Blaze of glory

 JULY 2021 and here is a garden bursting into life. Cow shit has made a massive difference to growing our veg this year. Tons of well rotted manure went into these beds and just look at them grow. The best trick in gardening is shit.

FEBRUARY 6th

 Finally the rain relented so we could get into the garden. Anticipating the coming freeze we dug up the old rhubarb crowns and have left them on top of the ground to encourage a growth spurt.

Using our new propagators we also took a punt on some early seed sowing of plants that will spend their growing season inside the tunnel. So aubergine, Florence fennel and some lettuce in the trays, some Nero di Toscana went into their own tiny pots to prevent transplantation stress later on. Also thanks to a kind gift we put in some red onions in the edge of the raised bed in the hope of  an early crop.

We also moved the globe artichoke plants into the outdoor bed that is most often in shade from the tunnel, this was after receiving advice that they were struggling from too much sunshine. We will keep you posted if they enjoy their new home, and produce bigger globes.

The broad beans are now peeking out and in the pic you can see some of our bumper oca crop. Otherwise known as oxalisis tuberosa the South American protein vegetable member of the clover family that can also be eaten raw! 

Pumpkin kimchi

 Hello from January. We spent the day clearing weeds from the outdoor beds. It was whilst doing this that we noticed that some of the nine remaining pumpkins hanging in mesh sacks in the polytunnel were showing skin damage. Basically we have still so many stored that they are getting past their best. 

In order to keep them edible I processed one into kimchi following a simple salt receipe on you tube. Here is a photo of the beautiful result.

It's time to plan the planting season so that your beds are all ready for the toddler seedlings. Especially dig the beds in the poly tunnel now, they have sucked all the juice out of last year's roots and need to be fed and ready for early crops like broad beans.

One trick with rhubarb is to lift it now and cut with a spade so that each section has a growth bud, then replant each part out deep with loads of compost to get a bumper crop later in the season. 

 

 This is me getting the garlic in on solstice and talk about great timing this is the weather on new years eve

Happy ewes ears to all my subscribers. Hint hint! 

 Forgot to add this harvest photo, apples and walnuts for all in abundance !

Cloches become tea feeders

July 2020: the pumpkins have all been planted outside now and we are using the plastic water container cloches, inverted and dug in, as 'tea' feeders.  Using a dilution of water to tea of 3 to 1. The tea is made of equal quantities of Nettle, Comfrey and Borage (steeped till stinky in an old water butt) which we will feed every other day till the end of August to give the plants maximum support to produce big fruit. Being around all summer will hopefully reap some food rewards for the winter ahead.

Chop Suey Greens

Always on the look out for new flavours of vegetation,  this year we've splashed out on some Demeter (biodynamic) seeds called Chop Suey Greens or Green Shungiku.
Apparently they like a shady spot and grow to 12" (30cms) tall when you can harvest them back to 2" (5cms) for soups or salads or anything you would do with spinach.
We planted them out small after hardening them off for a couple of weeks because we were running short of pots but they are very forgiving and you can still plant out when they are almost fully grown.
Beware though, don't let the delightful daisy-like flowers bloom as this will turn the edible stems and leaves bitter.

also be hypervigilent against slugs as they too find chop suey greens very tasty, we've used raw sheep's fleece to deter even the hungriest field slugs from trying it on.

Final update: Despite heavy losses due to slugs ignoring any advice against raw sheep wool. Which involved picking them off after dark! We managed to get the greens to grow big enough to harvest.  Did this early this sunny morning to give them some recovery time before the munching monsters of the dark arrive back! 

Poo processing palace

Unsurprisingly the new loo has generated a lot of poo! In order to process this we have  constructed a tree bog composter.
First digging down gently into the roots of the huge sycamore behind the she'd then constructing a rodent proof cylinder to sit in the hole.

Next we have dug turfs from around our veg garden (to cut down on slug habitat) and built them around the mesh cylinder.

We watered the turf in situ to keep them alive, hoping that they knit together and maintain a healthy aerobic aromatic environment while the poo is breaking down. For the tree too this means that the poo is broken down by worms who carry the nutrients where they are needed then the tree can grow towards the rich food source, following their trail.
Finally it is a gorgeous green teddy-bear ready and able to accept our donations as we return what we borrowed from the land.

Lockdown woodshed project

The old woodshed was falling down and an ungainly crawl to grab logs in the depths of winter, SO....the lockdown seemed a good time to get to work building a new one with a dedicated compost loo on the side! 

Once everything was hauled out the new location and size was laid out in timber

Then the first part, a recycled door frame from another project was added

 

Some side struts then rat-proof mesh laid under the floor of the loo

Buying timber was impossible due to the lockdown so it had to be begged and borrowed and picked out of the fire pile

Suddenly the shapes were appearing that looked like a building

The back was recycled metal sheets coming from a local horsebox conversion

Our window had to receive extreme renovation and a lot of putty.

