Looking Good ! 19.08.07

Welcome to my veg plot / garden update. Enjoy:

Despite the best efforts of the howling wind and rain, my runner bean plants continue to flourish in their raised bed home. We are picking beans now on an almost daily basis, whether they are for our own use, or indeed to give away to others. They taste really delicious.We also have a stock now of freshly frozen beans which were simply blanched,drained and then frozen. These will be used up as and when the beans go out of season, thereby extending the eating season. I've also been collecting seeds ; keeping the months seed harvest seperate, so that i can experiment with my planting next year.


I finally managed to get some of the Curly Leaf Kale planted up in the beds.
The plants are now a good 4" tall, and growing on at quite a rate.
This is my little experiment to provide some fresh winter greens, and I still have another dozen or so plants to go in. All I'm waiting for is my second crop of Peas (v.Kelvedon Wonder) to finish so that i can use the same raised bed to plant them up. For reference, I'm growing the Kale in the raised bed that was home to my first and second early pots plantings.


This little space was recently re planted with 2 rows of Betroot (v.Boltardy) and a further single row of Radish(v.French Breakfast). Hopefully these will germinate soon to provide some catch crops, whilst everything else is growing on.

I can't bear to see a patch of ground not being utilised!



This pic shows the remainder of my maincrop spuds (v. King Edward), which have yielded some good crops.
There are 4 plants & tubers left, which I intend to dig up later today, making room for my next crop.
My FIL has given me 15 seed pots (v. Maris Piper ) which I intend to plant up in 5's over the coming weeks, to try ultimately to get fresh spuds for christmas day. I will space the plantings out over 6 weeks, and hopefully will reap the reward. I'll keep you all posted.


This pic shows whats left of my second crop of peas (v. Kelvedon Wonder). 24 seeds were planted 8 weeks ago, and 12 grew on well.
Currently the pods are "mange tout" but are beginning to swell.
There won't be a massive harvest here; enough for 1 meal maybe, but another successful experiment proving a second crop is a viable option. Roll on next year !




I'm persevering with the toms (v. Moneymaker), but have yet to enjoy a good harvest. It seems for every 3 i pick, 2 go in the bin.
I've not enjoyed growing this variety ( despite recommendations from various people ) and do not intend to grow them again.
I will leave them to their own devices and hopefully still get enough to fill a salad bowl !


Thats about it for this weeks update. I hope you have found it interesting / informative even ?
There's no good news on the Southend United front either, having suffered a second loss in the league yesterday to the lowly Leeds United! Oh well, it's only a game!

Lets all hope we get some better weather this week, and I hope you continue to enjoy your gardens. If you want to add / contribute to this blog, then please get in touch.

TTFN.