First Harvest of the Year...... Garlic

I have harvested all my Garlic already, its only June. The plan was not to pull it up this early but things happen that change your plans. I over wintered the garlic with my onions and they were doing brilliantly however over the last month or so they got rust on the leaves and were looking terrible. Only the garlic was suffering, the onions are thriving and have no sign of rust yet! The rust was killing the leaves and I noticed that the plants were trying to send out new shoots and at first I thought great they will keep on going. When I looked closer though the cloves in the bulb were growing individually and thus as new plants all together. So if I was going to use them at all I needed to get them up.

I was actually rather surprised at the size of them, most are bigger than any garlic I have grown before with well formed plump cloves. All in all 40 bulbs of garlic are now drying in the shed.

Unplanned as it might have been to lift them now and have an unexpected empty part of my veg bed it does give me the opportunity to get something else in. Its still early enough to get another batch of sweetcorn going so that is what I am going to do. I had an unused pack of Eskimo White Corn sitting in the seed tin. I just got to run some manure and fertiliser through and hopefully double my money. 

Garden Vlog Growth, Flowers and FRUIT!!!!!

Okay so I finally made another video, think I am a little shy! Anyway just a quick look round the greenhouse as things are really progressing in there!

Garden Update 2014

So I posted they pics earlier on G+ but with out explanation. I am rather please with how well every thing seems to be going and since I took the photo many of the plants have grown considerably.

 I have to admit I have that I have a problem, I can not stop buying plants..... I don't go around buying everything I see but if I do see something exotic or unusual I really can not help myself. Hence in the picture to my right 4 Chilean Guava plants and 2 Goji Berry plants. I have never eaten a Guava berry in my life but I could not help myself, however they were an absolute bargain, I got 6 potted plants for £10 on the Dobies website, follow the link here if you want some. I actually thought I was buying 3 plants so gave 2 to my neighbour. The Goji berry came from Morrison's supermarket at the very reasonable price of £2 a plant. I also came home with 2 Gooseberry bushes. All are intended to be grown in pots for now.












To the left I have some Nasturtium Empress of India in my tin can hanger, they are very easy to grow add a bit of colour with the added bonus of having edible flowers. They do attract the cabbage white butterfly though so you have to be quick to get some before the caterpillars have their fill.













I have gone tomato mad this year, it being my first year with a proper greenhouse. I love tomatoes but I think everyone I know will be sick of them come the end of the season. I have about 5 varieties on the go the one in the picture is called Latah and promises to yield fruit in late June and early July. Fingers crossed it does. I bought the seed for this from Realseeds.co.uk








Because of the greenhouse I have also got Melon Madness..... I think I have 4 or 5 Melon varieties, to the left we have Minnesota Midget again from realseeds.co.uk. The small seedlings are Cucamelons not true melons but more like little cucumbers that look like watermelons. I got the seed for these from Russia. But i have seen therm everywhere after I bought them.













After a very successful harvest last year of sweetcorn, I have I have trebles the amount at least of plants for this year. Sticking with the same variety called Double Standard. The Sweetcorn is planned to be part of a Three Sisters planting scheme with peas, French beans and and courgette. I have added a few other plants too such as sunflowers broadbeans and I think I might try a melon or cucumber in there as well.








An there is one of the courgettes, this one will be from in the pot, its actually been hit by the frost a bit but I think it will survive.

















Last year I wanted to grow enough spuds to last me all year, and I did. This year I have growing even more and more varieties too. My main crop here in the pic is Mayan Gold.I have had my potatoes in this barrel for since the start of March which was a little risky but the weather has been kind. The are soiled up to about two thirds of the barrel. The crop in the beds is just getting going now.






Ahh the Rhubarb seems to have taken well after being moved for the second year in a row. I wont be moving them for the foreseeable future/ Still I will only take a little from it this year just to make sure they get established.








Finally the Garlic, the picture really can do them justice, they are so well established from over wintering. I will always over winter from now on. The varieties are Elephant Garlic and White Solent. I have mulched them and the onions for the first time too.

