Tag: veg

First Earlies

First Earlies

This is my entire crop of first early potatoes – a 14cm plant pot almost-full. Okay, so that’s not very many potatoes from four plants, but there were dozens more teeny-tiny ones clinging to the roots. Skycarrots reliably informs me that if I’d been better at watering them, the tiny potatoes would have been much bigger – which would have doubled my crop!

So, I’m trying to remember to water my main crop potatoes more often (not that they’ve needed any help this past couple of thundery days!), but I’m a bit worried about some yellow and brown patches on a few of the leaves. I’m not sure whether it’s the beginnings of blight, or whether the plants have just gone a bit crispy in the hot weather. I think I’d better get rid of the affected leaves, just in case. If it is blight, and it travels to my tomato plants, I’ll be very upset!

Grow your own!

Toy Food

Contrary to the label on the box, this is in fact Real Food, from the MERL vegetable patch!

The Museum of English Rural Life has a huge garden, about an acre, and there are currently two vegetable plots. One is planted in a wartime style, and the other is modern. Both of them are yielding lots and lots of vegetables, thanks to the hard work of the staff and volunteers.

At the moment there’s also a Grow Your Own! exhibition, which runs until September 1st. The exhibition explores how gardening and vegetable growing have become embedded in English culture.

For the children (and young at heart!) there’s a Gnome Trail to follow. There are seventeen garden gnomes dotted around the Museum and in the garden, and some of them are pretty well hidden.

Something I hadn’t anticipated when I started working at the Museum was the necessity of learning the phrase “Garden Gnome” in other languages. In French, they’re Nains de Jardins, and in German, Gartenzwerg.

According to folklore, garden gnomes come alive at night and help out in the garden. If that’s true, they’ve been doing an excellent job!

World’s Smallest Carrot.

World's Smallest Carrot

I haven’t been enjoying a great deal of success with my vegetable growing lately. My peas were frazzled during the heatwave, slugs have reduced my beans to mere sticks, all my courgette flowers have died and my beetroot don’t look too healthy either.

I suddenly noticed that the carrots were all growing very close together, so I thought I’d better thin them out a bit. I could only bring myself to pull out one plant, but I was very excited to discover that there really was a tiny carrot growing at the other end of it!

It is supposed to that shape – I don’t know the exact variety (the seeds were a gift from skycarrots), but it’s a globe carrot, ideal for growing in pots. I’m looking forward to leaving the rest well alone, so they get nice and round.

I’m hoping that this is also going to be a good year for tomatoes. My plants (three different varieties) all have plenty flowers on them, lots of little green tomatoes, and there’s even a couple that are slowly turning red.

Next year I’d really like to get the garden sorted out, and put in some proper vegetable beds. I should probably also pay some attention to what I’m planting and how I’m looking after it – this year I just shoved all the seeds into pots and hoped for the best. Thankfully it seems to be turning out okay – for the tomatoes and carrots at least!

Full of beans. (And peas.)

Raindrops on my tiny pea shoots

Yesterday I was bemoaning the irony of having watered my potted vegetable plot, mere minutes before it started to rain. This little pea plant’s about three inches tall, and seems to be quite efficient at collecting all those tiny little drops!

Bean!

This morning I was feeling thoroughly miserable and germy and sorry for myself, and needed to find something to cheer me up. I came outside and this tiny bean was waiting for me.

I’ve grown vegetables before, but I usually cheat and buy them as little plants from the garden centre. Thanks to Sarah over at Skycarrots, who very generously gave me a whole bunch of seeds, this year I’ve started from scratch. It’s so exciting seeing how each little plant grows. I certainly never expected this one to pop up from the ground overnight, complete with bean still attached!

I have a lot to learn about growing my own fruit and vegetables, but I’m really looking forward to it.

Preparing the garden.

Trachelospermum jasminoides

Yesterday I forked over the area behind my Shed, dug three enormous holes, and planted the Trachelospermum jasminoides (Star Jasmine).

*fingers crossed*

The lady in the garden centre said not to release the ties that are holding the plants to the sticks until they seem nice and happy in the ground, so I’ll check on them tomorrow and see what’s going on. I need to run wires or string all across the back of the Shed first, as the plants aren’t self-supporting, but I’ll probably need an extra pair of hands to get that sorted.

I could have done without finding half a woodmouse floating in the watering can though. That wasn’t the highlight of my morning.

I had been planning to prepare some containers for planting vegetables today. Unfortunately my back is still so sore from yesterday’s hole-digging that I think it would be a really bad idea to go lumping containers and compost around the garden. As long as I can get the pots ready by the weekend, then I can hopefully convince Paul to drive me round to the garden centre and buy a bunch of plants. (Maybe next year I’ll get myself organised in time to plant seeds. Maybe.)

Don’t know what to plant. Tomatoes, definitely, but maybe a plum type rather than a cherry. Peas, would peas be alright in a pot? Apparently you can grow potatoes in a bag, maybe I could try that. I’d like to have a go at blueberries and cranberries as well, if I can keep the birds away from them for long enough to actually pick the fruit. I remember my Dad’s ongoing battle with the blackbird who was determined to eat his raspberries!