soil...
Sowed 5 White Lady beans and 10 Enorma. See what happens.
The peas have just not worked, too late now, so I replaced them (except the Mangetout) with Blue Lake and Cobra climbing beans.
I also sowed some Waltham butternuts and some Uchiki Kuri seeds for squash.
The gooseberries were getting a bit squashed by those yellow california poppies so I cut them back, put rhubarb leaves all around the goosegogs (so far has been brilliant for keeping away the sawfly) and netted the bush. It is full of fruit, more jam, yum. The raspberries are sulking a bit but I have fruit on both the redcurrant and blackcurrant!
The other crops are doing pretty well. I have good germination for the carrots and parsnips and even the beetroot. I transplanted a few beetroots to an empty patch. The lettuces are doing nicely and the NZ spinach seem to have taken, even though it has been wet and chilly. The courgettes under cover have really taken off, and the tomatoes and peppers are getting bigger despite the cool patch. The only things not doing so well are the cucumbers. I will sow some more I think.
In any case, the plot is pretty tidy - I had time to cut the grass with the lawn shears (mulched the tomatoes with it), hoe and weed the onions and nip the tops off the broad beans (badly affected with aphids I am afraid).
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As for harvesting, we ate - loads of rhubarb again, about 400g strawberries (despite the wet weather), a small bag full of baby leaves, a few broad beans (that unfortunately got burned in the saucepan by the family on Mother's Day!) and lo, the first potatoes! At least 600g of lovely Belle de Fontenays, and as I just firkled for the biggest ones, hopefully there will be more of that in the next fortnight.
Onions and spuds:
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Once the spuds come out, no time to lose, I will get sowing more French beans, carrots and beetroot. And later, the brassicas...
antipodesgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00148573728536495597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30104515.post-80716605028924170162014-05-13T20:35:00.001+02:002014-05-13T20:35:37.958+02:00Hail the planting of the tomatoesOk that was a bit of a smart arse title, as I had no sooner planted the tomatoes than it HAILED! I had taken the day off to do the last planting out and it was a bit of a challenge as the weather was not the best, a little stormy. Still, I got down the plot at about a quarter to two, and was able to dig over the tomato bed (it had been covered so was pretty easy), add a bucketful of compost and break up the last clods of manure. A shower came so I hid in the shed, luckily I had brought a thermos of coffee. After about ten minutes, the sun cameout again so I got to work, planting 4 sweet peppers and 9 tomato plants: 2 Sungold cherries, 1 Green Tiger, one Golden Sunrise (yellow), 2 beef steaks and 2 Coeur d'Albenga oxheart types, plus a "mystery" plant that came in a packet tantalisingly called "Mixed". It looks to me like a bush type so who knows what I will get.
I also spent a good while weeding, and I noticed with some annoyance that some of the onions seem affected by that stupid weevil again. I took out the curly ones with a heavy heart and planted some lettuce in its place. I also sowed some more mangetout. The peas curiously do not seem to have worked this year... The broad beans however are smashing.
As the brassicas too don't seem to have worked, I sowed more and fleeced them this time. That seems to help germination. The carrots and parsnips have both germinated so a small victory there. The potatoes are also doing well, if I have time it would be a good moment to put some bordeaux mixture on them.
Just as I was leaving, the sky grew menacingly black and I decided to hold off for 5 minutes. Just as well as it started to HAIL!!! I was scared for the tomatoes, but on inspection afterwards they were just splattered with dirt but unharmed, and the peppers are under cloches. Phew. The courgettes too are still under plastic so they are OK.
A surprise battler is the Accocha (Fat Baby). Under a plastic bag, they are going great guns!
All that is left now is to put in butternuts and a pumpkin if there is room and the runner beans. A god day's work even if my back hurts!!antipodesgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00148573728536495597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30104515.post-25234194575588098862014-05-04T21:28:00.000+02:002014-05-04T21:28:09.219+02:00Start of summer cropsA warm spell accompanies the start of May so it's time to look after the tender summer crops. I sowed two small rows of Tendergreen French beans, and planted out some lettuce, 2 tomato plants that were getting rabid (a Golden Sunrise type and a mystery tomato from a mixed pack), two cucumber plants, two courgettes, a yellow courgette and a pattypan squash, plus 2 Fat Baby Acchoca, a new trial!!!!
