We had nothing from the garden on out Christmas lunch table this year, with the exception of the apple sauce. But the apples grow no matter what I do in the garden!
The weather during this last week has been tremendously windy, but nowhere near as cold as this time last year. The wind has not caused any damage in the garden – So far…
The lawn is very wet underfoot, and really would have benefited from another mow before winter, but the weather was so wet and we has some early frosts, so it never got done.
Hopefully next year will be more productive in the garden.
Happy New Year to all fellow bloggers.
I have four fruit trees in the garden which I have planted. Two are dwarf cherries, on is a dwarf pear and one is a dual plum.
I have posted a blog already about the success of one of the cherry trees. I didn’t at that point think any of the other trees were fruiting.
I then noticed fruit on two of the other trees, the pear and the plum.
A few weeks later I went to look at the trees but only one still had fruit on it. However, it was the one I though was the pear tree which was producing plums.
There were four plums, which look much bigger in the photo than they wear in real life. I have just eaten one and it wasn’t very nice, but if I had left them longer to ripen, I’m sure the birds would have had them!
I planted some potatoes in pots and they produces a fantastic crop. Much to mu surprise.
The same type of potatoes were planted in the garden and were harvested three weeks later. The crop was very disappointing. I had around 8 plants and they produced very few potatoes.
I dug the potatoes up on a one of the few dry days we have had recently, but the soil was still very wet. I intend to plant Cabbages in the dug are left behind.
Hopefully I will be able to keep the slugs and snails off the cabbages. It is very disheartening when you spend time and effort growing something and it gets eaten before you get to it!
I had six chili pepper plants in the kitchen window sill. I have grown them here before and have been quite successful with both chili plants and pepper plants.
This year the plants became infested with greenfly, so I put them outside, as my houseplants were becoming covered in greenfly too.
After the plants went outside we has serious amount of wind and rain two or three weeks running. I was about to put the plants in the compost bin when I notices one of them had a large chili on it. The plants were stood in a tray which was completely waterlogged. I think it’s a minor miracle that any vegetable was produced.
I have discovered two plants which do not grow well together – Kohl rabi and strawberries. I had surplus Kohl rabi plants, so put them in a pot with a couple of strawberry plants. Neither the kohl rabi or the strawberries came to much, and were quite a disappointment. We live and learn!
The kohl rabi was eaten by slugs or snails as well as not growing very well, so turned out to be a waste of time. I have had sucess with kohl rabi in previous years when it was planted in the garden. The slugs and snails appear to only eat it when it is in a pot!
Monday 29th August was the local produce show. I entered four classes and won three prizes.
I got a First Prize for my peas, a Second Prize for a vegetable disaster, which was a well eaten and spindly cabbage, and a Third Prize for White Potatoes. I din’t win anything with my broad beans, but I couldn’t find four of the same size.
The potatoes have been sucessful two years running. We went on holiday in April 2010 and when we go back six potatoes in the vegetable rack had gone to seed, so I planted them and got a good crop off them. I obviously didn’t dig all of them up, as more grew in the same spot this year, and it was some of these which won the prize.
I spent £1.00 in entry fees and won a magnificent total of £2.00 in Prize money. Not bad as I didn’t spend any money on seeds!
I have had a good crop of peas this year. However, I have left most of them too long. Some will only be suitable as next years seeds.
Some peas have mould on the pods. Hopefully the peas will be OK.
I have shelled most of the peas now, and the peas inside the pods are still Ok. Some were Mange Touts, which have had to be composted. Some were Petit Pois, and these have cropped well, and the pods didn’t go mouldy unlike the full sized peas.
Next year I will have to have a better system for harvesting, so I don’t waste the peas. They have been the most suecssful crop in the garden for the second year running.
I usually plant dwarf peas (My mother-in-law gave me the seeds), but this year planted full sized peas. The trellising I provided wasn’t up to the job, and the peas ended up growing all over a nearby flowering cherry tree.
Next year I will have to provide more substantial supports for the pea crop.
The peas, however were very tasty and quite large. So they were very easy to shell. They were planted next to the gate, and my Dad ate a few everytime he visited. I was lucky that any were left!
I’m not quite sure that this photo is the right way up!
This year I put a net around my cabbages to protect them from butterflies and the impending caterpillars. I thought my efforts had been rewarded. However, I have just inspected the cabbages to find them covered in caterpillars. I pulled up a few cabbages that were beyond hope, and ended up with caterpillars on my shoes!
It’s so frustrating to look after plants, only to have them eaten by other creatures.
However the spoilt cabbage plants were good filling for the compost bins which ended up with far too much grass clipping is them!
At least I have had a good crop of peas and broad beans.
I had used about half the water out of the water butt,and then on Saturday 6th August 2011, we had a massive thunder storm and it rained for the rest of the day. Therefore the water butt has been refilled and the garden will not need watering for a couple of days.
The water butt catches the rain water from a 5′ x 7′ shed, and it’s amazing how quickly it fills up.
The house has cast iron drain pipes, so it would be far to difficult to install water butts to these pipes. It would probably involve replacing the entire pipe and guttering systems.
