Karen's 2015 garden diary

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KarenE
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Re: Karen's 2015 garden diary

Post by KarenE »

Not just the chickens enjoying my brassicas. The anti chicken fencing is working a treat but I should've netted the top as the cabbage whites have had the lot. I might scrap the lot, there's little but stalks left.

Excellent crop from the gooseberries. Plenty of crumbles and the rest bubbling away in a demijohn now as I'm going to try wine.

The sweet corn is swelling nicely, and the French beans have cropped consistently. My little gems gave bolted but that's fine.

The cucumber had red spider mite, God knows where it came from but it seems to have confined itself to the cucumber and a melon. The cuc is dead, but the melon still hanging on as I am blasting it with the hose to get the mites off.

Excellent crop on the cherry toms, and they are ripening nicely. The bigger toms not so much but look like a decent amount. I just hope they ripen. It looks like a self seeded tigerella has survived!

So on the list for autumn buys:

- new blueberry bushes
- a black currant cane
- new strawberry plants
Karen
Alpha chick to: Smudge, Matisse and Bluebell
Chief servant to Marley the cat
Remembering Weeps, Rexie, Sage, Cassie, Toffee, Captain Gabby, Commander Nugget, Ronnie, Juno, Special Poetry and Reading Casper, Tigger, Tophenanall Rembrandt, Chestnut, Tiddly, Willow, Mango, Coco, Dorian Grey and Pokey.
Also my lost furries Charlie and Jasper
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lancashire lass
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Re: Karen's 2015 garden diary

Post by lancashire lass »

KarenE wrote:s I'm going to try wine.


)t' what a great idea ... I've been looking at my apple trees which are bending down under the weight of what looks like a bumper crop and wondering how much I'll be able to freeze but the surplus would make great wine (I must try and find the "apple sherry" recipe which is lovely)

KarenE wrote:The anti chicken fencing is working a treat but I should've netted the top as the cabbage whites have had the lot


{hug} and unfortunately the other pest to watch out for are pigeons which fly in as well

KarenE wrote:The cucumber had red spider mite, God knows where it came from but it seems to have confined itself to the cucumber and a melon


Ah, the dreaded spider mite - it's possible there were only a few to start off with (maybe eggs from last year?) but have got out of control in ideal growing conditions. They like it hot and dry - a simple solution to avoid infestation is usually to increase humidity in greenhouses by either (1) regularly wetting the floor or (2) foliar spray - neither of which suits some crops such as tomatoes or cucumber. Unfortunately spider mite are difficult to eradicate once established and you might have to consider fumigating the greenhouse at the end of the season with something like a sulphur candle, and/or maybe a Jeyes fluid wash as well (especially pots) otherwise the problem will be back again next year unfortunately.
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KarenE
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Re: Karen's 2015 garden diary

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Yes I know what a problem spider mite is, blooming nuisance. I lost a lovely lemon tree that must have come with them }hairout{ - hubby bought it for me for my birthday, we put it in the bathroom and never got round to moving it and no other plants in there.

I had thought I'd have to scrub with jeyes fluid over winter but fumigating it is a good idea )t' and scrub all pots too.

The red gooseberry wine is coming along nicely, lovely colour. I've just done the first racking, it'll need another and something to clear it. I am tempted to try sparkling -the English champaign!- but haven't got the bottles, proper yeast or an industrial strength corker! Or indeed, the corks. Tempting though.

Have you thought of cider? I have had good reports of Apple wine. Or you could try Apple liqueur or apfelschnapps.
Karen
Alpha chick to: Smudge, Matisse and Bluebell
Chief servant to Marley the cat
Remembering Weeps, Rexie, Sage, Cassie, Toffee, Captain Gabby, Commander Nugget, Ronnie, Juno, Special Poetry and Reading Casper, Tigger, Tophenanall Rembrandt, Chestnut, Tiddly, Willow, Mango, Coco, Dorian Grey and Pokey.
Also my lost furries Charlie and Jasper
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lancashire lass
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Re: Karen's 2015 garden diary

Post by lancashire lass »

KarenE wrote:Have you thought of cider? I have had good reports of Apple wine. Or you could try Apple liqueur or apfelschnapps.


I'm not fond of cider ... but the apple liqueur sounds interesting )t'
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KarenE
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Re: Karen's 2015 garden diary

Post by KarenE »

Here's a couple of links if you fancy it - I've never made it myself but some look interesting!

