Busy in June

Well, it's now June and I'm certainly keeping very busy with my gardening. To recap: I've been planting out veg that's been accustomed to the outdoors and I'm now able to harvest more as the gardening year progresses.

Broad beans: 

These are now producing lots of pods and as the family prefers smaller, more tender broad beans (older, bigger beans can get tough), I've now started collecting and freezing the beans. They store exceptionally well in the freezer and I prefer this to drying them. So far I've collected a total weight of 400g and there's still plenty to pick. As for any pests - there's been a few aphids but not many and I think that may be due to a couple of factors. The first is that I have planted companion plants near them. I chose borage, which the aphids have flocked to and seem to not bother with the beans. Secondly, I recently took the tops off the broad beans. Aphids prefer tender young stems so by removing these I've deterred them further. The tops can be cooked and eaten so that's extra food for the table!

Healthy looking bean pods.

Beans and tops for food.

Courgettes and peas: 

I have three courgette plants that were in pots but seeing as there's plenty of room in the garden still, they were planted out. So far each plant is producing flowers and there are at least two very young courgettes on each plant. These plants aren't keen on wind so if you want to plant out these in your garden, bear in mind the position: somewhere sheltered from the wind will be great. 

Like the beans, the peas are producing pods but I don't use these for the dinner table. They are a treat for everyone who likes to take a trip down to the veg patch and pick a few for themselves. Fresh peas are sweet and full of flavour but the quality of the flavour will start to deteriorate fairly quickly after picking. When harvesting peas, don't leave them too late as they will become starchy when the peas are big. If it's your first time growing peas and you're not sure when the right picking time is, just pick one and try the peas. Look at the size and taste them. Experimenting by eating is the best way of finding the best picking time!

This one's not quite ready for picking just yet!

Don't be fooled by the appearance in this photo - the courgette shown here is only three inches long!

Tomatoes: 

Perhaps my favourite to grow, the tomato takes top spot in the gardening year. My tomato plants have been spread around, some in the green house, some in the polytunnel, some in a temporary green house and the remainder outside. All the plants I'm growing are now in their permanent homes. Those outside are supported by canes/hazel sticks, while the rest are supported with string (to make it easier as they grow). There are trusses appearing on most now so it's just a matter of waiting for tomatoes to ripen. Remember to keep feeding tomatoes and with indeterminate varieties, keep pinching out any side shoots so that the plant's energy goes into producing fruit. 

Garlic:

The garlic I grew in pots and outdoors were starting to get yellow leaves so I decided now was the time to harvest them. If left too late the bulbs would start to open up and at that point they won't store very well. I lifted the bulbs and am now drying them under the sun. If you're doing the same, check for mould routinely and when the leaves are dry, you can move your garlic into storage elsewhere. Expect drying to take about 2-4 weeks. 

Drying whilst being hung up in the polytunnel until temperatures get too hot.

And everything else:

Marrows, pumpkins and butternut squashes have gone outdoors now and are doing well. Runner, climbing French and Berlotti beans have been planted outside and are currently growing with the support of bamboo canes (the canes kindly donated by my neighbour). I've stopped earthing up the potatoes and am now waiting for the right time to harvest them. It's the first time for me growing Rooster potatoes and I'm hoping for a good crop. Roosters are a maincrop and they should be ready when the leaves start turning yellow, which I reckon should be about early August. The onions that were grown from seed are growing, although a few did die after being transplanted. The chillies are now in the polytunnel after being grown in the house and both varieties are producing non stop now. The Jalapeno is very hot and so is the Apache, but I find that the heat from the Apache does die down sooner! 

An apache chilli waiting to be picked.

Time for the wildlife:

The good news is that Spines McCoy the hedgehog has come back to the garden and is eating a mix of mealworms, hedgehog biscuits and cat food each night, along with helping eliminate slugs. This week's breakthrough was on Wednesday, when Jim (the feral pigeon) started feeding from my hand. It's been delightful feeding him but the rest of the flock are still a little nervous. The garden hosts several fledglings each day including starlings, robins, dunnocks, great tits and blue tits. On top of growing my own I find that encouraging wildlife has been great for my mental health and I've never felt better. 

