Growing
First crops
Sunday 2 July, 2006
We had our first new potatoes of the season for dinner tonight. The variety - Red Duke of York. They were so yummy. It was a bit early to lift them and we'll lose some yield - but it was worth it.
Our strawberries are also cropping well - best we've ever had. The varieties are Florence and Pegasus. In fact, we're struggling to eat them so I'm going to make jam tomorrow.
Dan also picked the first ripe raspberry tonight and let me eat it. Lovely man.
The Orchard
Friday 9 June, 2006
The orchard is supposed to be my responsibility this year but I have to confess, I haven't been awfully diligent. I did start out quite enthusiastic - weeding the bases, top dressing, mulching - but it's kind of tailed off.
Fortunately, Dan has been paying more attention and noticed a heavy aphid infestation on the Victoria plum tree. This has now been treated with derris.
Two trees died over the winter and have been removed. We have one pear tree that looks quite sick but it's getting another chance.
Marmalade and potatoes
Thursday 2 February, 2006
Well, I made marmalade for the first time this week - 8lbs of it. It's rather nice (thank you, Delia) and I have enough oranges to make another 16lb, which will be enough for a year and then some.
Dan's chitting his potatoes, so out front hall is now full of the bench, egg boxes and potatoes. They are bigger but fewer in number than in previous years (being sold by weight, of course) - I don't know if we'll have to buy more to keep the stocks up.
the great vegetable plot
Monday 16 January, 2006
Dan spent all his pocket money last week on a new book - better than fags and sweeties, I say!
It's called "the great vegetable plot" by Sarah Raven. He got it in Waterstones half price (£10) so it seemed like a bargain. It's very, very good - at least we think so.
We've picked up loads of tips, particulraly about tomato growing. Dan's never been satisfied with his tomatoes, so he's going to folow Sarah's advice and see if he can do better.
We cleared one of our flower beds yesterday. I've never been happy with the planting plan, except for the lavender hedge. I bought a lot of cheap plants but I was never happy with the effect. So, it's cleared and we're planting potatoes in it this year. This will give me a chance to get it weed free and to plan the ornamental planting for next year.
Maintaining soil fertility
Sunday 4 September, 2005
A central tenet of organic growing is the principle of feeding the soil, not the plant. In practise this means keeping your soil in the best possible condition, and not relying on the application of chemical fertilisers to provide the nutrition and trace elements vital to the production of a successful crop. A lot of fruit and vegetables make great demands on your soil, sp it's important that you try to replace as much as possible.
I do three things to try to keep our soil ticking over:
Blackberries and black bunnies
Wednesday 31 August, 2005
There's not much better in this life than getting something for nothing, and at this time of year that something is brambles, or wild blackberries. Yesterday morning while walking the dogs I noticed that this year's crop was starting to ripen and ready for picking, so this morning, armed with a suitable container, the dogs and I set off to forage along the field margins. We filled the tub with ripe fruit, and tonight it will join our windfalls in an apple and blackberry crumble.
It means for the next couple of weeks the dogs won't get their usual walk, but neither of them seem to mind much. Meg brings her tennis ball along, and as long as it's thrown or kicked every 5 minutes or so she's happy. And given our local rabbit situation Tess is in her element, sniffing, watching and chasing (but never quite catching).
Windfalls
Monday 29 August, 2005
3 years after planting, our orchard is finally bearing fruit this year. Last year I rubbed the blossom fairly ruthlessly, allowing the trees to put more energy into growth and less into the intensive process of creating fruit. This year I was more circumspect, since a good few of the trees are now well-established and should support a small crop. The Victoria plum produced a grand total of four plums, but they were very tasty!
Raspberry Rain
Thursday 14 July, 2005
I've been picking raspberries every morning for about a week now, but this morning I needed to get into work early to prepare for a training course I was delivering, so they didn't get done. So tonight when I came home from work, despite the torrential rain, I threw on my Barbour and (bad) cowboy hat and got stuck in.
Rain has never really bothered me, maybe because when I worked as a forester I had no choice in the matter. When you're stuck up a hill 4 miles from the nearest mud track and it's chucking it down you don't really have a choice.
Magic beans
Monday 13 June, 2005
Yesterday we spent a good 5 hours in the garden catching up on grass-cutting, weeding, pruning and tidying, and got loads done.
While I was waging war on rampant thistles and nettles with my strimmer, Rosemary weeded the veg garden, saint that she is.
She called me over at one point to check whether a netted area had anything sown in it. It had - drying beans of variety Horsehead, sown the previous weekend, although you wouldn't know it looking at the bed. She grumbled something about there being no row markers, then soldiered on.
Appreciating the imperfect
Saturday 21 May, 2005
When I first started growing fruit and veg I perceived it as a science, one which followed logical laws and principles, which could be learnt like any facts and put into practice with consistent and flawless results.
Sow seed variety x in month y at depth z at spacing a in rows b apart. Wait n days, undertake care instructions 1, 2 and 3, and there you have it, a perfect crop of carrots. Enjoy!
Of course one quickly realises that things just don't seem to work like that. It must be me, you say to yourself, and my lack of experience / skill / green-fingeredness, after all the pictures in the books show fantastic, uniform, unblemished veggies. You will have your early triumphs. The first year I grew sweetcorn the crop was fabulous, and in my naivety I believed it was all down to me, following those instructions to the letter and demonstrating my growing feel for, well, growing things. The next year my stumpy ears (of corn!) shattered the illusion, but got me thinking that maybe it wasn't all down to me.