Blackberry & apple gin:
http://veryberryhandmade.co.uk/2010/09/ ... -liqueurs/

Blackberry & apple liqueur (alternative method)
http://englishmum.com/blackberry-and-apple-liqueur.html

Apple liqueur
http://www.grouprecipes.com/77080/homem ... queur.html
Karen
Alpha chick to: Smudge, Matisse and Bluebell
Chief servant to Marley the cat
Remembering Weeps, Rexie, Sage, Cassie, Toffee, Captain Gabby, Commander Nugget, Ronnie, Juno, Special Poetry and Reading Casper, Tigger, Tophenanall Rembrandt, Chestnut, Tiddly, Willow, Mango, Coco, Dorian Grey and Pokey.
Also my lost furries Charlie and Jasper
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KarenE
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Re: Karen's 2015 garden diary

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Well the gooseberry wine has been racked and is in the demijohn hopefully fermenting away even more - it's a lovely colour, but cloudy last time I looked so might need a bit more pectolase in it. I also have 2 lots of creme de cassis on the go which I'm really looking forward to trying as I love kir royale. Definitely going to pick up a blackberry bush in the autumn sales I think

I'm having a good crop off the tumbling toms, and looks like the roma and moneymaker are cropping well too - just have to hope the weather stays good enough to ripen them. I grow loads because I like to make ketchup for my husband and italian sauces (with the pulp etc going into tomato chutneys). The little cherry toms I have picked today are going to make a bruchetta, and I might make a salsa with more tomorrow )c+

The sweetcorn is coming along nicely (not as good as Bill's though!) - I love sweetcorn so looking forward to seeing what they are like. I spotted a few little pumpkins on one of the plants but it seems a bit late for them to do much, although I suppose there are a couple more months for them to go (hubby likes to carve them for halloween and I finish them off in soup, and the chickens get the seeds)

The french beans look like they're coming to their end, they haven't been quite as plentiful as previous years even though I've had more plants this year. Next year I'm going to plant up the purple ones as well as the green and yellow )t'

We've also had a fair few windfall apples down so they're going into an apple and rhubarb crumble tonight.

I love picking and cooking my own crops!
Karen
Alpha chick to: Smudge, Matisse and Bluebell
Chief servant to Marley the cat
Remembering Weeps, Rexie, Sage, Cassie, Toffee, Captain Gabby, Commander Nugget, Ronnie, Juno, Special Poetry and Reading Casper, Tigger, Tophenanall Rembrandt, Chestnut, Tiddly, Willow, Mango, Coco, Dorian Grey and Pokey.
Also my lost furries Charlie and Jasper
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KarenE
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Re: Karen's 2015 garden diary

Post by KarenE »

The apples are coming down nicely now, I've got a good collection to mix with some blackberries I picked, and some lovely victoria plums off my mum & dad's tree. Rather than try cider, I may have a go at apple wine and maybe some apple vodka (that's probably schnapps). Must get myself a big bottle of voddie, especially since my boss at work offered to give me some quince, which she says make excellent liqueurs. They're going into a jam as well.

The tomato harvest is coming along really well, I've dried a load of cherry toms and put them in a nice jar with olive oil, and I think I'll do another load as I've just picked another crop. The tumbling toms have been really good this year, as have the roma and tigerella, which are all just starting to ripen off. The moneymaker however (i think they're moneymaker, but I may have used last years aldi/lidl seeds) are very disappointing. Tiny fruits barely bigger than cherry toms on a full sized bush which makes me think they aren't moneymaker. Hubby may have to go back to Heinz for his tomato sauce this year.

I'm leaving the sweetcorn for as long as I can in hopes we get a late summer which is looking very unlikely now. I've just pulled up 4 beetroot which I'll pickle for my dad. I still have a good 4 or so growing in the garden for borscht and roasting.

Now the brassicas - interesting story there. The savoy cabbages even though stripped off their leaves have developed beautiful heads which I'm amazed and pleased about and even more amazing the sprouts have sprung back to life. Unfortunately they've bypassed the sprout stage and gone straight to mini cabbage - probably because I didn't realise that was the sprout bit - but the chickens can have them if we don't.

