Fruit, Veg, Flowers and Slugs

Over the weekend I was lucky enough to get several hours in the garden, pottering around, doing a little weeding, edging the lawn where it had become a little untidy, moving some pots around and generally tidying up. I also had time to begin the Winter Crop Experiment.  The White Ishikura Spring Onions  have been sown into a trough and the Carrot Amsterdam Forcing 3  sown into a couple of old buckets that I grow the odd thing in and a spare terracotta pot. I have used bulk standard multi-purpose compost bought from the local Horticultural Guild Trading Sheds on Sunday morning. They have all been placed in the Greenhouse and now the waiting game begins. I am as confident as you can be that they will germinate and all being well I will have a few extra crops throughout the months of autumn and hopefully even early winter.   Just for fun, as I am not sure if this sowing will work, I have also sown a line of  Carrot Amsterdam Forcing 3 in the veg patch. This is very late for outdoor sowing

 I have decided to have a go at growing some crops that are usually more associated with summer and autumn for a winter harvest, all being well.  Growing salad leaves for winter harvests isn't that unusual, there are some that are better sown in winter. in fact such as Lamb's Lettuce. I have in the past grown various cut and come again types in pots and even old buckets, sown in late autumn and when the cold weather really hits moved under cover into the Greenhouse, which of course by that time was empty the Tomato plants having long since been removed and composted. You don't get copious amounts but I have managed to grow enough to see me through the winter months - I don't know about you but I don't eat as many salads in December and January anyway.  This year I am having a go with Spring Onions and Carrots!  I have White Ishikura Spring Onions which the packet informs me are tender with long stems and slow to bulb. Usually sown between March and July to be harve

I have been pretty useless updating the blog recently, my apologies for that. I have though been busy on the plot with plenty going on.  What a crazy year so far with the weather. We've had late frosts, baking sunshine and temperatures in the thirties, torrential downpours and near gale force winds at times all in the space of a few days! The mid-month heatwave meant the UK had its fifth warmest July on record but we'd also had the wettest May as I understand it and June was simply all over the show!  It has certainly kept me busy and meant some harvests are going incredibly well whilst others are struggling.  I have a Parsnip that has gone to seed, honestly the first time I have ever seen that in August and the Sonesta Dwarf French Beans (yellow) have been a disappointment thus far with lots of misshapen beans and the slugs have had a real go at some of the plants. There is hope though with some nice looking beans coming through now. The  Amethyst Dwarf French Beans  (purple