July

2nd July

Dave has brought some more planks for the borders that he collected from a family member

 Mrs H has found some beans that are ready to pick

Onions, too

July 8th

Visit to the LG today discovered the area surrounding the asparagus bed is just covered in weeds. Decided to pull out the weeds and then cover the area not in use for growing this year.

Weeds

Weeding

Chard is ready again for picking

750g of chard today

700g of spinach

800g of broad beans picked today

I decided to blanch the beans and also the spinach and freeze them to be cooked at when needed.

The chard I decided to cook as I would cook spinach and potato.

Recipe: Chard Aloo

Preparation Time: 10 mins                      

Cooking Time: 30-40 mins                       

Serves: 4

Ingredients

·       500g Spinach leaf washed

·       2 tablespoons cooking oil

·       1 large onion – peeled and finely sliced

·       1 teaspoon mustard seeds

·       1 teaspoon cumin seeds

·       1-2 teaspoon of finely chopped ginger

·       3-4 cloves garlic finely chopped

·       1 teaspoon ground coriander

·       1 teaspoon ground cumin

·       1 teaspoon turmeric

·       ½ teaspoon red chili powder or 1 fresh chili and salt to taste

·       3-4 fresh finely chopped tomatoes or half can of chopped tomatoes

·        300g medium size potatoes – boiled in skin and peeled

·       1 teaspoon garam masala

Method

1.     Heat oil and add mustard seeds. When mustard seeds begin to pop add cumin seeds. Add onion, salt and sauté onions until soft and lightly browned.
2.     Add ginger, garlic, green chilli and cook for 1-2 minutes. Stir in turmeric, ground cumin and coriander.
3.        Break potatoes with your fingers to size required and add to the onions and cook until potatoes are almost lightly brown. Add tomatoes and cook for few minutes
4.     Add the chard and cook until the all the water is almost evaporated.Finally sprinkle garam masala.

     

15th July

Hooray - courgettes are ready to pick. I wonder how many kilos we shall have this year ? Last year certainly was a huge glut of them in our LG.

The pumpkin variety planted this year is different from last year. This year the pumpkins are yellow from the start, last year they were green to begin with, then turned yellow and then orange.

Last year's green pumpkin.

Turning yellow and then orange.

Last years' pumpkin colour changes over time.

Here is the courgette, pumpkin and squash bed, it is like an overgrown jungle, spreading in all directions, and below is how it looked exactly four weeks ago. 

                                                                                          

Sweet corn plants are taking off ok.

Peas and mangetout are nearly over now.

                                                          The sprouts netted are doing well.


17th July
Today is a very warm day to be at the LG, but work has to be done. Priority to pull out all the onions as they are now ready for harvesting. 

Onions 

Last November I planted winter white, red and shallots onion sets. Most of them have now begun to go to seed, producing wonderful round heads of seeds.

So, in the afternoon heat I began to pull out the onions, they had all apparently come to the surface so no pulling was required.

 Nearly all out

What a harvest, the whole LG smelt of onions.

                                          Next the garlic, planted same time as the onions.

Plenty of garlic

The bed is now cleared of onions and garlic, and weeds all pulled out. I wonder what will be grown here next year.

This was my potato bed last year, and I have rotated the crops as one is supposed to do annually. 

As well as harvesting, there are other jobs that need attention. The shed roof has been leaking, so on this sunny warm, too hot for me day, Mr S has stripped the old roofing felt and hopefully with some help of an LG friend new roofing felt will be tacked on during the week.

Spinach is ready for the kitchen

              The rescued sprouts re-rooted and re-planted under the net are doing great

 This is a huge strawberry bed, looking so healthy, but lacks strawberries.

                            The artichokes started off so well, healthy and green 
                                          and then got attacked by black fly. 
                                  I sprayed them with fly spray and soapy water, 
                                                 and the result is as above.