Fruit, Veg, Flowers and Slugs

  I have talked before about how you simply  can’t  rush Mother Nature and quite a lot on my plot is  somewhat behind  where I would expect it  to be by late April. In years gone by  I  have had Runner Beans and Peas quite well  established  on the Vegetable Patch by late March but this year  I  only got the  seedlings  planted out  over the Easter weekend ,  the cold nights dragging on into April . Law of the sod of course meant no sooner were the young seedlings out than we had a hail storm the next day and now, less than a week later, we have a yellow weather earning for high winds! The poor seedings are looking a bit bedraggled already but all being well will survive but the wind is whipping across the garden as I write; the bamboo screening down one side of the garden may well take off at some point!  The Cherry Tree in my garden is often in bloom in early  April  but the buds  have  remained fir mly shut  a nd  even now  the y  are only just beginning to  show signs of  open ing

All sorts of trials and tribulations await around every corner for us gardeners as I noted the other morning taking a stroll down the garden to the Greenhouse. The Leeks I sowed several weeks ago have been living quite happily in a large log store that I use at the end of the garden for sheltering plants and storing pots. Now I don't know if it was the very windy weather we have been experiencing or, most likely, and inquisitive Fox or local Cat, but the trough was found on the floor in front of the table on which it was sat with most of the contents deposited on the ground. Disaster! I have been able to save a few of the seedlings which I have potted on and hopefully I will have at least a few Leeks, if not as many as planned, to plant out in a few weeks time.................. It really has been a crazy winter with some quite extreme conditions changing from one week to the next. I have taken a lookback though some old notes from my time owning an allotment and I had a number of s

I am currently enjoying a bit of a glut on the Tomato front, no bad thing, and find myself experimenting with a number of recipes; that said an oven baked Beefsteak Tomato is still one of my favourite guilty pleasures. The   Buffalo Steak Tomatoes  from the Greenhouse have been a roaring success, baked, fried, in a salad, on a burger or in a sandwich I have used them in multiple ways for breakfast, lunch and dinner recently and these will definitely be grown again in the future - absolutely brilliant. The  Gigantomo  variety are also cropping strongly with a number of large fruits on the plants I have allowed them to grow on. I have a couple of very large fruits on one plant I deliberately left only a few tomatoes on but no world record breaker.  The Tomato varieties I am growing outside on the veg patch following the disaster that was the Limoncito and Black Cherry seedlings failing on me are now of course the  Yellow Pear  and  Pink  Brandywine   and these are going well I am happy t

It is that lovely time of the year, the first Garden Peas of the summer are being picked!  I know, it's not huge news in the grand scheme of things and with all that is going on in this crazy world right now but it is a reason to be cheerful and should be celebrated. This year I am growing  Pea Bingo  which is  a  dwarf  e arly  m aincrop  variety  growing no higher than about two-and-a-half feet; I have them in some large ornamental stone pots. I sowed the first batch in fibre pots back in March and they were brought on indoors until planted out in late April. A second batch was direct sown at that time, they are coming along nicely finding their way up the pea sticks , and the third batch, that was planned to be sown in May, will be sown this week; a little later than planned but it will prolong the harvest nicely. I have hopefully timed the sowings right and probably will have only a few excess Peas to store. Freezing your Garden  Peas couldn't be simpler .  Pop your Peas in

The seed order for the year has arrived from Thompson & Morgan. As is often the case I have probably over order and will now spend a few hours mulling over plans of what to sow where . I have also been gifted a ‘sack of seeds’  at Christmas  containing all sorts of wonderful things  that I am now also trying to work out which to grow this year and where, hopefully, I can squeeze them in – in  short,  I need an extra half acre or so to the garden to fi t  it all in!    The vegetable seed order for the coming growing season consists of  Runner Bean  Benchmaster  a real success story in 2021 for me so on the list again ,  Tomato Buffalo  S teak , new to me   and  I am hoping for some nice juicy toms from this variety ,  Tomato  Gigantomo  another I have grown before ,   as the name suggests this plant can grow huge tomatoes of 2lb  - 3lb each  and   Tomato  L i moncito   that fruits lovely yellow  mini plum tomatoes and was   another big su cc ess for me in 2021 so back on the list. I