December veggies

The veg patch is a complete soggy weedy mess that I have no inclination to work in or clear up right now. However it's still productive and I shall attack and clear the dead sunflowers and chickweed lawn in the new year (before passing over to my digging machine, aka my OH, to get it prepared for next season's planting).

I still have salad veggies - spring onions, beetroot, Chinese leaves/cabbage (although that's looking a bit the worse for wear after -4C last week) and rocket, which is still merrily flowering despite -4C last week! I'm quite surprised by that actually.

As for the usual winter veggies, I have purple curly kale which isn't as big as it could be, but there's enough of it and pointless having too much like I had last year. The PSB isn't very big and really needs better staking as it keeps blowing over in the wind, but I feel very bleugh right now regarding gardening so it may just have to grow at a 45 degree angle. My leeks however are disappointing for the first time in 8 years here. I sow seed direct in the spring then transplant them in the summer just as I always have done - by this stage they are usually much larger than the pencil thickness which is recommended - some of mine are more like chunky marker pens! However they just didn't grow much after transplanting, which may have something to do with the 2 month dry period which followed. Then again, we always have a dry period..... so I don't know. Suffice to say we have not yet eaten any leeks as just harvesting enough for a leek risotto would probably need the majority of my autumn leeks which are still small. The winter variety have grown a bit better.

Chillies looked like this when we came back from our trip to the UK, so whilst they'd survived mild frosts with temps above freezing, they weren't happy with temps of zero C! The background here is of dead marigolds and sunflowers - and happily thriving weeds!

Frosted chillies - I don't need them as I already harvested plenty

Rocket flowers with leeks in the background

Frozen rocket leaves - they survived!

Pathetic leeks. Left two rows are 'Bleu d'Hiver' which have grown
better than the autumn leeks 'Prizetaker' on the right.

They have been better as photographic subjects!

Chinese Leaves looking a bit frosty

Purple Curly Kale

This kind of kale also makes a great subject to photograph when covered in drops of rain.

This is my wildflower meadow after I'd cut back or pulled out all the dead growth, mostly annuals. There are plenty of biennial or perennial plants here which I'll be leaving in place to see what happens next year. I think I spot one Honesty which I am pleased about, various things I can't identify and quite a lot of what looks like Centaurea montana. There are also two Foxgloves which is rather amusing, as I weed them out all over my flower gardens - however they just might be white which would be great, as I only have pink ones.

Wildflower meadow.
When I know what these plants are, I'll be able to transplant anything
that I like to other parts of the garden.

Look! Something still flowering! (I don't know what it is)

Beetroot leaves - the chickens love these.
They are edible for us humans too.

Chunky Beetroot Soup
Only had time to take a quick snap at the last moment so that's why I've cropped
out all the background!

There's only one slight problem - I still haven't planted my garlic yet!!!
 

Veg patch update - October

This will be the last one of the season, that's for sure! I took these photos on Sunday when it was already rather soggy, but since then we've had an enormous amount of rain and yesterday morning our seasonal stream had started flowing into our lake and by the evening it was a raging torrent! This morning the lake level had filled to about 4" short of the overflow and very soon we will be hearing the sound of running water again as it flows over and feeds the stream which runs beside my orchard.

An overgrown jungle with plenty of flowers in it!

Possibly the only tidy(ish) area with my PSB and Purple Curly Kale.
The peaches this year were not very good and had a lot of rot, so although
I have picked and eaten some the rest the birds can have, which is why I have left
the non rotten ones in piles for them. They're not interested though!

Gardeners' Delight. These large cherry toms are always so loaded
in very long trusses it is impossible to get through them in a short
season without a greenhouse which would need to be heated both
early on and late in the season - which I don't have
and woudn't do anyway - toms are cheaper to buy than electricity!

My chillies are loaded and I've been picking and drying red Cayennes
for a month now. Not quite sure what is happening with the
Piment d'Espelette as I seem to have all shapes of chillies on those plants.
I feel I was sold a duff packet of seeds, and that cost me over €10
so I'm not entirely pleased. They also need to be red/ripe or they are no use.

Chinese Cabbage.
Full of slug holes but hopefully
the hearted bits when ready will be OK!

I do have other veg such as leeks, which are a bit small and pathetic this year and I hope they will swell up now that the soil is moist. There are still beetroot for harvesting, lots of spring onions, a few radishes and loads of rocket. I even have a few small cucumbers left even though the plants are finished. As for the courgettes, I had the grand total of 9 from 2 plants (should be more like 50!). The last two that were forming I waited about 5 days until they were big enough to pick because I wanted to make a last savoury cake, but when I went to harvest them they had pitted marks of rot all over them. Even waiting 5 days for a courgette to get big enough to pick as a smallish courgette is quite ridiculous.

My Sunflowers are a bit of a mess now but the Calendula is
still looking good and colourful, so long as I keep on deadheading!

By one of my gates. There were actually once some veg here -
now it's just a lovely flowering jungle of Nasturtiums (new ones as
the older ones have gone over) and self seeded Verbena b. and Dill.

