The Patch looking more than a tad sorry for itself!

With all the frivolities of Christmas I somehow forgot my garden update postings, so here’s the last couple of months in a nutshell. No action to speak off other than a bit of harvesting here and there and watching the winter veg slowly come into fruition.

The parsnips have nearly all gone after too many sunday roastings and christmas dinners.  I was planning on a Parsnip Veg of the Month round-up around now but to be honest I’ve had very little time to get busy experimenting with the Snips other than a lovely soup I concocted for our Christmas Day lunch, Pear & Parsnip Soup. So maybe I’ll save my parsnip showcase for another time when I’ve a few more to experiment with. My second sowings, fingers crossed, may come good in a few weeks.

We finally have a few Savoys ready for the eating and looking delicious, and the Romanesco Caulies are gloriously growing up and almost big enough for the pot:

A Glorious Savoy

A baby Romanesco

A nearly fully grown up Romanesco Cauliflower

The second sowing of my Calabrese broccoli is now in full force, which the kids are very happy about, broccoli being my far their favourite veggie. And the Purple Sprouting is probably only a few weeks off too, yay!.

Also looking pretty healthy is the celery, which I’m using as a cut and come again crop. I’ve absolutely no idea whether this is the done thing, but I’ve been harvesting it like this for months now and it keeps growing back stronger and healthier. A right royal result!.

My bumper crop of ‘cut and come again’ Celery

And last but not least I should mention the Brussel Sprouts, we finally have a few teeny-weeny ones but pretty much all of my fifteen or so plants have either come to nothing or are diseased. A huge disappointment. I even had to buy some in for our christmas dinner!.

The healthiest of my Brussels plants

Some earlier updates: 

October in the Garden

August & September in the Garden

July in the Garden

Time’s been rather short over the last few weeks and somehow or other I didn’t get around to an August garden update and indeed now I’m more than a tad late for Septembers!. So here goes for the last couple of months and a bit….

To tell you the truth it’s a bit of a jungle out there and I’m rather ashamed of the patch right now. As I said it’s been a very busy few weeks for me of school holidays, holidays to the UK, rentree back to school and the patch has unfortunately had to suffer with zero time for weeding, tidying, sowing or planting. There has however been a fair degree of harvesting with all my spare time energies being channelled into picking, cooking, preserving and freezing.  Incase you missed it, here’s my Tomato Veg of the Month Round Up of recipes, and I really have been picking an enormous basket of tommies each and every day since the end of July!. And although they’re finally starting to slow down and die off there’s still a ridiculous amount out there.

Other than the tommies we’ve also been enjoying a glut of peppers and aubergines (and there’s happily been Ratatouille a plenty all summer, and lately another veggie favourite of mine Aubergine Parmigiana‘s – blog coming soon!).

Other stuff that’s fairing well despite the neglect are the chilies, I’ve only three plants this year but they’re constantly laden (and pleasingly firey!), I’ve several bags full in the freezer plus a few hanging around drying out. After a slow start the squash and pumpkins are all going great guns and I’ve started to pick a few butternutsfor risottos, pies and soups. I’ll be harvesting them all soon as we can’t be too far off the first frosts.

I’ve even pulled a few parsnips of late and they’re surprisingly sweet (and large!), a tad better than my disappointingly miniscule carrots anyway.

Titchy carrots and whopper parsnips!

Jacques playing with his trucks and carrots!

The goodies that have sadly finished since my last round up include the sweetcorn (now that was fantastic, so super sweet), cucumbers and unbelievably the courgettes (we’ve only one marrow left!). And the gorgeously sweet melons have been and gone too.

It’s quite a list when written like this! Cabbages and sprouts soon. And I’ve not even mentioned the pears, greengages, apples & blackberries around the garden.

Just incase you missed them here’s my last few round ups: July in the Garden, June in the Garden, May in the Garden.

Bye for now, Louisa

My desperately overgrown ‘jungle’ of a potager!