Planting out

We're now ploughing through May (no pun intended there) and I've been busy planting out veg that's now used to the climate and ready for outdoor life. This includes a selection of brassicas, beetroots, sweetcorn and onions. Surprisingly they didn't take up too much space as I was beginning to worry that I wouldn't have much room remaining for everything else!

Brassicas:

This is a big family that includes the following:

• Cauliflower
• Cabbage
• Brussels Sprouts
• Turnip
• Kale
• Broccoli
• Radish
• Kohl Rabi

Out of the list above, radishes and kale are growing in the polytunnel. The others were planted out. Brassicas like certain soil conditions: If your soil is too acidic, you will have to add lime. Lime is easily found in garden centres. Check your soil pH level (if you can) - anywhere between 6.5 and 7.5 is ideal for brassicas as it allows them to get the nutrients they need from the soil. When planting out, make sure that your soil is free draining and partial shading is good. I have grown brassicas in full sunlight on my allotment, which wasn't detrimental to my crop but I will check to see whether the yield will be bigger if grown in partial shade. Finally, they like a firm soil, so when I planted my brassicas out, I firmed the soil carefully around each plant. I covered my crops to prevent pigeons from picking at them while they are young and small. 

Shabby looking but they will look good in the soil.

Earlier on in the year I had sown the beetroot variety Boltardy in a tray in the polytunnel. Well, they're big enough to go outdoors now. Beetroots can have the reputation of not liking their roots being disturbed but I've grown them this way since I can remember. Careful handling is needed and they should be happy. Once they have settled in over the next couple of weeks I will sow more but different varieties. Like all the other veg I've transplanted outdoors, the beetroots are covered temporarily. 

Beetroots are a staple in my family and I always look forward to harvesting them. The leaves can also be eaten and I love them in soup.

The onions I'm growing are Bedfordshire Champion and Red Baron. As I've decided to grow from seed instead of sets they feel like they are growing very slowly. Both varieties are still small but they have all survived so I'm happy. If you are new to vegetable gardening and want to grow onions, I'd recommend sets rather than seeds, because it can take a long time. 

This year the germination of sweetcorn was very disappointing for an F1 variety that I bought. Not knowing at the time of purchase (online) the seeds were treated with fungicides and looked a pink colour. You'd think that they would have had a 100% germination rate but not so. I only had three out of 15 seeds germinate. Luckily I chose to grow some other varieties that were left overs from last year, which did ok. So I then took two other varieties to sow for a succession of crop and all of these have come up. Sweetcorn is a lovely crop to grow in the garden or allotment because you'll find the cobs sweeter in taste if you pick and cook straight away. This is because the sugars start to turn to starch very quickly when the cobs are picked. If you have a lot that need picking, pop them in tubs/bags and put them in the freezer. This is a tried and tested method in my household and means that you can have sweetcorn past its season, that doesn't taste stodgy. 

This is what treated sweetcorn seeds look like. This F1 variety is Golden Lion, which is a super sweet variety. 

Untreated seeds in comparison.

Besides all the work, I've been able to pick some veg too. Radishes now find themselves on my lunch plate along with salad leaves and spring onions. The garlic growing outdoors has started to bolt (not the ones in the pots though) so I've cut off the scapes (the stems with the flower buds). These are a bonus as they are edible too and some went into a salad for dinner today. They can be eaten raw or cooked. This is why I enjoy gardening - there's very little waste the more you learn!

Radishes are always great in a salad. The leaves go on to the compost heap.

Spring onions are ready for harvesting. I have many more at different stages to make sure that there's always a supply.

A garlic scape

Carefully cutting the scape.

Now to chop one or two into a salad for lunch. You can cook scapes too. 

Now for some news on the wildlife in my garden: the blue tit chicks have fledged and I must admit that I feel life's a little empty without them now. The robin has been visiting, especially when I'm working in the garden, with one fledgling. Our hedgehog regular, Spines McCoy, has been missing for one night. Not seen on any of the camera traps and he's not touched his food. I'm hoping that he's just been too busy to visit. Speckled Jim is still a daily visitor with his flock, which always brings a smile on my face. He's now cheeky enough to follow me to see where I keep his food!

Well, I still have plenty to do as I'm sure you all do. Stay safe and keep gardening!

