'Tis done!

My new raised bed is 100% finished - and full.

I spent several hours on this on Sunday. Thankfully the weather was glorious, so it was a pleasure to be out in the fresh air.


A complete compost-bin's worth of compost went into the bed. It was from one of my 3 "Dalek" bins, which had been slowly "cooking" for the past year or so. Conveniently, the bin was only a couple of yards away from the new bed, so transferring the material was quite easy. I laid my trusty groundsheet between bin and bed to catch any stray material and just lifted off the bin, vertically:

This is what the contents of the compost-bin looked like - lots of different "strata" with fresh material at the top, partially-decayed material in the middle and a good layer of dark, crumbly sweet-smelling stuff at the bottom.

It all went into the new bed, even the fresh stuff which will continue to feed the worms as it rots down. Over the compost went a layer of the soil retained from the original bed, and then finally a good thick covering of the purchased Norfolk loam. Although I have tamped down the material fairly vigorously, I know that it will subside a bit more as it settles. I don't want the soil to come right to the top of the bed, because I know that if it does the Blackbirds will just kick it all over the place!

I feel well satisfied with my efforts this weekend; everything has gone exactly according to plan. However, I'm mindful that the task is not yet complete, because I have to do the same thing all over again soon! And of course I am more eager than ever to get on and sow or plant something...

Harvest Monday - 14 March 2016

Where would I be without PSB? Well, I wouldn't be contributing to Harvest Monday, that's for sure. After starting much earlier than usual, my PSB has continued to produce spears at a nice steady rate, giving us approximately one batch a week, which suits us just fine.

In my opinion, Purple Sprouting Broccoli has excellent VSR (Value for Space Rating). It's expensive to buy, and bought PSB is never very special - usually limp even before you get it home. Growing PSB ties up space in the garden for a long while (approx. 10 months), but I always reckon it's worth it.

This week I also have some Brokali spears to show off.

These will be the last ones, because I have now pulled up the plants. I don't think I will grow this vegetable again, because it seems to be less good than PSB or Kale, whilst pretending to be both!

I don't usually put forward herbs for Harvest Monday, because we use little quantities of them so often and therefore tend to take them for granted, but in order to give some relief from endless mentions of PSB, here is a pic of some Rosemary that I used in my Sicilian Sausage dish last Friday:

When using Rosemary in a dish I usually chop it very finely because the leaves are pretty tough and can be unpleasant if left whole. The double-bladed "mezzaluna" or "hachoire" comes in very handy for this.


I'm linking as usual to Harvest Monday, hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres.

Raised bed progress report

The improved weather over the last few days has finally given me the opportunity to get on with some work on the new raised beds. This is not the sort of work to do when it is cold wet and windy!


The most difficult bit of the task was to get the new bed level and properly lined-up with the others. After a certain amount of judicious raking, shovelling, backfilling and thumping, and with the aid of tape-measure and spirit-level I finally got the timber bedded-in to my satisfaction.

The pieces of timber are held together with steel angle-brackets. I used an electric drill to start off the screw-holes, and then put the screws in with a manual screwdriver. I have found that my electric screwdriver doesn't have the power to insert the 2.5-inch screws into this tough timber. The upper layer of baulks is fixed to the lower layer with a pair of straight 6" brackets, one of which you can see in the photo below at the mid-point of the long side of the bed.

Now I have the task of filling the bed. The soil from the old bed is going to form the bottom layer. Then I am going to add the contents of one of my plastic compost-bins. At this stage I will also add some pelleted chicken manure. Finally I will add a layer of the loam that I bought a few weeks ago. With all that, I ought to be able to grow some decent veggies I think!

I have left 50cm between the new bed and the older one next to it, and in this gap I have laid a layer of 25mm shingle to match the rest of the garden.

Now I have a dilemma. I have enough timber to make one more bed of this pattern - or TWO single-layer beds.... All of the remaining three existing beds are in dire need of replacement, (one is just a pile of soil now) and it might be more sensible to take the second option. After all, it would be easy enough to add the second tier at a later date. I'm going to have think about this.

Sicilian sausages

Before you ask, No, I do not know anything much about Sicilian cuisine! However, I'm calling the meal I'm writing about today "Sicilian" because of these:

Even Sainsbury's are playing safe by calling them "Sicilian inspired". The illustration gives a clue about the flavourings in these sausages - Fennel and Basil figure prominently on the list of ingredients - which includes Sage, Marjoram, Garlic and red wine. Significantly different to the usual Cumberland, Lincolnshire or even Toulouse sausages that we usually buy. In any case, it's good to see that they include 84% British pork.




This recipe is my own invention...