All in all, a mixed year with some cropping well but as LL says, definitely not the best summer for gardeners and growers.
Karen
Alpha chick to: Smudge, Matisse and Bluebell
Chief servant to Marley the cat
Remembering Weeps, Rexie, Sage, Cassie, Toffee, Captain Gabby, Commander Nugget, Ronnie, Juno, Special Poetry and Reading Casper, Tigger, Tophenanall Rembrandt, Chestnut, Tiddly, Willow, Mango, Coco, Dorian Grey and Pokey.
Also my lost furries Charlie and Jasper
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KarenE
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Re: Karen's 2015 garden diary

Post by KarenE »

Well looking back over my diary, quite a good year in the end. I got loads of tomatoes and did end up making a fair few bottles of ketchup. No chutneys this year. 4 bottles of gooseberry wine - including an experimental sparking one, which I'm leaving for at least a year, and another 4 of apple wine as well as a large amount of cider. It was an excellent year for apples.

The chooks had most of the sweetcorn as they didn't really swell much. The sprouts did come back to life and did form sprouts in the end, but too late for christmas so the chooks have been nibbling them through winter.

I have 2 blackcurrant bushes now - the creme de cassis is a huge success, everyone in my family is a convert to home made kir royal. I still need to get some new strawberries and blueberry bushes

I've repaired my anti chicken fencing and dug over my patches, just need to dig in some rotted down chicken bedding and grow more and we're set. I have a few supermarket baby onions that are sprouting that I'm going to plant out (may as well) and I have some chitted potatoes but it's just too wet to put anything in the ground yet, so I hope they hold on long enough for me to plant out.

The garden centre nearby is selling lots of its stock off - that's where I got the blackcurrant, a well established bush for £1.20 (!) and they are selling dwarf patio fruit trees for £10 each. I'm thinking of getting a peach and a pear.

On the list for this year:

- onions and potatoes as above
- cherry, moneymaker and roma tomatoes (but not as many as last year)
- sweetcorn
- spring cabbages, sprouts and caulis
- green, yellow and purple beans
- pak choi
- mixed leaf and little gem lettuce
- rocket
- spring onions
- beetroot
- yellow peppers, aubergines
- red gooseberries, blackcurrants and strawberries
- maybe the peach & pear dwarf as above
- melon
- pumpkins and butternut squash

I'm sure I'll try a few other things along the way!

Still have to clean out my greenhouse, especially as it has algae growing on the panels, and do that smoke bomb. I love it when you can start thinking of growing things again )t'
Karen
Alpha chick to: Smudge, Matisse and Bluebell
Chief servant to Marley the cat
Remembering Weeps, Rexie, Sage, Cassie, Toffee, Captain Gabby, Commander Nugget, Ronnie, Juno, Special Poetry and Reading Casper, Tigger, Tophenanall Rembrandt, Chestnut, Tiddly, Willow, Mango, Coco, Dorian Grey and Pokey.
Also my lost furries Charlie and Jasper
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Mo
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Re: Karen's 2015 garden diary

Post by Mo »

Be careful when you open the sparkling wine.
Someone gave us sparkling cider - we had the evidence over the walls & ceiling till we redecorated!
Dance caller. http://mo-dance-caller.blogspot.co.uk/p/what-i-do.html
Sunny Clucker enjoyed Folk music and song in mid-Cheshire
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KarenE
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Re: Karen's 2015 garden diary

Post by KarenE »

:-D Mo

I only put a few sprinkles of sugar in the bottle so fingers crossed it should only be slightly sparkling. Fingers crossed!
Karen
Alpha chick to: Smudge, Matisse and Bluebell
Chief servant to Marley the cat
Remembering Weeps, Rexie, Sage, Cassie, Toffee, Captain Gabby, Commander Nugget, Ronnie, Juno, Special Poetry and Reading Casper, Tigger, Tophenanall Rembrandt, Chestnut, Tiddly, Willow, Mango, Coco, Dorian Grey and Pokey.
Also my lost furries Charlie and Jasper
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lancashire lass
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Re: Karen's 2015 garden diary

Post by lancashire lass »

KarenE wrote:I have a few supermarket baby onions that are sprouting that I'm going to plant out


are you sure they are "baby" onions or just small ones? Onion sets are immature because growth was stopped before bulb development so they just carry on growing to maturity when planted, whereas a mature onion (even small ones) will just go into flower development instead.