Into May

As we're still in lockdown, I feel that I've managed to keep ahead in my gardening plans. It's not all been plain sailing however, as some seeds haven't germinated and there have been pests, but who said gardening was easy?

So far, I've got the polytunnel and greenhouse bursting at the seams with seedlings and young vegetable plants but there's still the danger of frost in some areas, so I'm not taking any chances of putting young plants out just yet. This doesn't mean that you can't start putting plants out. Hardening off is a job that can be done. This is getting your young plants used to the outdoor climate (sun and wind as well as different temperatures), if you intend to plant them outdoors permanently. Place your plants outside in the day but remember to bring them back in at night time. Do this for a short time, gradually increasing the amount of time that your plants are out. Finally, once there is no danger of frost you can leave your plants outside overnight. I'm also potting lots of things on, using compost from the garden as it's hard to buy any at the moment. The advantages there are that there's no peat in home made compost and it doesn't cost me anything. Unfortunately though, it's not sterile and so I have weed seedlings growing among my veg plants. Home made compost can be sterilised but the process can put people off as baking the compost is the way to do it. I don't think my husband would appreciate finding that in the oven, never mind the smell!

A dangerously hot looking chilli ready for picking. This one is Apache, but I haven't tried any yet!

Pak choi - not yet ready for picking as they need to be bigger but once they're ready they will go into stir fries and salads.

Radishes are easy to grow. Sow seeds and watch them grow in just a few weeks. Pick as they get to a cherry size and enjoy. Regular picking thins them out and allows the remainder to grow. Better still, get your children to pick them.

Some mixed salad leaves. My husband will pop down to the polytunnel to cut some for his lunch everyday.

Of the successes up to now, I have potted on tomatoes and planted some in the raised beds in the polytunnel, transplanted flower seedlings in to pots and picking salad leaves, radishes and spring onions. I'm also starting to pick the ripe chillies of the apache and jalapeno plants that I sowed very early on.

The potatoes are growing well and I've started earthing them up to (hopefully) get a good yield.

Carrying on with work, I'm also making some liquid plant feed two ways: one by gathering bindweed and placing it in containers with water and I've also made a wormery, which should collect the liquid run off underneath to also use as feed. The bindweed liquid feed was suggested to me by a friend on the allotment. I once asked John about what to with all the bindweed I dug out of my plot when I first got it, as it would just grow again if I placed it on the compost heap. John advised me to put them in a container, fill it with water and cover it and after a few weeks I could dilute it with water (roughly 1 part feed, 10 parts water) and water my plants with it. In my experience I found that this worked, however I do combine my feeds by using different methods such as adding compost, chicken manure and leaf mulch. What you feed can depend on the plants that you grow. I'm hoping to write about that in more detail very soon. 

I'll be concentrating on sowing more seeds this month too. Having already started on a second sowing of sweetcorn, I'm going to sow fennel and French beans. Here's some vegetable seeds that you can sow this month:

• Leaf beet
• Courgette (you can sow directly outside)
• Cauliflower
• Kohl rabi
• Beetroot
• Runner beans
• French beans
• Peas
• Micro greens and salad leaves

The weather will get warmer again but stay on the lookout for any frost warnings. Till next time x

Bug life in the garden

To make a change from working in the garden, I chose to sit and relax in the late afternoon. Whilst sitting in the dappled shade as the sun started to disappear behind the trees I decided to feed the birds. Making sure not to leave out the ground feeders, I put out a dish with some suet pellets and live mealworms, covering it with an old hanging basket frame. Within 30 minutes a robin came to feast on the mealworms. My favourite feral pigeon, Speckled Jim, turned up with a few friends but I did see another side to him today. As I crushed a fat ball (the feral pigeons' fave food) Jim wouldn't allow any of the others to come close to the tasty treats and was quite vocal about it too!

Aside from the birds, there are many living creatures in the garden. At night time there's a hedgehog and foxes, while the pond which had plenty of frogs now has tadpoles. However, there's much more going on and it's the smaller creatures that I thought would be worth mentioning this time.