The broad beans have baby beans! Almost ready.
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The strawberries too are starting to fruit :
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I have the seed boxes on the go with brassicas and beetroot and leeks.
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The garden is now a little more advanced than this, the potatoes are taller and the onions too.
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I realise that the half plot is a little smaller than I expected. I think that next year I had better sacrifice some potatoes and onions or I won't have room for some of the other crops...
Saw the resident vole today, he/she is bloody fat! On my expense no doubt. Now that the ground is almost completely clear, he may be dissuaded. There are also some beautiful lizards living in among the artichokes, including an explosively green one. Gorgeous. antipodesgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00148573728536495597noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30104515.post-9142987608403507992014-03-30T18:23:00.000+02:002014-03-30T18:23:08.066+02:00Spring in full swingMarch has been mostly clement, although still fairly wet. Up to now I have managed to put in:
The onions, brown and red
Potatoes - Belle de Fontenay earlies, King Edward 7 mains and a few Pink Fir Apples that I had stored
5 jerusalem artichoke bulbs
Peas - Alderman talls, Early onward and Golden Mangetout which were so prolific last year
The first rows of roots - Early nantes carrots, beets (Bikores and Cheltenham Greentop) and Milan purple turnips
And the new plot is already looking pretty full!!! Not sure where I will squeeze in the rest.
A friend gave me an old window! SO I am set up to build a small cold frame. Which is just as well because I really need to get going on some of the brassicas which will go in when the spuds start coming out.
It is so nice to see the signs of spring. Buds are green and fresh on the grapevine, the raspberries, the redcurrants (which even have delicate flowers on them), daffodils seem to have sprung up by themselves! (do they propagate underground??) and the herbs like rosemary and thyme are covered in tiny fragile flowers. antipodesgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00148573728536495597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30104515.post-45894988707381342312014-03-30T18:12:00.002+02:002014-03-30T18:12:52.185+02:00UPDATE From February 24This is an entry that I wrote but did not get around to posting!
24 February 2014
Finally a dry (ish) day after this long wet winter period, rain almost every day since November and astonishingly mild temperatures. On the plot, little tulips were springing up and daffodil stems. The rosemary is covered in tiny purple flowers, some of the raspberry bushes are starting to bud, the rhubarb is breaking out its first small stems and the Brussels sprouts have started putting out flower buds. Spring is tentatively upon us, a little early but nothing too radical.
The soil is still thick and cloying and I admit that I went a bit barmy with the manure, as I ordered for half a plot what I would normally take for a full one. oops. Oh well, hopefully it will mean bloody big veg! Digging it in is a nightmare though. I managed to turn over enough ground to plant the first onion sets (100 brown onions are in, and about another 80 to go, plus the red ones which I will leave a wee bit yet), and 7 potato plants (earlies, Belle de Fontenay) plus a small patch of radishes. For the rest of the time, I hauled the manure around a bit, put down some borders around the edges of my new reduced space, and continued laying a path down the middle of the plot. I now have more than enough paving material, which is a change as I was always missing some in the past!
It is still too cool and wet to think about much else but I am already looking at the pea bed menacingly. I chucked a few broad bean seeds in a couple of weeks ago to see what would happen - to my surprise, 8 plants are already growing! I will sow some more next weekend to fill in the gaps and get those pretty broad beans off to a flying start. antipodesgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00148573728536495597noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30104515.post-31324141270619353212014-01-20T22:54:00.002+01:002014-01-20T22:54:52.154+01:00She's back...After 6 incredibly hard months plagued by personal problems and some health issues, I am back blogging.
Due to these issues I have made the difficult decision of cutting back to a half plot this year. I am hoping that this will allow me to better spend my available time for gardening and have a successful crop due to more efficient car. Having to spend less time worrying about weeds, paths and such may allow me to spend more profitable time on the plot.
So the moving work is going on in earnest. I have redone the strawberry bed with some help from my friend Nathalie.
With quite a lot of puffing and straining I managed to unearth the gooseberry bushes, and transplant the largest one to the "new" plot (which is actually the top half of the current plot), and another one onto the edges of the site so at least birds and passerbys can eat the fruit! I left the third one for the new tenant, if he doesn't want it, I will move it too.
I took 5 raspberry bushes, and there seem to be an awful lot more, more than I had put in originally in any case! I seem to remember buying 4 bushes to start with!!! Raspberries are rampant. I also dug up the grapevine and move it beside the shed, hopefully this will be a warmer spot and it may enjoy it. I can train it along the shed wall and gain some space too.
So now in terms of perennials, I have 3 artichokes, 3 rhubarbs, 5 raspberries, One gooseberry, one redcurrant and a grapevine as well as a strawberry bed with about 15 strawberry plants. I have rosemary, sage, thyme, parsley and mint and hope to add basil and tarragon this season.
I hope to use more successive sowing and to use catch crops such as lettuce and radish while slower growing crops grow around them. Like lettuce under the broad beans. I need now to finish the new paths using the material I recover from the far end of the plot (it is still abundant in old wood, stones and terracotta tiles which I will put to good use) and prepare a seed bed for the new sowings. A friend renovating his house has old windows, and I will try and get one of them to use for a cold frame, it would be ideal. I hope that I will have much better success this year with the seedlings, as I will be able to give them more attention.
I bought in many of the new seeds, just have to get some more pumpkin seeds and I have my eye on some from Amazon and Ebay for that. Otherwise the list of crops is looking something like this:
spring/summer:
carrots, beetroot, lettuce, mizuna, radish, turnips, tetragone (NZ spinach), tomatoes, peppers, courgettes, peas, beans, broad beans, onions, echalote, spring onions, garlic, potatoes, cucumbers
Autumn/winter:
winter squash (hopefully CrownPrince and Uchiki Kuri pumpkins and butternuts), cabbages (green and red), cauliflower, parsnips, brussel sprouts, sprouting broccoli, romanesco, leeks, pakchoy, swiss chard, Jerusalem artichokes, late carrots and turnips, lamb's lettuce, rocket, mizuna also. antipodesgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00148573728536495597noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30104515.post-30059448948312129282013-08-12T16:52:00.003+02:002013-08-12T16:52:59.840+02:00August - picsDespite the favourable conditions, some plants are still relatively slow to fruit. However there are tomatoes galore, pity is they are still all green!
I have a beautiful vine growing, they seem to be some kind of huge pear shaped tomato, I must save seed as they are very vigourous and heavy cropping:
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There is another particularly successful tomato, which I am thinking is actually MoneyMaker, from Lidl!
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I have seen the butternut starting to fruit: this little beggar was hiding under the leaves:
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The late cucumber I sowed in June to have a late fruiting vine is growing very well. I am just hoping it will not have fruit ready until we come back from holidays!
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As for pumpkins - I think this is an Uchiki Kuri type - won't know until it changes colour! Otherwise it is a Golden Nugget.
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And this one seems to have an attraction for the irises! It has decide to fruit right in the middle of them! I guess at least it will be out of harm's way...
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In other news, the potatoes have all been harvested, except the Pink Fir Apples that are still growing. I am still regularly cutting Swiss Chard and leaf beet and harvesting courgettes and we have also eaten our first carrots (very exciting that one!). The Brussel sprouts and cabbages are doing very well. I made a late sowing of kale, mizuna, lettuce, radish and turnip, and am just hoping that we will get enough rain during my hols to keep them moist. antipodesgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00148573728536495597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30104515.post-74979684238993203102013-08-05T22:33:00.000+02:002013-08-05T22:33:27.390+02:00Odd squashI had this down as a cucumber but now I have doubts. Maybe some kind of lemon cuke?
The fruit was actually stuck in the plastic bottle used for watering! I had to break the bottle to get it out.
Any ideas on what this is???
The plant:
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The fruit:
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And a baby fruit just forming:
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Trouble is, as I am unsure of what it is, I don't know whether or not to pick it!!!antipodesgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00148573728536495597noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30104515.post-47898855019206372722013-08-05T22:29:00.002+02:002013-08-05T22:29:27.639+02:00Tomatoes 2013A great year for tomatoes, after all the blight of previous years!