KarenE wrote:I love it when you can start thinking of growing things again


)t' good luck. Looks like you have a lovely selection of things to grow.
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KarenE
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Re: Karen's 2015 garden diary

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Over easter and the week after, I've sewn my seeds and some of them are already coming up!

This is what I've got sown for this year:

Salads: loose leaf, pak choi, and little gem. I'll keep sowing for continual cropping through the summer. The pak choi are coming up already!

Tomatoes: I'm growing less this year, I've gone a bit mad the last few years and still have a freezer full of tomato sauce and about 5 jars of dried cherry tomatoes in oil. So this year mainly tumbling toms and gardeners delight for my baskets, 4 moneymakers and 4 romas, assuming all won't make it

Yellow peppers, aubergines and cucumbers - none of which were successful last year so here's hoping.

Brassicas: caulis, brussels sprouts, savoy cabbage and purple sprouting brocolli. These are also starting to come up

Beans and peas: peas, yellow, green and purple dwarf beans. These are also all starting to sprout

Others: sweetcorn, pumpkins, beetroot, leeks and celery

Fruit: melons. The gooseberry bushes are leafing, as is the blackcurrant bush I bought and the raspberries are coming up again. I planted strawberry seeds but they didn't come up last year so am doubtful for this year. I also bought a dwarf peach tree on sale from a local garden centre and that is budding too. Still keeping my eye out for some new blueberry bushes - nearly bought 2 for £3 from Wilkinsons today which were sprouting but looked very leggy.

I've also sown some flower seeds - asters, hardy geraniums, dahlias and lobelia.
Karen
Alpha chick to: Smudge, Matisse and Bluebell
Chief servant to Marley the cat
Remembering Weeps, Rexie, Sage, Cassie, Toffee, Captain Gabby, Commander Nugget, Ronnie, Juno, Special Poetry and Reading Casper, Tigger, Tophenanall Rembrandt, Chestnut, Tiddly, Willow, Mango, Coco, Dorian Grey and Pokey.
Also my lost furries Charlie and Jasper
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KarenE
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Re: Karen's 2015 garden diary

Post by KarenE »

Lots going on in the garden. First, fruit:

The gooseberry bushes are doing well, although it looks like a smaller crop compared to last year. That's fine though, there's only so many gooseberries you can eat! They are delicious though (all red) and now we are up to 4 bushes as they seem to be self seeding. I have a tiny one growing away in a pot, but I really don't have any more space. The rhubarb is good and I'll pick that today for some rhubarb and persimon crumble.

Raspberries are tamed and growing quite nicely. I had a tidy up of the plot and pulled up all the dead ones and the ones that were growing in the wrong places. I just about got them fenced off before the chickens did too much damage so hopefully we'll get a crop this autumn.

Blueberries - I didn't get any new plants in the end, but the 2 I had have sprung back to life. I think the chickens may have eaten all the blossom though so I doubt I'll see any fruit. Besides, they are so small I'll never get more than a handful. Must do something about them at the end of the year.

The apple tree seems to have less coming through than previous year - maybe not a good year for apples compared to the last few, or maybe it just needs a rest year. The cox is also looking a bit bare. The patio peach had loads of beautiful deep red flowers on it so I am hoping that I get something this year. I also had a right bargain at Asda - they were selling patio pear trees off at £2.35 (!!) so I snapped one up. Repotted it and it's fine, although no blossom so doubt we'll get anything. My dad says you plant pears for your heirs, so might have to be patient with the pear!

I got a load of new strawberry plants (69p in asda again) so they're in hanging baskets out of chicken reach, and should be okay. I'm hoping for runners as well as fruit. Next year for the strawberries I think. One of the blackcurrants I got died, but the other's fine. I'll snap up another at the end of the year I think.

I've got all my plots dug over and the anti chicken fencing repaired and out. I've planted out my sweetcorn (might be a bit too early butt hey are fine so far), my little gems and peas and beans. I've got sprouts, broccoli, cabbage and caulis to go out, but can't plant them up yet as I need to scatter Remie's ashes where Casper and Tigger are (they're buried in that plot) and I can't bring myself to do that yet.

