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First Crops from the Vegetable Plot
Posted On 08-27-2009 , 9:40 AM
First Crops from the Vegetable Plot
Today I have had my first crops from the vegetable plot well one from the vegetable plot and two from the greenhouse.
Now given the fact that most of my runner beans plants have succumbed to root rot due to the very damp weather we have been having, I was amazed this morning when I was able to get to the plants to find that there was a large number of beans ready for picking. I picked 4.5kg about 10 lbs which is not bad for a row that started out as 20 plants and is now down to 5 or so. And there were still plenty of beans waiting to mature and loads of flowers still on the remaining plants, so I am hopefully of at least one if not two more pickings.
I am a firm believer that it is better to freeze beans as soon as possible after picking to preserve as much of the nutrients as possible, there is also nothing worse than going to your store of beans only to find that they have gone limp and yellow. No except for the beans I gave to my next door neighbour the ones I picked this morning are now in the freezer, in fact they were in the freezer within half an hour of picking.
The two crops from the greenhouse were tomatoes (all of three fruits) and a green sweet pepper. Both of which made an excellent addition to the salad I had for lunch, the only thing that could have made it even better was if the salad leaves were from the vegetable plot rather than the shop. By the looks of the plants in the greenhouse I should have plenty more tomatoes and peppers, so I should be OK for those for a few weeks at least. I am looking into installing a solar powered heat sink into the greenhouse to store some of the heat generated by day and then release it at night. The idea behind this is that it will help to extend the growing season by a couple of weeks or so.
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The Joys and Perils of Gardening
Posted On 08-26-2009 , 6:53 AM
The title of this post will become clear as you read through the next few sentences. During the first few months of this year I was happily getting the garden and the vegetable plot ready for the coming growing season, I got all the seeds I needed and by the end of March I was well on the way with the vegetable plot dug over and various crops already sown either directly in the plot or in seed trays in the greenhouse.
At this time I had also started to tidy up the garden in readiness for the coming summer months with a sense of anticipation of all the flowers and scents filling the garden during those long warm summer days. Those days were filled with the joy of being outside and working with nature.
Then in the middle of May while I was watering the plants in the greenhouse I felt a sharp pain in my lower back and since then have not been able to do that much in the garden or vegetable plot. It has also restricted my being able to use the computer for long periods of time, which is why some of the pages on this site appear to be only half complete. I had been working on changing the layout to make the site load faster.
A couple of weeks ago as my back was starting to feel better I was out in the garden doing a little bit of dead heading of the flowers, I had an allergic reaction to something I had either touched or inhaled, and ended up in casualty for a few hours.
Those are just two of the perils of gardening another is the vagrancies of the British weather, the amount of rain we have had along with the cold has meant that the crops on the vegetable plot are all but gone, the potatoes and tomatoes wiped out by blight, the runner beans with root rot, you get the picture. I am sure that if I had been able to get into the vegetable plot and maintain it properly then most of the crops would have survived as those plots around my have done a lot better then mine. About the only crop that is left are the leeks which seem to be growing very well.
Now on a more positive note all the rain has meant that the flowers in the back garden have been plentiful this year adding lots of colour to the garden, and attracting all sorts of wildlife into the garden. Bees, moths, butterflies, blue tits and hedgehogs to mention just a few have all been seen in the garden adding to the beauty of it.
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New pages added
Posted On 08-07-2009 , 5:08 AM
I have recently added some more pages to the site and revamped the side menu I hope you like the changes to the side bar. The new pages cover growing onions and growing beetroot. The next page(s) I will be adding will be on growing carrots.
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