Growing my own fruit and veg

Growing my own

When I started blogging, it was with the intention of writing about my growing my own fruit and veg on the allotment. So I’ve been a bit remiss, in not posting anything much, mostly because I’ve been so busy getting on with it.

The allotment is in full swing now with a a wide range of fruit and veg in various stages of growth.

Planting

Most of the planting was done back in March after the frosts, and since then, though we have had some rain, there has been the most phenomenal run of good weather. I think you would need to go back to 1976 to experience a summer as warm and dry as this one is shaping up to be.

Two outdoor beds, back in spring. still looking quite neat (ish) You can see the potato drills and the strawberry patch.

Up on the plot, I have three beds in total, two out door and one raised bed in the polytunnel. I’ve divided it up into subsections. Where I had potatoes growing last year, now has a very healthy crop of silver skin onions, that are doing really well. Beside them I have a mix of peas and beans that could really do with some support (next job).

Potatoes in the foreground

2 beds, fruit on the left, potatoes on the right

Then up from that, I have fruit; rhubarb – which is looking a bit bedraggled this year, raspberries, and three trees, a peach, a plum and a cherry. I started netting all of this off this morning, but ran out of netting, I need to get a lot more.

My potatoes are in flower, so it won’t be long till I can harvest

In the adjacent bed I have potatoes, and the diplomatically sensitive strawberry patch. There is a bit of an issue over ownership of the strawberry patch. Initially it was between the pheasant and myself, but a third party seems to have come into the mix – judging by the large flat patch in the middle where a ‘large something’ has been lying in the cool shade.

Last year the pheasant stripped the bed of fruit, so I got them netted off early this season.   Last night as I was harvesting the fruit, I found the entry hole, where something had sneaked in under the netting. It could be a fox given the size of the flattened area, though I think this unlikely. Its probably the black cat that I’ve noticed lurking around in the evenings. Either way, beyond lying on top of the plants, whatever it is doesn’t seem to be showing much interest in the fruit, and it’s helping to keep the birds away, so for now – it gets a by ball.

anticipation of harvest

netted off

hooray! strawberries

Harvest

I did manage to harvest quite a few strawberries last night, and was feeling kind of smug, but while i was watering the tomatoes in the poly tunnel, the other predators (two boys) managed to demolish the harvest. Who’s smug now?

Anyhow – beyond the strawberries is my experimental area. I have sweetcorn, beans and pumpkin growing, and for the esoteric gardeners among you, you will recognise this as ‘the three sisters planting’.

As I understand it, this is a native American approach, and one that was taught to the Pilgrim Fathers when they were struggling to survive. In the drill you put three seeds together, sweetcorn, bean, and pumpkin. The sweetcorn grows tall without support, the bean is able to grow round it, and the pumpkin uses up the space on the ground, keeping all the roots shaded with it’s large leaves.

Sweetcorn and beans, two of the three sisters

I just wanted to see if it worked – so I’m having a go, and so far it seems to be doing ok.

Inside the poly tunnel, I have tomatoes that self seeded from last year’s day of the triffid crop. they are still unruly, but I’m only letting a few plants grow this year rather than giving over the entire bed to tomatoes. Last year was a bit of a bloody nightmare. Read about that here Tomatogedden

Carrots

self seeding tomatoes

cucumber

carrots before I thinned them out

cucumber flower

melon flower

I have had absolutely no success with outdoor carrots, it’s the wrong kind of soil. You need sandy loam not wet clay. so this year I am having a go indoors. It’s not sandy, there’s too much organic content to describe it that way, but it’s not clay either, and so far, they seem to be doing ok, I’ve even had to thin them out a bit. But it could be that all the growth is in the tops, with precious little root – time will tell. At least they are high enough that carrot fly hasn’t been a problem.

New crops

The last two spots are newbies for me , I’ve never tried growing cucumber before. I’m sort of praying that they turn out ok and that I’m not going to be tempted into trying to pickle them. I tried pickling my tomatoes last year. The husband is likely to stage an intervention if I stray too close to the vinegar ever again. You can read about that here In a Pickle and here Revenge of the Hell Pickle

Last but not least are my melons. I’ve never grown melons, I don’t know anyone personally that has, so this is a big experiment. All I know is, they are exceptionally thirsty plants, and I’ve grown them the year we have a hosepipe ban, yay! D’oh!

apple blossom

for all the blossom – there is no fruit left

pretty apple blossom

At home in the pocket handkerchief back garden, I am having mixed success. One of my apple trees and the older cherry tree are very unhappy, they aren’t enjoying the heat and most of the fruit has dropped. My pear tree though, would usually be threadbare about now, but this year does actually have quite a few pears growing, fingers crossed. The raspberries are doing ok, but need thinned out, the blackcurrants are fabulous, my other apple tree is doing ok but the star of the show is my fig plant.

one of a few pears that are growing

blackcurrants ripening in the sun

cherries

For years this did nothing (after somebody pruned it) so I just left it to it’s own, very straggly, devices. Now apparently figs produce more fruit when they are stressed – so very helpfully my dogs stressed it out and then some. Could I keep them away from the plant – no. Every time I looked out the window they were chewing on it.

Then it produced two figs last year, I was delighted. This year I have twelve figs, growing away, outside in Northern Ireland – I am thrilled. I love figs

I am so proud of these figs!

So thats us up to speed with where I am in the garden/plot; from now on it’s a case of keeping up with the watering, and weeding. Oh, yes and continuing to net all the soft fruit off.

Anyone else growing anything?