What a year for growing veg! First it rained and the weather refused to warm. Beans started off in the greenhouse where they grew well sulked in the ground next to their poles for weeks. Slowly and reluctantly they crawled up the poles..along with an army of slugs. Slugs have been relentless this year. Eveynight – and it is still worth doing even in September, I pick off slug after slug from lettuces, beans, brassicas (they loved those for some reason this year). Numerous attempts were made to germinate lettuces but failed. I ended up with 3 lettuce plants, cos type. Each night I have been picking off several slugs. They turned their noses up at the beer trap. I pick them (sometimes drag them – I can almost hear them screaming then stamp on them, squishing them on the slabs. Curiously next night these mounds of disemboweled slugs attracts many hungry slugs which seem to swarm around the rotting flesh. Weird.
I love dahlias. In order to see their beautifully vibrant blooms I have to pick slugs off the young shoots everynight. Usually the slugs lose interest when larger tougher leaves form but not this year. They are still at it even on the flowers themselves.
I think I’ve spotted some of those Black Russian tomato seeds germinating already. This is a huge surprise but just goes to show what a bit of heat adds. It’s like seeds in their beds with a blanket warmer on.
Inside the greenhouse the tender lettuce seedlings have survived. Encouraged by this I’ve transplanted nearly all of them now. The Charles Dowding seed plug trays are proving their worth. they have a very large hole at the bottom so once placed in a normal seed tray, they allow lengthening roots to stretch freely with no root binding. The speedy lettuces (sowed nearly a month ago) all have at least 2 true leaves and very long roots in some cases. We’ll see if they surge forward now immersed in compost from the garden laced with chicken manure.
The other seeds I planed were giant long leeks – my own seed. They were a success in the garden the year before last and the remaining ones spent the summer seeding themselves in huge seed heads, like giant..alliums..which is what they are I guess. Some had bent over into the soil and began seeding themselves (plants often work out better in the garden when I don’t interfere). Others were taken indoors, the seeds culled and I pickled them, in brine first then oil. They are delicious but even better tasting will be the wild garlic seed heads a bit later on in the year. The remainder I kept for seeds and so now they are underneath some fine compost, in Dowdings trays, hopefully regenerating themselves.
Existing seeds have been catalogued into a spreadsheet and embarrassingly I have about 300 of them! Many of the packets have been sent from my old subscription to Grow Your Own magazine. There’s a lot of duplicates – more carrot seeds than I could ever hope to sow, though most of my carrot sowing attempts have resulted in failure… Many are out of date so I’m not sure what to do with those. Perhaps put them on trial on some absorbent paper and see if they start germinating?
I have bought some fresh seeds though from The Real Seed company based in Wales. I’ve been impressed by the dedication to heritage seeds and the fantastic way in which they show you how to save your own seed. Something I should try and do more often.Their aim is “to assemble the best collection of really reliable, tasty and interesting non-hybrid vegetables for the home gardener, allotment grower, or smallholder.“. and
“Much of our vegetable growing and weeding is by hand – we have a small tractor for preparing the seedbeds at the start of each season. Two thirds of our land are devoted to wildlife and woodland. Overall , our aim is that at the end of our lives, we will leave the soil and ecosystems in a better condition than at the start.”.
Can’t recommend them enough. Last year I bought a packet of magic mix cauliflowers from them and they were fantastic. Such an amazing variety. Still got some left for this year. I asked them for some advice upon the variety of cucumbers to grow outside as the dome greenhouse overheats and I am finding it difficult to keep it well ventilated. They recommended the Wautoma Cucumber variety.
I’ve also bought some sweetcorn seeds – double standard bicolour but they are not hybrids.. Though I have plenty of my own seed!. Somehow some of last year’s sweetcorn kernels escaped being picked. They’ve dried out nicely inside though some of the kernels cross fertilised with another variety I tried the year before which turned out to be highly coloured vibrant ornamental and wouldn’t cook! So I’m not sure what will happen to them
The seeds in the foreground are mostly golden so may grow into good tasting plants. The others will need to be an experiment. If they germinate that is.. I haven’t got much room for experiments though!
It’s Autumn now. No real ground frost yet which might be a first – it’s only 4 weeks to the winter solstice. I have got nearly all the geraniums in apart from one hanging basket I missed and the dustbin full of geraniums which were mostly leaf and not much flower due to the high level of compost in it..