There are still a few strawberries to harvest -
when I can be bothered!

Still tons of raspberries

I don't really like these orange ones as they lack flavour;
in fact I wasn't aware that I had transplanted one of these plants to my new raspberry bed.
However raspberries spread like crazy so there is no guarantee that what you dig up
will be the plant you thought it was!

Yesterday in the pouring rain I harvested all the remaining tomatoes; the cherry toms are now spread out on my living room floor and the big tomatoes spread out here in my cellar-come-mud room. This also is the sum total of my pumpkin harvest - 3 potimarrons from 2 plants! I shall be making green tomato chutney with some of the big green toms and the cherries should ripen up slowly indoors.

What's left of the tomatoes

Here's a recipe which I first made about 10 years ago and is incredibly tasty. As we've only really got rocket left as a salad green I remembered this recipe of 'Grilled Spanish onion salad with parmesan and rocket' from Delia Smith, who is a very well known English TV cook and cookery book writer. Ignore the salt, she's always heavy handed with it and there is absolutely no need with parmesan which is quite a salty cheese. I also use a frying pan or griddle rather than the grill in the oven.

Rocket, griddled onions and parmesan - delicious!

Veg patch update - September

Some weeks ago my OH discovered a chrysalis on one of our watering cans, so of course I was straight out there with my camera. There must be tons of chrysalises about, somewhere, given the amount of butterflies we have here, but they are well hidden. His passing shot was "I bet it's a Cabbage White".

Large White (Pieris brassicae) chrysalis

I marvelled at the beauty and the two little 'feet' still sticking out, but as soon as I'd looked close up at the photos the first thing I googled was... yes you've guessed it. Sigh! It's the chrysalis of the Large White (Pieris brassicae), the one whose caterpillars look like this. Anyone who grows veg in Europe will recognise these!

Large White (Pieris brassicae) caterpillars on Nasturtium leaves

I have tons of nasturtiums self seeded that I am happy for them to eat, but I've only just planted out my winter brassicas (purple curly kale and PSB), and I've only been able to sow radishes and rocket (also brassicas) since August, due to flea beetle making it completely impossible earlier in the year. So now the battle commences - especially as the Large White lays a whole lot of eggs in a cluster like this:

Large White eggs, AND whitefly!

It's not just the Large White which is a problem, there is also the Small White (Pieris rapae), both species being known under the general term of 'Cabbage Whites', but at least they lay their eggs singly, so it is a bit easier to control and squidge single caterpillars as they hatch out.

A single very small caterpillar of the Small White (Pieris rapae).

In case those of you in Europe wonder why I'm harping on about Cabbage Whites and their eggs and caterpillars when you are all so well acquainted with them, it's because I have some readers from North America, who are 'lucky' enough to only have the Small White to deal with (thanks to us Europeans releasing them upon the unlucky North Americans somehow or other in the dim and distant past. Oh well, they got their revenge giving us the Colorado Beetle!).

So, onto other veg. The spuds were all harvested and despite having to cut back the haulms last month due to the spreading blight we got a good harvest of decent sized red Desiree maincrops. This is just a small amount of them! Still have some of the 'new' potatoes, Belle de Fontenay left as well.

My Potimarrons in the background. Unfortuntely I have precisely three fruit from two plants :-(

Fast forward several weeks and the purple curly kale and PSB have been planted out.

Normally there are tons of Potimarrons and I train them
through and up the fence wire.

The patch where my peas and beans were now has just French beans left, plus newly planted Chinese leaves/cabbage in a nice straight row at the front of the bed, but some are just collapsing and dying for no apparent reason (not through lack of watering or mulots - burrowing mice in French). I've also got radishes, rocket, coriander and yet more lettuce and beetroot in the background, but somehow the lettuce and beetroot seedlings keep being eaten by slugs. How I've no idea, as this soil is really dry and I only water where the actual plants are. So rocket salad it will be instead of lettuce (unless they get infested with caterpillars!).

Can you see the flowering Dill and Verbena bonariensis that just self seeds?
By this stage I'm happy for them to come up wherever they like.

Leeks have been transplanted into the back of this bed and the spring onions are doing
really well. I haven't bothered planting anything in the gaps as I have more space than I need,
and green manures would only mean yet more watering, which is chore enough right now!
Much of the space is being colonised by Dill, Verbena bonariensis and Nasturtiums
which just do their own colourful thing, so I'm happy with that.

Cucumbers - hmmm well we did get some, but the plants never really grew much.

Normally 3 plants would have swamped this wire support,
but even the bigger plant only had the one stem.

Now it's too late. Every year they succumb to this disease,
whatever it may be. Doesn't matter which variety I grow,
it always happens, and in fact the plants don't last very long.

Courgettes/Zucchini probably aren't a lot bigger than a month back,
but are producing slowly but steadily. Quite nice not to have a glut!

Harvest time. In fact that lettuce was
so riddled with little slugs all the way through
that the chickens ended up having it!

