Sunday 31 July 2011

Strawberry Bed

At the end of last month, we started clearing a space for an extra strawberry bed (where I also hope to put a few rhubarb plants).

The 'Before' photo:

It appears we only work on this bed when it's very hot. It's been a very warm few days, and we've finished constructing the bed: I turned to soil on Friday, before building the bed on Saturday, when we also started to fill it (a couple of turf stacks that needed a home, and a few barrows of topsoil: more to follow).

The turves cut, and turned.


The posts in.


The boards attached, and soil levelled, ready for topping up.

I've also mown the lawn, and Liz has done a huge amount of weeding: the kitchen garden is really clear, and the front garden's been tidied, too. We've also lifted the first couple of onions (both Autumn Gold), which have weighed in at about 100–200 g. Very tasty, too. The crop should be ready in the next few weeks, and the foliage has started to yellow.

All photos and content © Ian (2011).

Sunday 24 July 2011

First Earlies

We've been lifting first early potatoes for a while, and replanting second-cropping potatoes. This weekend, with some help from Hazel and Alex (who were visiting), we've lifted the remaining Rocket and Lady Christl, along with the potatoes that had come up in the fruit beds.

This came to about 45kg/100lb of potatoes, which has meant a lot of cleaning! We've now got about 90 days of potatoes lifted and ready to eat, and have planted out all of the second cropping seed potatoes (twenty of each of Vivaldi and Orla).

Potato Harvest - Lady Christl (© Ian (2011))

We had a good time with our guests, as well as making them lift potatoes, and the rest of the garlic (now drying, ready to plait later in the week), and it was good to see them. We were very lucky with the weather, and spent a fair time outside.

Tuesday 19 July 2011

More Carrots Sown

After taking out a few rows of carrots at the weekend, we had space to re-sow three rows of Early Nantes this evening. I also popped some cardboard collars on half the leeks, to see if it has any effect lengthening/blanching the stems. Yes, this is an experiment.

There were also another handful of peas to collect, and I took up another row (three plants) of Rocket potatoes. They seem to be keeping really well underground; minimal slug damage so far.

We also had to find somewhere for half a dozen spinach seedlings; lacking a good spot, we weeded around the smallest blueberries (still very little!), and put them in there. This necessitated digging up three of the potato plants that had been left unintentionally (no bad thing).

In weeding, I discovered that the end blueberry (Fruiting Dixi) had a small bunch of berries, which we hadn't spotted before. Very pleasing; it means four of the seven will have fruited this year (the two oldest, and two of the two-year-old plants we put in in 2009).

The seven are:
  • Something unknown!
  • Grover (the biggest)
  • Top Hat
  • Spartan
  • Patriot
  • Gold Traube
  • Fruiting Dixi

The first two came with us from our old garden, and are cropping well again this year. I need to decide how to make ericaceous compost or mulch, which these and the raspberries will benefit from.

Oh: there's updated data on the Weather page.

Sunday 17 July 2011

Wet

A unrelentingly wet weekend, with it forecast to continue. However, we dashed out in the lighter bits, to get a few urgent things done. Another row of Rocket potatoes came up, making space for six more Vivaldi to go in. We brought in a big tub of peas, a couple of dozen carrots, and about six broad beans (not really ready, it transpires). We've picked the last of the red- and white-currants, and almost all of the raspberries. We'll need to prune the raspberries back, soon. When it's dry, I think.

We also managed to plant up the last two hanging baskets, with some petunias, cineraria, and lobelia. All seed-grown, I shall point out.

A rainy patch will probably be good, as everything will benefit from a good soak!

Wednesday 13 July 2011

Autumn Planting Alliums

A brief mooch in the garden this evening, sowing some new carrot (Early Nantes) and beetroot seeds to replenish what we've taken up. We also collected some salad, kale, and spring onions (finally becoming a sensible size!). I don't know why the spring onions have taken so long to get going.

In addition, I have today ordered our autumn planting onions (100 'Radar' sets), garlic (3 bulbs of 'Germidour'; mild and good for storing), and a dozen cloves of Elephant Garlic (which is secretly a leek). All of these should arrive in August or September, ready to go straight into the ground.

The Radar should be ready May-July (ahead of next year's spring-planted onions, which will probably only be ready from August), and are pretty tough, overwintering well.

Germidour has about a dozen cloves per bulb, and a mild flavour. It's a soft-neck, which means it doesn't flower and stores better. Also, importantly (or not), it's easier to plait the garlic.

I've never grown Elephant Garlic, but want to try it for roasting during the winter months. In theory, it's a good candidate for a cash crop: the cloves cost about 75p each, but a bulb goes for about £4—and there should be 6–9 cloves per bulb. I'll probably keep at least a dozen cloves back for re-sowing.

Tuesday 12 July 2011

Lifting Garlic

Spent a couple of hours this evening tidying a few bits up. We pulled up a big bunch of carrots; those that are getting munched, or too close to their neighbours. Some of the Parmex are getting a little large, so we took out plenty of them. The Early Nantes (which we sowed at the start of April) are now respectable, so we may take more of these up and sow some more later.

The beetroot are getting proper sized (tennis-ball, or so), so expect more beetroot cooking. The peas are now in full flight, and the runner beans are just coming into flower, so I expect gluts of those two imminently. The broad beans will probably be ready to start picking this weekend.

One of the Orla I planted at the weekend is showing (already) above ground, so that will need earthing up.