Ingredients:
400g Sicilian-inspired sausages
100g mushrooms, sliced or diced
50g French beans, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 284ml tub of Elmlea cream substitute (replace with real cream if desired)
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
Leaves of one large spring of fresh rosemary, finely chopped
1 tsp chilli flakes
1 tsp coarse sea salt
1 tbsp vegetable oil, for frying
Juice and zest of half a lemon
200g cauliflower, separated into very small florets
20g flaked Almonds, toasted
30g raisins
200g dried pasta



Method:
Cook the sausages and cut into 1-inch slices; set aside

Cook the beans to the "al dente" stage and drain
Cook the pasta and keep it warm
Meanwhile...

In a large shallow sauté dish slowly fry the mushrooms in the vegetable oil, along with the garlic, salt, chilli, Rosemary and half of the lemon zest

Add the Elmlea / cream and the mustard; stir to thoroughly combine
Add the sliced sausages
Add the cooked beans

Simultaneously with cooking the mushrooms, boil the cauliflower in salted water, until just tender. This will only take two or three minutes if the florets are sufficiently small.
Drain the cauliflower well and dish it up. Garnish with raisins, flaked almonds, the remaining half of the lemon zest, lots of freshly-milled black pepper, and the lemon juice.

To serve, put a portion of pasta in a bowl and spoon the creamy, mustardy sausage mix over it, and accompany it with a serving of cauliflower. [And in our case, a glass of suitable red wine!]

I enjoyed the sausages in this dish. They were a lot meatier, and less mushy than most mass-produced sausages, and I loved the Fennel taste. However, the star of the show was the cauliflower dish. The interplay between the crisp vegetable, the sweet raisin and the crunchy, nutty almonds was lovely, and was nicely complemented by the sharp lemon juice. A surprisingly nice combination!

Planting potatoes

After a foggy start, we have had some glorious sunshine today, and I have been out in the garden. One of the jobs I did was planting potatoes. This year I am "going easy" on the potatoes and not growing quite so many. I aim to have only 12 containers of them instead of the usual 20 or so. I now have 8 big sturdy 35-litre pots and I have decided to grow two potato tubers in each of those. I also have four decent but smaller (approx. 20-litre?) containers, which are going to host one tuber each.


Today I prepared 4 pots, though I only planted-up two of them. These first potatoes to go in are four of "Lady Christl", a First Early variety.

As regular readers will know, I have had lots of problems over the last couple of years with contaminated compost, and I have gone off the products of the company called Westland, in a big way. This year, therefore, I have to try some new compost(s). For this first batch of potatoes I have bought some of the peat-free compost from Wickes, the DIY store:

This stuff was priced at £4.49 for a 60-litre bag. I bought three. The compost is very fibrous, and very black. Not necessarily a bad thing, but rather alarming at first sight. At least it doesn't appear to contain any bits of wood or plastic!

In the bottom of each pot I placed a 3-inch layer of loam, then a 3-inch layer of the compost, and thoroughly mixed in a handful of pelleted chicken manure and a handful of Growmore general-purpose fertiliser. On top of this I put another layer of compost and nestled the two potato tubers firmly in it, with their rose ends (the ends with most shoots) uppermost. Finally I covered them with more compost. When the shoots push up through the compost I will add another layer of compost and loam, and keep doing this in a procedure known as "earthing-up", until the top of the pot is reached. Doing this promotes the formation of lots of roots along the stem, hopefully leading to the production of plenty of new tubers.


The pots are now covered with plastic greenhouses. This type is known as a "Seedling Greenhouse". It is shaped like a cold-frame, being taller at the back than at the front.

keeping the pots in these greenhouses will protect the potatoes from any frost we might have, whilst allowing them to get the maximum amount of light available. You'll notice that I have weighed-down the greenhouses with a brick at each corner to stop them being blown away, because they are extremely lightweight.


The other two pots I prepared today will eventually host four tubers of "Charlotte", a Second Early variety, but I judged that they were not yet sufficiently well chitted to be planted. I'll leave them another 10 days or so.


While I was working this afternoon, a pair of Robins kept me company. I'm fairly sure they are nesting in the Laurel bushes between our house and the road. The bigger bird (presumably the male) swooped down right next to my feet a couple of times, to pick up some little insects he had spotted in the gravel.

Mid-March update

This post is as much for my benefit as anyone else's. I use my blog as a sort of garden diary, so that I can keep track of progress, and today I am recording the state of play for that purpose. Of course, if you're interested too, then by all means read on...


Almost all the Winter veg has been finished now. The Brokali still has a few shoots that might be worth using, but it has not been a great success.

Unlike the PSB, which has done very well and will still yield another couple of batches of spears.