Unsurprisingly it’s been another busy month in the garden, though all the busyness has been in the harvesting, picking, cooking and eating. Bar a couple of rows of carrots and parsnips and a few lettuces nothing new has been sown or weeded. And it’s truly a jungle out there, there’re weeds taller than me! But then I’ve had a busy month of visitors and school holidays. Hoping to get more of a grip in August.

My jungle of a Potager!

This month’s all been about the courgettes, barely a meal’s gone by without them appearing in some form or other (just incase you hadn’t noticed!). My nine plants have been on a bit of rampage!. Incase you missed it I did a round up of all my favourite courgettie recipes a few days ago.

And I’m very pleased to report the tomatoes are all going great guns, each and every one of my 58 plants (plus a few more stray wild ones scattered around the plot!) are all fruiting and we’ve started to pick and eat the huge beefies and some sweet-as-sweet-can-be cherries. They’re definitely my August Veg of the Month and I’ve already been busy in the kitchen trying out lots of new recipes. I’d love to know your ideas if you’d like to share  them (and you’ll get a mention in my round up!)

Beef Tommies

The Cherry Tommies

And finally, my slightly behind Plum Tommies

Other goodies that we’ve started to tuck into this month are cucumbers (they grow as fast as the courgettes, I’ve quite frankly never eaten so many in my life!) and the equally profuse French beans.

Cucumber, one of dozens!

The Borlotti (they’re the gorgeous red pods) and French Beans

A basketfull of Beans

The first baby aubergine has formed, but I doubt they’re going to do anywhere near as well as last year. I think I had eight plants literally dripping with them between July and November last year. Most of mine look unlikely to even fruit this season. Same for the peppers, extremely disappointing.

There’s a few pumpkin and squash now formed, but again they’re a little disappointing compared to the bumper crop of last year, despite my having twice as many plants. But maybe there’s still time to catch up?

One of the first Pumpkins

Baby Butternut

Other notable olympic growers this month are the sweetcorn that I only planted at the beginning of June and my lovely chilli plants that are dripping with decidedly hot chillies. A hot success compared to the boringly mild ones of last  year.

My Majestic Sweetcorn, the cobs are just starting to form

My chillies are HOT!

Along with the garlic back in June, my shallots and red onions have now all been harvested and are hanging out to dry.

That’s my lot of Shallots!

A wheelbarrow o’ onions!

What We’re Eating:

Quite a lot really! Bar the odd red pepper and a few bananas I’ve not been buying any fruit or veggies for weeks (or months?) now.

– Garlic, Shallots and Red Onions

– New potatoes, normal ‘Old’ Potatoes

– Lettuces, Radish, a few Spring Onions

– Cucumbers

– The odd early summer Squash

– Courgettes until they’re coming out of our ears

– Cherry & Beef Tomatoes

– Swiss Chard

– French Beans

– Strawberries & Rhubarb

– Basil, Coriander, Rosemary, Mint, Tarragon, Oregano, Chives Thyme, Sage, Lovage, Parsley

And I think that’s it? We’ve also got lots of very exciting and wonderful freebie wild stuff growing, but I’m going to save that for another blog.

So that’s it for July. Bring on the August Tomatoes!

Louisa x

Well it’s been a very busy month for my veg plot, lots of rain, lots of blistering sun and lots of happy growth…and lots of weeds. And lots of hard work, slotted in at nap times and after bed times.

Finally everything seems to be taking off after a rather slow start to the season. The patch’s rapidly filling up and almost everything for the next few months have happily been sown and planted. YIPPPPPEEEE.

My tomatoes are going great guns. Suddenly from teeny weeny seedlings I planted out a few short weeks ago some of them are now flowering and growing handsomely tall. I did a count a couple of days ago and realised to my complete surprise I had fifty four plants, YES 54 PLANTS. I somehow kept sowing more seeds, in the belief that most of them were failing to germinate. They were, just slowly. Do you think that may be a tad excessive for a family of four? I feel a whole host of tomato recipes coming along shortly!. At least there’s some variety though, with cherries, beef and plums.

