Food Swap

About a month or so ago, a friend hosted a food swap at her house. Six of us turned up and it was lovely lovely lovely. I took elderberry champagne (made from the bush in the garden), a tonne of lettuce and rocket. I returned home with bread rolls, cake (I ate the biscuit there), two green courgette plants, two cape gooseberry plants, radishes, broad beans, green tomato ketchup and a jar of chutney. Aren't people clever!

Now there is another swap being arranged for September, at peak picking time. Unfortunately our garden is not offering much in the way of picking, or it seems that way. I keep watching Gardeners World on telly and feeling somewhat glum about our garden in the light of their amazing creations (where on earth do they find time?). It is not a good mindset. Positively, we are eating courgettes of both colours, raspberries, carrots and potatoes, which is a whole heap better than nothing. But I am still in a quandary over what to offer at the upcoming food swap. Husband's beer is still flat despite resuscitation attempts (he blames to ancient barrel seals), so can't take any. The blackberries round the corner might hold the answer. In muffin form.

Ooo, on the subject of blackberries, there's a pear tree and a grape vine growing outside the local school. This year we shall be foraging without shame! (But keep it under your hat or my food swapping pals will be swiping the harvest!)

It having now been half an hour since Reginald fed and been upright, I shall risk putting him down to sleep. It's 02.30 and bed calls.

Reginald makes his debut

At ten days past his due date, Reginald decided he would be born. Surprisingly, he did actually turn out to be male. I have until registration on Wednesday to convince Husband that Humphrey as a third name would be simply smashing.

All has been fairly quiet on the garden front. This evening (rather, yesterday - time flies when holding a reflux-y baby upright at odd hours) we ate the first and only cabbage with a heart. The outer leaves were lace, the middle layer contained many many slugs, but the wee heart was perfect.

On the subject of slugs, the other evening Husband spotted a large hedgehog in the garden. Hurrah! Might explain the mysterious poo on Bed A and the lack of slugs (other than under the netting). Haven't seen a hedgehog for years, so very pleased to have a local. Husband got excited and went to get a camera to capture the moment. Of course the hog had scarpered by the time he returned. We will have to be really careful about using any slug pellets. Although I only put a few in the netted bed when plants were just getting established and haven't since, there's still a niggle of guilt. What if Mister Hedgehog had ingested some?

We are eating raspberries, a few courgettes, strawberries and blueberries (well, Toddler is), potatoes, carrots, the two cucumbers and a cabbage. We are not eating French beans. Next year I am growing runner beans, which are far less fussy, even though Husband isn't a big fan. Stick 'em in stews and he won't notice.

Right, is it safe to put the little chap down without more sick? Need to get a sling for daytime wearing as the Ergo infant insert really doesn't seem comfortable for him. I digress. Zzzz...

Ah ha!

In the process of making our 2012 family album, we came across this photo of the garden taken from scaffolding up to fix the pointing:



September 2012

We've got rid of the bed where the path now is, and the box lumps went to form a hedge between the square bed and the lawn. Otherwise it's pretty much as is, with some further alterations planned for autumn/winter 2013.

Waiting...

We have been waiting for promised rain storms that never came (don't count about 6 drops), for the beans to grow, and for Reginald to arrive. Fortunately the rain did finally come when the weather forecast said it was to be sunny, so the water butts are filling up again and the garden is less parched all over. The French beans have produced exactly three beans from one of the five plants, but maybe the rain will help (although not today please, as there are towels drying on the line). Baby number 2, aka Reginald, is due in three days and showing no sign of wanting to emerge.

Anyhoo, I am really writing this entry because the computer is on and, since I've now finished work, it seems a good time to try putting photos of the garden up on the blog. Only taken two years to update the images! Oh dear, there are quite a few to chose from. This could take some time and Father-in-Law is coming over now-ish to investigate thesaurus construction (I got stumped by facet analysis over two years ago). He is supposed to be being good and recovering from a heart op, cue wanting really mind numbing things to occupy him on the computer!

Husband and Dad L making path in May - only took 3 years to decide the route.
The soil and turf removed for the path were used to level the lawn, cue patch of earth next to slide.

