It just seems so special to be eating my own curly kale on 20th December when the snow is about 20 cm deep outside, and how delicious it was, probably all the better for the cold. My potatoes are still going strong too.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Tomatoes for next year
I've just had a naughty/fun time on internet choosing and buying tomato seeds for next year. This year as a beginner I only had Gardeners' Delight and Moneymaker. The Gardeners' Delight were brilliant, they fruited copiously and produced wonderfully sweet cherry tomatoes. Moneymaker I thought were somewhat bland. So I've had to do homework on different sorts of tomatoes and try to whittle down the choice to a managable and affortable (?) selection. Flavour is paramount, but I also wanted to try some heritage varieties and try to prolong the fruiting season. So I wanted flavoursome plum tomatoes, a stripey 'ordinary' tomato, 3 varieties of cherry tomato (different colours), a best-seller at French markets tomato, an early fruiting variety that does well in low temperatures, a long keeper (that ripens very slowly over a couple of months once picked, so good for extending the season), stuffing tomatoes, that are big enough to jam stuff into and won't fall apart in the oven, and finally beefsteak tomatoes. What I have ordered are:
San Marzano (plum tomato), Red Zebra (red and yellow stripey tomato), Sungold cherry tomato, Black Cherry (with winey flavours apparently) and Gardener's Delight again, Super Marmande (the juicy, sunny, eyes-closed-and-you're-at-a-French-market tom from Provence - hope it won't be too unhappy in Rotterdam!), Sophie's Choice (an heirloom early tomato from Canada), Striped Stuffer (baseball size!), Caspian Pink (a beefsteak tom weighing in at about 340 g, which seems huge and is meant to be one of the best tasting toms on the market!).
It will be such fun seeing how they all do next year!
San Marzano (plum tomato), Red Zebra (red and yellow stripey tomato), Sungold cherry tomato, Black Cherry (with winey flavours apparently) and Gardener's Delight again, Super Marmande (the juicy, sunny, eyes-closed-and-you're-at-a-French-market tom from Provence - hope it won't be too unhappy in Rotterdam!), Sophie's Choice (an heirloom early tomato from Canada), Striped Stuffer (baseball size!), Caspian Pink (a beefsteak tom weighing in at about 340 g, which seems huge and is meant to be one of the best tasting toms on the market!).
It will be such fun seeing how they all do next year!
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
The garden came to a rapid end after a couple of heavy frosts mid October! The outside tomato plants and the courgette plants just collapsed forlornly overnight. I managed to salvage the bigger of the last courgettes, the last two smaller ones got badly frosted and went all soft. All the green outside tomatoes are now meant to be ripening in shoe boxes covered in newspaper.
The greenhouse tomatoes I am still picking, but it has been so cold and I suppose with less sun and shorter days they are ripening very slowly. So I pick them underripe and ripen them off on the kitchen window ledge.
The frosts have also finished off the Tagetes marigolds so the garden is suddenly looking very wintery and colourless.
As I write we are still completely self sufficient on the vegetable front, but I will have to start implementing with bought stuff soon. I am already coming to the end of the onions, so need to plant far more next year, but it is a comforting thought that the early onions, shallots and garlic are all planted.
I've still got masses of potatoes, so they will keep us going for a long while yet.
I've also still got carrots and beetroot in peat under the verandah. Also 2 small pumpkins and a courgette still to be eaten.
In the greenhouse the tomatoes are still ripening, there are late planted parsnips which hopefully will be harvestable in the spring - I'm just leaving them in the greenhouse. In between them are a row of red and a row of white spring onions.
There's broccoli in a big pot in the greenhouse, and also a big pot of cut and come again mixed salad leaves which I've already harvested a lot from and which is still doing OK.
In the greenhouse there are also various seedlings coming on: a big pot of Mesclun mix, lettuce, bull's blood beetroot leaves, pak choi, lamb's lettuce and land cress. I've no idea whether they'll all keep on growing in a draughty unheated greenhouse, but we'll see.
Outside there are rows of mustard greens, mizuma, raapstelen, baby carrots and radishes.
The outside parsnips were planted too late, so if they survive the winter we'll hopefully have parsnips in the spring.
The bulb fennel I cut leaving the roots in the ground and they have regrown so I have enough for a last picking.
The leeks, bigger spring onions, endive and brassicas I do the same with. I've got plenty of leeks for the moment. There are about 24 endive plants of various sizes.