I have 14 plants including a nice plant of small salad tomatoes;
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Then there are the yellow tomatoes, which have an odd flat shape. They have a beautiful citrus flavour though:
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And some odd shaped ones which I think are called a Coeur d'Albenga. They are all from saved seed:
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It would be nice if they could hurry up and ripen! We are starting to eat the yellows and some cherry tomatoes too. antipodesgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00148573728536495597noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30104515.post-82457658550855228182013-07-24T23:21:00.002+02:002013-07-24T23:21:23.655+02:00PotteringAs the evenings are long and warm, there is little better than pottering around the veg garden. Doing those little jobs that nag at you but usually you are too busy doing something else.
Like ripping out the bind weed that had started climbing over the cabbage netting (it really is an insidious bastard), like ripping out the weeds that is pretending to be Jerusalem artichoke plants but I know better (I've now spotted the real ones as they are growing and all imitators shall be buggered).
Like adding fertiliser and compost to the tomatoes, peppers, squashes, beans.
And watering, endless watering again.
Still, I came home with a handful of beans, 6 sticks of rhubarb (that's it now, time to stop picking) and raspberries.
The greatest treasure though were 2 small tomatoes!!! Not because of their flavour, which was nothing to write home about but because they mean that the other tomatoes on the other plants will soon be ripening too! The tomatoes are quite varied this year: long Roma tomatoes, two cherry tomatoes (but not especially bushy types or perhaps I pruned them better than usual!), at least one beefsteak and one I think will give a striped tomato. The largest plant is laden with smaller salad type tomatoes but I have no clue as to the varieties this year. They are surprise tomatoes!!! antipodesgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00148573728536495597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30104515.post-15234578544341376342013-07-16T22:38:00.000+02:002013-07-16T22:38:31.989+02:00Photos July 2013At last a few photos!<br />
My lovely Imperial Green longpod broad beans! A wonderful harvest of those.<br />
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You can see here how tall they got:</div>
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The peppers are doing pretty well, some have tiny fruit on them:</div>
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The first tomatoes - I was starting to give up hope of ever having a tomato crop again after 2 years of blight. But these are looking very strong.</div>
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Some lovely cucumbers, they seem to enjoy the hot weather.</div>
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The squash are doing particularly well. I have butternuts, 3 courgettes (green, yellow and patty pan) a Pink Banana, a mystery squash (will know when it grows) and a red Uchiki pumpkin. </div>
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antipodesgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00148573728536495597noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30104515.post-38397068171023534542013-07-16T00:26:00.001+02:002013-07-16T00:26:17.357+02:00hot hot hotThe weather after so much rain and cold has now gone to a different extreme and we are having our third week of hot dry conditions. Which means back to watering...<br />
The garden seems to thrive though. The garlic is harvested and dried and ready to plait, the broad beans have one more crop left in them, onions are almost ready and the French beans have started to crop. The tomatoes are doing really well and I hope to have ripe fruit really soon. After two years with only blight to show it will be a relief! I have pics but no time tonight to load them.antipodesgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00148573728536495597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30104515.post-75769393521529511422013-07-03T22:34:00.002+02:002013-07-03T22:34:58.596+02:00Strange seasonIt's still a funny old summer. Temperatures are extremely variable,
depending on the cloud cover yet there is reasonably high humidit.
Sounds unfortunately like perfect blight weather. Still, the tomatoes
seem to be holding their own. I have decided that at least one has
turned out to be a cherry type, as one is decidedly bushy compared to
the others. It's looking like a Gardener's delight although could also
be a Roma plum. Remember that i could not label them this year so it's
all down to luck what comes up! I sprayed them again yesterday with
bordeaux mixture so they are nicely blue now. The poppies next to them
are dying down so I will cut them away so the tomatoes have maximum
airflow. I have been much more successful this year in staking and tying
them, and they have more room for each plant.<br />The courgettes too are
doing very well, there are some flowers and I hope to have fruit
starting soon. the butternuts are also flowering. <br />I am still
harvesting the new potatoes, there is a very large quantity of them this
year and the flavour is excellent. I also started picking the broad
beans - what a harvest! I took only the very largest pods from the base
of the plant, there are many many more still developing and I still had a
small plastic bag full! I might actually get to freeze some this year.<br /><br />The
runner beans have germinated, some better than others, I will have to
fill in the gaps! I still have to sow new rows of French beans this
weekend, and I will do more climbers in July. I am hoping they will
develop either before my holidays or once we get back! <br /><br />The
parsnips do not seem to have germinated... It is quite late but I think I
will try to put in another row and see what happens. Not sure how to
get them to work really. <br />The salads I planted out seem to have taken
despite a drier few days, and the beetroots that I transplanted have
now sprung back quite well. <br />As for fruit, the raspberries are
showing the first white baby berries, so I should have ripe fruit soon.
