June 2007

1	I had a lovely trip out to the Orchard Tea Gardens in Grantchester to meet up with my sister-in-law, her daughter and her grandson, who is almost two and I had not yet met.  He was beautiful and had a wonderful temperament.  Do visit these tea gardens if you get the chance.  As you might expect they are situated in an orchard with loads of deck chairs spread amongst the trees, so no matter how many people are there, it doesn't seem overcrowded.  And if you're feeling energetic after your lunch or tea & cakes, you can walk down to the nearby river. Harvest: Salad leaves, red & white radishes.
2	Time to pot up and plant out: one garden pearl tomato plant in a long tom pot, three purchased tomato plants (from the local fair) in the greenhouse, 1 melon on a trellis in the potting shed, 2 melon on a wicker obelisk in the greenhouse, 3 red peppers into 3 inch pots and my alpine strawberry troughs moved to the fruit cage.  In the tunnel I planted another bed of 76 onions and started preparation of a raised bed for sweetcorn.   My first ripe strawberries are nearly ready.
3	The raised bed is finished with 12 sweetcorn planted in it.  I potted up my third melothrie into an 8 inch pot with small obelisk, which I will keep in the potting shed to compare with the outdoor growers.  Transplanted 1 mini cauli into a new pot and protected it with a fleece cover.  Planted out my 3 bought sprouts in the veg garden and later regretted this - they should be in the net tunnel where the netting will protest them from brassica munching bugs.  Weeding & watering ensued before I started to prepare the next tunnel bed.
4	All systems go.  2 chard plants, 6 shallots, 9 asparagus pea and 11 pea seedlings all planted out in the veg garden followed by 16 more potatoes and 40 shallots in the tunnel.  Crow is furiously digging & turf removing in the tunnel to make me more beds. Harvest: first strawberries, salad leaves, mint, red & white radishes
5	Built second raised bed in the tunnel but nothing planted in it as I need more compost to fill it.  Potted up 3 bush "neighbour" tomatoes.  Planted out 10 sweet potato slips but one has lost all of its leaves so it is probably already dead.  Prepared a runner bean wigwam. A lovely evening comprising of a Chinese meal with friends followed by a Mercury theatre visit to see Small Miracle - a comedy very well preformed by the resident cast.
6	Crow digs and digs and digs.  I think he's fed up with it.  All I seemed to do today was to fully earth up my Valor potato pot.
7	Another busy gardening day:  in the tunnel I finished planting my potatoes (at last!), sowed two rows of carrot parmex, filled up the second raised bed and put 6 sweetcorn seedlings and 2 mini cauliflowers (transplanted from a pot of three) in it.  I then moved to the veggie garden where I sowed another beetroot pot and planted runner bean seeds (half mine and half from a new packet.  Then into the greenhouse where I planted six tomato plants given to me by a neighbour.  Finally, back to the tunnel where I staked my sweetcorn for protection from a forecast storm tonight and transplanted one of my bought sprout plants. Harvest: salad leaves, red & white radishes.
8	Housework and cooking today as we have dinner guests, although I did manage to pop into the net tunnel, where Crow was digging me another two courgettes holes, and plant another 45 onions between my sweetcorn. Tonight's menu:  Courgette soup with home-made brown bread, followed by Longfield rabbit in cream with roast vegetables, followed by strawberry mascarpone tart.  Yummy!
9	Our guests were still with us, so we took them for a nice country walk before they departed. Then Crow took me on a surprise trip to a local exotic plant nursery (see Chicken Diary for more about this), where I cheated (again) and bought 8 celeriac plants. Back home I planted out 3 courgette, 2 chard, 8 bought celeriac, sowed 6 red cabbage stations, dug 2 new beds and two old beds in the tunnel. Germination: Potatoes - 8 valor + 10 sarpo mira.
10	Earthed up all my potato pots which are looking so healthy, planted four more Pointers tomato plants and 2 pepper plants in the greenhouse and one pepper in a pot.  I've been growing three cabbages down the side of the greenhouse under individual cloches but they're looking a bit cramped so I covered them with fleece instead. Harvest: Raspberries, salad leaves, red & white radishes.
11	More digging......  All of my onions & shallots are sprouting.
12	Yet more digging, but then more planting.  First, a bed of radishes, basil, coriander, oregano and salad.  Then a bed with a row each of scorzonera, carrot, beetroot & leeks.  (I;ve read that scorzonera can deter carrot fly).  Three courgette seeds sown in the worst new bed.  Since my transplanted sprout looks ok, I move the other two sprouts from the veg garden into the tunnel. Two more courgettes planted out in the veg garden.  Potted up one golden berry and six red pepper. Harvest: chard, strawberries. Finished latest Chick creation, giving as a birthday present tomorrow.
13	Potted up another 6 golden berry (two to give to a friend) plus 10 more peppers. Visited friends for dinner this evening - a lovely mid-week treat!
14	2 more tunnel beds sown: spinach, fennel, chard in one - turnip, kohl rabi, calabrese in the other.  So much for the tunnel stopping brassica munching bugs.  I've got whitefly attacking my tunnel cauliflower and sprout plants!!  Out with strategically placed sticky traps. Harvest: strawberries. Germination: potatoes 5 verity & 5 markies, and 8 beetroot in my latest pot. There was absolutely torrential rain overnight, so I expect some of my seeds will have been completely washed away  :-(
15	A brief respite from the veg for some flower garden maintenance.  We're planning a delivery of 10 tons of gravel to resurface our drive and I want to steal some to partly cover flower bed 1.  So I clear the top end of this bed and covered the area with weed suppressant, cutting holes for my rhododendron and six tiny heathers. Harvest: salad, radishes
16	Thunder & lightning curtailed today's gardening, but that allowed me time to prepare a three course meal using lots of home produce:  potato and bean soup (see recipe section), egg salad, followed by strawberries and raspberries with greek yogurt. Germination: 4 chick & 6 other runner beans. Harvest: strawberries, raspberries, last of radishes.
17	Spent several hours clearing more of flower bed 1 (at the other end) ready for "gravelling". Now, here's a strange thing - I've bought a pot where you grow plants upside down.  It's called, aptly, a Topsy Turvy.  The claim is that you put your tomato plant in it and it then expends no energy trying to grow up and more energy goes into the fruiting process.  Well, it was quite awkward to get the plant it, in fact I lost my best tomato plant in the process as it's stem snapped.  I was successful on the second attempt, so we'll see...... I also potted up my first three hanging baskets with tumbling toms. Finally, I weeded in the orchard with Crow, where our young fruit trees were being choked by weeds - again!  All that protection of the cherry tree was for nothing as there's only one cherry on it.  Maybe that's my fault - perhaps I covered it in fleece before proper pollination had occurred?
18	This morning was spent trying to get this website up to date, as the live site has nothing for June.  Sorry for delay! Our gravel arrived and boy is there a big pile of it to spread about. Germination: tunnel carrot parmex.
19	Crow was out all day at a car auction so I did some gravel moving then on to lighter duties, potting up 3 west indian gherkin into a trellis trough, sowing four more melon pear pepino and two more lemonade berry seeds.  Also, one of my chick courgettes in the tunnel has died, so I removed it and sowed three more courgette seeds in it's place. Lots of germination in the tunnel:  potato - 4 amandine, 4 sarpo axona & 3 verity, kohl rabi, calabrese, beetroot, scorzonera, 6 red cabbage stations. