Today's Harvest

A week on from catching the lurgey (NOT S.F) and I still feel a bit ropey ... I went back to work on Wednesday and am thinking that maybe I should have just spent the rest of the week in bed! Feeling full of cold, combined with three days of social events (dinner with a friend down from Wales, dinner with my three oldest and bestest friends and work friends round for SingStar) resulted in me not having the energy to get out of bed until 5pm last night! I just felt terrible :( I was back in bed again at 9.30pm..... Anyway, today I am still feeling shattered, but have managed three hours gardening in the rain this morning!

Here is what I have picked today ....

Some peas, a couple of carrots and two teeny weeny red onions....

1 kilo of Charlotte potatoes, and

1 kilo of Red Duke Of York potatoes .... I'm still not convinced that the potato barrels are good value for money ....

Spuds - the sequel!

Here's my crop of Vivaldi potatoes (and a couple of Red Duke Of York) ... I am a little bit disappointed with my yield. I feel that I have put in a lot of time and effort with the potatoes (which I am growing in barrels) and I haven't got many potatoes in return.

I might have emptied this barrel too early, but the potatoes had flowered and the greenery had died down, so I figured that the time was right ... hmmm

I still have two more barrels (with Duke of York and Charlotte's) I'll just have to wait and see how those turn out!

Is anyone else growing spuds in containers? I'd be interested to hear how you are getting on with them! Have a look at last year's crop here

Busy in the Garden

I have spent this lovely bank holiday Monday pottering in the garden and tending to my veg ... my parents-in-law were visiting over the weekend and drove us to a nearby garden centre to get various plants (we don't have a car so are somewhat limited in how much we can carry back from our nearest B&Q!) ... here we go, a little update on what I've got growing in the garden this year .... I'm not sure my father-in-law was ready for me to load the car up with 4 bags of compost, a grow bag, some orchid compost and pretty flowers to attract bees!  Oh well, they did offer to take us out!

From left to right we have got ... fennel, sunflowers, squash, cucumber and some lettuce on the top shelf ... 

and on the bottom we've got some peas, peppers, a tub of rocket and a propagator with some pansy seeds in.

Here we have various tomatoes (due to the gales I am not sure what variety is which ...), aubergines, marigolds and propagators with violas, lupins and stocks ... on the bottom shelf there is a grow bag with 4 strawberry plants in ....

Three potato barrels! 

And finally, the "plot" ... from the left we've got purple sprouting broccoli, red onions, leeks, broad beans, courgettes and some parsnip and beetroot seeds .... when the peas are a little bigger I will transplant them outside.

What have you been up to this bank holiday?

Potatoes!!

My seed potatoes arrived today!!

I have three sets of five tubers which need to be kept in a dark, dry place until March/April when it will be warm enough to get my three potato barrels on the go!

I have been sent three different varieties (early, middle and late cropping) ... I can't wait to get started on these!

Seeds!

In anticipation of the Spring (!) I have just ordered my seeds for next year - how exciting!  I have spent ages looking through Alan Titchmarsh's "The Kitchen Gardener" (a birthday present from Mr Plum) and "The Greenhouse Expert" and have chosen the following to be planted next year:

February/March: 

Aubergine

Courgette

Leeks

Onions

Peppers

Potatoes

Tomatoes (4 different varieties!)

April:

Cucumber

Fennel

Petty Pan Squash

Gardening Jobs Done Today....

This is a little aide memoir to remind me of what I have done today (and when to hopefully expect growth!).

Planted in pots (to be transplanted when larger) - 

Spinach (Perpetual)

Carrot (Nantes Frubound) 

Broad Bean (Aquadulce Claudia)

All were on a special "vegetables to be sown in Autumn" stand at the garden centre yesterday).  I also have lettuce, more beetroot and cabbages to do .... but it's dark now and I can't see what I am doing!!

I have also planted blackcurrant and raspberry bushes in pots - not sure whether these will work, but they were cheapo plants from Poundland ... so we'll just have to wait and see!

I have also cleared out the old tomato plants, pulled up a rather sad courgette plant and pumpkin - I have weeded around the other two pumpkins ... fruits are still tiny and sprout sized .... not sure whether we will have a pumpkin big enough to carve for Hallowe'en!!

Must go and make dinner ... we are having some of my potatoes!!! Yum!

Spuds!

Today was the day that I decided to check what was growing in my potato barrel!  I am very please to report that I have harvested nearly a kilo of lovely little potatoes (I can't remember what variety they are though!) ... looking forward to sampling some tomorrow!