Elephant Garlic and White Solent

For this year I decided to overwinter my Garlic, I chose two varieties specifically with this in mind. White Solent was my first choice a good sized bulb and excellent flavour. My second choice was Elephant garlic, not a true garlic but a a very close blood relative. The bulbs a huge and the flavour milder! I planted them out around October or November and they look in excellent health! 

Garden Vlog February 2014

I finally worked up the courage to do my own Garden Vlog, after many years of enjoying other peoples. I have always found them interesting, especially those that are full of tips and how to do something. Unfortunately my one is not like this but really just a quick look around my small veg plot. It will give you an idea of what my set up is and what I have planned. Please do excuse my verbalised pauses........Errrrrrrrrr! I was a nervous first timer and hope that any future ones I do will be much better!! Oh and finally it has rather an abrupt ending as my neighbour came up the garden and It was abit weird filming this with him stood there!

Potato Choices 2014

Last year I grew only 2 varieties of Potato, King Edward and Rocket. I was especially happy with the taste and abundance of Rocket, made the best new potatoes I have ever had. The King Edwards however grew plentifully but were scabby and disintegrated far to easily when boiled (See post Potato Harvest 2013). So in all likelihood I wont be growing them again any time soon. For 2014 I thought I would try three new varieties after all half the fun is trying something new. I have two earlies, a first and a second and one main crop variety.

The first early is called Winston, its has white skin and flesh and looks like a naked potato when cleaned up!

Winston First Early

My second early is Salad Blue, which I have seen advertised as a Main Crop but when I bought these advertised as a second early, so maybe I have an option with these to leave them in longer if I like. The are as the name suggests blue skinned but also blue fleshed which stays when cooked.

Salad Blue, Second Early/Main Crop

Finally the Main crop spud is Mayan Gold, a good roaster with a nutty yet creamy flavour, I am most excited by this one!

Mayan Gold Main Crop

I am happy with my choices, yet there is always going to be those other ones you wanted!! For me I had my heart set on Purple Majesty as my Main Crop but it had sold out already! And I saw another one called Yukon Gold but was but could not seem to find any in the UK.

Soil Improvement, the Plan!

Having the best soil is something that every gardener wants and strives for. We all do something to improve it every year whether it be applying manure, compost, compost tea, fertiliser or even growing green manure. If we want good results we NEED good soil. And like all gardeners with the internet I have spent many an hour reading blogs and watching YouTube video's on how to do this. I think I must have seen every way you can, to improve your soil by now! But strangely enough I was watching a documentary about the Amazon many months back that set me off on Terra Preta. The Documentary was from the BBC and was challenging our perceptions of the Amazon as a 'pristine wilderness' and one fact they used to do this was the existence of Terra Preta. Terra Preta is Portuguese for 'black earth' and is the most fertile soil in the world found only in the Amazon. This soil was man made and has been found to be located around sites that homed settle communities.Needless to say our modern view of the Amazon as a pristine wilderness may well be unfounded. Certainly the techniques employed by many of the tribes living there now (slash and burn) did not and are unable to produce Terra Preta. I highly recommend taking an hour of your time to watch the documentary below. 

             The BBC Documentary on the Amazon and the Pre Columbian Cultures.

After watching the documentary I started reading up online about Terra Preta, what it was, how it was made and what was in it. It seems it is a mixture of manure, organic matter and charcoal on the most basic level. So it seemed to me quite an easy thing to reproduce on my own plot of land. And other people are doing the same....See next video.

Although the above video was helpful I will be approaching it with a different recipe, with a few more added ingredients which I think will improve my soil more. The basic list is this.

1. Charcoal/Ash
2. Well rotted Leaf Mulch
3. Garden compost
4. Manure
5. Bokashi
6. Blood, Fish and Bone

Over the last couple of months I have been collecting these ingredients, wood, dried garden vegetation and sawdust from the chicken coop to make ash and charcoal with. I have a good stock of well rotted shredded leaf mulch as well as chicken manure on tap. The added ingredient for my improvement plan is Bokashi, which I have been adding to my mulch as well as some of the manure I have been collecting. What the Bokashi gives is good microbes needed for a healthy soil, breaking up the nutrients in all the other ingredients that I am adding. Come spring I will layer across my beds and dig in well and hey presto Terra Preta! Well probably not as easy as that but it should surely improve the soil no end.