The gooseberries are starting to turn red, must keep an eye on them. The
strawberries have finished their first flush, they need tidying,
weeding and fertilizing for the next crop which should be in July.<br /><br />Despite
the odd weather, the plants are growing quite well. Next tasks will be
to find some leek plants, and to continue sowings of beets, autumn
carrots, beet spinach, winter brassicas, beans and plant out the late
sowings of cukes and courgettes that have come through. No rest for the
wicked!antipodesgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00148573728536495597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30104515.post-77510975504003790842013-06-24T23:25:00.000+02:002013-06-24T23:25:44.655+02:00Steady growthAll the rain these past days has made the weeds grow like mad. Still, at least the veggies are growing too. One of the tomatoes is over 4 feet tall and all have plenty of flowers. I sprayed them with bordeaux mix and prayed that blight would spare them. The broad beans are going to be the best ones ever, they too are tall as trees and covered with bean pods. The runner beans are already up with true leaves on them and the green beans are looking very nice too.<br />
The garlic is almost ready and the bulbs are looking like real beauties this year. Might make up for the hopeless onion situation (onion fly has infested some of the onions).<br />
As June is getting on, I sowed more winter brassicas that had not worked in the first sowing: romanesco, green broccoli, white sprouting broccoli for the spring and red and white winter cabbage. The autumn cabbage and brussel sprouts I planted last week have taken splendidly, under netting. I also sowed some lettuce, rocket, basil and new beetroots.<br />
I struggled home with over 2kg of potatoes, 10 sticks of rhubarb and a lettuce and handfuls of mizuna.antipodesgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00148573728536495597noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30104515.post-15393080247543410132013-06-19T22:51:00.001+02:002013-06-19T22:51:55.371+02:00Written 6 juin:<br />
The sudden appearance of a large hot object in the sky which has
scarcely been seen for months (think the old 'uns used to call it "The
Sun), has increased temperatures and made the garden flourish (as well
as weeds and grass!). However the sudden heat is causing a lot of
instability weather wise: I hope that there will not be any storms that
might wreck the tenders that are coming on nicely now.<br /><br />Still to plant and sow: <br />The 8 sweet peppers still on the windowsill!<br />A new row of beetroot<br />Rocket<br />Climbing
French beans and the runner beans (very late this year but I think thay
catch up pretty quickly in the warm weather - I will try to space out
the sowing this time and see if they will give into the autumn).<br />French marigolds that I grew from seed <br />Plant out the seedlings of romanesco, calabrese and summer chard that are waiting in the seedbed.<br />Must buy some brussel sprouts and leek plants, as my sowings were a disaster<br /><br />Growing:<br />Peas but sparsely and some are not germinating very well. Could be because of the unstable weather?<br />Broad beans (splendidly! and not even an aphid in sight yet!)<br />French beans just peeking through the ground<br />Perpetual spinach just germinated<br />carrots have actually germinated well!!! maybe they like it cooler?<br />Onions coming on well, all alliums in fact<br />Potatoes: earlies soon ready<br />the
tomatoes and squash and cukes have taken root well and are growing. The
tomatoes are looking good, must be Bordeaux sprayed this weekend.<br /><br />Harvesting:<br />Strawberries (delicious and abundant crop)<br />Rhubarb<br />Artichokes<br />Salads<br />Mizuna<br />Herbs<br />Spring onions (from sets! Finally cracked the best way to do it!)<br /><br />Hope everyone else is doing as well!antipodesgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00148573728536495597noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30104515.post-21916160714792086262013-05-29T21:53:00.003+02:002013-05-29T21:53:55.425+02:00Post written Monday May 27The old French adage"En avril ne te décovure pas d'un fil: en mai fais ce
qui te plaît" (In April, don't take off your sweater but in May going
topless gets better...ok that is a very loose translation but you get
the gist) was completely WRONG this year. We have had to wait till the
last week of May to get some respite from constant cold, blustery days
with frequent showers.<br />Fortunately there seems to be a light at the
end of the tunnel. The poor tomato plants, outside for almost a month
were shivering and losing their leaves, but now they seem to be picking
up and one even has a first flower. The pepper plants are still on my
window sill and only this weekend did I pluck up the courage to bring
out the cucumbers, courgettes and squash, planting them under bottles,
or plastic. The onions and garlic seem relatively unperturbed by the bad
weather, and the spuds, although shy at breaking the ground, are now a
respectable height and I hope that in a week or so I will be able to
pick the first earlies. The broad beans (<strong>Imperial Green Longpod</strong> a British variety) are truly excellent however, covered in pretty white flowers so let's hope that the pods are just as good.<br /><br />We
have had nice lettuce, and rhubarb, and I cut down the first 2
artichokes, which also seemed unperturbed by the cold spring.