So what was a success this year? Hmm. Well the brassicas are doing much better than expected. I bought a packet of cauliflower mix seeds from Real Seeds ‘Magic mix of cauliflowers’ They really were magic and exciting to see what emerged from the head of leaves within. I’ve still got half a packet left so will try again next year. The best cauliflower heads started off like Romanesque then spread out like a huge head of broccoli with many individual florets.
Cobra climbing french beans were also very long, plentiful and cropped over several weeks. I did have trouble with slugs attacking them though, necessitating nightly trips out with a torch and a small bucket.
Beetroot flourished again with few pests after them, helped by a reasonably wet summer.
Broad beans started well but then got blackfly and by the time I’d persuaded them to leave, broad bean rust set in. Lettuce did okay but again demanding slug checks.
Neighbour Mitch gave me a few squash/courgette plants and they loved growing against the stone wall. The trombonicus sprouted huge long trombones which hung audaciously over towards the road.
Andy planted sweetcorn directly into the ground since I’d not got round to sowing them this year. They did well but half were the old ornamental seed from last year which cross pollinated with the edible ones…
The strawberries were okay but could have been better..the raspberries cropped heavily again which have been turned into jam. We had what began to be a good crop of potatoes but by the time they were harvested, the worms and slugs had invaded most of them. I like the red Desiree variety.
Meanwhile in the greenhouse…the tomatoes started off well but then suffered in the heat, intermittent human induced drought and lack of feeding. For one week I was watering a friend’s garden down the road. I was shocked at how prolific her crop was! Then I saw all the bottles of tomato feed stacked up. Well I am not doing that so me and next door are researching on making a more nourishing fertiliser ourselves for next year. Must look up nettle feed..already started composting banana skins, egg shells and wood ash. We also have a good supply of what we call guano from the barn where cattle were once housed decades ago (well rotted then!) but it’s very dry and needs soaking for days. Perhaps the liquid from that will make a nitrogen rich feed as well.
Cucumbers started well, then heat stress. I’ve tried opening up the dome greenhouse more with bottom vents and a new window replaced with holes but still it becomes stifling in there.
Started work on the pond surrounding area yesterday. That pond could look so nice if only I kept on top of all the wild things that keep taking over. Extracted huge triffid like brambles that snake and grasp at plants and earth at great seed, planting defiant root systems at their tips as they go. Tried to extract a huge fern right at the pond edge. That will grow back. The planted groups of 5 or 6 dwarf narcissus bulbs in between the boulders. If I can keep the winter heliotrope and ground alder trying to prevent them growing in the spring. Underneath the azaleas I came across a white blob buried in the earth. It had an egg membrane like skin on it then as this punctured there was a gelatinous blob inside. What was that?! It seems it was a stinkhorn egg or ‘witches mushroom’
Long time no write. I must keep a record of what I do as I keep forgetting the small details of what went in where!
Bought a load of bulbs from Wilkos – half price at the moment as I suppose it’s nearly the end of the planting season but it’s been so mild, difficult to compute that.
Today, for the record, I looked at the western border below the newly transplanted mombretia and weeded some roots of oregano and ground elder out. I’m wondering if the mombretia once they get going won’t trample all over any bulbs I plant so maybe stick to daffodils there? Outside the western kitchen window I planted 15 dwarf crocuses – there were a few other bulbs lurking in the soil below..I wonder what they are? ! Then outside the northern kitchen window I planted 15 giant crocuses so they can lighten up the mornings in early spring.
Contemplating the box of remaining assorted bulbs, spotted garlic I’d ordered. Better get that in. Each year I try and try to grow garlic successfully but failure in some way has followed failure. I’ve tried different sites, adding chicken manure compost, planting them in a tub but all succumb to rust or failure to grow fat garlic heads. This time I’ve sown two rows in the new raised bed, over a layer of compost. the western most row is the bought bulbs, satvium casablanca. The eastern row is a bulb head that started sprouting in the kitchen. Probably some warm climate preferring Spanish variety that won’t like cooler winters. We’ll see
It’s that time of the year. Delicate quivering seedlings in a bid for survival. First lack of rain. Then rain. Then the slug army moves in. Go out at night with a torch and the soil is a squirming frenzy of tiny black slugs, crawling over the once emerging cauliflower plant leaves, reducing them to desolate stalks.
I start to pick them off, their slime coating my fingers with a glue like substance. I smear them on the pavement stones and squish them with a wellington boot. I tried plastic bottles cut in half as protectors. They laughed with glee when they saw them. A perfect medium to slime up and gain a quick route to their goal, my once healthy cauliflower plants.