The cucurbits are all fairing pretty well too. My courgette plants (7), cucumbers (8) and pumpkins & various squash (31 – again a tad on the excessive side me thinks but they do store so well!) are all steadily growing. I so can’t wait for courgette season to commence, one of my favourite and most versatile veggies. I’ve re-sown melon seeds three times now as some sweet-toothed little thief keeps eating my seeds and seedling tops. Fingers crossed this time they’ll come good.

One of the many Pumpkin Plants

A Courgette Plant

The peppers and aubergine seedlings were planted out last week, and although the plants were all on the very small and scrawny side they seem to be loving our soil and finally growing some. Good, another two of my fave veggies. And the brussel sprouts are finally on the off, yay!

A Brussel Sprout Seedling

My potatoes plants are prettily starting to flower which means they’ll be ready soon, though I’m not too keen to go rummaging around them too much after yesterday’s experience of finding my first ever viper camping out under their cool canopy. Believe it or not we’re now into June and I’ve still not finished planting all my tatties out, there’s still another row or two of ‘old’ potatoes to get out there. This week’s priority without fail.

The Pretty Potato Flower

After a terrible rate of germination last month (I don’t think the extremes of weather helped too much) I’ve had to re-sow most of calabrese, swiss chard, purple sprouting broccoli, spring onions, swede, french and borlotti beans. And thankfully they’re all looking pretty promising this time around.

What we’ve got to eat: We’re happily munching on lots of holy rocket (badly attacked by the greedy flea beetle but nevertheless tastes great….after a thorough wash!), as well as my favourite rocket & Parmesan salad we’re loving it in chorizo or merguez sandwiches or with prawns & chilli in a simple pasta sauce. There’s also plenty of salad leaves finally ready for the eating and spinach galore. I made a fab Spinach, Courgette & Prawn Thai Green Curry last night, but we’ve been enjoying it mainly so far simply wilted with plenty of olive oil, lemon and black pepper. The Swiss Chard is also ready for the eating and is starting to grow in abundance, happy face here! It’s great in stir fries and curries, used just like spinach, but I’m looking to be a little more inventive this month and celebrate it more in it’s own right. There’s also a handful of peas every now and again which the kids greedily eat like sweets, but they don’t seem to fair well here…possibly too hot and not enough water? Last but not least there’s the herbs which are flourishing (thyme, thyme and more thyme, chives, parsley, oregano, coriander on it’s way, rosemary and sage) and the veg plot favourites of radish and strawberries. We’re miraculously getting about a punnet a day of strawberries which we’re all loving, the kids especially who get to pick them.

Holy Rocket

Popeye-tastic spinach

Swiss Chard

Just the odd pea pod or two

Strawberry plants

The Herbs in Flower

My next tasks are a major weeding operation closely followed by mulching, probably with grass cuttings as that’s what we seem to have a lot of.  Has anyone any experience of mulching?. I certainly haven’t but am figuring it’s benefits would be two fold, good for water retention and to stop weed growth. And planting out the rest of those damned potatoes!.

Well that’s it for this very busy month of May, and very much looking forward to an equally busy June. Before I go, here’s one last photo of a very happy and fat caterpillar munching on my parsley,

Louisa

Where exactly has this last month disappeared to? It only seems a few days ago I was writing my March update. April’s been a really REALLY wet month here, and a cold month and a windy month, all in all it’s been pretty dire. In theory good for the garden but I’m so behind this year (well in comparison to last year anyhow which is unhelpfully my only year of comparison!) and I didn’t manage to plant out much until nearer the end of April so no watery benefits really gained. Hey ho.

Anyway some good work has been done and the plot is slowly slowly filling up. There’s been lots of shovelling of cow poo and compost and digging, digging, digging, digging. I now hate digging. All my new potatoes have finally been planted and are now coming through. I still have way way too many ‘old’ tatties to get out there and I’ll endeavour to get them in in May.

There’s quite a list of stuff I’ve managed to get in the ground in between the storms and gales: carrots, parsnips, french beans, borlotti beans, swiss chard, peas, rocket, spring onions, 3 types of lettuce, radish, sprouts, spinach, calabrese, coriander, parsley and last but not least savoy cabbages have all been magically sown, and many of the seedlings are excitedly starting to break out into the big world.

