February garlic

Heard about Elephant garlic on Gardeners' world, and managed to get some from Wilkos.

Planted three large elephant garlic cloves and some ordinary garlic.

Elephant garlic

February 2017

One nice sunny Saturday afternoon we decided to pay the LG a visit.

Did a spot of tidying up ready for planting.

Apple tree given to us by a LG friend seems to have taken root.

Tidying the strawberry bed....

Winter onions planted during November are coming through nicely

January 2017

Broad beans

Just looking at packets of seeds in a store, a gentleman came up to me and said, "Wrong time to be buying seeds." Well, it was October. I smiled and said, "Looking for next year."

This kind gentleman gave me some useful advice. He told me that he planted broad bean seeds on boxing day.

He put them in small trays and placed a toilet roll holder as a surround. This apparently shelters the seeds and they can be kept in a conservatory or a cold frame.

So, I purchased a packet of broad beans and not quite on boxing day, but one day in January, did as he suggested  and put the tray in a cold frame.

In the middle of February I noticed  shoots had come up.

These are ready to be planted in pots, before putting them into the ground.

December

Kind winter gives the LG a rest

The weather is turning cold now, so not much to do at the LG.

The trees around the LG are full of autumn shades of browns, bronze and gold. The ground is now being prepared and covered to keep weeds out until next year when planting will begin once again.

It has been an eventful first year of LG experience...On nice sunny days it has been pleasant to be out there. On hot sunny days it is hard work, as plants have to be watered and our water butts are usually empty, so fetching water from the communal water butts can be tiring. It's shared water and so I feel we cannot take a lot as others need it too, and all the plants need lot of water.


This year was just one BIG experiment. It was all new to us, and we needed to see what would work as well as what would not.


We had a HUGE harvest of courgettes and pumpkins.


Yellow french beans were an experiment and they did well, as did mangetout and onions. The tomatoes grew well, but then became a huge disappointment as they got blight and went dark green and brown and had to be pulled out.


Potatoes were a big success.


Strawberries in the strawberry tower were not a success, and our red raspberries did not fruit, maybe because it was the first year of putting the canes in. The yellow raspberries which I took from our home garden never ceased to fruit for at least three months.


Dwarf fruit trees - cherry, plum and pear - were planted this year and hopefully will take off next year and maybe fruit.
SO, WELL, AND for next year...

Many thoughts and ideas as to what to plant and how to arrange the beds. If we plant pumpkins again next year, we will only only put in a couple of plants and likewise with the courgettes.

Have already purchased packet seeds:

   broad beans
   french beans
   spinach
   broccoli greens
   asparagus
   artichoke
   squash
   courgettes
   salads

We have still to get:

   garlic
   sweet corn

Our onions are already in.

November

Autumn is now here

6th November  

It all looks rather bleak.

13th November

Our raspberry plants had grown really big and despite putting canes in between and tying them to the canes, they became so heavy that the canes could not really keep the plants up right.

We managed to get some poles from a LG friend. 

Dave and Sukh put them up and hopefully this will do the job next year, and once tied across the wire, it should keep the plants upright.

All done

October

2nd October 

Thinking about preparation for next year.

Preparing for next year

Pumpkins ripening nicely

8th October 

Yellow Raspberries ready to pick

Yellow Raspberries

Oh gosh, even more courgettes.... will they ever stop ?

Wow...looks delish

 11th October

All 20 pumpkins ready for harvesting

 15th October

Time to get winter planting done. It's the best time to plant winter onions.

Red, White and Brown

Three types of onions planted - red, white and brown. These are planted in the bed where I grew potatoes this year. These onions should be ready to harvest in the spring. I hope all goes well !

Raspberries still ripening

Wow!  What an amazing size - bigger than a football






At 10kg in weight

Mr S enjoys a bit of hoeing....

September 2016

Sunday 4^th September

Plenty of courgettes still to be harvested. Every time we go to the LG we come back with a lot of courgettes.

Courgette picking

Yes, this is a courgette turned marrow

AND today we picked                                   

Green courgettes                      6kg 800g

Yellow courgettes                     2kg

Potato harvesting

5kg potatoes

Pumpkins beginning to ripen

Flowers also from the LG

11th September 

Lovely warm afternoon day at the LG.

Put some more strawberries in, pulled out all the bean plants and just tidied up.

SO, today's courgettes

Green                 2kg 650

Yellow                       550g

15th September 

More courgettes !

Courgettes Green                 1.8kg

Yellow                                  1.9kg

There must be a glut of courgettes this year. Our 5 plants are producing so so much.

18th September 

Today our son son visited the LG for the first time and he was impressed with the crop of courgettes and pumpkins.

Looks pretty good here.

Better keep picking them

What a catch today !

1 whole green courgette  weighed   3.3kg

and another weighed                         3.1kg

4 green weighed                                 2.4kg

Yellow  courgettes                              400g

Need to think of some different exciting recipes for the courgettes.

September 25th

The pony poo arrives for the LG.

A whole trailer load

Plenty to spread

Plenty more where this has come from

Now need to dig it all in

Strawberry planting

Well this it for September. All the beans are now finished and pulled out. The pumpkins are ripening nicely and will leave them for couple more weeks before harvesting them.