The Beauty of Nature

I’ve not been too lucky with the courgettes this year and we are still far away from any at the moment. As you saw a while ago the wind and rain was just destroying my poor courgette plants.

There was one that was clinging on to life for all it was worth and doing its best to weather the storm. Well here it is back in May:

Remember this is JULY!

There may be some fruit by August, but I am not overly hopeful. I am just amazed that it has hung on this long. My plot is on the side of a hill you see, and when its windy it sweeps up there and anything not used to being in a hurricane will suffer badly. The cucumbers also didn’t like it in the wind. Them I could bring indoors, but not the courgettes I’m afraid.

I’m keeping my eye on them and will let you know.

I had to plant out the swede today as they had been sitting in the tray for ages. They haven’t grown in the peat pots, so it was going in or being thrown away. I had to net them as well, as the birds will eat them as soon as look at them.

The ground was really soft from all the rain, so it was easy to put the plants in. I also put some some of my own compost on and put pellets around them so the slugs would DIE!

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Now for some facts.

Larger than the turnip and with a rough skin that is partly tan and partly purple, the swede’s unpolished appearance hides a fine texture and distinctive, sweet tasting flesh.

The swede comes from central Europe and was an important European crop by the 18th century. During the nineteenth century it reached the USA (where it is known as rutabaga – check out your Branston pickle jar) and then Canada.

It’s a hardy plant that is frost-tolerant and thrives in moist soil. So should be fine for the allotment at the moment.

Swede has a good mineral content and is low in saturated fat. It also provides some fibre and vitamins A and C. Lovely.

I had a look at the cabbages today and saw these two. The first one appears to have been eaten by slugs on the outside and the other is good. I’m hoping that the rest are going to be OK.

I decided to cut the bad one, and eat it! The centre was good and was really sweet. Along with some of my potatoes it went down very well. There was plenty of the cabbage in the centre, more than I expected.

I went up the plot this morning to see what the damage was and found it to be quite resilient to the wind and rain we’ve had this past week or so.

No more strawberries though, all gone. So I am letting the runners go wild and will lift some of them later on and add them to the existing plants.

I did have another look at the sprouts to see how they were doing and was amazed at the extent of growth.

As you can see I haven’t taken the nets off them yet (click it to enlarge the photo). It’s not essential to keep them on, but I have been so busy with weeding and putting other plants out that I have have not had the time to lift and roll the netting up. I may do it tomorrow if the weather holds up.

The forecast for tomorrow is sunny intervals and 1017 pressure with 41% humidity with west south westerly wind of 5mph. So it seems it may be possible to actually get up there again and do some more essential work.

Well, I’ve picked the beans now and have frozen them for future use. I thought they might have gone over, but they looked really good when I shelled them.

Now that they and the strawberries are done, I can concentrate on the other veg at the plot.

This week has been difficult again as it has rained most evenings so I haven’t been able to get to the plot. 🙁

The weekend is looking up weather wise. So hopefully I will have a video to share with you. 🙂

I went up in the week to the plot as you know and also checked on all the other produce. They all seem to be doing OK, with the broad beans needing picking as you can see below:

Also the cabbage is growing well and the hearts look very tasty. I suppose I should take the nets off, but there hasn’t been time and they do no harm to the cabbage.

The dwarf beans are not the original ones (well, one is), they never came up. So I grew them on at home in pots before planting out, That way I could guarantee they would beat the slugs initial onslaught under the ground.

The parsnips are coming on in places. They are a bit patchy this year due to the weather, but at least they appear to be growing still. This is the best one, but the smallest is quite small.

The spinach has just kept on growing and we have had quite a bit off it. It seems to like it there. Rich in vitamins, it is particularly good to have with vitamin C as it releases all the goodness in spinach. So, plenty more salads, pies and so on.

I was hoping to get to the plot this weekend, but the rain has meant that I have to do the jobs round the house that I have put off and would rather not do. It’s so much more rewarding to be out in the garden or on the plot.

I wonder if we will get a summer this year?

I went to look at the plot last night and was pleasantly surprised to see that all is well in the land of gardening.

The early potatoes are ready for harvesting, so I might have a go at them over the weekend, though if you saw the weather forecast, it’s going to be torrential rain over the country for Saturday. Of course the spuds can stay in the ground for now, as long as the slugs haven’t been at them.

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Well, I have to admit to being an absent gardener last weekend. I went to London for the weekend and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Not a lot of greenery, but plenty of things to do.

I went here:

Can you guess where it was? You might have seen me on TV?

I wrote about those unknown plants the other day, and I am still no wiser. However, they have now flowered so that might help some of you to find out what they are.

Don’t forget to let me know when you do find out.

Thanks. 🙂

As it isn’t possible for me to get out in the garden/allotment at the moment, I thought you might appreciate these pics of previous years spuds.

I’ve been digging them out all over the place. I managed to get all mine out from last year but the previous allotment holder must have left some in as they keep popping up in the most unlikely places.

These two were amongst the beans. As you can see they don’t look too good and the slugs had been at them in any case, so it was good to get them up and deprive those vermin/pets of sustenance. Of course they might go for my other crops now, but at least they aren’t having a feast where I cant see/find them.