As we enter our second summer, and with lots of new additions to the Vine Cottage garden, I thought perhaps it was time to start a blog… So what’s been going on?

The main vegetable patch

With the veg patch not completed last year until mid April, it was really too late for onions and garlic, so these are new on the menu this year. In the left-hand bed I’ve got three different types of garlic growing: Early Wight, Picardy Wight and Mediterranean. They were all planted last autumn, and are now well established. Meanwhile in the middle bed, I’ve got Shallots (grown from sets) and Onion “Red Baron” grown from seed. Also making a first appearance this year are leeks, where this month I have sown both Blue Solaise and Musselburgh to provide a crop through the winter months which were largely barren last year.

Moving away from onion related subjects, you can also see broad beans “Masterpiece Longpod” growing strongly along the back. Supposedly they’re going to reach something like 6ft which I certainly wouldn’t rule out the way they are growing at the moment. I only have two concerns with these: I don’t like broad beans (I’m crossing my fingers and hoping that growing my own will bring me round and secondly that the flowers have recently started dropping mostly without leaving any beans growing in their place. We shall see.

In the Enviromesh cage I’m growing a couple of varieties of carrots (the mesh providing protection from carrot fly). They’ve been very slow getting going though (the cold weather?) and germination has generally been poor. Hopefully they will get going soon, as they’re supposed to be a first crop followed in July by fennel.

Looking closer at the right-hand bed, we are finally enjoying the last of last year’s crop. Lesson: “late purple sprouting broccoli” really is late! I had expected this to be well finished by now, and to have carrots and beetroot growing in its place. Ho-hum. This year I will be growing “non-late” purple sprouting broccoli … That said, the broccoli is excellent. In the past we’ve eaten it as a normal vegetable, but this year it’s getting VIP treatment and being eaten like asparagus: as a starter served simply with butter and grated Parmesan. This year I’ve sown “red arrow” and “White Star”. And to the left of this bed, we’ve got next year’s parsnips coming up — three varieties this year: “Gladiator”, “Tender and True” and “Countess F1″. Fingers crossed they will be as good as gladiator was last year.

Strawberries. Last year I planted five plants of Calypso strawberries (perpetual fruiting) which were superb producing an extremely tasty crop non-stop well into the autumn. I tried to follow the advice of taking the fruit off them in the first year to encourage them to establish, but they were producing so much that in the end I gave up and enjoyed it instead. I also took five runners off them, so this year the patch has doubled in size, which I reckon is going to provide Helen and I with worthwhile portions of strawberries every couple of days.

Other fruit. This autumn also saw the addition of red currants, white currants and gooseberries (two different varieties of each all being trained as double cordons around the back and side of the vegetable patch — see top picture above), and Rasberry “Autumn Bliss” along the back and down the right-hand side. All are growing well with a healthy if small crop of fruit already developing nicely on the currants and gooseberries. My only concern is that a couple of the cordons seem to be growing lots of side shoots and no leader — I’m hoping this can be rectified simply by choosing one of the side shoots to establish as a new leader when they are next pruned in June.

Finally, that brings us to the potatoes. This central island bed is entirely new this year. The plan had been to grow potatoes in it the first year, and then in subsequent years to turn it over to grasses and perennials. The veg growing thing is a bit addictive though so the jury is still out on what it will be used for longer term. Potatoes are now growing healthily again after a bit of a setback due to the late frost earlier this month. Five varieties: Charlotte, Red Duke of York, Maris Bard, Edgecotte Purple and Romano. I will let you know the results of the taste tests later in the year …

As you can see from the wigwam, I’m also making an attempt to grow Runner beans, Borlotti beans and French beans in this new bed, but I’m not too hopeful — the soil is pretty poor and I didn’t have much in the way of organic matter to add prior to planting.

Oops — I lied! How could I forget the rhubarb Also new this year are two rhubarb plants: Stockbridge Arrow and Brandy Carr Scarlet. Both growing very well, and obviously loving their new location behind the (also new) herbaceous border. But how disappointed was my wife when having been watching them grow with anticipation she asked how long it would be before we could start pulling them and found that the answer was “next year” … Whether or not I will actually have the self-control to follow the advice of not pulling any stalks in the first year remains to be seen!