Start of the month: November 2012

The front garden definitely has an autumn-winter feel. Mainly winter, since autumn passed us by. Though so did summer, and much of spring. Maybe it's just been one long winter for the last year?!

The garden hasn't had much attention in the last month or two. I've had lots of problems with my back so gardening has been limited to absolute essentials, such as getting the garlic in at the lottie. However, despite the lack of attention, it doesn't look "too bad". I'm pleased that the raised bed structure with the paths holds it own even when I'm unable to tend the front garden much.

I've had a couple of surprises. My Daubenton (perennial) Kale was starting to do well again in August, but then I did notice that it was seriously attacked in September-October by white cabbage caterpillars and they were looking like on their last legs. But as you can see from above, the cold weather has saved them and they are growing well again.

Heleniums shading the kale

They are not as big as they should be at this time of the year, as they are shaded by the large patch of Heleniums in front of them. It does show kale will grow in shade, but of course, much slower. I'm planning on moving plants in this bed so that the obelisk/heleniums will be at the 'back', closest to the house and so reduce the shade they cast. Then the plants can make more of the sun with the space in front.

The other lovely surprise was that my Clematis Cirrhosa Freckles has just started flowering!

I love this clematis. It flowers in the darkest part of the year and is so pretty with it's maroon freckles and the way it nods gently in the wind.

The pear trees (Beth, below) have grown quite a bit. You can now start to see some structure with two levels of espaliered tree, plus the central stem is getting quite tall. I'll prune this all back in January to continue to develop the structure I'm looking for. Hoping next year I might get some fruit!

It's looking a tad untidy with the leaves all over the place, but I don't mind.

I love the colours as they fall and break down, these leaves from the flowering Cherry tree. I will collect them up to make leaf mould once my back is better.

In the meantime, rather than thinking of them as 'untidy', I'll enjoy of them as lovely 'leaf-snow' colours on the ground.

Start of the month: August 2012

2nd August 2012

So, anyone notice the slight change to the title of these posts? I'm clearly struggling to always publish on the 1st day of the month, so decided changing the title was better than apologising yet again, for missing the date.

Welcome to the August 2012 start of the month blog post for the front garden!

July was a bit of a roller coaster. Started dull & wet, then we had a week of glorious sun, then back to dull & wet. It was a bit sunnier and warmer between the showers through July, and the Heleniums are now in full flower. I've already picked a couple of big bunches for the house so I have their lovely brightness inside and out.

Helenium 'Sahin's Early Flowerer'

Sadly almost all of the nasturtiums that were in flower last month have now been destroyed by the black fly. Very good weather for blackfly. Though I beat the blackfly to the last of the broad beans, which I finished picking and plants now pulled up (roots left in ground to rot and let nutrients stay in soil).

I also finally picked some garlic. This is Metechi freshly dug up.

The bulbs are much smaller this year than previous years. Metechi is usually known as a garlic with larger (and hot) cloves, but it seems all the rain has really effected the bulb size. From the couple of others at the lottie I dug up (i.e. Susan Delafield) it looks like the whole crop may be smaller than usual. I'll save the absolute best ones of each variety (I have about 13 or so varieties this year) and hope they will revert to form next year.

The tomato plants, who were shying away last month, are finally getting into their stride. Shows just what a week of sun and warmth can do. Lots of flowers and tomatoes now forming on my heritage variety Estonian Yellow Mini Cherry.

Tomato 'Estonian Yellow Mini Cherry'

The other heritage tomato I'm trying, Porter, is coming along and has quite a few tomatoes that need just a bit of sun to go red. Please come back sun....

Tomato 'Porter'

The Daubenton Kale is finally growing after I took the advice of @AlysFowler and pinched out the tips.

My plants just were not growing beyond seedlings, and after seeing Alys's amazing plant on Twitter, and experiencing Kale envy, I asked her how she got hers to grow, and she advised to pinch out the tips. Advice duly followed and now they are growing really well. Though might be another couple of months before they are the handsome studs that Alys has!

The teasels are now flowering and attracting lots of bees; here is one dashing in for some pollen before the next burst of rain.

Perhaps my favourite success is having grown Pennisetum thunbergii 'Red Buttons' from seed, and having it now flower. This was an easy grass to grow from seed and this plant is a good size after just six months.

Pennisetum thunbergii 'Red Buttons'

Despite the weather, the front garden is coming along ok. I lost a large amount of my strawberries to the deluge and slugs, but have had a good crop of broad beans. The nasturtiums were 'black flyed', but the Heleniums are doing wonderfully and I hope to show my new Helenium, 'Rubinzwerg' in flower next month.

First day of the month in the front garden: April 2012

March was such a warm month and subsequently plants really started taking off so that by the first of April, the front garden is much more lush than that of March.

The broad beans have taken off fantastically, and in fact started flowering just after mid-March, very very early. I wonder if that will reduce the effects of black fly when they come, as they will in summer?

By first of April the leaves on my pear trees also started unfolding. Though they are now 4 years old, they were moved house (garden?!) after the 2nd year, which seemed to have rather halted their growth a bit. I'm hoping they will be more settled in this year and I'll get more growth and blossom.

