Life's a Bench?

There's nothing better than a garden bench for drying out onion roots

The slats are ideal for dangling:

Here's crop after drawing back the fabric:

It didn't look too good before but that was because quite a few of the bulbs formed under the fabric!

All Strung Up

My red onions have matured in advance of the yellow ones (which are still firmly rooted to the ground) so before the rain came again I got them strung up.  Once the tops have dried off I will trim them back.

The garlic has been drying off for a couple of weeks and I have had a good stab at plaiting that.  Functional - but not photogenic!

No, Not Courgettes Again...?

All over the country the cry is going up, and cooks are getting more inventive:

Courgette Cake

I don't have a new fangled spiraliser but you can do a lot with a plain potato peeler...

Ribboned 

... or a serrated one:

Courgette Spaghetti

These make excellent fritters.

In a week or two we will be wishing the season had lasted a bit longer!

Any Other Vegetable?

We grow fennel every year, and this year we have had a bumper crop of 20 or more good sized bulbs - that haven't bolted yet. This is one crop where F1 hybridisation really is worth it.

4 to a washing up basin

Years ago (at least 20) our fennel came first in the "Any Other Vegetable" category. Despite changing dietary fashions I suspect it still won't have a category of it's own. Another thing that hasn't changed is that I don't get around to making successional sowings of this crop - maybe next year!

Blueberry Thrill

This is the first year I can claim to have got a good crop from the blueberries.  Checking back it was spring 2010 when three twigs arrived in the post and were planted out. (The advert featured a picture of bushes as tall as the child standing next to them)

March 2010

All they need is an acid soil, plenty of water, feeding, sympathetic pruning, some support protection from birds, regular picking and lots of time!

July 2016

The following link is to my 2012 post describing the early years:

Blueberry History

Gigantic Garlic

The garlic crop has been good this year:

Elephant garlic is the only one that has survived the generations.  All this came from a single clove I bought in 2011 (It cost me £1). Here's how it looked after just one year:

Second generation Elphant Garlic in middle

The elephant garlic is a big fan of the weed suppressant fabric:

When you roll it back for lifting here's what you get:

Keen to keep the benefit I am sure to roll the fabric back until the next crop (which will be potatoes next spring)

The next elephant garlic (and the rest of the alliums) will be planted through the fabric already in place for this year's sweetcorn and courgettes/marrows and pumpkins which followed on from the brassicas last year.  So I'm getting three years use out of each "carpet fitting" of WSF!

It's All Kicking Off

No not the Premier League.  After a busy week I got to the plot today to discover everything is responding to the sunshine following the rain.

The courgettes are living up to their reputation for putting on a spurt as soon as your back is turned:

A nice surprise was the first cabbage. It's called Greyhound for a reason!

but the first red cabbage is ready too.

The Mangetout have started developing peas:

And once you have one runner bean ,,,,

One thing that had died back was the Elephant Garlic tops.  Time to dig it up for drying out.

Returning home I can report that the first tomatoes (Sungold) are ripening.