The Radicchio has been more or less a washout. It never came to anything much, and the few plants that have survived the Winter remain resolutely minuscule. I don't know why this is. Probably just the weather, because I didn't do anything different to it.

I have about 30 Broad Bean plants coming along, although they are mostly just a few inches high. I anticipate being able to transplant them to their raised bed in a week or ten days.

I have 12 Cabbage seedlings of 6 different varieties, but again they are still tiny, and I will be keeping them in one of the mini greenhouses for several more weeks I think.


I have also sown three different types of Pea - "Early Onward", "Terrain" and "Douce Provence". Some of these are in a raised bed, and others are in pots under cover (hedging my bets as usual!).

On Feb 14th I sowed some "Finger" Carrots in a couple of plastic crates, for growing in my wooden raised planter as I usually do. They haven't germinated yet, so I hope they haven't rotted in the cold wet weather we have had. I fear I may have to re-sow.


I also sowed a couple each of four different types of Lettuce, and they too have yet to germinate. However they only went in on Feb 27th and they are in a mini-greenhouse, so they will probably be OK.


In the garage I have 20 seed potato tubers chitting. I expect to be planting the first ones - "Lady Christl" very shortly.


Last weekend I sowed a pot each of "Toledo" and "Apollo" Leeks, with about 20 seeds in each. This year I am going to try growing them to transplanting stage in those same pots, without transferring them to individual pots as I have done the last couple of years. I think double transplanting may not be best for them.


I have some Basil seedlings which are about two inches tall. They will be transplanted to separate pots when they have doubled in size. I also have four batches of Parsley seedlings at various stages, one of which is only just germinating.


After being away from home for a few days earlier this week I am not expecting to be away again any time soon (you know I am retiring from work at the end of the month...?), so I felt able to sow my chillis today. I have sown 16 pots, each with two seeds in. If they both germinate, the strongest seedling will be kept and the weakest will be discarded.


Deciding which chillis to grow was very hard, because I now have so many varieties of seed. For better of for worse, this is my 2016 list of chillis:


Over-Wintered plants
Aji Limon (3)
Scotch Bonnet Caribbean Antillais
Habanero Orange
7-Pot Brain Strain
Rocoto Alberto's Locoto
Brazilian Starfish
Turkey Small Red
Unknown Hybrid


Seeds sown 10/03/16
Ring of Fire (2) - 2 because these are for quantity use in the kitchen
Cayenne
Nosferatu
Serrano
Jay's Peach
Puma
Habanero Red
Paper Lantern
Turkey Small Red
Cheiro Roxa
Chile de Arbol
Cozumel
Nigel's Outdoor
Hungarian Hot Wax
Turkish Sweet Pepper


As you can see, that's a fairly mixed bag - something of everything - which should mean that at least some of them will do OK.


I also have one very tiny Red Habanero chilli plant that I grew from a seed sown in the Autumn, just as a seed-viability test. It is only about two inches tall and has been like this for the last 5 months. I'm hoping that as the weather improves it will finally start to grow.


The Rhubarb has certainly begun to grow. Having left it to settle into its new home last year, this year I will feel justified in picking a few stalks.

We have had a lot of rain recently, so the ground is very wet - not suitable for sowing anything, which is a shame because I am keen to sow some Beetroot and some Radishes. I need to get the new raised beds done too, so that I can put in some Parsnips, but again the weather has hardly been conducive to such work. The weather forecast for the next few days looks a bit more promising, so maybe I'll be able to get the beds done soon.

Things are popping up all over the place!

Despite the relapse to Wintery weather last week, perennial plants are coming up all over my garden. It takes a lot to stop some of these things - Wild Garlic, for instance...

I've seen a few of the Snakeshead Fritillaries too, though they are still small, and many of their leaves have been nibbled by something or other:

Down at the bottom of the garden, a few of the distinctive arrowhead-shaped leaves of the herb Good King Henry are visible now:

In the Autumn I planted a whole pile of leftover tiny Tulip bulbs which were at the "Use it or Lose it" stage. I didn't have room to put them in pots, so I decided to just plonk them in the ground and hope for the best. I don't expect them to do particularly well, but they look reasonably promising.

The patch of Crocosmia has sprung into life as well., with lots of little green shoots showing.

This is my "September Charm" Japanese Anemone. The parent plant is at the left, and you can see a line of little plantlets following the line of the edging of the border. This is a plant that is going to have to be robustly constrained! It will have to vie for space with the nearby Lysimachia, which by all accounts is another thug.

I'm away from home at present, for work purposes, so I probably won't be posting again for a day or two. When I do get home I will be sowing my chilli seeds ASAP!