Toddler making bird scarers with cds at the start of May. Herbs growing well against wall. Beer barrels in background.

Okay, I ought to take some more recent photographs of the garden showing the brassicas prior to their consumption by millions of cabbage white caterpillars; the growing plum and apple trees; the strawberries; the raspberries beautifully netted (proof against a proud Daddy Blackbird showing his offspring how to leap up and eat them); the box lumps moved to become a hedge; and the soon-to-be-moved Bed D with really really small yellow courgettes growing well (why are they so small though?). I will not take photos of the sunny flower border because it's fairly awful. The shaded woodland border looked great in spring but doesn't look much now.

Right, to hang more washing out to taunt the skies.

What we have eaten

So far this year (from March):
rhubarb
raddish
lettuce
rocket
potatoes
chives, rosemary, sage, thyme
and one eensy weensy yellow courgette (picked for Toddler's tea coz it matched the yellow pepper)

Yikes! Where did June go?

Oh dear, I seem to have missed June as I believe it's now July. We did go on holiday to Pembrokeshire, Wales, for a week (as per last year, kicking ourselves that it wasn't two weeks). Otherwise we must have just been doing the usual playgroups, shopping, working, cooking, growing thing. Anyhoo...

The garden is looking good. It likes sun and rain. We all like sun and (a reasonable amount of) rain. We've been eating lots of rocket which self-seeded two years ago and hasn't let go since. The lettuces are happy. The onions are mostly surviving the mystery defecating beast. The French beans have decided to honour us by emerging from the ground. The two courgette plants really do have wee yellow blobs on them. The cucumber plants are alive, as are three pumpkins. The strawberries are going great guns. The potatoes will be tested this week. The carrots, parsnips, celeriac, cabbages, broccoli and sprouts are growing (although the brassicas may not actually hearten up, but hey ho).

The leeks are still a disaster. How?! They are surely one of the easiest...grrrr...stupid books with trendy ideas...

Questions:
Is it too late to sow squash seeds (yep, killed the seedlings in pots)?
Should I bother putting the rubbish module leeks in the ground?
Where should the extra pot of thyme be planted - will it make someone a happy companion?
Can I be bothered to crouch on a plank to sow chard?
When will I weed Bed E?
Is neat toddler urine okay for onions or is only fermented beery old man wee acceptable?

PS Four weeks one day til due date.

Panic seed growing

The full title of this entry should be 'Panic seed growing and the resultant confusion of excessive numbers of pumpkins' (and cucumbers, courgettes, squash, lettuce, cabbages). I erred on the side of caution and planted two of everything in case the old seed didn't germinate. Then I planted some more as nothing seemed to be growing in the cold temperatures.

Now I am loathe to discard any of the wee planties, their having been obliging enough to put in an appearance. What to do? I'm assuming that the squash won't like my 'get on with it or die quickly' approach to life in the back garden, or most of the others, so should I freecycle the excess? But surely if they were given a chance...

Dunno. Will pot on and avoid the issue for a bit longer.

Had the bright idea of following a book (The Allotment Book by Andi Clevely) suggesting sowing leeks in modules then transplanting in clumps. Tried transplanting a clump at the weekend, only for it to fall apart. Harumph! Will just have to wait for the roots to wind together a bit more and hope that the leeks don't get too big for the modules (aren't they supposed to like room to stretch out down below?). I find it much easier to follow the old Dig for Victory manual 'The Vegetable Garden Displayed' by the RHS, as it gives straightforward directions with no embellishments (like companion planting - that distracted me for a long time!). In looking for a link to the book, I've found an article by Monty Don about it. Will stop trying to be modern and return to that, minus the vast quantities of man-made fertilizers. Might even try getting to grips with the hoe, whose qualities have so far eluded me. Without the aid of a dissertation to write, there is a lot less time available for hand weeding.

PS. Still no photos coz it involves turning on the computer, which gets abandoned once paid work is completed for the day.

PPS. Looked up building a greenhouse online the other days and came across this amazing allotment (demonstrating exactly why my squash will be rubbish): AllAboutAllotments.com