The Vegetable Garden in June

After what was an unseasonably warm autumn, where the temperature barely dipped below 20°C, winter finally arrived and the jumpers have come out of storage. 

The temperature may have dipped, but the garden is growing well. I have two growing spaces, the raised garden beds which I have only had for twelve months, and the in-ground garden space that I created not long after I moved in here fifteen years ago. 

The in-ground garden is where I am growing all of my brassicas. There is broccoli Di Ciccio and Green Dragon, a heritage mix of kohl rabi, Red Russian kale, Long Island Brussel sprouts, and four different varieties of cauliflower, orange, Green Macerata, Snowball, and Rober. That’s not weeds you can see growing, it is volunteer poppy seedlings, and Sweet Alyssum. They’ll put on a lovely display come spring.

A small section of the brassica bed.

In all, I have nine raised garden beds in three rows of three. In the first bed, I have a couple of potato plants. (I have since added more). I love homegrown potatoes. They are so much better than anything I can buy at the supermarket. I wish I had the room to grow more, and the storage space to keep them.  

In the second bed there are daffodils and tulips that were a gift from my two youngest daughters for Mother's Day this year. I have planted over the top with poppies. 

In bed three is a heirloom mix of  beetroot and Purple Top White Globe turnips. It was also meant to have parsnips growing in it, but after three unsuccesful sowings I gave up.

In bed four there is some Little Dragon Chinese cabbages (also known as Napa or Wombok cabbage). A row of Red Baby bok choy. (I have no idea where the green one came from as I did not sow any this year.) Along the front of the bed there is four Red Kitten spinach plants. 

Bed five is the strawberry bed. I replaced my older strawberry plants in autumn and that is why these plants are so small. This bed will remain permanent and I won’t use it for anything else.

Bed six is the garlic bed. The cloves I planted were ones that were kept from last year’s harvest and are a mix of Italian White, Italian Late, Purple Stripe and Rojo de Castro. Along both sides, I have planted a row of shallots. After years of not eating onions because I didn’t like the taste of them, I have recently discovered that I don’t mind the flavour of shallots and leeks.

Bed seven is the carrot bed. I'm so happy with how well the carrots are growing this year, so lush and green. It is a real mix of varities in this bed including Black Nebula, Kyoto Red, Purple Dragon, Solar, and Nantes.

Bed eight is were I grew Beauregard sweet potatoes this past summer. I had planted them late and didn't think I would get a harvest, but I was wrong. 

In the greenhouse, there are the beginnings of my herb garden. Parsley, thyme, oregano, chives, and garlic chives.

I’m overwintering some tomatoes that came up in the beds where the tomatoes grew over summer. More volunteers that came up from the compost that I added to the potato bed will soon join them. Hopefully, by the time spring arrives, I will have tomatoes all ready to go out into the garden.

As well as growing vegetables, I am growing some fruit as well.

My Sunshine Blue blueberry flowering in winter. When this happened last year I panicked thinking I would have no blueberries, but I needn’t have worried as I had a bountiful harvest. I have since learned that some varieties do set their flowers in winter.

I also have a Valencia orange, a Navel orange, and an Imperial mandarin, (which fruited for the first time in a long time), raspberries, a Loganberry, a blackberry, a blackcurrant, and a Flame seedless grape. All grown in pots as I rent, and I want to take them with me if ever I need to move.

Until next time, stay safe, and be kind to each other.

 

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Garden Share Collective - July 2015

Hello everyone and welcome to another round of Garden Share Collective hosted by Kate, Kyrstie and Lizzie.

The month of June was a slow one, workwise, in the garden and a dry one too, with just over 16mm of rain recorded for the month.

 

The peas that I sowed in May have sprouted with about a 95% germination rate.

Melting Mammoth snowpeas.

The Green dragon broccoli hasn't done anywhere near as well this winter, they are only 1/3 of the size of the ones I grew last year and the heads are tiny.

I'm hoping they will get a little bigger than this before they have to be cut.

 

The Green Sprouting broccoli is coming on.

Broccoli in May on the left and June on the right.

As is the cauliflower.

The rhubarb is still producing stems, normally by this time of the year it has died down, but with the weather being all over the place as it has been I'm not surprised the poor plant is confused.

I have self-seeded tomatoes popping up all over the place, some of which are flowering. At last count, there were fourteen, if they all survive I won't have to worry about seeds or seedlings come spring. 

I pruned the grapevine back and I'm thinking I might have cut it back too far, I guess only time will tell. I will be repotting it into a half wine barrel soon and if it doesn't give me any fruit this year (it's five years old) it will be going into the compost.

Harvesting

I had a very small harvest of ginger, I had been expecting more considering how lush the plant was.

Apart from the ginger, pickings have been slim, almost non-existent this month, hopefully things will get a move on in the garden and next month's harvest will be bigger and better.

Planting 

I finally got around to planting the potatoes, 6 each of, Kestrel, Blue Royal, and Red Delight and that's it, it's just a matter of waiting now.
 

My hens Rosie and Ginger have been through their moult and they looked very tatty this year. The feathers have grown back now and they are looking like their old selves again, I just wish they would start laying.

Rosie and Ginger doing their best to turn over the new compost bin.

That's it for this month, I will see you all again next month.

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Slow Living 2013 - June

Joining Christine at Slow Living Essentials for the month of June.

{NOURISH} 

Making lots of old fashioned stews, pea and ham soup as well as chicken soup to warm us on these cold winters nights.

Also tried my hand at making spelt bread. It turned out better than I expected and I will definitely be making it again.

{GROW} 

My first winter harvest, coriander which along with some chilli, lime juice, ginger and garlic went into chicken mince to make Thai Chicken Cakes which I served with rice and the first of the pak choy, bok choy, kohl rabi leaves and kailaan. Delicious!

 And I picked our very first crop of mandarins.

{REDUCE}

I use to leave any leftovers in the refrigerator hoping that someone would eat it, unforunately more often than not it just got thrown out. I have now started to freeze any left overs in single serve portions which are easy to reheat for a quick lunch and and I don't feel guilty about wasting food anymore.

{GREEN }

I've been making my own laundry powder for about six months now and am more than happy with it. This month I made a surface cleaner (original recipe from Tea with Lucy) . So far I have found it really good, you do need to let it sit for a bit before you wipe it off.

{CREATE} 

A two tone scarf for my daughter

 Pattern from It's a Stitch Up

and I started a ripple rug for my bed.

{DISCOVER} 

Some new (to me) blogs Tea With Lucy, Hettie Brown, Dusty Country Road and The Quiet Home 

and re-discovered some old favourite TV shows. 

{ ENJOY}

This month I have been  enjoying time with my family, the cold, rainy weather, 

 lunch in the city

and a walk along the river.

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