Growing
Strawberry jam
Monday 5 July, 2010
I've been out picking gooseberries, raspberries and strawberries tonight. The raspberries are a little disappointing, but the strawbs are a great crop.
The scent of the strawberries while I was picking was wonderful - really jammy. So I'm making some jam - about three pounds. To be honest, the berries are a bit ripe for jam, so it might not set very well but it will taste fine.
The gooseberries are for freezing and the raspberries are for eating tomorrow - on my Bran Flakes, to start the day.
Vegetable garden
Sunday 6 June, 2010
John and Linda have created a temporary vegetable garden in the walled garden at Dalmore. It's not a huge area and it's full of perennial plants like geraniums and phlox, but the soil is lovely.
They've cleared about a third of it and have planted potatoes, runner beans, peas and French beans. We might use the area for soft fruit in future years because it will be quite easy to net.
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Last of our potatoes
Sunday 28 March, 2010
I used the last of our potatoes today. The earlies in pots are peeking through but a crop is some way off, so I suppose I'll have to buy some.
I also took the last of the eating apples to the stables for Smokey. I kept a few to make apple sauce for today's roast pork, but they were a bit soft and Smokey will appreciate them.
We've still got a few cooking apples and these are in good condition, so apple crumble for pudding!
Planting potatoes
Sunday 14 March, 2010
We cleaned the greenhouse on Saturday; we didn't do it last year and it was pretty mucky. It took about 3 hours to do; Dan took out the panes and I washed them, while he cleaned the frame and floor. By then the panes were ready to go back in. We managed not to break any this year and it looks great.
Now the greenhouse is clean, I can put some stuff in it! We're not going to plant the vegetable garden this year. We will sow green manure, probably red clover and we can graze lambs on it if we want to. We're going to plant stuff in pots and take it with us, and hopefully sow and plant when we get there in mid-May.
This year's potatoes, onions, shallots and garlic
Monday 1 February, 2010
Our seed potatoes, onion and shallot sets and garlic arrived last week. I ordered them before we even thought about moving. As usual, I was surprised by the quantity I had ordered!
I've bought Vivaldi and Mimi as earlies to go in pots; Red Duke of York as a second early and Druid as the maincrop. We grew Druid last year and they were very good indeed.
This is the Druid "blurb" - "Very similar to Red Cara but a slightly later maturity. Short oval pink/red skinned with no white splashes, shallow eyes. Huge yields. Firm flesh does not disintegrate on cooking. Resistance to foliage blight, common scab and golden eelworm so ideal for the organic gardener." Also ideal for the "not very good gardener".
Read more on This year's potatoes, onions, shallots and garlic
Harvesting
Saturday 22 August, 2009
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We lifted the garlic, onions and shallots today. The garlic was planted late but has done well; the onions are poor - "something" got under the netting and took off all the foliage quite early on; the shallots are pretty good.
We lifted the remains of the broad beans and gave them to the pigs, who loved them. We're not growing them next year - we don't like them much. We've grown French beans this year and we do like them a lot, so we'l grow more next year. We'll need to pick the last of them and freeze them in the next few days before they get too coarse. The peas are finished and need to come out. The runner beans are still in full production! I'd like to get a green manure in, if possible.
Wine, anyone?
Wednesday 15 April, 2009
Dan had a significant birthday a couple of weeks ago. My sister, getting into the swing of smallholding from a distance, sent him two quince, a spindle tree and two vines - one black, one white. All have been planted - the tree in the hedge, the quince in the orchard and the vines in the fruit bed where the raspberries currently are. The rasps are coming out at the end of this season.
We shall keep you posted of growth and development if we are sober enough.
Garlic, shallots and potatoes
Wednesday 4 February, 2009
I've finally received and planted the garlic; this is late for us - normally, we'd be looking to plant it before Christmas. However, I'm hoping that it will do fine. The variety is Wight Christo. I've planted three rows of 6 cloves, which will be enough for us. We don't use a huge amount of garlic, really.
I've also got our shallots - two varieties. These are round shallots this year. In previous years, the varieties we've chosen have been the long type. I hope to get them in early March as our soil is quite well drained.
Pruning
Saturday 3 January, 2009
It's been bitterly cold here today, but dry and sunny. Dan donned his comedy hat and headed out to prune the apple and pear trees in the orchard. It's not his favourite job - getting it wrong will impact in yields next year.
We had a good crop of apples this year and the cookers in particular are storing really well. I made an apple and mincemeat crumble today, with real custard. Yummy. So as long as Dan does this year what he did last, we should be OK.
So just the blackcurrants to do now - maybe tomorrow. The rhubarb needs to be lifted and split, but we'll need to wait until the ground thaws before we do that.
New strawberry patch
Monday 3 November, 2008
Dan planted out the new strawberry patch today. The plants were delivered this morning - a special offer from "Grow your own" magazine, I think. There are six each of three varieties - Amelia, Mae and Marshmello. We've planted them in the patio bed on the east side of the house. I hope to plant lettuce between the rows, as they are quite well spaced.
Our existing strawberry patch, Florence and Pegasus, has done well but it's three years old now, so we're moving it to fresh ground with new varieties. The existing patch will crop next year, then be removed. I intend to move the rhubarb into that area, since it will need split - I might invest in some new varieties - then plant new raspberry canes in the current rhubarb patch. The redcurrant, white currant and blueberry will then go where the raspberries currently are, beside the gooseberries and blackcurrants. I might have room for a couple of extra blueberry bushes.