The insect world is an old and varied one, and insects still play a vital role in the Earth's careful balance of life. Here's some that you may or may not recognise:

Ladybird

An easy one to spot in your garden when it's in adult form. A brightly coloured beetle, the ladybird's favourite food is the aphid, making this creature a gardener's friend. In larva stage the ladybird looks very different. It's black with some bright coloration. Like it's adult parents, the larva also eats soft bodied insects such as aphids.

Adult ladybird

Ladybird larva

Flea beetle

There's quite a few species of flea beetle in the UK and some will feed on brassicas (cabbages, turnips etc), with the adults feeding on the leaves and larva feeding on the roots. I have had flea beetle damage on my brassicas on the allotment a few years ago. The damage was easily spotted as was the flea beetle as I could see several of them. They are very small, measuring only a couple of millimetres, but they have a distinctive flea like behaviour of jumping that gives them away.

You can just about see here the larger hind legs that enable the flea beetle to jump to safety if disturbed.

My turnips with flea beetle damage. I can honestly say that I didn't get to harvest any turnips that year.

Shield bug

Like the flea beetle, there's several species in the UK and one I come across most often is the Common Green. I must admit that the shield bug isn't a true beetle and good news for gardeners - the Common Green is not harmful to plants, despite feeding on plant sap. It does, however, have a trick up its sleeve. You may have heard an alternate name for this creature - stink bug! That's because if it's disturbed the shield bug omits a pungent smell from special glands so beware when you are near them.

Despite me handling this little chap, I didn't receive a dose of the smelly secretion but I have come across it on raspberries, which was an unpleasant surprise as the smell can taint crops!

Butterflies

Butterflies sadly seem to be having a hard time at the moment. Some are considered pests, such as the Cabbage White, while others rely on native species of plants for food, which some gardeners regard as weeds, so it isn't easy being a butterfly. The good news for butterflies in my garden is that I love them and will always keep a patch with wild flowers for caterpillars and when I grow brassicas I always leave one or two sacrificial plants for caterpillars too. I would also suggest adding in native plants such as nettles, ivy and hawthorn to provide food for several species.

Here's looking at you! I was lucky to get  a nice close up of this Cabbage White. Note the compound eyes.

The very striking Red Admiral butterfly, one of my personal faves, on my buddleia last year. It lays its eggs on nettles, as does the Peacock and Tortoiseshell.

Hoverflies

For an unknown reason ever since my childhood I have always loved hoverflies. They are a great sight to see for me and some species can be regarded as a gardener's friend owing to the fact that their larvae eat aphids. This time of the year you can see hoverflies hovering in areas of your garden - this their way of letting others know that this is their territory. They can be mistaken for wasps or bees because their bodies resemble them. There are some differences though to help you recognise them: bees have hairy bodies and antennae, whereas hoverflies don't have as much hair (some don't at all) and lack the antennae. There's also a difference between male and female hoverflies and it's all about the eyes. Females have smaller eyes than the males and if you are lucky enough to get a closer look you can see that the male's eyes are not only bigger but meet at the top of the head. The female's eyes are separated.  

This is a female hoverfly that was resting on one of my okra plants that I just repotted.

Here's a closer look at the female (I was so lucky she kept still long enough). Note that the eyes don't meet at the top of the head.

This one is a male by the look of it. Photographed at Kew last year.

This time of year you'll hear the unmistakable buzz of the bumblebee as they start to make more appearances. There's over 20 species of bumblebee in the UK, including those are not native (like the tree bumblebee that nested in one of our bird boxes a few years ago). They play an important part in pollinating our plants, so take care of them in your garden. They are even used in glasshouse crop production, where bumblebee nest boxes are brought from specialist companies to help with crops that need insect pollinators. 

The Garden Bumblebee on quince earlier this year.

I think this is the Common Carder Bee here in my garden. 

The Tree Bumblebee in one of our next boxes. Steve and I would enjoy an early evening glass of wine in the garden with the gentle hum of them buzzing.

Weevils

Where do I begin with weevils? There are so many species of them and they are often seen as the "bad guy" in gardens, mainly due to the Vine Weevil in the UK. Leaf damage is easily seen as you'll find notches on the edges of leaves but it's what goes on underground that causes damage which gardeners hate the weevil for. The vine weevil grub will live in soil, including in pots where it will feed on plant roots in autumn and winter, causing severe wilting or even death in plants. I have never used chemical treatment on vine weevils, instead opting to empty pots in spring and removing the grubs. Having said that I haven't had much of a problem with vine weevil. The weevil is a member of the beetle family and different species eat different plants and sadly most of them are considered as pests.