Tomatoes are doing well and the blight seems to have almost gone. I still pick off the occasional leaf with signs of blight but haven't had to spray with any more Bordeaux Mix, which is a pain to have to wash off the tomatoes.

Finally one of the Gardeners' Delight toms which I sowed myself
and was very tardy to do anything, actually growing like it should!

I have rude tomatoes too. I do miss growing rude carrots
but I don't miss carrot root fly.

Mixed tomato varieties after washing off the residual splashes of Bordeaux Mix.
I wanted better light so I put the bowl outside on the concrete,
only for nosy parker to get in my photo!

The tomato varieties I tried this year have been quite disappointing. The two heirloom varieties, Rose de Berne and Andine Cornue (long pointy tom at back, above) are quite dry with little in the way of seeds or juice inside, with Rose de Berne being rather small (front row, right and possibly behind my cat's face!). St Pierre toms are tiny and pathetic, tasteless and barely worth bothering to pick (front row, middle tom). The Roma plant got blight on the main stem so only a few tomatoes were left after chopping most of the plant off, which we've eaten cooked with a fry up and they were delicious. That leaves Fournaise (middle row above) which are a good size, juicy and just like a tomato should be - this is the third year I've grown them and I'm kicking myself for not having more of them but I do like to try different kinds. The cherry toms are all fabulous, of course, so for salads all is well.

Chillis are doing reasonably well, with the Cayennes
(above) doing excellently and ripening up fast.

Tomatoes, chillies and sunflowers
I'm deadheading the sunflowers because the weight of the seedheads
is causing branches to break off. Birds are enjoying the seeds.

Even the Marigolds (Mr Majestic) are liked by hoverflies
and I love their cheery colour, the fact they need little water and are just so easy!

I have to end on a butterfly note. At long last I got some decent shots of
the Small Heath (Coenonympha pamphilus) who stopped flitting for a few minutes
and posed for me on a beetroot leaf! These are one of the tiniest butterflies that I see.
Their larvae feed on various grasses, so absolutely not a problem in the veg patch!

Oh, and the earlier beetroot that did survive being eaten by slugs has done well and I have tons already pickled for winter. I had totally forgotten, until yesterday, about Chocolate Beetroot Brownies, so will be making them next time I cook up some beets - which will be soon, and I'll share the recipe, don't worry!

Red squirrels, ducks and a mystery chilli

It's so rare that I get an opportunity to photograph a red squirrel. I see them often but they are very wary here and bound off at first sight of a human. They live here in our garden and there is, we think, a drey up in a Spruce tree near the pond.

So just as I was walking past that tree about a week ago, I heard a familiar sound coming from a nearby tree and looked up. Luckily I had my camera in my hand! I think the squirrel was scolding me for going too close to its drey.

Pics are a bit grainy as I still wasn't close enough and I've had to crop an already zoomed in photo.

Just to change the subject I forgot on my last but one post about lazy summer days to post a photo of Doris duck learning how to do the bottom's up pose.....

They are so funny when they do this. They also swim under water, quite a way sometimes then come up and splash about wildly. Sometimes they do this after mating, when they're feeling a bit frisky! They do always have a jolly good bathe after sex it must be said!

Had a bit of a shock recently as one night the naughty ducks refused to come into their shed and the next morning Rachel the Rouen was missing. I searched high and low, fearing the worst, looking for signs of entry by a fox. Nothing. No sign of her, no feathers, no holes in the perimeter fence - it was a mystery. Then my OH went to look again and found her straight away. Oh yes, she'd gone broody and was sitting in a nest under a load of brambles by the pond - on six eggs and a pine cone. This corresponded with the fact she'd stopped laying 7 days beforehand.

We were then faced with the dilemma of what to do - not really wanting and certainly not needing more ducks, not happy about her staying out on the nest at night, but also rather drawn towards having some cute ducklings about the place. In the end we decided we would let nature take its course, thinking that not all eggs would be likely to hatch, and that predators would likely take some of the ducklings anyway.

We shouldn't have worried as she came off the nest in the evening and happily let herself be herded into the shed. The next day she was back on the nest in the morning, then came off it once in the afternoon and again later on and went happily into the shed for the night. By this time we knew it was unlikely those eggs were ever going to come to anything as they need to be kept warm all the time. She turned out to be total rubbish at being broody as by the next day she'd forgotten all about it and now they're being eaten by the magpies and crows, so that kind of solved that problem!

And just so you don't think I spend all my time photographing wildlife, and watching the antics of ducks, I do actually do some work in my veg patch occasionally...... and I'm wondering just what the hell kind of Jalapeno pepper this is supposed to be (Jalapenos are a short fat stuffable kind of chilli)! I'm sure I didn't get my labels mixed up, and even if I did, this is most certainly not a Piment d'Espelette either!! Maybe a seed of a different variety got into one of the packets? Time will tell I guess - not that I'll know what variety it is, but neither Jalapeno nor Piment d'Espelette are hot at all so a taste test could be interesting!