Strawberries are growing but none has ripened yet, and the gooseberry
bushes are laden with baby fruit.<br /><br />The leeks I sowed were a 100%
failure. This is the first time I have seen that behaviour. Should I sow
more? Maybe getting a bit late, but perhaps by August I may be able to
have something worth planting out. Looks like I will have to buy leek
plants again this year.<br />The peas too seem to be a total flop, very poor germination, except it seems for the mangetout (sugar snap) type.<br /><br />Today
too is sunny and warm... ironically I will probably have to go and
water, considering all the new plants I set out on Saturday evening.antipodesgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00148573728536495597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30104515.post-13138086287285541242013-04-23T12:01:00.000+02:002013-04-23T12:01:16.220+02:00At last some movementSpring has somewhat timidly arrived but I have decided that the work on the plot cannot stop now. Last weekend, I worked pretty hard, weeding, covering the unused sections, and mostly sowing.<br />
I now have the seed bed on the go, and the root veg. The peas and broadies are up, even though there are lots of gaps in the peas (have to sow some gap fillers there!). Leaves are breaking through on the early potatoes too, at last. <br />
I have not yet put down the list of veg and varieties for this year so here goes:<br />
Carrots (first sown 14 April) Early Nantes<br />
Beetroot (14/04) Cheltenham greentop and Boltardy<br />
Turnips (14/04) Snowball and Milan Purple top (already germinated)<br />
Mizuna (14/04)<br />
Radish (14/04)Sparkler (already germinated)<br />
Lettuce (14/04) Little Gem and some red and green oak leaf - I already have some plants thriving in another corner!<br />
Ishikura Bunching onions (14/04)<br />
Garlic chives (14/04) <br />
Cabbage Red Drumhead (21/04)<br />
Leeks Winter Giant (21/04)<br />
Leeks Zermatt (21/04)<br />
Beets in module (21/04) Cheltenham greentop<br />
Brussel sprouts (21/04) Samba variety<br />
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In March, sowed Early Onward peas, and Imperial Green Longpod Broadies (which are looking beautiful!). Still have to get in the Alderman tall peas (running late) and I also have some Oregon Sugar Podsugar snap peas which need to go in. <br />
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Indoors, the tomatoes are veritable triffids. I am going to sow this week the first cukes and courgettes to get a headstart ( I have Nero Di Milano and some pattypan squash and trying Bedfordhsire Prize cukes although I also have some burpless green from last year left too).antipodesgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00148573728536495597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30104515.post-40582505350706563842013-04-15T11:42:00.000+02:002013-04-15T11:42:00.073+02:00Spring arrives!And it's none too soon. Yesterday was a brilliant sunny day and a few hours in the garden were well used. Despite my hand still causing some pain, I managed to dig in the last few potatoes (Allians type, supposedly a second early/late variety, quite waxy, yellow flesh). I also planted out I don't know how many white spring onion bulbs and sowed in some seeds of Garlic Chives (here called Ciboulette de Chine, or Chinese chives, I have never tried them before) and some bunching onion seeds, which probably won't work as usual!<br />
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I reworked the bed of early sown seeds, all of which seem to have been killed off in the cold wet weather of March and early April. in their place I sowed: a new row of mizuna, some turnips, Ealr Nantes carrots and some Boltardy beetroot. In another space I sowed radish (Sparkler) and some mixed lettuce seed. I would have liked to have done more, but time did not allow me to. I went and got some heavy cardboard that had been stored up and covered the undug parts of the plot: my arm won't let me dig as I would normally do so I must work to keep weeds at least to a reasonable level. I did a little weeding in the most needy parts and hopefully I could pop down later this week and do another half an hour here and there, like howing the onions which could do with it. They have taken quite well, the echalotes showing healthy green shoots and the other varieties too, although just starting. I thought I spied a potato plant peeking through the surface: I will keep an eye on that. Early earthing up also prevents too many weeds!<br />