Potato Plants

Baby radishes!

To the left there’s the shallots & red onions, to the right carrot & parsnip beds

In the poly tunnel the tomatoes are continuing to do well and some are getting pretty sizeable and ready to plant out. As are all my ‘Mediterranean’ veggies, the courgettes, peppers and aubergines. Half way through the month I sowed lots of squash & pumpkin seeds and they’re already pretty big. I also set off pots a plenty of melons, cucumbers, leeks, sweetcorn and more basil.

Courgette Plant

My higgledy piggledy of pots

Baby Squash

Tomato

A pepper plant

And that’s it folks for this month. It actually sounds a good deal busier than I thought I’d been!

Now on with the pots. My worst job.

Louisa

Well we’re now well into March and I’ve just remembered my February update, so here it is. The beginning of February was very cold here, and I mean VERY cold, the coldest the locals have known it! We had lots of snow and ice and the warmest it got at one point for several days was minus 5, with night time temperatures down to minus 16. Now that’s cold. Luckily myself and the ankle biters happened to be in the relative warmer climes of the UK for the worst of it.

My poor veggie patch was a frozen white abyss for most of the month, though luckily thanks to our destroyer chickens, there wasn’t much out there to worry about. Though my broad bean plants seem to be on their way out, they’re a mottling of brown (dead) and green (hope), so we’ll have to see.

At the end of the month when the weather warmed up a good deal, Gilles our trusty neighbour, friend, mayor and tractor owner came along to start rotavating the plot, it’s going to be considerably bigger than last year. He’s coming back again next week to finely rotavate it ready for use. I’m very excited!

Last week I was busy sowing lots of seeds, tomatoes (three sorts, cherry, plum and beef), celery (hoping I have more germination success than last year which was a dissappointing zero), peppers, aubergines, thyme and basil.

Philipe bought me a book this week, a guide to planting by the moon, or biodynamics as its known in England. Biodynamics is huge in France and this is the top selling book. In theory I’m going to give it a good go, but I know in practice my time for sowing and planting is limited to any precious snippets I can possibly find, and it won’t always be possible to wait for the moon.

That’s it for my Feb round up, not a huge amount of action I’m afraid but March will be a good deal busier. So excited that’s it’s gardening time again!

Until next month,

Louisa

To be truthful there’s been very little garden action to report of late, which is why I’ve put a couple of months together and even then it’s pushing it with much to say! It’s a very sorry state of affairs, as you can see it’s pretty baron out there, apart from a whole lot of weeds:

This is mainly due to the fact I failed in my task as newbie gardener to sow and plant much winter fair, a combination of lack of time and organisation!. And the veggies that I did manage to get out there have been largely destroyed by our new feathery friends who love nothing more than to scrat around in my beloved patch!:

They’ve successfully managed to make dinner out of all the broccoli heads and leaves (or Calabrese to be a little more precise), destroyed the baby Savoy cabbage, uprooted most of the beetroot and nibbled away all the tasty tops and somehow made magically disappear the baby carrots, swiss chard and last few remaining lettuces. Hmmmm, things have got to change.

They obviously don’t have much of a taste for herbs though, as my perennial thyme, rosemary and sage are left unscathed. As are fortunately all my baby broad bean plants and garlic which seem to be growing pretty well:

On another positive note I recently found much to my surprise some baby onions growing where I’d grown them last summer….they must have self seeded, clever mother nature!:

Other than a little garden clearing earlier in the month I’ve not been out there apart from to do plenty of head scratching trying to plan the plot for this year. I’ve decided to increase the size fairly considerably, adding about an extra 20 to 30 sq meters. Needless to say I’m going to fence it off from the chickens, once it’s been rotavated by our trusty tractor owning farmer/mayor friend and neighbour. As for exactly what I’m going to grow and the layout I’ve not got around to that yet!

I’m really hoping I’ll have more to report next month, although with a two week trip planned to the UK for the second half of February I’m not too sure I’ll have much time to get out on the patch again, though I’ll hopefully have sowed a few seeds in pots indoors.

Until then….

Louisa