Harvest Monday, slug control, and some allotment pics

I wish I'd looked ahead on the weather forecast.....the next few days are expected to be very windy with heavy rain...so any plants that have managed to avoid the slugs will now get a battering. I've still got a few things that need planting out though, so those will wait until the weather improves. Some of them are showing signs of distress (used up the nutrients in the compost), so I'll pot those into bigger pots. I'm also re-sowing some squashes (six have been eaten) and beans.

Slug control

Last night I went into the back garden around midnight with a light and *ugh* I could not believe how many slugs were around, it's a surprise any plants survive at all. I'd seen a comment on a blog (I think either CJ or Shaheen's) where someone mentioned using a yeast and sugar mixture to draw the slugs out, similar to a beer trap. I had an old pack of yeast and some old sugar, so gave this a go. I wasn't sure about the quantities so just added a couple of shakes of each (the sugar feeds the yeast) and mixed it up with a bit of water. And, hey it works! It only seems to work for a day though, the following day I saw slugs going into the tub and then climbing back out (rather than drowning) so I presume it needs topping up. But it was definitely effective for a while, and as its using up old stuff I already had, that's a bonus too. I've found an old pack of bran in the cupboard that's meant to be good as a slug barrier (they eat it and swell up, a bit grim), but I'll save that for when the wet weather's passed and use it round my remaining lettuces. Plus I've spent goodness knows how long checking hidey places and trying to reduce the number of hidey places (most annoying was actually under chunks of manure around the squash plants...after keep seeing more slug damage but not finding the critters I had a sudden thought that they might be under there, lovely and warm and moist for them. They've been dealt with and the manure broken up smaller. You live and learn eh).

The harvests

On to more pleasant news, I've had a bit more variety on the harvests this week...

I was given a couple of looong asparagus spears by my friend that I got the horse manure with, which went into a noodle soup

My self-seeded chard from last year has started putting on quite a bit of new growth and I've made a couple of decent harvests. I'll let most of them go to seed again this year to save sowing any myself.

I made flapjack again, this time using some rhubarb but with a few defrosted strawberries from the freezer (the last tub of them, but not to long until this year's first ones). I'd started putting the topping on when I remembered to take a pic.

In the back garden I had a couple of old rocket plants that put on some fresh spring growth, so I picked all of it, to make space for lettuce plants. We had some in a salad and I've used the rest to make a pesto.

Every year I think 'I must try making blackcurrant leaf tea'. Well, today I finally did it. It's really easy, I just ripped up three lovely fresh leaves and steeped them in boiling water for a couple of minutes. The flavour was actually quite nice and refreshing, so I'll give that another go.

We've also had a couple of nice harvests of lettuce leaves (no pics) from the ones I've been growing in modules...some have been planted into the back garden (by now some of which have been slugged or catted) and some are still waiting to go out. Well, at least if none survive we've had a couple of pickings...better than last year when my direct-sowings came to nothing.

On the allotment...

Jan came and helped a couple of times this weekend and took some lovely photos whilst we were there.

 

Loads of strawberry flowers

Soon be time for those sweet fruits

Early potatoes already in flower. The plot's very dry at the moment so I gave these a water as flowering time is meant to be when the tubers bulk-up. Instead of earthing-up (to prevent green potatoes) I use dried grass clippings as a mulch.

Blueberry

Here's my Saskatoon bush

The flowers have been and gone, but masses of berries are following on behind. The gooseberries and currant bushes are quite fruit-laden too.

Back at home I've finished potting on the tomatoes and have 18 plants altogether (I gave 11 spare plants to some friends)

Lettuce, dill and coriander still to plant out (when the weather's calmed down, if they haven't bolted by then)

I've potted-on all my brassicas as I'm not ready to plant these out yet either (the beds and nearby plot edges need clearing and are no doubt harbouring lots of slugs)

And Jan snuck a pic of the plot (about two- thirds down) with me weeding one of the beds. I'm just starting to feel like the plot is coming under control (ish) so if it wasn't for the slugs and the weather I'd be happy (ish)!

Thanks for reading this week. I'm linking in as usual with Harvest Monday hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres

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Harvest Monday and a seedling update

I only have one major harvest to report this week, but it's quite a good 'un.....a lovely big load of purple sprouting broccoli. I helped out at the community farm again and it was the last harvest from their site before they have a bit of a hiatus whilst sorting out the next place. So I did actually pick this myself but didn't grow it!

 

It was nice to actually help with the harvest as up until now I've mainly been hauling stuff around / folding up absolutely huge sheets of enviromesh (one of them was ginormous, I cannot describe how massive it was...and a real challenge to fold up and tie with rope to be transported for storage, even with three of us manhandling it).