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Spring had also brought a new flourish of sprouting broccoli (I have a nice recipe for broccoli and pasta, maybe I will make that...) and also 4 cauliflowers! Big ones too! I was thrilled with those, I have had a few caulis this last year but smaller than that. I will sow some more, as they are a veg that we like a lot. I gave one to my neighbour, and took the other 3 home, we already have eaten one!<br />
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<br />antipodesgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00148573728536495597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30104515.post-32106308978295947372013-04-09T11:07:00.002+02:002013-04-09T11:07:51.502+02:00Back at workAfter my convalescence....<br />
The cold miserable weather continues, one of the worst springs on record. I have not even finished putting in the spuds, which is a record for me. Still, a quick check the other day showed that the broad beans were peeking through the soil so something is growing at least! I think all my early sowings are buggered though (turnips, mizune, radish).<br />
Must prepare the seedbeds this weekend and get sowing the brassicas, salads, and other greens, like the chard, Also need to sow the carrots and parsnips, beetroot, more peas, mangetout peas and the rest of the spring onions.<br />
Indoors the tomatoes and peppers are doing ridiculously well. But when will it be warm enough to plant them out???? They will be triffid size by then. I will not even think for now about cukes, beans and courgettes. antipodesgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00148573728536495597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30104515.post-20362429295144431662013-04-02T23:26:00.001+02:002013-04-02T23:26:47.315+02:00So very coldIt is April, and still the garden sleeps for the most part. I am slowly recovering from my broken wrist and with some help I did manage to plant most of the spuds and all the onions. But it has been so cold during March, apart from a few bright spells, that the sowing is hopelessly behind. I am rather worried as the peppers and tomatoes are getting so big indoors but it will be August before they go out at this rate!!!!<br />
We went to Brittany for the Easter weekend and at a market there I found some late spuds (I have found it impossible to get the Pink Fir APples I wanted so I have given up for this year), spring onion sets and some lettuce plug plants. Hopefully those will relieve the itchy fingers, with a bit of fleece! But it surely must warm up soon. I believe it has been one of the longest winters I have seen since living here. It is most disheartening.<br />
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Maddeningly I cannot find the name of the potato type I bought. I seem to think it started with an R (Revelle? something like that) - the farmer told me it was a later variety, yellow flesh (it seems to be a brown and not red skinned variety) that is quite firm and he said they were good keepers.... so I guess it will have to be a surprise. I bought a kilo and a half and there are a good few tubers there, at least 30 and he only charged me 3.75 euros which is a total bargain.<br />
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I shall pop down to the allotment tomorrow and see how all is progressing: I found some Aquadulce broad bean seeds, the last in the packet so I shall sow them and hope for the best.<br />
<br />antipodesgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00148573728536495597noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30104515.post-50628290271267186042013-02-23T16:52:00.002+01:002013-02-23T16:52:48.065+01:00normal service will be resumed<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The above is the explanation of the blog's temporary interruption. A bike accident saw me break my (right) wrist in 2 places, 6 weeks in a cast and more weeks of physio. Almost ready for the cast to come off! Meanwhile the garden must wait. Almost.<br />
The 5 months of rain has turned into a bitter cold snap. But the garlic as come up nicely and with help from my kids, the echalotes and onions are in the ground.antipodesgirlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00148573728536495597noreply@blogger.com0