Planting Broad beans

 

It's a bit later than last year, but inspired by the sunshine, and the fact that I start teaching soon, and with the help of my trusty undergardeners, who are on a half day from school, we have the broad beans planted. We have ignored the planting dates on the pachets, and planted Aquadulce Claudia, and the Sutton - both varieties did well from a Jan 1st sowing last year.

I soaked the broad bean seeds overnight - this will accelerate the germination. And it's so promising to see them plump up. And tried to organise my seeds (see my tiny plot for a good method), and found lots of other broad bean varieties. So I think I'll be planting a lot more of these over the coming weeks. They are a great early cropper, and you can eat the tips, the tiny seed pods before they fill out, and the seeds - so the more the better. And popping them open to see them nestled in their downy pods in a great job for all the family.

Leeks

Some of my leeks are going to seed - which makes them completely inedible. I ODed on leeks this year - though I don't think you can have too many. The Hannibal leeks are still growing well, but the Bleu de Solaise seem to be an autumn harvest variety,(though they were sold as a good overwintering variety), and a good many of them are producing seed heads.

I should remember to sow those ones early, and the Hannibal later, to get a good crop from autumn on. And stick with the Hannibal, or another variety for winter eating.

Mullingar Advertiser

Got a good write up in the Mullingar advertiser this week - welcome if you're here because of that. Hope you enjoy the rest of the blog.

The list of courses is here- get booking :-)

Summer planting

Here's a list of some of things you can plant at this time of the year - good to plant some if you'd like to have food from your garden year-round.

Root veg
Fennel
Leeks – from existing plants, not from seed
Winter onion
Carrots
Parsnips
Beets
Radish (for Cooking)
Daikon
German varieties (black/purple)
Turnip
White – for pre-frost harvest
Yellow – for winter harvest
Leaves
Asian Leaves – frost hardy
Mizuna, Mibuna. mispoona
Pak Choi
Chard, kale, cabbage
Raddichio
Purple sprouting broc
Rocket
Corn salad /lambs lettuce ( great in early spring)
Winter salad mix
Endive
Beans and Peas
• French beans – climbing and dwarf – till end July
• Peas – till end July, and Sept/oct for next spring

Useful links:
Where to get these seeds:
http://www.realseeds.co.uk/summersowing2.html
http://brownenvelopeseeds.com/index.php/

Also check out the realseeds guide to Summer sowing

Beautiful Frosty Morning

 

 

It's a beautiful fresh frosty morning here - the leaves are well decorated. This is the coldest that it's been since we moved back here in 2006, and my laissez-faire attitute to the root veg may backfire on me. For the past 2 winters I have left the beets, turnips and daikon in the ground through the winter, harvesting them as needed.

But since we didn't have much frost, this was a fairly safe strategy. This year, my fennel has already taken some damage from the frost, we covered it with fleece on Monday, but I have more or less written it off. It's not really supposed to overwinter. I was hoping for a few more Beet and Daikon harvests, though - I'm hoping that only the surface is frozen, and that they will be ok. The leeks are looking a bit limp, and some of them are going to seed, so probably time to use them up too. If things thaw in the afternoon, I'll go out and harvest a few to assess the damage.


Lesson learned - get in some straw in the autumn for tucking in the root veg!

On the positive side, this frost will break down the bed I prepared at the weekend, and will do a good job of killing the pests, it's a necessary part of the cycle, and welcome as such.

 

 

 

Summer planting

Was going to title this post - 'Preparing for Winter', but that seemed a bit chilly in August. July has seen me doing a lot of seed planting in preparation for the next growing season. So while the the Runner beans are not yet producing, we are planning for crops for the Nov-March 09 period - hopefully!

What we have planted:
Purple sprouting Brocolli
Cauliflower
Cabbage - Savoy and Holland
Ragged Jack Kale
Rainbow Chard
Mizuna
Mispoona
Weiner Runder Kohlschwarzer (from realseeds.co.uk)http://realseeds.co.uk/radish.html
Salsola (as above)
Orach (as above)
Spinach
Corn salad
Carrots
Borage
Onion seeds (Winterhecke)
Daikon


Since growth won't be as prolific, it seems to make sense to plant more, in the hopes of having something to eat from the garden later in the year. Last year leeks did great, but we only had 8, so this year I have 50 or so fattening nicely. Which will make up for the lack of onions and garlic this year.