Man, I have been so busy this year that I have not had the time to do any more on here than read and respond to some postings. The social aspect of gardening; in this respect, has been awful. the only thing that I could do was to just save some piccies now and then and then hope to post them later. 't rained today, so it is now "later". I reckon I can begin with an old foto from last fall when almost all the beds were covered in mulch for the winter. Then this season when that last of the winter mulch was removed a coupla weeks ago. We do not like to remove all the mulch at once in the early spring because it then exposes the topsoil to the harmful rays of the sun and the drying effect of the spring winds...not to mention the ruining effect that the intermittent heavy rains have on the then excellent condition of the soil. What I like to do is to remove sections of mulch as it is time to plant crop types. This technique sort of drags-out the amount of time that one must look at the ugly, dead mulch lying on the beds. Well, this aesthetic concession is a price that I gladly pay for soil quality. One of the earliest beds made ready for planting received he pak choi plants that we raised at home on the window sill. They have since all been harvested and processed for the freezer. Here are a couple: One of the last plants to be planted in the beds that came free, were venkel (Foeniculum vulgare)...that's fennel, I believe. These were staggered so that everything will not be ready for harvest at the same time. The four different types of spuds have been planted and are now almost all harvested. They are especially tasty this year. We had to lift them early this year because of the Phytophthora. Tch! ...and another new variety, 'Purple Viking'. This last sort had enormous tubers, in spite of their early harvest. An odd thing about this 'Viking' sort was that a number of them had split...but not on every plant. Here we see a trug full of 'Trixie' and the 'Purple Viking'. A better look at the 'Trixie'. All the 'Moulin Rouge' variety were quite small, but there were 31-32 useable spuds per plant. Not bad. Back a couple of weeks ago I did the " Chelsea Chop" on my white Phlox. you can see in the trug how many tops I removed and on the stand of phlox you can see how many were left. Meanwhile the compost bins are filling up. We have removed suckers and extra leaves from the tomato plants by the trug-full. Here you can see some of them all nicely chopped in the compost bin. The Limnanthes that I surrounded the blueberry patch with this year are in full bloom and covered in an audible amount of honeybees. This foto was taken some weeks ago when the plants were just coming into bloom. They will self-seed and I will not have to plant them again next year. Recently we have been harvesting lots and lots of blueberries. last night we made 5½ pots of ham from 1250 grams of the berries. We still have much more in the freezer and the bushes still have quite a lot. the broad beans suffered a lot from the rats this year and we only harvested about half of what we ought to have been able to. We had 62 plants and wound up with about six meals. Tch! The Jackdaws have decemated the capucijners and peas. We had a bit of a harvest but not much. It is the first time that the birds ruined the peas before they even had swollen peas in the hulls. The Tah Tsai did well and we were able to freeze all the plants in. There are also leek plants that are planted and some later ones that will need to go in too. The grass paths are doing exceptionally well and must be mowed weekly. My bees have been acting-up this year and all of my colonies wanted to swarm and fly away...so I have been split them all and some still wanted to make a break for it, so I have been breaking out the queen cells. When one splits a colony, that means that one half will not have a queen and so the beekeeper must take steps to ensure that they can make a new queen for themselves. I have had less than optimal success doing this and am still struggling to get two of the colonies to knuckle-down and make their queens. I may have to buy new queens if this last attempt doesn't work out well. In a few days I shall listen to see if I can hear a newly emerged queen 'piping' in the hive...then i will go in there and break out the remaining cells and let any developed queens go into the hive. i do this in the late evening so that there will be no swarming...and during the night the queens will fight it out and the strongest will survive and the colony will again have a viable queen to run the show. Right then, that's the news from the lottie where all the allotmenteers work hard, all the courgettes are good-looking and all the spuds are above average.
................... Excellent post, Sjoerd, and thank you very much for updating us on your gardening activities.. Hank
Sjoerd, have you been listening to Garrison Kieller's Lake Woebegon on the radio? Your sounds like his However, your allotment looks great, and I'm sure you'll have a wonderful harvest all season long!
I wondered how busy you were. Everything looks great. too bad about the rats. nasty things. The purple viking potatoes are an excellent variety. I like all kinds of potatoes, though.
I always enjoy hearing about your activities on the allotment! You sure have been busy, and it sounds like you have already harvested a lot of your crops. Sorry to hear about the birds and the rats eating things ... I have bunnies and chipmunks over here. You have me wondering now, if I should chop my Phlox to make it a little bushier...
Thanks HANK--I appreciate your kind comments. Thank you DONNA--I store my spuds in a cool and dark space here. I will not have as many as last year though. Hiya MG-- Yes, that is what that closing was about. Thanks for your nice comments. Thanks CHERYL--I hope so. Hello CAROLYN-- Yeah, I like all kinds of spuds as well...I do have favourites though. I like the Purple Viking--the flavour is quite nice, but it is a bit crumblier than I like. NETTY--Thanks. That Chelsea Chop is not a necessity, but something that I like to do to extend the blooming experience. In this part of the world, it is a bit late for such a technique now; however, perhaps not where you live. You could always try it on one bush to see how it works for you. If you do try it, please keep me (us) informed with pics and commentary. It would be nice to see how it works for you there in your zone.
Sjoerd--Great photos & descriptions. Do you grow enough produce to sell or give away? Or is it just enough for your own use? BTW I loved the Lake Wobegone reference. Do you listen to him on your side of the pond?
Your garden is looking really good Sjoerd! Great pics! We too hav planted the Purple Viking and love the color and size! Love the Pak Choi also...lovely plants and tasty too!
Your soil does look very healthy, that I think must be the most important thing in raising a good crop. Good luck with your bees, lots of drama going on there. Just yesterday I bought a seed packet of Pak Choi, we love it and I will try my hand at it.
CAYUGA--Yes, I grow enough veg to last me a year. I also give some away and quite a bit for the Food Bank. I do not sell any. Thanks for the compliments, miss. I do listen to Lake Wo here sometimes...not so much in the summer, but in the winter more often. I especially like the little story that the host tells towards the end of the show. Thanks so much, BUNKIE--That pak choi is tasty. Thanks 4G--I agree with you that soil is the most important aspect of a garden. Good luck with your pak choi. I found it easy to grow...I will say that if you can grow something taller than it is in-between the pak choi and the sun, that it could do better. The plant will be protected and the chance that it would shoot will be lessened. I also gave water frequently. Good luck.
Looks like you are handsomely rewarded for all those hard work. I am always amazed at your bountiful harvest. The pak choi you mentioned that you processed it for the freezer, I'm curious, how do you processed it because here we always have it fresh.
