Brassica update

Getting brassicas established is always a worry for me. Their roots seem to be very prone to insect attack in their early days. I use brassica collars and nematodes to protect them, but I always keep some spare plants for as long as possible in case I need to replace any casualties.

This Brussels Sprout looks healthy enough, doesn't it?

It is one of those that was nearly submerged by rampant Parsley until a few days ago when the Parsley got cut back:

This year I am only growing one plant of each of four varieties of Brussels Sprout, so I am particularly vulnerable. In this bed there are four Brussels Sprouts down the centre, and eight "De Ciccio" Broccoli plants along the sides - and of course the Parsley, which extends for about half the length of the bed.

The Broccoli is just starting to form its heads. This crop will mature much sooner than the Brussels Sprouts, which won't be ready until late Autumn / early Winter.

One of the Broccoli plants is obviously affected by a root fly of some sort. The leaves are wilting, and they are dull and lifeless. It may pull through if I keep it well supplied with water, but it's doubtful.

These are the nematodes I use. Recently I have bought them from a firm called Green Gardener, who seem very efficient and reasonably priced. The nematodes are not 100% effective, but they do reduce the problems a lot.

Let's hope it is only the one plant affected, because I don't have any spare Broccoli plants. However, I do have lots of spare Brussels Sprouts.

Actually, this Broccoli plant looks as if it's two, so maybe I do have a spare! (Looking closely I found that this is one plant with two stems, not two plants.)

What do you think I should do? Snip off the weaker stem, maybe? Or just leave it?

Elsewhere, I have some PSB and Cabbage seedlings coming on. Some of them are still too small to be transplanted, like the ones in the foreground of this next photo:

But these aren't. They are "Mila" Cabbages, a Savoy type. I reckon Brassicas are OK to transplant into individual pots once they have produced two proper leaves, not counting the cotyledons or "seed-leaves".

These are "Rudolph" PSB:

When potting-on these seedlings, I selected the strongest ones, but I also kept a few of the others, retaining them in their original "seed-bed" pots. If I don't need them, I will give them away or compost them.

Early June progress report - flowers and shrubs

Yesterday I showed you how the "edibles" are doing; today it's the turn of the ornamentals.

This is my favourite shrub - Cornus Alba "Aureum" - Golden Dogwood.

The new foliage is a gorgeous colour, but it took a battering in a hail-storm the other day and some of the leaves are full of holes:

This is another Dogwood, this time Cornus Gouchaultii, (Tartarian Dogwood) which is the least vigorous of the ones I have, but very worthwhile because of its attractive variegated leaves.

The "Dryopteris Erythrosora" fern has been slow to start this year, (about a month later than last year), but a few fronds are finally appearing. I love their colour at this stage - a russet bronze:

Another shrub that is very much behind schedule is the Philadelphus / Mock Orange. Normally by this time I would expect it to be in full flower, but right now it only has tiny tight buds:

The Libertia hasn't been so special this year. Individually, the flowers are fine, but there have been a lot fewer stems than last year.

The Hydrangea doesn't look very happy. It suffered a bit from the frost earlier in the year, just when its first leaf buds were opening, and its foliage looks distinctly pale and blotchy, although there seem to be plenty of flower buds.

The potted perennials are doing OK, although they are mostly a long way from flowering.



Verbena Bonariensis

Salvia Cardinalis



Helenium

Rudbeckia "Goldsturm"

Echinacea

Dahlia "Bishop of Llandaff"

The Geum "Mrs Bradshaw" has draped its gangly flower-stems over all the other pot-plants, splashing them with bright dabs of orange-red:

Elsewhere some more colour is provided by this striking dark-coloured Oxalis "Burgundy Wine".

Later on the Oxalis will produce some delicate white flowers, but the foliage is without a doubt its main attraction.

Early June progress report - fruit and veg

June is upon us, but it still doesn't seem like Summer! Our daytime temperatures are mostly in the mid teens (Celsius), and night-times ones are still mostly 8 or 9. This means that lots of plants are growing more slowly than I would wish. This post is intended to give you a picture of how things are going...

The purple Kohlrabi ("Modrava") is just beginning to swell, but it's a long way from maturity at present:

The Broad Bean flowers are fading now.

As they drop off, they reveal tiny pods forming. Hopefully there will be lots of these. If a flower is not pollinated it doesn't produce a pod, but I have seen lots of bee activity amongst the Broad Bean plants, so I think they mostly will have been pollinated.

