Blog Now Dormant

Afraid I am abandoning this blog in favour of my allotment blog.

The drought has meant having to use far too much precious drinking water to keep the home garden plants alive. At the allotment, I bring limited amounts of water up from the river, and the plants seem to be doing just fine anyway.

Mid-April and things are picking up

Plants are starting to grow despite the near-freezing nights. There's very little in the front garden right now, since the back is more protected -- just a few herbs and onions. 

I plan to move most or all of my herbs into pots and keep them in the front garden during the season. The onions on the left are bunching ones that have overwintered. The ones on the right are Centurion sets.

I've moved the Honeoye strawberries to the allotment. These are Alice and Florence. Some of them are starting to form flowers, so they can't be transplanted for a while, and will stay here in the back garden for the moment.

I've started several pots of Orla second early potatoes. The ones in this coldframe were the first ones started. It's cold enough at night that I've got to shut the frame. The water bottles help keep the temperature stable, which is helpful since it gets quite warm in the back garden during the day.

These four Orlas are inside the plastic greenhouse, and were started a bit later. I've got one more pot in the house, so I need to do a bit of rearranging.

In the aluminium coldframe, there are the overwintered chives and parley, about 20 lettuce seedlings (All the Year Round), and a couple of pots with radish and carrot seeds. It's been so cold at night that the carrots have taken three or four weeks to germinate.

My neighbour gave me a couple of pieces of glass, and I've set them up as a windbreak that's covered at night with a plastic bag cut to be flat. There are lots of bunching onions and onion sets, two pots of overwintered carrots (got about 250 grams of carrots last week now that they're growing again), a pathetic spinach plant, and the last of the fennel herb plants.

The bed is almost empty now. Next to the house, I've put out sprouted buckwheat to see if I can get a cover crop. That should tide that space over until I can put out some basil and amaranth when it warms up. The green on the left are the remaining mustard and kale plants. To their right are a couple of herbs (oregano and lemon balm) that will be dug up and put into pots.

Lots of the herbs died or were badly hit by the hard winter. Near the wall are the remnants of herbs that I'm trying to root to see if anything can be salvaged.

Outside the wall, next to the compost bin, is the comfrey plant that I saved last year. I found it thrown down next to a path with its roots exposed. It would have died had I not brought it home and planted it. Now it's flowering. My good deed for the year.

The red cabbage planted outside the wall in the autumn has started flowering. I decided to leave it for the bees for the moment.

Winter ending soon?

The back garden's a bit desolate right now.

At least the sun is shining!

2009 Harvest

It's a gloomy, rainy day here in New Mills, so I thought I'd total up our year's harvest (including a few items collected elsewhere). Not bad, really.

Sorry the spreadsheet screenprint below is a bit blurry. All quantities are in grams. There are 1000 grams to the kilo (2.2 pounds, for the metrically challenged). I didn't keep track of everything, but most things are included.

(click for sharper image)
In summary,

• 14.2 kilos of potatoes (about 31 pounds)
• 4.4 kilos of various types of greens (about 9.7 pounds)
• 7.3 kilos of cucurbits -- mostly courgettes (about 14.6 pounds)
• 4.1 kilos of beans (about 9 pounds)
• 3 kilos of other stuff, including 1.65 kilos of strawberries (which didn't do very well) (about 6.6 pounds)
• Grand total from our garden - 33.2 kilos or 73 pounds of food.

Considering the haphazard way I did things this year, and the fact that almost everything was grown in containers, I'm pretty happy with the outcome.

We are still eating the stored potatoes and fresh greens growing under a polytunnel out back.

My goal for next year is to double production (66 kilos, or 145 pounds of food.) I won't cheat and do it by doubling the potatoes. In fact, I intend to grow about the same quantity of potatoes next year as I did this year.

More good news -- it looks like we may have an allotment next year, with the co-operation of the local council, our local allotment society plans to start a second site. We can grow more potatoes out there. :-)

Early August Back Garden Update

We had two weeks solid of rain in the second half of July. The back garden courgettes did better than the front garden ones (which have pretty much succombed to powdery mildew). While you can see the brown leaves on these plants, they produced a little during the rainy weeks, and are now back in full production.

A new cluster of flowers has come into production on each plant.

I didn't expect to leave the kale going for this long, especially without any protection from the cabbage whites, but it continues to produce new leaves every week. The white butterflies have reached a new peak this week. I saw five at once fluttering around the garden.

The texture is fine for stir fry, if finely chopped, and for soups and stews. A bit too tough and coarse for salads.

The fennel is massive. I gave away 10 or 12 small baby plants to passers-by, so the whole town will probably be covered in fennel next year :-)


The buckwheat is flowering, so we'll see how long it takes for seeds to form. I think I'll try planting them a bit more densely next year.

The strawberries are at the end of their season. The rain meant we lost probably a dozen to mould. I've moved them out of the netted area now.


The cabbages are under the netting now, but are also getting attacked by the cabbage whites. Unfortunately, the netting over it isn't really meant for insect protection, so the butterflies do find their way in.


I'm waiting to see if the broad beans will start producing again. We had quite a harvest, and then production dropped right off during the rains.

This is some sorrel for salads. I've not tasted it yet, but it's supposed to be a bit tart and lemony. The smaller plants are some amaranth that unfortunately never got planted out.

The warm weather in early July caused all the greens to bolt. The borecole is also extremely attractive to the cabbage whites. I've started new plants in the house, so perhaps I'll be better about netting them properly.

Early July Back Garden Update

Early July Front Garden Update

We had our first rain all week today. It was quite heavy at times, and a relief after the relatively hot, dry days. After it was over, I went out to take some pictures.

It's gone a bit jungle-like out there! Some of the runner beans have climbed to the top of their poles (only 6 foot).


The latest additions are some quinoa and grain amaranth plants (in the square pots in the front). I've never grown either before, so this is a real experiment.


The courgettes have really taken off, and are now starting to flower.


The potato forest is getting quite large. Some of the lower leaves are turning yellow. I'm wondering if they're using up all the nutrients in the soil. I've started supplementing all the plants with a seaweed root drench every week.


Despite their scuffy appearance, the nasturiums are putting out masses of flowers, which is bringing the bees in.

The black square pots have cucumbers and melon. Unfortunately, I've forgotten whether I've made a problem for myself if these things cross-pollinate. I know I can't save the seeds but I can't remember if the fruit will taste funny (assuming I get any!) They're starting to put out tendrils.