I found this weevil near my polytunnel last year. I don't know what species it is.

Vine Weevil grub found in one of my pots this year.

This Vine Weevil is going through metamorphosis.

I've only just mentioned a small amount of insects here. There's so many more and if I can find more and photograph them I'll write about them. I hope you enjoyed reading about these creatures. Now I'll have to get busy with gardening again! Until next time!

April so far

Well, the weather has been warm this month so far and it can only mean one thing for me - carry on gardening! I've been very busy with sowing both veg seeds and flower seeds in a bid to get as much in the garden as possible. The shelves in the polytunnel are heaving under the weight of so many trays and pots, but I've also been transplanting veg to my prepared beds outdoors now.

During lockdown my husband has also been very busy getting creative for wildlife. He's hidden away in the shed working on various projects, including a hedgehog house, bird table and a cover for the pond pump to place more plants on. I'm hoping he'll carry on producing more wonderful items.

The pond now has a much better look to it thanks to Steve.

So, back to the planting. I've finally put my potatoes in. This year I'm only growing a maincrop variety: Rooster. These were reasonably priced, from Wilkos. I can't remember the price but it was around the £2 mark. There were 20 in a pack, so I dug two trenches and placed 10 in each. I've left mounds of earth beside each trench so that I can continue to earth up the potatoes to get a good crop.

 I used an egg box or two to chit my potatoes in. These now had some good shoots and were ready to go in.

 To keep it as neat as possible, I used string to mark out straight trenches.

 Spacing out the potatoes to give each plant room to produce a good yield. I left a space of just over a foot between each potato.

The peas that the children had sown in to toilet rolls had germinated and some were growing quite a bit. In some cases the roots were already in view underneath so I took them outdoors and planted them in a prepared bed. Out of the seven varieties that were sown, all but one did very well. Unfortunately, the variety Kleine Rheinlanderin didn't germinate at all, so I won't be eating any of these in the summer.

With the help of my husband, the peas were placed in rows and covered with protective fleece. The fleece is there for two reasons: firstly the plants are still very young and I wanted them protected from any harsh frost and secondly young pea plants can be a tasty treat to pigeons, which there are a lot of in my garden! This crop probably won't make the kitchen once the peas are ready for picking as the family enjoy eating them straight off the plant. There's nothing quite like the taste of fresh peas and I can't wait!

You can't see the peas here but I assure you that they are very much there!

One plant that has probably felt a little forsaken in my garden is the humble strawberry. A small plant with delicious, very popular iconic fruit, which unfortunately didn't produce much (if any) strawberries for me last year. I'm guessing that it may have been the weather as I wasn't the only one. My local pick your own was often closed last year during season with a sign on the gates simply saying "closed due to lack of fruit", which was a huge disappointment for my children who both love picking fruit. I do hope that they didn't suffer too badly financially and that we'll see them open for a long season this year.

I cleaned up my own strawberry plants, removing any dead leaves and left the runners intact. These I then attached to pots with homemade metal pegs. They will remain attached to their parent plants until they successfully root into the pots, at which point I'll then cut them free from the parent plants and pot them on elsewhere. Just to give it a try I've also sown some strawberry seeds. Two varieties, one being an alpine strawberry. Alpine strawberries produce smaller fruit, which is still very tasty and are supposed to aid digestion. So far none have germinated, but it's early days so I'll  let you know how I got on.

For the runners, I just filled small pots (0.5ltr) with compost.

I used an old wire coat hanger (as I hate using them as hangers) to make my pegs.

Making the pegs wasn't easy and I must admit that Steve helped me with this bit!

The strawberry runner is now fastened down in the pot and should start to produce roots. Once the roots are there, the stem from the parent plant will be cut.

