On Wednesday and Thursday of last week I got a good bit of gardening done including planting out 9 (probably 3 too many) Purple Broccoli plants that arrived in very good condition from Marshalls Seed Company. I've fenced them with the netting frames BiL made for me and covered them with enviromesh. Last year they failed because of the exceptional heat and the critters that somehow got in - whitefly and cabbage white butterflies - despite covering them as best I could. If there is another fail this year perhaps that will be the last time of trying to grow winter 'greens' here in my limited space.
This is Crumble - next door neighbours cat - ten feet up in my flowering cherry tree. She is being mobbed and teased by two blue-tits and shouted at by a blackbird. Lovely cat- apart from the occasional cat poo in my vegetable beds - not so often now though as they are too full and mainly fenced round....foiled!
Nothing nested in that new, cheap car-boot birdbox - it was late going up and I think the hole is too big - may have to get BiL to get it down again and sort it - although I hardly dare ask as it was quite a feat for him to get it up so high in the first place.
Like you, I have problems growing winter brassicas in my small garden so have planted scarlet kale and Brocolli in flower beds this year, we shall see. At my last garden where I had lots of different Buddleia I cut them right down at the end of Feb and they always came good again with better flowers. I don’t have courgettes this year but more French and Runner beans than I can cope with so they are given to family. Wet in Dorset and not a ripe tomato yet. Sandra.
ReplyDeleteThe climbing beans are just appearing - the are a bit squashed into too small a space - as is everything!
DeletePerhaps would be nesting birds are a tad worried by the presence of a cat under their home?
ReplyDeleteIt would be a bit of a shock for them! - luckily she doesn't climb up there very often
DeleteWe can see the bird box in next-door's garden over the fence. Last month I watched in awed and horrified fascination as a woodpecker enlarged the hole by pecking through the surrounding rotten wood and destroyed the nest (second brood of blue tits). I suspect you are right in saying the hole on your bird box might be a bit large.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know woodpeckers would attack baby birds - poor things.
DeleteI think I need a longer ladder to get the darn thing down again to alter it
I will sow psb and cavolo di Toscana at the end of July for planting out beginning of September in the fruit cage when they will romp away in warm soil under the autumn rains not being troubled by cabbage whites or pigeons. The seasons are changing and I find September to November offers much better growing conditions than the dry heat of July and August. I cut my buddleia down to about 12 inches in early spring and it bounces back to start flowering around now. I can’t see your gooseberry so I guess it really is in the shadow of the oil tank. Yesterday evening after that delicious rain I sowed a couple of short rows of rocket. It will germinate in days and with more rain in the forecast be ready to pick in a few weeks - rocket is much more reliable than lettuce in the high summer heat. My five metre square and open to the elements veg bed (not raised or edged, just carved out of the ground like an allotment) is covered by 10 asparagus, 14 borlotti beans, 5 Uchiki Kuri squash, 12 sweetcorn Swift and three courgette plants - two green and one yellow. I have made a hazel wand cordon around my herb patch in one corner otherwise the chives, tarragon, sage and oregano would be smothered. In the similar sized fruit cage are the raspberries, strawberries, rhubarb, white currant and red gooseberry bushes and all my greens - rocket, the last of the four seasons lettuces, lots of lovely chard and perpetual spinach and Purple podded French beans which are on the cusp of producing. It’s been a pretty good growing year so far - my only failure has been the mice eating the strawberries and the mistake of buying a dwarf Cherry Stella tree from J. Parker’s during lockdown in 2021 and it turning out to be an ordinary cherry tree. I sent photos and got a refund and my son dug out the tree which I had planted in the fruit cage so it couldn’t possibly stay. Sarah in Sussex
ReplyDeleteThat sounds amazing Sarah. I am no great shakes as a veg gardener - better with plants.
DeleteIt's at this time of year that I miss having a bigger space
DeleteFrom what I can see she looks like a lovely cat.
ReplyDeleteShe is a lovely cat - still very wary which is good as she doesn't go near the road
DeleteThat's a pleasingly productive plot. It looks as though courgettes are doing well this year.
ReplyDeleteThe courgettes are doing much better than some years - it must be perfect growing weather for them
DeleteI love all winter greens but don’t grow any as they just get decimated.
ReplyDeleteI just keep trying as it annoys me to have bare soil all winter.
DeleteDespite having a smaller garden you still manage to grow a fair amount. I didn't know cherry trees grew that big. We have one which was given away by our Grand-daughter's school for a project and I think we'll have to move it after seeing yours.
ReplyDeleteIt's been good to see what I can fit in here.
DeleteI believe the flowering cherry is the oldest thing here - possible as old as the bungalow so could be 40 years old. It's been topped once already before I moved here
Looking good. My runner beans are doing very well, covered in flowers. I've a few (limited!) trusses of tomatoes coming along nicely in the polytunnel but a while before they are ripe! Just had my first cucumber - one plant - the other died. Can't have too many cucumbers- I can sit and eat one at a sitting! One courgette plant here and the courgettes keep getting nobbled by slugs! Bought 4 each of cabbage, purple sprouting broccoli and cauliflower but no great shakes there yet and one has been totally eaten. Ah well, just as well I'm not relying on my plot!
ReplyDeleteI shall make a note to myself to allow more room for the beans next year and If I succeed with the broccoli I'll try a variety of 'greens' next year
DeleteFor a small space, you have a wonderful veg patch and those green fingers are working wonders. How nice to gift the people passing by. xx
ReplyDeleteBetter to give things away than to add them to the compost
DeleteYour garden is looking great! I'm harvesting some zucchini (courgette) here in Ontario as well. -Jenn
ReplyDeleteI'm eating them with everything!
DeleteYou have some lovely veggies there, I bet your neighbours love the free food source too.
ReplyDeleteI am having visions of your Flamingo tree full of little pink birds, now that would confuse Crumble!!
Haven't seen any yet!
DeleteEverything is growing beautifully. You have a fantastic garden. Putting your extra harvest outside for others to take is lovely. I am sure your neighbors are enjoying the vegetables. Crumble looks like quite the tree climber. He seems to love your tree. It is Crumble vs. the birds.
ReplyDeleteShe walks through the garden most days and luckily doesn't often climb the tree.
DeleteI am so impressed by your garden! Well done! And generous too.
ReplyDeleteI'm eating courgettes with everything and giving cucumbers away to everyone
DeleteThe picture of your marrow (given away) reminds me of my favourite dish as a child made by my mother - cooked marrow stuffed with mince, rice and diced veggies. Yum, I can still recall the lovely taste. Roderick
ReplyDeleteThe marrow was turned into jam - the only way to make it edible I think
DeleteSlice the marrow in half longways. Scoop out the seeds and other interior. Put in the mixture of ground beef, rice and diced veggies (tomatoes are good). Tie the two halves together with two bits of string. Put into the oven in a pan and bake it until the exterior is cooked but still firm. That's how I recall it. Roderick
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