Progress in the veg plot
I took the day off work on Friday and did some long over due gardening, including tending to the vegetables.
The runner beans are at the tops of the poles, well in flower (white, pink and red varieties this year) and I've put some extra poles up for them to run along. Small beans are already starting to hang.
The first batch of french beans are nearly ready to pick. I love them lightly boiled, cooled and served with a salad. 
The broad beans too are nearly ready. Later than previous years, but a different variety from that which I normally grow. These are red broad beans. I hope they are as delicious.
The underground fartichokes are 5ft high now, a bit bashed by the wind. Sadly the globe artichokes haven't done well and are still just a small thistle like plant no more than a foot tall. Maybe they will yet bolt and flower. 
The red cabbage is getting leggy with no sign of cabbages developing, but I'm not familiar with how they grow so I watch with interest. 
The purple sprouting broccoli is a jungle and looks like will produce a good harvest in the spring.
There are some lovely globe courgettes just getting big under huge orange flowers. 
The rhubarb has given us many loads of delicious puddings, and we've had the first batch of gooseberries with many more loads to pick.
The 4 apple trees all have a heavy load on them and even the potted tomato plants look like they will do well. The fig tree is laden down with more fruit on it than I've ever seen before.
All the herbs are thriving. I hope to be able to pick and dry some for the winter.
A bumper crop all round by the looks of it. It all tastes so good fresh from the garden, and brings such a simple and lovely reward from a little hard work.
I've not used any pesticides, or herbicides this year and have inter planted flowers to draw in the bees and flies to pollinate. It seems to be working!
6 comments:
Wow, what a great veg plot. Mine is way behind yours. Maybe the rabbit and pidgeons are to blame having eaten most of my first crop! We did have mange tout with our roast last Sunday followed by a Rhubarb, Blackcurrant and Raspberry crumble and cream!
Simon, you have a veggie garden that most people only DREAM about!
Looks fab! would love to try some of those artichokes if they do well! :)
We are just setting off on our own veg garden but hitting a barrier with the sheer number of slugs and snails in our garden (Hedgehogs are extinct here.)
By the way, a short to medium term solution to some herb storage might be to make an oil with them, i.e. put herbs and olive oil in blender until well mixed and then chill heavily at the back of the fridge.
Thanks for all the positive comments!
John - we had huge problems with Slugs and Snails until the blackbirds discovered the garden. Now they can be regularly seen "catching" them and bashing the snails on rocks to extract them. We also seem to have quite a lot of toads in the garden that eat them too. I've heard beer traps work a treat, but find it hard to part with the delicious liquid.
Another superb trick is to teach your kids to play with Snails. Mabel loves them and finds them all over the garden. She then makes a "den" for them down one end near the compost. Here she feeds them lettuce leaves and they stay away from my precious vegetables!
I'll be there right in time for the harvest! It looks beautiful!
Hey Ashley! You will be arriving just before the annual garden produce show - which is something to see. The quality that some people produce is astounding. Foot long totally straight runner beans etc. I usually win a prize with my figs. and Liz with her cakes. We look forward to meeting you.
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