Other seedlings in the green house and polytunnel are various brassicas, tomatoes, beetroots, onions and lots of different flowers, including lavatera and nasturtium seedlings. I will write about these later on but finally I wanted to introduce you to Speckled Jim, a feral pigeon who has taken to visiting my garden since the centre of town no longer has people eating out due to the coronavirus. He's come out to where there is food and visits every morning and evening at 8.30am and 5.30pm on the dot. During the early evenings I sit with Jim to get him used to me. I think it's very important to get close to nature and although Jim is just a feral pigeon, it's so calming to sit with him and feed him. He's not the only one: we also have a resident hedgehog that my daughter feeds in long dry spells and yes, the hedgehog house that Steve built is for that little fellow. There is also frog spawn in the pond and it was delightful listening to the adult frogs sing, which I managed to get on film.

Now a regular visitor, Jim is always welcome.

There's still plenty of work to get done, so I'll be back very soon. 

Even more sowing...

As March starts creeping away from us, I'm out in the garden even more, sowing as many seeds as I possibly can. Sadly, we're troubled with Covid 19 and the schools are currently closed to help prevent the spread of the virus, so I've enrolled the help of my two children, giving them lessons in plant biology at the same time!

So, today we've started with peas. My kids will pick these and eat them fresh so we're sowing plenty of these to get growing. There's seven varieties that I have and these are:

Avola
Onward
Rondo
Meteor
Hurst Green Shaft
Kleine Rheinlanderin
Kelvedon Wonder

This will be a good test to see which varieties will grow well and which will produce the most peas. It'll be good to compare the claims on the packet to the actual plants.

I always grow peas in toilet rolls, which I collect all year round (much to the annoyance of my husband), as I was told many years ago that peas don't like to have their roots disturbed. Having been told this I have always grown peas in cardboard as I can simply put them out in the soil complete with their pots.
Another way of growing under glass to start your peas off, as a fellow gardener uses, is to sow the seeds in guttering. My friend does this so she can simply push the peas out into prepared trenches, thus not really disturbing the roots too much.
The final way (and probably the easiest), is to sow the seeds directly into the soil where you want to grow them. To do this, you will need to protect your seedlings from birds (especially pigeons). I've done this too and for basic protection I have used netting, until the plants were around 20cm tall. Peas have grown successfully for me this way, but it took more effort with weeding!
Peas will need support once you've got them in place as they are climbers. They're not fussy, so you can use a variety of materials for this. I have used hazel and other wood, bamboo canes and string. As long as whatever you choose to use has the strength to support your peas and is a good height (50cm-80cm is usually what I aim for). Last year I used two stakes and some chicken wire, which was good enough.

From compost filled toilet rolls to tasty peas. 

I also got my children to prepare one of the raised beds in the polytunnel to sow some salad crop. The raised bed was already weeded and there's no need to dig the soil there as it's already in great condition. My son topped the bed with fresh compost to give it some much needed nutrients, raking it on the surface. Next, my daughter used a small hoe to mark out four trenches. The two of them then added seeds. These were radishes, kale, leaf beet and Swiss chard. Both watered (without any arguments) before leaving me to finish off some more sowing.

This year I've opted for growing onions from seed, which is what I used to do when I first moved in with Steve and took to working the garden. I've gone for classic choices in red and white onions: Red Baron and Bedfordshire Champion. I'll be aiming to grow Japanese onions later in the year (sowing usually happens in July/August time), to grow onions in succession.

Onion seeds are small, black and therefore difficult to see once in the soil. I sowed mine in two small trays.

When preparing pots and trays, take care to look for hidden pests. I had a great number of snails and slugs tucked away in various places. None were killed - just carefully placed as far away as possible!

I also took the time to sow kohl rabi, broccoli, cape gooseberry and sweet peppers. All are being kept in the polytunnel until I take out my pots (with tender plants) from the green house and create some space there.

I'm really happy with my tomatoes - several varieties are germinating! I did put these seeds in heated propagators, which are still on. It is still early in the year and last night we did have a frost, so I'm taking my time with plants that prefer warmth. No aubergines or courgettes yet though so watch this space!

Hello babies! I'm really looking forward to these growing on.

A closer look at a tomato seedling.

The broad beans are flowering so I couldn't miss an opportunity to photograph these lovelies. Vegetable flowers can be just as beautiful as cut flowers to me. 

Finally, I'll be trying to work in the garden a little bit every day now, to really get things going. There's still an awful lot to do but while I'm at home, I do have the time to give the garden a bit more of my attention.