Getting Ready For 2014 Vegetables.

2013 brought many successes and a few failures in the veg garden. I grew more variety and more productively than ever. Of course certain thing (as there always is) didn't work, my brassica's where destroyed by caterpillars and my spuds had a scab problem. But generally its been a good year.

But its time to think about next year and what a year it should be with my new greenhouse and raised beds. With all the extra growing room its been really enjoyable seed shopping this year, and variety is the aim for next year. So I thought I would have a little run through of some of what I will be growing.

Sweetcorn

I am going for two varieties next year, I will be growing one that I did this year called Double Standard Bicolor, which did great, the look and taste fantastic. The second variety I am growing will is called Eskimo White. This variety or the packet at least has come from Russia (this is a theme for next year). From what I have read it will do well in the short British growing season. The instructions are all in Russian and my Russian being what it is means I will be guessing on how to plant it! But I am sure it will be the same as any other corn variety.

Melons

Now that I have a greenhouse I can finally grow in quantity all the good sweet things that do far better under glass. A few years ago I bought some melon seed and never grew them as I never had the space or the greenhouse so I gave them to my neighbour. The variety was called Minnesota Midget, my neighbour got them going and grew some lovely little melons. In return I got some melons and of course the seeds too. The Minnesota Midget is a very small melon roughly the size of a tennis ball and looks rather like a cantaloupe. It is very sweet and juicy and grow very well under glass in the UK, they of course as you can guess from the name come from America  and were designed for short growing seasons and cooler climates. One melon is not enough for me it seems and I have also bought Watermelon seed called Blacktail Mountain. Another American variety this early watermelon again is designed for cooler climates and as such is a miniature. Even two melon types is not enough and I just acquired another variety simply called Russian Melon. I have no idea how big these will grow or what they taste or look like so it will be a surprise to see what happens.
Finally the last 'melon' i am going to grow is called the 'Incan Mouse Melon', also know as the Mexican Mouse Melon, it is believed to have been a staple food for Amerindians before us European's turned up. I am not sure if these are true melons at all but I have read they are small grape sized fruit similar in taste to a cucumber. This again has come from Russia and thus the information is all in Russian. This will be another experiment but I am sure some of you Americans will have come across this before.

Beetroot

I love beetroot and not just pickled. Chocolate and beetroot cake is soooo good. So every year I grow plenty, this year I grew two varieties Detriot and Cylindra and I will grow them again next year. The new addition to my beetroot family will be Touchstone Gold a very rare strain that I am told was near extinction a few years back. As the name suggests it is a yellow beet, I wonder if it stains your hands as bad as your normal beetroot?

French Bean

I have never got round to ever growing french beans, so for my first attempt I have gone for an heirloom variety 'Cherokee Trail of Tears'. This comes again from America but more specifically from the Cherokee Nation of Native North Americans. The history of this variety also adds to its prestige, being one of the few crops the Cherokee took with them when they were driven out of their native lands, hence the name 'Trail of Tears'.

Tomato

I am growing two new varieties next year as well as the ones I usually grow. The first is called 'Latah' a very early cherry tomato Idaho, USA. It tolerates a very cool summer and can crop as early as June/July. The other variety is called 'Millefleur Yellow Vine Tomato' and is a centiflor type. Centiflor's are a new type of tomato I am told growing hundreds of 3/4 inch fruits on huge flower truss's. It is safe to say I do not know what to expect with this. I can imagine how it is going to look.

Rhubarb

Finally another Russian acquisition, simply called on the packet 'Rhubarb XXL Size'. I would expect this is quite a late variety which will complement my early types I have already. The XXL size intrigues me and I look forward to seeing how big it will grow and if the taste will be as good. This I have bought as seed so its going to be a season or two before I get to see what this is really like.    


I have also gone for some Elephant Garlic along with a more standard variety White Solent growing these both for the first time. The are already in the ground over wintering and doing well. Also already planted are my onions a Japanese variety of which i can not remember what they are called. Just got to get myself some blue potatoes and I will be happy!