Having run out of garlic, I pulled up one of the garlics that's been growing since last May. These went in when the vegetable beds didn't exist, and the fruit bushes were small. It wasn't the right time (oops), but they've coped just fine, and are now ready. The one I took up is a decent size bulb, so we'll probably lift the rest over the next week or two, as all the foliage is dying.

It's about time to order autumn planted (overwintering) onion sets, and new garlic (if I want to overwinter it), so I shall be doing that soon.

Oh—an addendum to the weekend's work: I planted out a couple of dozen beetroot seedlings, and replaced about half of the salad plants (which had gone to seed, and were no longer as tasty).

Sunday 10 July 2011

Pottering

It's been nearly eighteen months since I posted about my last weekend like this. Once again, Liz had to work, which left me to get on with bits and pieces.

I've sanded down our wooden chopping boards (including the large piece of worktop cut out for the draining sink), and (re-)oiled them. They've all needed doing for a little while, but I'd not got round to it. The biggest one (the new one) is rather large, and pretty heavy, as the worktop is dense oak, but quite attractive. The two biggest will come in very helpful when chutney making, which is always demanding of space.

I made a passing attempt at fixing the light above the bathroom basin (which has been flickering, and giving a disco-esque feel to the room; strobe lighting is not ideal when shaving). I've not been entirely successful, as I think a tube or igniter is going. Still; it's improved.

I re-weeded the vegetable beds (well, some of them): the onions needed doing, although they're much better than at the end of May, and I attacked the celeriac, leeks, and salad leaf bed while I was at it. The celeriac are growing well, and I will soon need to be watching for side-shoots forming: these need to be pinched out.

The lawn needed mowing, as it's been about ten days, so I've done my bit to help fill the compost heap. On the same note, I turned all three, and watered them, as they seemed a bit dry.

The fruit beds have been a bit swamped by unexpected potatoes that have sprouted from tubers left behind last year. These are a nuisance, and can't be helping the fruit bushes, so I've cut off all the foliage. With the haulms gone, the tubers should 'set', and be ready for lifting next weekend. I think we've got enough new potatoes (the Lady Christl and Rocket are still doing fine, and we're getting an average of a kilo per plant), so doing it this way means they should store. To that end, I've left the hessian sacks soaking in a bucket of weak bleach for a couple of hours, to make sure they're sterile.

As I've now pulled up nine Lady Christl, and three Rocket, I had space to put in twelve of the Orla and Vivaldi. These two (a first and second early, respectively) have been waiting in the wings (chitting in the study) while the first planting went in at the start of April. One can purchase 'second cropping' seed potatoes for new potatoes at Christmas—the producer holds them in optimal conditions, and they get to you about now. I wanted to try it myself (not least because the tubers are twice as expensive if they're second croppers), hence the waiting period in the study. The first dozen are, then, now in the ground, and hopefully will provide us with new potatoes in a couple of months.

Another pound or two of strawberries, a bowl of mini-peas, and a few beetroot all contributed to the weekend's food. The beetroot turned into a tasty hummus (courtesy of Hugh Fearlessly Eats-it-all).

It was also time to put the elder wine into a demi-john. Now, I had hoped that this wine—a blend of elderberry and elderflower—might oblige me by being a rosé. No such luck. The anthocyanins in elderberries are obviously quite robust, and the wine is definitely red. It may, I suppose, lighten, but it's unlikely to become a rosé. Never mind: the taste will be more important.

Wednesday 6 July 2011

Swelling Fermentation Bucket

Just a quick note to record that the fermentation bucket full of elder rosé is starting to get going. The sealed lid is swelling, which means the yeast is busily converting sugar to carbon dioxide—and alcohol. At the weekend, I shall strain the must into a demi-john, and add the rest of the sugar. Half went in to the bucket (the 'elderflower' half); the second 750 g is for the 'elderberry' part of the wine.

We'll have to see whether this approach works!

Sunday 3 July 2011

Summer House Party

We hosted a repeat of the post-Christmas get-together this weekend, with the same friends travelling up on Friday, and staying until today. Sadly, Katherine was struck down by a stomach bug, and couldn't make it, but Robert joined us this time (he couldn't make it in January). As before, much food was consumed and eaten, and we also enjoyed games of croquet and boules outside (the glorious weather held), and Twaddle and Chinese Chequers inside, as well as a walk on Saturday.

Everyone had left by early afternoon, and we've made the most of the last bit of holiday. A bit of tidying in the kitchen garden yielded a few trays of currants, and a kilo of strawberries, as well as a half-dozen carrots and a bowl of sugar-snap-size peas (they're not a mange tout/sugar snap variety, but we're eating them as such). We then popped out to collect a dozen heads of elderflowers, and set an experimental bucket of wine going: elder rosé. This is something I thought up last autumn and wanted to try, but have had to wait for the elderflowers, having frozen the elderberries I needed. My thinking is that a rosé based on the elderflower and elderberry wine would be interesting, as I find the latter has too much tannin, but the former has, naturally, none.

So, I halved both recipes, and combined them. We'll see what happens.

With the kilo of strawberries, we've tried making an elderflower and strawberry jam. Hazel made jars of this (and about six other jams) as favours at her wedding. It's a nice change from straight-up strawberry jam: hers was a little less sweet, and the floral addition worked really well. It seems to have set well, which I'm really pleased about: hopefully it will also taste good.