 |
| Cut-and-come-again lettuces with a very attractive kale in the veg trug |
This is only the second year of growing vegetables in my garden and I have taken it quite seriously initially to make sure I would actually have something to eat specially at the beginning of lockdown when supplies were few and far between but also to have something worthwhile to focus on as the days ran into weeks and the weeks into months with not much to differentiate between them.
Many other people obviously had the same idea but in spite of the difficulty of getting any compost at all or indeed plants, I have been surprised and gratified at how much the veg growing has sustained me in more ways than one. To begin with I grew cut-and-come-again lettuces, purple, green, frilly and plain in the tiny red veg trug I bought last year. This year I grew lettuces and carrots which have grown lovely and fat. While waiting for the carrots roots to mature I have been eating their leaves in salads.
 |
| Tiny veg trug - good for lettuces |
I grow various wild edibles and lots of herbs such as chives, rosemary, sage, oregano, lovage, fennel, wild garlic and lots of rocket (self-sown from last year's crop) which adds a lovely bite to a meal. Wild garlic also adds a bite and has a really fresh taste. Mine is called three-cornered leek, or snowbell (Allium triquetrum). It is recognisable by having a triangular stem and clusters of white hanging flowers. It is invasive so I cut off all the flowers before they form seeds. All parts of the plant are edible.
 |
| Three cornered leek flowers |
 |
| Wild rocket - lovely in salads |
In the middle of June I dug up my ten heads of Solent Wight garlic (planted last October) and dried them in the bedroom. It's a soft neck variety and is supposed to keep well, although I don't suppose ten heads will last that long anyway since I eat a lot of garlic. You can dry garlic out of doors in sunny weather but not being too sure whether it was going to rain or not, I put them on a cake rack over a tin tray in the bedroom and within three weeks they were quite dry. Then I gently brushed the dried compost off them. I've left them in the bedroom for the time being, but will probably eventually put the remaining ones in the veg compartment of the fridge.
 |
| Solent Wight garlic drying on a cake rack |
Now I'm keeping my eye on the next crop which consists of plant pots of cucumbers (growing up a tripod), carrots and tomatoes (small varieties that are supposed to do well on patios and don't need pinching out). I have just dug up my Charlotte potatoes which were utterly delicious cooked with garden mint and am waiting to try the two maincrop potatoes, Desiree and Maris Piper. These are all on the patio - near the hose. I water them regularly and feed them with my comfrey feed about once a fortnight. Most will be begin to be ready to eat in a week or two I think.
I have one aubergine plant which loves its pot and next year I shall grow more but I have had one aubergine problem - the plant had already produced one large black aubergine, ready to pick, and several healthy buds. Then we had a three day rainstorm and I hadn't realised the pot had become completely saturated. Within a couple of days all the buds had given up. I see more on the way, but I am disappointed to have lost several moussaka suppers.
 |
| Aubergine plant happy in its pot |
The thing is, usually during the summer I stop gardening. I don't get the urge again until September or October. But this year, I thought it would be really good to be harvesting food in autumn so I have planted a broad bean called Luz de Otono which is supposed to be the only autumn cropping broad bean. That'll be so great if it is. I am already growing chard and kale of various kinds but have had real trouble with Cabbage White butterflies whose caterpillars have been chewing the kale to lace. I have sown nasturtiums nearby without much success, perhaps I need many more, but now I've covered the kale with my big cloches hoping to balk the butterflies. Slugs have also been trying to get at all the leafy greens but the anti slug blanket Slug Gone has really put them off I'm happy to say.
 |
| Small beetroot plant |
 |
| Large white caterpillars (top) with small white below |
The other day I saw some offers for other vegetables for autumn picking so I bought two more root crops - beetroot and turnips, ten of each. They will arrive in about a week and the turnips will go straight into a huge container that used to hold my bay tree and the beetroot will go into prepared gaps in the flower beds. I've pulled out lots of Herb Robert, geums and Welsh poppies to make room.
I've also bought some seeds of 'mystery mix' radishes, Dutch Mammoth dill and Red Perilla ('grow and use like basil') all of which I will grow in pots.
I have used the same suppliers of these interesting and hopeful veg many times for many different plants and have always found them helpful and the plants in good condition and well packaged. They all offer suggestions and advice that I have found extremely helpful.
D T Brown: www.dtbrownseeds.co.uk
Rocket Gardens, fruit, veg and salad plants: www.rocketgardens.co.uk
Comments
Post a Comment