I planted out some Lettuce Bronze Arrow seedlings a week ago, and they are taking off nicely. What a lovely colour! This variety starts off quite bronze, but develops into a more green-like lettuce with bronze tinges (click on the link to see what the mature lettuce looks like). This is my favourite lettuce as it gets growing early in the year and will keep going even through first frosts (you need to cover it to get it through winter). It's doesn't immediately bolt. And best of all, I love the slightly nutty flavour of the leaves, and it looks pretty too. What's not to like?!

I have spinach that I grew over winter that are ready to pick, and the empty space in the picture above, should see young perennial kale 'daubenton' plants in situ by the beginning of next month. This is an experiment, the first time I have grown a perennial kale. I'm hoping it will give two yields, as food, and as some over winter structure and interest to the front garden. Will be interesting to see how this pans out over the coming months.

Enjoying the spring sun was the rosemary, tulips, jonquil narcissus and cat-Merlyn :-)

And the lovely Prunus (non-fruiting) is almost ready to burst into flower. It's a beautiful breath-taking sight - I'll try and remember to take some photos of it in full flower.

I'm getting frequent visit by goldfinches too, a flower of the bird world. They smartly sit on the electricity wire, way out of reach of cat-Merlyn. As the beginning of April has suddenly turned cold again, a shock after such a warm March, their chirping is a welcome sound, reminding me that spring hasn't disappeared, just taken a short holiday. I hope...!

Harvesting

After yesterdays garlic harvest, today I collected kale, peas and some beetroot, plus the last of the broad beans.

Thanks to Kevin's trusty bike trolley, it's no problem getting the food home from the lottie.

Home!

And here is today's harvest, plus some ex-courgettes I picked the other day too.

The kale will be blanched and frozen. There is plenty more growing and with so much food coming in at the moment we cannot eat everything straight away, so storing some for winter.

The purple podded peas (bottom right), look pretty, but are better for soups than eating fresh from the pod. However, the green Robinson, from the Heritage Seed Library (HSL), taste great just picked and will get eaten quickly. I've left quite a few on the plants as I'm saving some for me, and to send some back to HSL.

As for the marrows, these are going to become cakes, such as Lavender cup cakes and Coconut cake, thanks to my wonderful vegetable-based (and largely gluten free) cake cook book, Red Velvet & Chocolate Heartache. Yum.

Heritage Seed Library catalogue

My yearly catalogue from the Heritage Seed Library (HSL)  came today and I'm rather excited to see I'm listed as a HSL Guardian I'm not sure I really qualify for the honour, as I've never officially asked to become a guardian, I have just been saving seeds and sending them back.

 One of the seeds I've saved in the past, is the Pea 'Latvian' (Pisum sativum Latvian). This grew really well the first year I tried it, in 2008, even though the poor darlings were flooded a couple of times. Somehow they survived and I got a really good crop. Here is a picture of Pea Latvian in flower. Very pretty and very prolific. And wow, they might be small peas, but they were incredibly sweet and juicy (below right). They are currently my favourite pea. I grew it again this year, but because we had moved house and I didn't have time to get much in the way of growing done at either the lottie or at home, it was just a few in pots.

Other seeds I saved and sent back to HSL were Pea Robinson and Purple Podded Pea. Robinson is my next favourite, not quite as prolific as Latvian, with white flowers, but larger peas and very yummy. Purple Podded have a beautiful flower, similar to Latvian, however with amazing, well, purple pods! These are way prolific, fast growers and I even found I sometimes got late flowering on plants that looked dead near the root. However, if you don't eat them young, they aren't as yummy. So if you miss picking them young, best to save them for soup/stews in my opinion.


So, returning to this years catalogue. To have the best chance of getting the varieties of veg seeds you want from the HSL, you have to be quick. So I was. This is my list of 6 varieties (you can choose up to 6 as a member of HSL) that I hope to receive:

• Kale Russian/Hungry Gap
• Kale Madeley
• Parsnip Kral Russian
• Beetroot Dobbies Purple
• Carrot London Market
• Climbing French Bean Extra Hatif de Juliet

Kale Hungry Gap was the first ever Kale I grew, not knowing anything about Kale nor had eaten it prior to this. This variety is named for the fact it can be harvested during the 'hungry gap' period (roughly beginning of the year to April). I was told to use it like spinach in cooking so I tried that and it was great. Has a slightly nutty taste to it, more depth than spinach, though I remain just as fond of spinach. Kale, like spinach, tastes great if sautéed it in some butter and nutmeg. As you can see from my choices above, I'm now rather keen on Kale.

I've grown Parsnip Kral Russian in my previous garden. The reason why I've chosen it again, is that despite heavy clay soil and flooding, it still grew really well. So I want to try it again at my lottie where the soil is a lighter clay and therotically should be easier for Parsnips.

The beetroot choice? Because the description in the catalogue says 'looked amazing and had a knockout scent of honey' when flowering. So I want to test that out! Also, see how this variety compares with Beetroot Sanguina which I grew this year. Sanguina was great, dark, crunchy and juicy. Good in salads, and I used it when I made Forbidden Chocolate Brownies. I just want to see if another variety makes the Brownies taste different.

Well, it's getting late and I better get my list of seed goodies into an envelope. I'll try and save more seeds next year and send them back to HSL, that way maybe then I can feel that I deserve the honour of being listed as a Seed Guardian.