Is Spring Springing?

Ok, it’s Valentine’s day, so I have taken the time to get out into the garden and start thinking about getting my ducks in a row this year, rather than deciding halfway through the year that I was going to grow stuff.

To this end, I found the collection of seeds from Silvester and planted them out in a propagator tray. I then found a pack of garlic chives seeds, so who wouldn’t wanna have that in their lives? So they have their own little soil homes until they decide to poke their heads through.

I was surprised how well the strawbs seem to have coped with the winter and rain, so it shouldn’t be long until porridge and strawberries for breakfast. Hardy little buggers, but I assume the slugs are just as hardcore, so will have to find a way to deal with those homeless snaily bastards as soon as the weather improves.

Also on the bright side, literally, although the sun hasn’t managed to shed enough light to light my shed, it managed to give a little life to my string of completely rubbish pineapple lights.

Sorry about the poor pic, but was dark and bonfire smoke was abundant

Nature’s Bounty

As Autumn wraps us in her chilly embrace, and the prospect of Winter’s icy fingers soon to be running down our spines, it was time to clear the garden of what remaining foods it would give up.

The first to give up their hidden gifts was the two potato plants that had survived. Although we have proved that it is possible to grow spuds in pots or other utensils, i would recommend you simply don’t.

Technically there were eight potatoes, but that seems a generous description of the tiny ones. It will not dissuade me from trying again next year, but was disappointing as I hoped for at least two meals out of them. Next up were the carrots, and they were the opposite as far as numbers were concerned, even if they were a little bit little.

At this point I decided to test a carrot and a spudlet. Boiled them both quickly for a few minutes, and gave them a munch. The spudlet was amazing. So tasty. The carrot was a little disappointing at this stage, but i do like my veg sweet while this fella was determined not to follow this simple guideline. The rest of the afternoon was spent disposing of the poor souls that hadn’t made it. This cull produced a couple of ‘cucumbers’, although nothing like you would see in the supermarket. And the last batch of tomatoes of the year. Also three garlic nearly-bulbs were kicking about in the soil.

All in all, not a bad haul, especially as there are still some salad plants not quite ready to give up for the year. Celebrated this bounty with fish and boiled garden spuds with garden mint and shored up with shop peas and a spud or two. You could tell the difference between the store bought and the fresh ones; they were worlds apart. Can’t wait to do it better next year.

Longer than Anticipated (that’s what she said)

After a load of stress with internet and the suchlike, everything is back to normality, as soon as we work out what normal is.

Since the rain has returned to our sceptred isle, the grass in the back garden has become a nightmare. A friend of mine was recently jealous of my backyard greenery, but she doesn’t realise that to get some lawn hoovering done requires moving all the pots and flora so I can find room to get the lawnmower onto the grass.

The sudden turn in the weather has made life hard for the plants, some are drowning, and some are now cold. I would be the first to admit that I started things a little late in the year, but as I have no idea what I am doing, this should come as no surprise.

After successfully growing a plethora of red and yellow tomatoes, I decided to have a tomato-off. Which of the contenders could T up the classic BLT? Well, this isn’t a telly quiz show so I won’t hold you in too much suspense. I was very surprised that the red ones were sweeter than the yellows. Sylvester will be disappointed, but I’m sure he won’t take it personally, as so far he is the only individually named tomato plant.

I will admit the loss of the internet for the last month has thrown me off my game a little, so I will try and get more organised in future, but here’s a random pic of a little dude enjoying what the slugs left of one of my sunflowers.

The Yellow Tomato Wins

Following my recent discovery regarding the ripeness of my cute little tomato bush, Sylvester, I was eager to taste the fruits of his, well, fruits.

Having just finished baking a fresh loaf of cheese and onion bread, I felt a BLT was very much in order. Ingredients all very simple. Two rashers of back bacon, two sumptuous yellow tomatoes straight off the bush, and fresh salad leaves.

As the bacon grilled, I smothered the bread in mayo, and sliced the tomatoes that were still warm from the sun. The bacon was quickly ready and was neatly slapped onto a slice.

Some decorating done with the greenery followed, and then just left the prize participant, the tomatoes. As an afterthought I finely chopped some of the younger leaves of the basil plant to sprinkle onto my creation.

A twist of pepper and pink salt and the sarnie was topped off with another delicious fresh slice of bread.

I can honestly say it was the best BLT I have ever tasted, and the tomatoes are what made it. My only regret now is that sadly Sylvester is a solitary bush, so I need to brush up on my knowledge and skills so I can reproduce his amazing attributes into another bush or two. Having never been a huge fan of tomatoes, it is amazing to suddenly find some that are tasty beyond compare.

The other tomato plants are coming along, and even some of the smaller varieties are starting to ripen. There are a few beef tomatoes that already look huge, but I fear they will not have the taste that Sylvester has brought to the party. I also feel saddened that now I have tasted the pinnacle of BLT’s, no other will ever be good enough for me.

