Harvesting, freezing, sowing, cuttings, it's a busy time on the Vegetable Patch and in the Garden

It has been a while since my last post for one reason or another so I have quite a bit to report on. I mentioned in my April posts some of the experiments I had undertaken for the growing season, taking Olive Tree cuttings and sowing Clover into my lawn; so far so good with both I am happy to report. I have two Olive Tree cuttings that appear to be coming along nicely; it is of course a slow process as they are so slow growing, but two of the three cuttings appear to be forming roots. The Clover has germinated pretty well and I plan to add to it over the coming weeks hopefully leading to a lawn that is as much, if not more, clover than grass by 2026. I have also sown some Purple Creeping Thyme seeds as another little experiment to add to the garden all being well. The seeds were sown thinly onto a potting mix of peat-free compost and perlite in a seed tray and gently pressed into the mix to ensure good contact; the seeds were not covered with any further compost or vermiculite, just pressed into the mixture. The seed tray has been sat on my front room windowsill since mid-April and I now have a few tiny thyme seedlings coming up. Purple Creeping Thyme is a low growing ground cover plant, evergreen, with aromatic leaves, just like the thyme you would use in cooking, it produces masses of tiny flowers in summer that are a magnet for bees, butterflies, and other pollinators. Creeping Thyme is a great plant for many different sites around your garden and I have seen it planted between paving stones and along the edges of paths where it works particularly well; if the foliage is brushed against or lightly trodden on even it will give off a wonderful scent. It’s pretty tough and very low maintenance once established, like most mediterranean herbs it’s extremely drought-tolerant and can thrive in the poorest of soils. I am told it’s simply a case of ensuring that the plant is watered regularly during its first growing season to promote strong root development and you should be fine. I have seen examples of ‘lawns’ created using Creeping Thyme online but my plans aren’t quite so ambitious just yet. Once my plants are established I will dig out two planting pockets in front of my barbecue patio, this is set slightly to the left halfway down my garden. The planting areas will be cut to the same size as the paving slabs used to create the patio, with one planting pocket on each corner of the feature, the plan being for the Thyme to fill these two squares and spill out over the edge of the patio in time……..

Having started quite wet and windy ‘flaming June’ well and truly arrived by the second half of the month. Temperatures of thirty degrees plus were the norm, and continued into July. I suddenly had a glut of Strawberries and Blackberries ripening, many were frozen as even I can’t eat that many, and the first tomatoes from the greenhouse were also harvested. The Red Currants also ripened, almost overnight, and time was spent on a gloriously hot Sunday afternoon in the conservatory sorting them out. Red currant jelly will be made with the little red jewels, though for now they have also been frozen as I didn’t have the equipment to make the jelly; I was somewhat caught out by the amount of fruit I was suddenly picking. When freezing soft fruit such as strawberries I have found the best way to ensure you don’t end up with one big ball of frozen fruit is to lay the fruit individually on a flat tray or plate and place them in the freezer for two or three hours. Once the fruit has pretty much frozen, you can take them off the tray and then place into freezer bags. This way the fruits stay frozen individually, rather than forming one big clump, and you can grab however many you need at any time.

Following a warm and generally dry spring and early summer, the weather yet again had a surprise or two in store for us gardeners in late July and early August. My outdoor tomatoes, a variety called Bloody Butcher, were suddenly leaning distinctly to the north-east following the rain and wind we had. Luckily, no real damage was done, I read of some horror stories across the country online, and other than a little tidying up and straightening up of some plants, all in all, my plot was fine. The harvests are coming thick and fast at this time, the trug picture attached showing the sort of crop I am yielding from the vegetable patch and greenhouse almost daily at the moment. I am particularly proud of my Leeks at this time, all standing to attention in a lovely straight line just like my Grandad used to grow his. My fingers are crossed for some lovely straight white stems come autumn and winter.

Quite some time was spent deadheading in the garden this week. This is not the most exciting of jobs to be done in summer but, a vital one to ensure your flowering plants continue to flower into late summer and in many cases autumn. Deadheading can be time-consuming if you have lots of containers with bedding plants or a large garden. However, if you make the time to do it on a regular basis, say five or ten minutes in the morning, the job will feel less of a burden and your plants will repay you with a new flush of blooms. 

My Lavender has also been cut back as the flowers had begun to fade and there were noticeably less bee’s visiting the plants; the old saying is to cut on the eighth day of the eighth month. I simply lightly trim over the plants with hedge shears to remove the old flower heads, being careful not to cut into the woody stem of the plant. Being English Lavender the plants won’t supply a second flush of flowers now but, the faded blooms can be dried and then made into all sorts of things. I am no expert on this but luckily have a number of lady friends who create all sorts of lavender bags, pillows, soaps, lotions and potions along with some baking recipes with the dried blooms. I have no idea how they do it, but you can find various guides online if you fancy giving it a go.

Cheers 🍺