first real harvest of sorts

I realise I have been spoilt in Portland: everything grows so much faster there. Nevertheless, my first harvest in London today, apart from picking the occasional mange touts and raspberry.


I pulled up some white beetroot which I intend to roast tonight alongside other vegetables and use the leaves as treats for the guinea pigs and as an ingredient for an omelette. Also a handful of mange touts, a little bit of escarole and a few raspberries.



The potatoes I was growing in a pot had all their leaves chewed off so I decided to lift what was there. Delightful little ones (which I expected with "Mimi") which I think will go very nicely roasted with the beets. Looking forward to the ones that grow in the soil and have escaped snail and slug attacks... Also found a few ripe brambles as I was poking around the garden which is an added bonus.

Speaking of snail and slug attacks, the zucchini haven't been doing so great, especially the far one. I was wondering why that should be -- they get enough water, sun, etc. -- when I noticed that the lower part of the stem -- the bit resting on the ground -- was basically missing. London gastropods are bloody vicious.


Other than that the garden is doing quite nicely: it's warm but also rains a lot, evidence of fruit setting, the promise of more to harvest.

PS. Defensive bamboo sticks successful. So successful that I poked myself tending to the cucumbers.

Mange Tout and Vlad the Impaler

I had my first Mange Tout (aka snow peas) from the garden last night (just in case you think they look anemic, they are a yellow variety). OK, there were only three of them but they were delicious. Can't wait for more.


On other news, I am battling with a neighbourhood cat who insists on pooing in my garden. Not only is it annoying to remove big, foul jobbies at least twice a day (what are they feeding this cat???) but also it's getting close to scratching out my patty pan squash starts. So, last night I finally snapped and decided to cover up the bed with plastic - not only should that stop the fouling but also keep down weeds.


Partial success ensued. No fouling on bed but right next to it (twice!), nearly digging out the beans.


I've upped the ante by putting bamboo kebab sticks into the soil (similar to miniature medieval defences). Hopefully that will stop that in that spot. I fear though that the cat will shift around, finding another place. Maybe I should impale fake cat heads on the sticks. Also considering buying cayenne pepper in bulk. And a good watergun.

cloches

In an effort to keep the neighbourhood cats from scratching out my cucumbers, the snails and slugs from getting to them and also to speed up the germination process (it dropped 10 degrees Celsius over the last few days and it is cool, cold even, at night), I took some take-away containers and bottles and made impromptu cloches out of them. Good results so far - all of the cucumbers and patty pan squashes have now come up.

The zucchini are a bit slow but not far behind. I can see a little bit of green just trying to break through the surface in one place and I am trying the cloche method in another. Rain - finally - last night and a good amount of it. That'll help too.

One of the tomatoes is about to flower. I can see a little mange tout forming (I expected more pea-like flowers so missed it initially). However, my radishes don't appear to want to set a "bulb" and have nearly gone to seed. Probably not enough watering when it was hot. More pretty flowers though until I can harvest something.

come on, grow!

Update on tomatoes: Managed to save at least one of each but still puny. In the meantime, I bought four plants from the garden centre (Sungold, Sweet Millions, Plum Titania Improved (how so?) , and a beefsteak tomato the label of which I lost cycling home).


Then there is the fruit. Pruned the greengage slightly but still quite a bit of fruit hanging on it. A few small pears on the horizon. Raspberries show signs of blossoms. It will only be a handful but for the first year that is not too bad. Also noticed something that looks like brambles growing wild yet respectfully on one side of the garden.





The other stuff is getting on but I'm getting a bit impatient. Peas are climbing, beans are growing, white beetroots are finding their way. Few more rows of radishes, endive, welsh onion and more beets. With the nice weather though they should go into a growth spurt soon enough. Half of gardening life is waiting - now I am waiting for the zucchini and cucumbers to come up. All in good time, it's only the end of May. In the meantime, I can enjoy some flowers.

String Theory

Had enough time (and motivation) today to put some string up for the mange tout to climb on. Not before time, they are stretching up. Not the prettiest of constructions but I hope that it'll get covered up soon.


I also put some cucumbers, patty pan squash and zucchini in pots to plant out in a few weeks. While I was at it I also sowed some pole beans directly - if they don't get going I'll have plenty of time to sow more - and I left some space for more in a couple of weeks.


Other than that there are now definite signs of growth in the potatoes, raspberries and white beetroot. The greengages appear to have set fruit and barring any infestation or weird weather it looks like there will be quite a few in summer. The herb garden is doing fine - although the lemon balm a bit too well. Anyone got any ideas what to do with it other than make tea?


Had no rain and sunny weather for quite some time and I should have watered the vegetables earlier. I think the forecast for tomorrow is showers but I'll give it a good soaking later on nonetheless.

germination

The tomato seedlings are in. I would say that the germination rate was somewhere below 50%, with Ildi and Tigerella particularly failing. So that's the lot I have to live with, which, considering that I don't have enough space for all of them anyway, is possibly a Good Thing. I was very pleased with the serrano pepper (free seeds from Mexican restaurant Wahaca, originally mistaken for matches). I also got a geranium cutting from my upstairs neighbour.


The seedlings outside the house are doing fine too. The radishes have all come up (I sowed them too thickly in hindsight) and the lettuces are peeping out too.


The white beetroot are just starting to emerge, can't wait to see how they get on (ok, so the picture looks like it's just dirt but honestly they are there).


The mange tout have all come up, no slug damage yet. Excellent. Still waiting for evidence of the Welsh onion though.


The raspberry show strong growth, both from the canes and shoots coming up from the roots. I cleaned out my fireplace and scattered the ash around. Not sure how much good it'll do but can't do any harm.


Need to remember to sow cucumber indoors this weekend. I should really check my plant list more often as I just noticed that I also wanted to start patty pan squash and the zucchini off in pots. It's still quite slow in the garden but with the English weather it's good to give tender things a headstart.

first sowing activity in the garden

Last weekend was the day of streetcar first use and the Big Compost Getting: 8x70 litre bags, which gave a good covering for the planting area. And then I didn't do anything for a week, except put the raspberries in.



The tomatoes seeds are a bit slow in coming up and I just re-sowed Ildi, Tigerella and San Marzano today. The other varieties were ok, just those are a bit hesitant. The aubergine didn't want to come out either. That's why I usually don't grow these things from seed, I find it a disappointing experience, almost crushing. The toilet roll method may not be the best way to go.

Today was nice, sunny and warm which encouraged hanging out in the garden for a while. So I finally planted the potatoes and the Mange Tout which probably could have been happily outside for a couple of weeks already. I also sowed some rows of Welsh onion, white beetroot, radish and endive. In this weather it is tempting to start early but I bet we have a few more cold days ahead.

Failed chores and sowing

Unfortunately I am running way behind on gardening chores. I was going to book a streetcar to go to the local DIY centre yesterday to get some compost but a) all cars were already booked (my own fault for leaving it so late) and b) according to their web site the shop location is out of all big bags of compost (a fact that I cannot quite believe). So I need to do it next weekend which means that my potatoes and mange touts are going in a bit later than I had hoped.



However, the first seeds are in. I sowed a serrano pepper that Karesansui-san passed on to me. I also planted my six varieties of tomatoes and some seeds from my one pack of aubergine. I am using the "toilet roll method" - the cardboard core cut in half and filled with compost. Usually I either go for the tray method or scratch all the little pots I have together but this year I am willing to try something new. The idea is that you can just plant the whole thing out and the cardboard rots down. I have also heard some negative reports that the glue or something in the cardboard may inhibit germination. Let's see what happens.