I'm still harvesting the leaves from the bull's blood beetroot plants that are outside. There are 2 big purple kale plants that I do cut and come again with, they are very obliging! Both they and the Italian kale, Cavalo Nero, which I have lots of, were turned into lace by caterpillars. The lace production seems to have slowed down so I'm hoping the caterpillars have been killed off by the frosts.
The rainbow chard hasn't suffered the cold at all so far, it's still looking attractive and is still pickable.
All the stuff I planted out early autumn - more rainbow chard, more purple kale and spinach are suffering from the extremes of weather. Late summer/early autumn was much too dry so everything stopped growing, then when it did rain we suddenly had very cold nights and frost, which they're obviously not really enjoying either. I've started to put plastic bottles round some of them to give them a bit of protection. Because they're planted all higgeldy piggeldy I can't really put fleece over them.
There are quite a few celeriac plants. I've already harvested a couple, but will leave the rest in until needed. The Jerusalem artichoke plants are still in flower and will hopefully provide some nice farty meals over the winter.
I must get my broad beans planted and I still need to get a load of straw to mulch the beds, and to do some manuring, weeding and a big tidy up in the greenhouse and to put a proper path down. And of course ordering seeds for next year.
The greenhouse tomatoes I am still picking, but it has been so cold and I suppose with less sun and shorter days they are ripening very slowly. So I pick them underripe and ripen them off on the kitchen window ledge.
The frosts have also finished off the Tagetes marigolds so the garden is suddenly looking very wintery and colourless.
As I write we are still completely self sufficient on the vegetable front, but I will have to start implementing with bought stuff soon. I am already coming to the end of the onions, so need to plant far more next year, but it is a comforting thought that the early onions, shallots and garlic are all planted.
I've still got masses of potatoes, so they will keep us going for a long while yet.
I've also still got carrots and beetroot in peat under the verandah. Also 2 small pumpkins and a courgette still to be eaten.
In the greenhouse the tomatoes are still ripening, there are late planted parsnips which hopefully will be harvestable in the spring - I'm just leaving them in the greenhouse. In between them are a row of red and a row of white spring onions.
There's broccoli in a big pot in the greenhouse, and also a big pot of cut and come again mixed salad leaves which I've already harvested a lot from and which is still doing OK.
In the greenhouse there are also various seedlings coming on: a big pot of Mesclun mix, lettuce, bull's blood beetroot leaves, pak choi, lamb's lettuce and land cress. I've no idea whether they'll all keep on growing in a draughty unheated greenhouse, but we'll see.
Outside there are rows of mustard greens, mizuma, raapstelen, baby carrots and radishes.
The outside parsnips were planted too late, so if they survive the winter we'll hopefully have parsnips in the spring.
The bulb fennel I cut leaving the roots in the ground and they have regrown so I have enough for a last picking.
The leeks, bigger spring onions, endive and brassicas I do the same with. I've got plenty of leeks for the moment. There are about 24 endive plants of various sizes.
I'm still harvesting the leaves from the bull's blood beetroot plants that are outside. There are 2 big purple kale plants that I do cut and come again with, they are very obliging! Both they and the Italian kale, Cavalo Nero, which I have lots of, were turned into lace by caterpillars. The lace production seems to have slowed down so I'm hoping the caterpillars have been killed off by the frosts.
The rainbow chard hasn't suffered the cold at all so far, it's still looking attractive and is still pickable.
All the stuff I planted out early autumn - more rainbow chard, more purple kale and spinach are suffering from the extremes of weather. Late summer/early autumn was much too dry so everything stopped growing, then when it did rain we suddenly had very cold nights and frost, which they're obviously not really enjoying either. I've started to put plastic bottles round some of them to give them a bit of protection. Because they're planted all higgeldy piggeldy I can't really put fleece over them.
There are quite a few celeriac plants. I've already harvested a couple, but will leave the rest in until needed. The Jerusalem artichoke plants are still in flower and will hopefully provide some nice farty meals over the winter.
I must get my broad beans planted and I still need to get a load of straw to mulch the beds, and to do some manuring, weeding and a big tidy up in the greenhouse and to put a proper path down. And of course ordering seeds for next year.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
The garden looking very autumnal
including empty potato bed. Taken from up the plum tree while plum picking!
Sunday, August 30, 2009
My new garden helper, Stephanie
Bedankt Stephanie voor je hulp met Jana! Je bent een goede honden trainer! En een glimlach op de foto is toch een beetje gelukt!
Saturday, August 29, 2009
All the ingredients for ratatouille!
Monday, August 24, 2009
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