Seeds have been very slow to sprout. My tomatoes are only just coming out really, and very slow growth there. Cucumbers and melons have been up for a few months now and doing well in the greenhouse. The 2 pumpkins are looking yellow, I am hoping it's nothing serious but I'll plant them out anyway. I'm wondering if the dreaded spider mite is back again but I can't see any signs on the leaves. I did scrub down with jeyes fluid in feb so hope that's got them. The peppers and aubergines did nothing, so I've gone through my seeds and thrown so many packets away as I had little success with all the flowers I planted too. I think though that (as well as old seed) it's just not been consistently warm enough to help germination. My own fault - I leave the greenhouse door open for the girls, as they love dustbathing in there and when it's raining it's the only place they can. Plus Jasper likes to snooze in there.
Karen
Alpha chick to: Smudge, Matisse and Bluebell
Chief servant to Marley the cat
Remembering Weeps, Rexie, Sage, Cassie, Toffee, Captain Gabby, Commander Nugget, Ronnie, Juno, Special Poetry and Reading Casper, Tigger, Tophenanall Rembrandt, Chestnut, Tiddly, Willow, Mango, Coco, Dorian Grey and Pokey.
Also my lost furries Charlie and Jasper
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KarenE
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Re: Karen's 2015 garden diary

Post by KarenE »

The anti chicken fencing is standing up really well this year )t' so no chicken related damage. But it's turning out to be a very mixed year, I think that cool and wet spring has done for us.

Disappointing fruit crop this year. The 4 gooseberry bushes yielded about 1 cup of fruit! Sure the girls had been stealing the fruit they could reach through the netting with their beaks but that wasn't much, so a very disappointing crop all round.

The birds have had the blackberries and blueberries, but they were just the odd few anyway. I think I might have to plant a permanent fruit patch with cage to protect them, but I'm running out of veg patches for that.

No signs of any flowers on the raspberries - they are an autumn fruiting variety so there's still time. My cox apple has all but died, and the peaches don't seem to be getting any bigger so all in all, not a great year for fruit - in my garden at least.

Strawberries have been mixed - nowhere near as good as last year but I have 2 runners coming off the new plants I bought so I'm happy with that.

Great crop off the french beans - I planted dwarf green and yellow, which are always reliable, and I planted a full size purple variety which is extremely prolific, as well as being quite rigorous in its growth. Lovely purple flowers. The beans turn green when cooked, very interesting!

The caulis, cabbage and sprouts are looking okay - they're netted off to keep the butterflies off and it hasn't been entirely successful but better than last year so hopefully should get something off them. Tomatoes are growing nicely although very slow to sett so I'm not expecting great things from them. Sweetcorn is looking good.

I lost both pumpkins to god knows what. There one day, gone the next and the other hasn't grown an inch since I planted it out.

In the greenhouse, I have a couple of cucumber plants doing well with little cues on them. 2 melons growing happily and flowering but no sign of any fruit - I've been trying to cross pollinate with a feather but I can't even see any pollen...

Mixed year.
Karen
Alpha chick to: Smudge, Matisse and Bluebell
Chief servant to Marley the cat
Remembering Weeps, Rexie, Sage, Cassie, Toffee, Captain Gabby, Commander Nugget, Ronnie, Juno, Special Poetry and Reading Casper, Tigger, Tophenanall Rembrandt, Chestnut, Tiddly, Willow, Mango, Coco, Dorian Grey and Pokey.
Also my lost furries Charlie and Jasper
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Mo
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Re: Karen's 2015 garden diary

Post by Mo »

The blackbirds have an order of preference marked on the menu that they read my garden as.
Top choice Black cherries (shame, they're my favourites too, but I never see any,
white cherries (sometimes get a few if I'm quick)
Berberis (if you had room for one of those it might give you time to pick blackcurrants Karen)
After those are all gone (cherry stones scattered averywhere & the path purple with berberis poo) they move on to
redcurrants
blackcurrants

I only have a few strawberries in pots so I can net easily - that doesn't stop the slugs though. Raspberries get nibbled but not badly.
Flies go for ripe plums, and no doubt the greengages will swell and split after Tuesday's downpour, which will bring the wasps.

It's a battlefield. Rabbits and slugs have won as far as veg go - I'll give up except for spuds & runners - though they get attacked too.
Dance caller. http://mo-dance-caller.blogspot.co.uk/p/what-i-do.html
Sunny Clucker enjoyed Folk music and song in mid-Cheshire
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