 

So anyway, this was my portion of the PSB....delicious

Back at home, my tomatoes are getting rather large....ideally I've have potted them on by now but I'm holding off until I've collected some horse poo with a friend (hopefully this weekend coming). The pots are drying out really quickly, they're far too small. Luckily, even if the toms get a bit droopy they perk back up quite quickly after a watering.

I did plant out two of the toms though, just using some bought-in compost (peat-free). I also popped in a little basil plant with them as its meant to help keep pests away. When the basil gets a bit bigger I'll pinch its top out to encourage it to bush-up. I have some other basils that I've potted on too. In the tub behind the toms I've got a couple of cucumbers - I haven't grown them in here for a couple of years as I started to get red spider mite and wanted to break the cycle. So we'll see how they do this year. I have an old bit of trellis for them to climb up (that I got from a skip of course). The sticks are to stop our cat digging up the compost (which she would definitely enjoy doing!)

I'm continuing to harden-off the plants that will be set out in the back garden or allotment eventually. It's a bit of a faff taking them all in and out of the lean-to each day but it will be worth it as they'll have got used to being outside. It's also important to check under / along the sides of the trays for slugs and snails as they try and hitch a lift and then rampage through all the plants overnight.

This afternoon at the allotment I've been weeding the two beds where my sweetcorn will go....they're my priority to get planted out first as they don't like having their roots disturbed (here they are in the pic below in loo rolls). The beds were riddled with couch grass..so tedious to weed, though quite satisfying when you pull out a really long root all in one go.

I have a few runner beans in loo rolls too for up at the plot, which also really need to get planted out....another job for this week but more weeding needed first. The squashes are all getting big as well...basically everything is needing to go out, argh.

So that's me...weeding, potting on and (hopefully) planting out this coming week. Oh, and re-sowing things that didn't work or have been eaten by slugs, ugh ( I have found some slug hidey-places and am trying to be more vigilant checking them).

 

I'm linking in as usual with Harvest Monday hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres

 

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Harvest Monday and a little lookie in the back garden

I expect a fair few home-growers have started harvesting rhubarb this week....me too. I'm not a huge fan so I just have a tub of it growing in the back garden, just outside the lean-to (I used to have it in the ground on the allotment but decided I'd rather use the area for something else...the spot is now occupied by a Saskatoon bush).

 

I meant to split the crown this winter to re-invigorate the plant but didn't get round to it, but it's looking ok so far. I pulled the three largest stems.

 

But a few days later I was on the allotment and popped onto my friend's plot (the chap in a wheelchair) to see if any help was needed....to discover absolutely huge plants down the far end of his plot. I don't know how he does it....everything grows so well! So we shared the harvest - he had 5, I had these 6 (Too big to fit on the chopping board) and I gave another 5 to another chap on the allotments. There'll be more to pick soon too. Crumbs....(or should I say 'crumble').

Actually I didn't make a crumble, I've made rhubarb flapjack instead (twice). The recipe uses softened fruit, and as I don't like rhubarb massively I add in berries from the freezer to mix it up a bit. Because there was so much rhubarb I had enough fruit mix left to freeze a couple of tubs of it too.

Yummy

For the flapjack I use a recipe that I adapted last year, which you can see on this post from August.

 

I've not harvested much else, but on the kitchen windowsill I have a few pots of onions for adding into salads etc. These were small onion sets that I had leftover after planting the rest on the allotment. I tried to do something similar with them last year in the garden but kept forgetting about them so never picked any....here in the kitchen I can't miss them.

Snipped onto a leek a potato soup from the freezer

In the back garden....

You'll have to forgive the terrible pic, the sun was very bright so you can see my reflection and I couldn't really see what I was photographing! Anyway, I've set up two wigwams for beans (one in each raised bed) and also tied canes to the fence for them too. Beans do much better in my back garden than the allotment. I've sown two bean seeds at the base of each pole - a mixture of runners, borlotti and blauhilde purple French bean.

My plastic mesh 'gate' into the left hand raised bed has broken, so I thought I'd have a go at making a very rustic one from buddliea trimmings. It's not finished yet as I ran out of twine, but I've quite enjoyed making it (and it's free apart from the twine). I don't know how sturdy it will be but really just needs to keep the cats out (including my own little kitty).

I've started hardening off my seedlings too...in fact I need to bring them back inside now....