My first batch of Endives is looking OK, but nowhere near ready for transplanting yet.

These ones are "De Meaux", already showing their crinkly leaf-form:

I have started cropping the Lettuce, and there is lots of it coming on.

The Cabbage and PSB seedlings are also looking OK, and not far off being ready for potting-on. I will be keeping them in separate pots until the Broad Bean bed becomes vacant and lets me plant them out ready for next year.

The potatoes are all looking healthy still, with no signs od blight or other diseases. This photo shows how I have got potatoes of different types maturing at different rates, with a view to having a harvest over a long period:

The first fruits on the Strawberry plants are forming now.

I have put a net over them now, because birds and squirrels will try to grab the berries even when they are under-ripe.

That net was difficult to get right too. It is made of extruded plastic, and it is quite stiff, so it is hard to get it to sit right. Over the year I have tried several different types of netting, and this type is probably my least favourite. It was bought as "Butterfly Protection Netting", from Gardening Naturally. Its main advantage is that it is very light.

On the Pear tree I have counted a mere six tiny pearlets. Not a big harvest, even if they make it to maturity (which is far from certain!).

I think the soil where the pear tree is growing is just too dry and "free-draining" for fruit trees to do well. The tree is too big for me to move now, but if I do get another one I won't plant it along the fence where the current one is.

Successional sowing

With my salad crops I am doing what is called "successional sowing" - in other words sowing seeds at regular intervals (in my case about 2 - 3 weeks apart), rather than all at once, so that I will be able to have a harvest over a long period. You can see here that some of my Lettuces are ready for cutting, while others are still small.

 

I have some little seedlings waiting in the wings for their turn, kept in 4-inch pots.

As soon as a mature Lettuce is harvested, I stick another one in to fill the gap.

Here is the third generation, recently germinated.

 

I have deliberately sown seeds for lots of different types of Lettuce, not only to give me a good variety in terms of colour and texture, but also in an attempt to have them mature at different times. I tend to sow fairly liberally, because Lettuce seed is cheap, and then choose a few strong specimens to pot-up. I'm afraid this means that 9/10ths of the seeds never get to grow to maturity, but that's just the way of the world!

 

I have adopted the same approach with my Radishes. Here you can see fully mature Radishes at the right of the photo, then there are some Lettuces, and over on the left there are two rows of Radishes that have just germinated.

 

Here's another view:

 

 

You can't see it at that range, but there is also a row of Spring Onions in there - between the Lettuces and the young Radishes. They are from seeds I bought in France when visiting Fiona. 

 

 

Here's a closer view:

 

 

They are very tiny at present, but hopefully they will do OK. I have never had much luck with Spring Onions. They always seem to do poorly in my garden. Maybe this time will be different...?

Harvest Monday - 1st June 2015

This week I harvested the first potatoes of the year. These are "Annabelle", a First Early variety.

It may not be a lot (218 grams), but what these potatoes lack in terms of mass they make up for in terms of texture and flavour. Potatoes are probably the most satisfying of all home-grown veg. There is something special about having to wait until the plant is dug up to see what the yield is going to be like! Actually, the plant from which these potatoes were picked had several more tiny tubers, so I have packed it back into its pot, and it may well go on to produce a small second crop.

Guess what? More radishes! (We like radishes, fortunately). Actually I have harvested even more radishes than I have photographed, because they do look pretty much the same each time.

These round red ones this time are "Cherry Belle", probably my favourite radish, and one which is very reliable.

This is "Flamboyant 5", a French Breakfast type.

I generally try to pick somewhere between a dozen and twenty Radishes each time, because that is about how many we want to eat. We tend not to do anything fancy with them, but just dip them in salt and eat them as a pre-dinner nibble. We do occasionally use Radishes in a proper recipe, but not normally when the Radishes are home-grown - they are too good to mess about with!

We also ate the first mature Lettuce from the garden, a "Devin" one. It wasn't convenient to photograph it as I harvested it, but here it is made into a salad with some of the leaves from the Cutting Salad patch.

There was also a bit more Asparagus - enough for a two-person serving:

This week I also harvested a load more Parsley. The plants I have been growing since last Autumn are going Great Guns still, and threatening to swamp the brassicas which are in the same bed:

Some of them are bolting now, so they won't last much longer. It's "Use it or lose it" time.

I picked a washing-up bowlful of it.

It's now in a plastic bag in the fridge, where it will keep for at least a fortnight, and will be used as and when required.

I am linking this post to Harvest Monday, hosted by Daphne's Dandelions.