Fruit cage / overview

So the black currants have set and we are starting to get strawberries coming. Since we want to eat the fruit (in preference to the pigeons and magpies) have to net the fruit - for the black currants used 6 foot canes and pop cans / string, for the strawberries the multipurpose blue pipe:

Current overview of the plot - beginning to look well cultivated, particularly with the structures:

Clearly still early in the season so a lot of bare soil to keep weed free, but should fill very quickly if we keep on with the warm weather with rain showers!

Squash, courgettes and beans

Late planting season now, so have the squash (butternut, yellow scallop summer, Jack 'o' Lantern pumpkin):

and two courgettes:

in now - planted in rich mix of well rotted manure and improved soil. First assembled a teepee (for 9 plants) as a single structure for greater stability:

Planted one blue lake at each cane:

First harvest of garlic - these were the smallest but also had the tops starting to die back so ready:

Also apples looking happy:

Got a while to wait until these are ready though!

Planting stuff

Getting to "peak gardening season" at the moment - now have beans going in:

These are purple queen beans which should hopefully pick up soon - also have some sweet peas in:

Mixed spencer from Eagle - got these on a teepee at home as well but growing at the plot for cutting (and to help bees / insects / wildlife). Finally put in some beetroot as well - got to look carefully to spot them, hopefully will survive...

We also have some really teeny apples on our tree! So the frost did not completely destroy them! And fruit on the black currants:

Overview of the plot at the moment:

Digging holes and mowing meadows

Clearing back some more of the plot last week:

This is to plant squash in later in the summer. Also had to do some mowing as the grass had got a little out of hand:


Common sense would suggest attacking this with a strimmer / brush cutter - however, just used the mower:

Perhaps should lend the mower to our neighbours?!

Weather 3 - survival?

Couple weeks back had a surprise frost - yay for British weather!

Spuds took a hit - 10th May


Few days later things not looking quite as dead but they took a hit - 18th May:

Irony is the Vivaldi which I planted from the kitchen cupboard are actually doing very well as they came up after the frosts hit - 21st May:

We also had a hailstorm last week which took out a few courgette leaves:

Will see how they recover over the next few months - certainly was not happy having holes punched in it and ice sat on the leaves for a few minutes...

Seedling update - at home

The lettuces (Fothergills headed mixed and Little Gem) sown back in February (8th) are now reaching a harvestable size - we picked a Catalogna yesterday:

 Others reaching maturity are Merveille des Quatre Saisons:

 Black seeded simpson ( not exactly black - more like lime green!):

Iceburg 2:

 Little Gem or possibly All the Year Round?:

  Distinctive Lollo Rosso with frilly red leaves:

The only lettuces out of the mixed pack of seeds that we don't have are Romaine Ballon and Lobjoits Green Cos. Six out of eight varieties is not bad though. Here is the raised bed looking busy:

We have lots of smaller lettuces waiting in the wings to fill gaps as we harvest stuff out of the raised bed.
The pots you can see contain flowers and veggies being hardened off before planting into their final positions. Talking of which, the chillis and tomatoes are now potted up in the greenhouse:

We have decided to keep the following tomatoes:
3 Black Cherry;
2 Bejbino
1 Falcrosso
2 Garden Pearl
We have yet to sort out supporting structures for the cordons. The bush varieties (Falcrosso and Garden Pearl) will be placed on a bench so they can tumble down. The chilli varieties are Cayenne Pepper, Cherry Hot, Aji Wrecking Ball, and Cherry Bomb. We have kept 2 of each.
Today we also potted on 9 Purple Sprouting Brocolli Early plants and 9 January King cabbages sown last month.
The foxgloves and aquilegias sown about a year ago are looking lovely at the moment:

Potting bench - recycled timber

I managed to get hold of some free timber - 22 of 1180mm lengths at 45x70mm:

These were part of a shipping container or something - anyway we wanted a potting bench and these seemed ideal. Fixing 8 together for the deck gave a work area 560mm deep:

On the underside I fixed a couple of batons of the timber to hold the deck flat, then on top fixed edges on the side and further planks to the back to avoid soil / plants / pots falling off - using the remaining timber I made a shelf underneath to carry compost and pots. Finished article is quite tall - about 1m to the deck - this is deliberate, to be comfortable to work at when standing:

The whole thing is held together with 5x70mm screws (about 70) so total cost in consumables around £3.50. It is quite heavy to move though hopefully will be long lasting...

Bloody weather part 2; surprising spuds; recycling vivaldi

So the annoying weather continues - where a couple weeks back we were having killer frosts, now we're facing a dry spell of overcast, chilly weather - so much so that Oxfordshire has been on Farming Today... does mean that some of the crops which would like a little warmth and rain (i.e. spring weather...) are suffering a little.

Anyhow this is putting some stress on our onions causing them to bolt:

Just cut the flower spikes off... same is true of the garlic but apparently as this is a hard neck variety this is not the end of the world - though I cut the flower off anyway.

We're also starting to find spuds coming up everywhere i.e.:

These are from last year's rather lousy crop which clearly escaped the reach of our garden tools... anyhow just cut the heads off these as well in the hope of keeping some of our onion crop. On a more positive note the main spud crop is looking well:

We've also put in a couple of sprouted Vivaldi spuds from Sainsbury's from the back of the cupboard:

Popped them into a carrier of soil though still waiting for them to show themselves...