Beer pots. I resorted to yeasty pots of beer in a bid to catch them. There must be hundreds of them, crawling out of the stone wall. Perhaps one of the problems is the ground is bare and there are no other plants to feed off. They seem to have regarded the peas with disdain.
The pot of basil outside the back door is a must have for slugs. Long brown ones slip and slide joyously towards the pungent aroma. At least I can see them coming. Then the tender and cautiously emerging dahlia shoots! I discovered their mangled stumps today. Oh how I am losing this war. Slugs are an important part of the ecosystem but how can we live together amicably?
Time is short and time is marching on. I’m keen to turn more of the veg plot over to no dig but it looks like someone has dug it all over already! Tricky I suppose as there is a big bindweed infestation problem. Perhaps next year eh?
In the olden days the seed packets ordered you to ‘rake the soil to a fine tilth’. So rake to get the bigger dry lumps off then search for last year’s two sticks with bailer twine attached between for a line..use that to attempt a straightish line, find the small diddly hoe to carve a channel and search for packets of seeds.
Carrots first. Ah those elusive carrots that I sow each year and rarely come to edible veg. I’ve got the seeds – packets of them as I have been subscribing to Grow Your Own Magazine for the past few years. Each month about 6 packets of seeds accompany the magazine. The seeds can get repetitive but sometimes there are new varieties which are fun to try. It is with these that I sourced beetroot, carrot and parsnips. I did try Alys Fowler’s advice and water the channel and seeds. We’ve had little rain for the last few weeks. It always happens. No sooner than I sow seeds, a drought follows and I’m left wondering if the seed germination fails because of lack of water or slugs getting there first. Though slugs tend to dislike dry conditions…
The seed planted rows look damp. Good. I think the cat thought I made her another toilet. Bad.
Over time I’d considered house sparrows as unremarkable small brown birds which shrieked rather than sang. They would congregate and breed under the eaves at the house front, chattering noisily during summer months. Early morning sleep disturbers which flittered about unnoticed.
Over the years they have declined 60% between 1994 and 2004 according to the RSPB . Come to think of it they have become more noticeable by the relative absence over the past 20 years. Last year a sparrow house was built and erected near where they had been starting to nest again. Create a sparrow street the RSPB site sang. It seems they prefer to live in colonies with their mates to chatter to and fight with all day. At the same time and unrelated to this an old wooden bread bin which enjoyed harbouring festering crumbs was converted into a bat box and hung up on the end of the garage roof. They have colonised that too.
The bird feeders have become the water cooler chat areas for the sparrows and I have noticed the mealworms put out for the robins have been snapped up by them. It seems they enjoy those as a snack too, a suggested cause for their decline being a famine of grubs to forage.
They enjoy launching off two bushes onto the feeders, their favourite being an aromatic bay tree. I like bay leaves added to dishes too.
I’ve come to the conclusion that a tidy winter garden is not a great refuge for creatures great and small during the winter months. Scour and scrape away at dying undergrowth and watch the woodlice, worms and beetles scurry away as their winter home is recklessly removed. In the past a large clump of irises had become home to a frog over winter. So those leaves stay.
Clip away at dead Michaelmas daisies and birds could be deprived of winter foods in the seeds.
The result is what would have been classified as an unkempt lazy gardeners garden is now a nature garden and my response to comments. As a pass up our lane there is an idyllic looking cottage with a large expanse of garden extending out form the veranda area down a slope towards the road. A the road edge it is banked up with a conglomerate stone wall which leans from time to time before listing and slumping onto the road, disgorging the soil and organic matter which has crept down under the influence of gravity.
The carer of the garden has no tolerance of extraneous plant material and appears to spend hours on hands and knees cutting and clipping and dragging unwanted vegetation away to the compost bin to be whisked away by the council lest it doubles in bulk and its seeds spread like a virus across the already cleansed garden. Bare soil emerges from it’s Autumnal protective coat, naked to the scouring elements for the winter. Any creature unfortunate enough to have hoped for a winter refuge must scurry away and find another hiding place.
It’s been another cold March day today with a cutting northerly wind. I did do some cutting back of very tall bay tree branches on a lofty bay bush. This bush is a refuge for birds all year round, providing a launch pad for sparrows, dunnocks, tits and others to reach the bird feeders. If left to grow with it’s usual vigour it blocks other plants nearby so sometimes a compromise is reached. The leaves make wizard like enhancements of cooking.
It’s close companion a wisteria has infiltrated the bush, winding its tendrils round and through the bay bush to emerge at the top triumphant. I wonder how many blooms will dangle from these new shoots?
Gardening in a Jungle 