Then sunshine smiled and the plan was really coming together

We still have doors and loo seats to build but its looking remarkably like the prettiest woodshed ever! 

Predators!

SO angry with myself right now, having planted a whole packet of my posh seeds in time with the new moon the mice have eaten every single one overnight, now I will have to wait a whole month before I can plant again!  Hungry mice in spring time can devastate a crop, even with the polytunnel open for the cat and catnip spread everywhere.

In praise of the Brassica

 This early springtime with our seedlings only just hardening off is often called the hungry gap. As well as foraging for wild garlic, sweet cicely, and ground elder, nothing fills the hungry gap like the cabbage family with broccoli, kale and spring greens. Going out to the patch to pick these purple lovelies is a really good way to add even more vitamins to any foraged salad bowl. Way better than a bunch of flowers!

First spring of the new world!

Following the deadly spread of covid 19 virus growing your own food just went from a hobby to a way of life for the food emergency that is bound to come so....without being anymore post apocalyptic about it.....Today the polytunnel got a soil conditioning treat with chicken manure pellets and then some nicely rotted straw on top. With the seedlings safely out of the way from any slug predators!

Horse Chesnut soap

So one main new crop I haven't had to harvest before this no shopping month, is horse chestnuts. I have collected,chopped and dried them then poured off the milky tea that I will use to wash my clothes and plates, pots and pans. I'm afraid to say it doesn't store well so make up small batches at a time, and I'm not sure it's very good on my gardening work clothes! 

My main problem is how to store my pumpkins so I can use them all winter.

No shopping October halfway update

So I'm finding those little pumpkins which aren't going to grow full-sized are perfect for turning into a basic fermented kimchi style side dish. 

The month is going well although I have eaten a lot of chard! The discovery of a lost vacuum bag of olives today was delightful and im grateful to all the friends who have brought me little packets of treats to help me along! Love love.

October 2019

This month I'm attempting to eat just from the garden and whatever supplies I have in my larder, perhaps a way to prepare for the coming changes in the UK?
The first thing that's happened is I've noticed my eye being drawn to things I don't usually see as food like dandelion leaves as well as radish seed pods to augment the haul.

Real Majik wands

Autumn hard wood cuttings taken from a guelder rose in my garden. They are this year's wood

cut just below a growth bud, dipped in rooting hormone solution (willow wands immersed for a few days in water) then pushed into the ground.

And here is the bed, the following March, buds bursting into life although not fully leafed yet, for anyone concerned that it can't be that easy.

How to garden with slugs without losing your soul. PART ONE

Perhaps the best pest in the garden today is our apparently infinite selection of slugs. Born as tiny clear pinheads they grow rapidly, gorging on our favourite green vegetation, until some are as big as sausages.

Slugs eat everything they can, including taking the odd chunk out of one another. Given the choice however, they like the most delicate of plant parts. With enough rainfall and they have the ability to eat a whole newly sewn garden crop in less than one night.

Soft-bodied gardeners, normally remain pleasant and patient have turned frothy lipped to murder, eviction, poison and maim without apology. Our gardens have become a battleground with one particular party taking the whole thing very personally.  But consider the cost, when we find ourselves so angry and defeated in our very own green zone? What herbivores don’t consider, as they sprinkle the salt, is the damage they are doing to their own soul.

Slugs are not out to get us, they are just grabbing a quick bite at teatime and, so what you don’t like the look or feel of them? Slugs probably think we take more than our fair shares sometimes too.

However hope of reconciliation is here; salvation and soul damage retrieval could be close at hand. There is something you can do.

Creating a slug sanctuary, in the form of a well-sealed, in full sun compost container where these slow movers can be safely rehoused, this simple step turns every sighting from a gnashing of teeth to a moment of excitement. Assiduous after-dark collections and relocating slugs into a compost bin of weeds where they can eat away happily whilst creating pure soil in the process is as easy as a walk in the park.

Slugs have as much right to be on planet as we do, without their work we would be knee high in rotting vegetation by now. Simply going about their daily business of eating and excreting, slugs could be seen as soil enhancers of the first order. A beneficial being whose ability to break down plant matter into soil means that they can speed up the process of composting beyond many a wildest dream.

Like any creature, they need boundaries to stop them over reproducing and running amok but given a half decent composter they can munch their whole body weight in less than twenty minutes and keep on munching for a very long, long time. Think how much compost they produce as they chow down hard in your service. Unfortunately for them their eggs will not survive the heat and it is also even rumoured that slug ‘Nematode’ will flourish in such environs.

From their point of view, a compost bin is a damp, safe from predator bird haven, filled with their favourite munch material. So as you walk your little charge on a trowel towards it’s new home, you can hold on to your heart knowing that you are taking them to a place they would call “heaven”.

The cabbages are all ready at the same time!

A good time to make sauerkraut

I'm worried about a repeat of the very hot weather so thoroughly mulching with straw this year.