The Garden In November

By November the pickings in the vegetable garden were pretty lean, the broccoli and cauliflower were long gone, and there were only a few peas left on the vine,  the only other things left of the winter plantings were the broad beans and the garlic. 

It was my first time growing broad beans this year and I have to say I was very happy with the harvest I got. 

Being my first time growing them, I had no idea what to expect in regards to how many beans each plant would produce, but now I know that I need to grow at least double the amount next year.

And while I was happy with the broad beans, the garlic was another story.

I planted 52 cloves of garlic this year knowing that I use roughly one bulb a week that amount should last me all year. Of the 52 bulbs planted only 49 sprouted, but I was OK with that. 

Garlic late July

The plants grew well and I had high hopes of harvesting all 49 bulbs, unfortunately not all went to plan. 

With all the rain we had over the winter and well into the spring some of the garlic bulbs began to split apart and started to re-shoot, while some bulbs never developed separate cloves.

Not a great photo but can you see the undeveloped bulbs and the new shoots that have grown?

So for all my hard work the garlic harvest this year was meagre indeed only ten bulbs.

I guess when you are growing your own vegetables a few setbacks are to be expected, so with that in mind, I will look forward to next year and hope for a better harvest.

In the beds where the peas grew, the vines were all cut down, but their roots were left in place to add some nitrogen to the soil, and there are now Butternut pumpkin (squash) and True Gold sweetcorn growing in them.  I am succession growing the corn so as not to be overwhelmed by a glut as I have been in the past.

In the bed next to the Butternut are my fruiting vines, two watermelons, Sugar Baby and Luscious Red, one rockmelon (cantaloupe) Hale's Best, and a as yet unknown volunteer, as well as some Double Delight sunflowers.

On the opposite side of the patch in bed 1 the broccoli has been replaced by a Yellow Crookneck and an All Green Bush zucchini plus some Sun King sunflowers.

Beds two and three are planted out with beans, Tender Delight, Brown Beauty, Red Kidney, dwarf Borlotti and Golden Wax. I did have to do a second sowing as earwigs killed a few.

As you can see in the picture above in bed 4 there is another pumpkin, this time another first for me, Turkish Turban.

Everything has grown quite a bit since these photos were taken the and I've even had my first small harvest of beans and a couple of zucchini, I'll show you the photos in the next garden update in a couple of weeks time. How is your garden growing?  

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Broad Beans

I had never grown broad beans before this year, I had tried them once many years ago and didn't like them so I never bothered with them.  

Since becoming a vegetarian earlier this year I found I needed to expand the variety of vegetables I eat so I decided to give them another go and I'm glad 😊 I did. Apart from the fact that they are easy to grow, and the flowers have the most amazing fragrance and the bees love them, they are delicious! What's not to like?

There are several varieties that you can grow, the type I grew this year was Early Long Pod and despite the fact that I didn't sow until July they still did exceptionally well. 

Next year as well as growing the Early Long Pod again I want to grow the Crimson Flowered variety too if for no other reason then the  gorgeous flowers.

Have you grown broad beans before? What was your experience with them?

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October, Where Did You Go?

Well, that was the shortest month ever! I know this year is flying by, but October seemed to be over in the blink of an eye.
It's been a while since I did a garden update and it's time I rectified that. October, and September for that matter have been strange month's weather wise, very wet, cold and windy, but despite the unseasonable weather the plants in the veggie garden have been doing their own thing and apart from the garlic I'm really pleased with the harvests I have been getting.

The asparagus this year were a little less prolific than normal, but nonetheless delicious.

The peas on the other hand went a little crazy due I think to all the rain we've had.

Of the four different types of podding peas I grew this year my favourite was the Telephone peas, the Purple podded were also very nice so these are the two that I will be growing next year.

I trialled growing potatoes in pots this year and while it wasn't an outstanding success it wasn't a complete failure either.

On the plus side, they were the most delicious potatoes I've ever eaten, so creamy and I will be growing them again next winter.

A mix of Kestrel, Red Delight, Dutch Cream and Kipfler.

I grew Broad Beans for the first time this year, they are covered in flowers which the bees love and they have been visiting every afternoon.

 It looks like they have done a good job of pollination as there are a lot of beans developing.

While the plants have been busy growing I've been busy in the greenhouse sowing seeds for spring/summer.

So far I've sown seeds for pumpkins, zucchinis, cucumber, rockmelon and watermelon. The pumpkins and zucchini were planted out in the garden yesterday and the cucumbers have been planted in a large pot down near the house where they will have a bit more protection from the summer sun, the watermelon and rockmelon still having some growing to do before they are planted out.

Seeds for tomatoes (seven different varieties), capsicum (three varieties), and eggplant (two varieties), have been sown, but they haven't all been successful. Only three of the seven tomatoes germinated, one of the eggplant and none of the capsicum. I have re-sown four seeds each of the ones that didn't germinate in the hopes that I will get at least one of each.