So that's it from me, thanks for reading. I'm linking in with Harvest Monday hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres

 

 

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Harvest Monday - soupy

We've had another bank holiday weekend, yippee. It's always a bit confusing though, and today doesn't really feel like Monday. I got in a few trips to the plot over the weekend and planted out some of my squashes and courgettes etc. I used up the horsemanure I was saving for my tomatoes because i'm going to be getting a load more on Wednesday, so decided to leave potting-on my toms til next weekend (the squashes really needed planting out so took priority).

The toms really need planting out too though, several have started producing flowers. But I've read before that it's good to let them get to that point before potting into their final places as it encourages more fruit (because they're running out of nutrients and think they will die soon so produce fruit sooner than if they were Molly-coddled).

Toms waiting for attention

With the harvests this week I've made a couple of soups, this one was cauliflower and leek, with my own added greens

There's fair bit of over wintered rocket still growing in the back garden. I think if I keep picking it, it'll just carry on cropping

Rocket, goats cheese and home made coleslaw, plus home grown gherkins

Rocket and egg sarnies

The tub of Swiss chard in the front yard is producing some really big leaves. Although North facing, It gets the sun first thing in the morning

These went into a kind of bolognese, with kidney beans and a tub of my own tomato, chilli and basil sauce from the freezer

I went out for dinner for a friend's 60th birthday on Saturday. Jan stayed in as she wasn't feeling too good still, and had veggie pie and greens (Purple sprouting broccoli leaves and shoots)

I've been clearing out the PSB plants to make way for the squashes etc so harvested a whole load more of the best leaves

And the last few shoots

And some chard and sage

Which went into the second soup of the week, onion, garlic, ground ginger and cumin with red lentils and all the greens. It was good!

And then tonight i made a big pan of veggie curry. Usually I make enough for two meals but tonight I thought I'd make a bigger batch for three meals, adding in lots of chard from the allotment which had started to bolt, and a can each of chickpeas and butter beans.

Yummy yummy! We'll have it again for lunch tomorrow and then maybe lunch the next day too or maybe the evening. We don't have enough mini naan breads for all those meals so I might do some rice one day. Theres's a lot needing to be done in the garden and the plot so any time that can be saved on cooking is very much appreciated.

Linking in with Harvest Monday at Daphne's dandelions

 

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Harvest Monday - rhubarb shortbread sans photo

It's a little bit light on the harvests this week 'cause I've been away for a long weekend camping in the New Forest for my brother's 40th birthday, (ponies, birds, very pretty, very cold at night). One day we went to Beaulieu and I remembered from a visit a few years ago that there was a community veggie garden, so I nipped up there for a few minutes whilst the others (several families with many children) were tucking into ice creams (yes, I did have an ice cream too, ginger flavour, yum). The photos are on my camera so I'll try and get them off it this week to share, it's a great place. I was very jealous of their amazing lettuces.

But in the meantime, here's this week's harvests:

I picked some more Purple sprouting broccoli leaves, which are actually really tasty

Which we had with poached eggs (Looks a bit like the grouch from Sesame Street)

More rocket

I accidentally pulled up a little garlic whilst weeding...

So that night, I pulled a couple of chard leaves from the tub in the front yard...

..and made posh baked beans (which is basically, fry an onion, plus the garlic, and some mushrooms, add the baked beans and then the chard. It makes a quick, tasty meal)

Before I went away I picked a big bag of chard from the allotment to keep Jan going for a few days (she's still not well enough to do too much, but is getting better)

On my last night we had noodle soup with some of the chard and one asparagus spear (ooh)

Then whilst I was away she had our new classic, spicy chick pea pie with greens

She also used some chard in a cous cous and chick pea dish but didn't get a pic. The chard looks nice though

I was travelling by train to the New Forest and was limited in what I could carry, but still wanted to take something home made, so I picked some rhubarb and we made Nigella Lawson's rhubarb shortbread, as recommended by CJ from Above the River

I didn't have quite enough rhubarb for the recipe so made up the additional weight with stem ginger. Here it is before cooking.....

...and I have no photos of it baked.....argh! It looked so good and was really delicious. We cooked it a little bit longer than the recipe as the top still looked a bit wet, but it hardened up the next day and cut quite nicely. Well, we shall just have to make it again when more rhubarb's grown.

 

So I'm a bit annoyed there was no photo of the shortbread (I was sure I took one of it cooling, sigh), so instead will finish with the laburnum tree in our back garden earlier this evening in the sunshine (which followed a miserable after noon of rain, that caught me on the walk home from the train station).

Pretty! And full of buzzy bees.

Linking in with Harvest Monday on Daphne's Dandelions

 

 

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