As a bonus, here’s a sneaky peak under the covers of a Bunt BLT, as enjoyed in the garden in the sun.

Always Read Instructions

This is Sylvester, my first tomato bush. I have a tendency to name things that most people wouldn’t bother, but I feel I take more care of things that have names. Sylvester was a rescue tomato; rescued from Lidls to form part of the founder membership of the veg and fruit garden. It seems like months ago, which it was, and in all this time he has just got bushier, and he has so many teeny tomatoes that he is a delight to have around the place.

Only issue I had with him; the tomatoes don’t seem to be ripening. They have been yellow now for weeks. They aren’t getting any bigger or dying, they are just sitting there being yellow.

This has been worrying me for a while so I eventually checked back with his growing instructions. Lo and behold, Sylvester produces little yella fellas.

So tomorrow, I am looking forward to a BLT using my homemade cheese and onion bread, bacon, with the L and T straight out of the garden.

Sad day for my Van

I have owned a Bedford CF motorhome for as long as I can remember, in fact I think it will feel odd no longer having one, but despite the huge sentimental value to me, I can no longer afford to keep her, so she will have to go.

So trying to pull some positives from this tragic scenario, I am going to remove the twelve volt electrics, including solar panels, and plan to install them in my shed. The van had enough battery to keep it powered for… Actually I don’t think the internal batteries have ever run out through use since I’ve had her, so I have no idea how long they would last.

My plan is to keep the batteries and solar charging set-up in the shed, and run cable up into the house where I will use it to charge phones, iPads etc. I will also take some of the lights too and put the LEDs outside the shed to provide some outdoor light when required.

While I think about it, I will take the fridge as well, although I am not sure if I could safely install it in the shed, but I know they are tricky to get hold of, so if and when I get another van, I can always transplant it into that.

Ooh, I might even take the water pump, and fix it up to be able to water the garden from rain water.

Now I think about it there are a lot of positive things I can do with the equipment that is tied up in the van, it will just still make me extremely sad to no longer have her.

Some Quick Gardening Pics

Peas are looking swollen and bulgy, not sure if thats a good thing, but I guess will have to wait and see.

This is the garlic, growing madly. I have now harvested some of the other garlic twice and still have growth. This fella for example has been cut down to the bulb twice and is still going. each one is as tasty as the last.

Peppers are finally beginning to show themselves, and looks like there will be a lot of them. Will be making a lot of chutney I feel.

Lastly, here is my tiny little olive tree, who is bravely putting forth olives, despite only being ten inches tall.

Outdoor experiment

Now we all love a British summer, reliable as a train service and just as warm and comfortable. Although this evening hasn’t been one of the biggest scorchers of the year, I decided it was warm enough to sleep in the garden tonight. The cool air and quiet evening put me up to it. So here I am, laying in the garden with nothing but the universe above me.

Usually I’d add a photo at this point, but without a tripod and long exposure shutter it wouldn’t give it justice, so I’ll add a pic from a star gazer app that shows what is above me.

I have recently bought a load of solar power lights for the garden recently, so the garden is slightly illuminated. I tried a pic or two but not hugely happy with the results.

I was interrupted by a neighbour going outside. He spat eight times in the first twenty seconds of being outside. It seemed to be unstoppable, so I assume he has a medical condition, or is just a total animal.

Sorry, that was tangential, but I have just had a bottle or two of my first homebrew beer, and it seems to be working, if what I was going for was semantically nonsensical sentences strung together with anecdotal trivia. Tastes amazing though, so well worth it. Let’s just hope I don’t get any stomach complaints tomorrow. Although we are well into tomorrow right now as it is nearly 3am.

This has to be the worst post I’ve made so far, but I blame the fresh air and spitters. Goodnight.

Rise of the strawberries

Only a few weeks after picking these fellas up from a random WI open air bazaar on the local green, we have the first bunch of ripe strawbs.

I personally feel you can never have too many strawbs, so will definitely be increasing the plants for next year, space permitting.

So, time for the important information, how did they taste. Well he was still warm from the sun and tasted delicious and let’s face it, couldn’t be fresher.

Things to know about garlic

One of the first things I wanted to plant and grow was garlic. When I looked into it and found how easy it was, I’m gutted I ever bought garlic more than once or twice in my life. Turns out growing garlic is as simple as buying a bulb of garlic from the shop, organic and fresh for preference, breaking it open and simply popping the individual cloves into soil about a half finger length deep with the pointy end up. Then water and wait. Simplest thing ever, and it gets even better. I have not been growing them to get more bulbs of garlic, I have been using them as spring garlic, so when there’s a good length of stem growing from the soil, which doesn’t take more than a few weeks, I started pulling them and using them a little like spring onion.

That was when I had yet another brainwave. Turns out that if you just dig down through the soil a little until you get to the original clove, you can snip the new growth off and cover it back up, and it will carry on growing. I’ve only done this to one round of growth, so I do not know how it will affect the second growth, but I will definitely keep you informed.