Bean seeds (Borlotti, Brown Beauty, Tender Delight, and Butter Bean) were direct sown into the soil and while they all germinated the earwigs have had a field day with them and not all have survived, those that have are growing well, but I have sown more in pots in the greenhouse and will plant them out when they are big enough. Leeks, shallots, sage and Thai basil are all slowly emerging too.

So there you go, October in the garden, despite the weather it was an especially busy time and I am looking forward to reaping the rewards of all my hard work in the coming weeks. What's been happening in your garden?

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A Week In The Garden

It has been a slow week in the garden this week, with very little happening at all.

Tuesday 9th August

I went down to water and check on the "Baby" broccoli that I had planted last week only to discover that something had eaten every single one of them. I wonder what the chances are that they will regrow.

Thursday 11th August

 I spotted the first pea pod on the Purple Podded pea vine, such a beautiful colour!  I only wish the peas were purple instead of green.

And I just cannot get enough of their flowers, they are so pretty.

Three of the cauliflower are now big enough to see without having to look for them.

After this photo was taken I clipped the leaves over the top of the cauliflowers with pegs to stop the sun turning them yellow.

One of the asparagus has decided it's spring already and has started to send up shoots.

Hopefully the rest will wait until it's the right time to grow.

I harvested the first head of the "Green Dragon" broccoli and one stem of the "Italian Sprouting" broccoli today.

I'm really pleased with how the broccoli has gone this year, a big improvement on last year.

Both of the orange tree are covered in flower buds despite the fact that one still has fruit on it. Is this normal?

Saturday August 13th

Not really gardening, but still garden related, I spent some time today going through all the seed packets I have (a lot more than I realised), sorting them month by month, tossing out the out of date ones, and writing a list of the ones that I need to buy. 

I then placed an order at Eden Seeds for Golden beetroot, True Gold corn, Turkish Turban pumpkin, Brown Berry, Principe Borghese, Pineapple and Tigerella tomatoes, Purple Beauty capsicum, and Gold Arch Crookneck zucchini. Hopefully with the seeds I all ready have, this should be enough to keep us supplied with vegetables over the spring/summer period.

I harvested a bunch of parsley today,

and noticed that the plum tree has burst into bloom.

Just gorgeous!

Sunday 14th August

I paid a visit to Cheap as Chips to pick up some stakes and twine that I will be using to help to support the broad beans when they get bigger.

I ended up walking out with not only the stakes and twine, but also some seedling trays, seed raising mix, celery seeds, Harlequin carrot seeds and some Giant Dahlia zinnia seeds.  I really don't need any more seeds at this point, but I'm sure that a few more will sneak in when I'm not looking. I think it can be quite addictive, everything always looks so good on the front of the packet.

I put the eggplant out in the sun today, in the hope that it will help with the powdery mildew issue and as I was checking it over I found six more fruit which brings the total to ten now, and it is covered in flowers. If they all produce fruit I have no idea what I'm going to do with them. A nice problem to have though.

So that was this week in the garden and now that I look at the photos  I can see that a lot has actually happened in the garden this week, I just haven't had to do any of the work.

What's been happening in your garden this week?

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A Week In The Garden

There hasn't been a lot to do in the garden of late, this time of the year the garden pretty much looks after itself, providing of course there is enough rain and this winter there has been plenty.

I started a garden journal a few months ago to help me keep track of what happens in the garden, what chores need to be done, when I fertilised, pruning etc. It has taken me a while to find what works best for me and that is just making daily notes, even if it's just to note the temperature and how much it rained that day. It will be good to have a record to look back on next year. 

This post is a bit of a catch up post as I didn't do one last week. It isn't a day by day as I don't want to bore you with the weather report for every day over the last two weeks.

July 21st

I fertilised the broccoli, cauliflower, turnips, kale and garlic. The first peas appeared on the Dwarf Blue Bantam.

July 23rd

The lettuce and pak choi seeds have sprouted.

July 24th

 The first pea pods have developed on the Early Crop Massey.

July 27th

I spotted the first flowers on the Purple Podded peas, only two flowers, but lots of buds. The flowers are lovely. 

July 30th

The Nantes carrot seeds sprouted today.

July 31st

The Chantenay carrot seeds and broad bean seeds have sprouted,  I am especially excited about the broad beans as this is my first time growing them.

I was extremely happy to find today that the cauliflowers have formed heads, some are further along than others which is fine because I really don't need 13 cauliflower all being ready at the same time.

 A caterpillar has grown fat munching on the leaves of one of the cauliflowers, there is only one so I'm not going to worry about it.

I found six caterpillars of the White Cabbage butterfly today, most of which were on one tiny Curly Kale plant. I can't believe that it is the end of July and I am still finding these little buggers on my brassicas. Next year I think I will leave the nets on as they have done quite a lot of damage to my plants this winter.

And that brings us to the end of July, can you believe how quickly this year is flying by. I've only just begun to really enjoy winter and it will be over in just a few weeks.

What's been happening in your garden this week?

I will be back next Monday with another garden update, see you then.

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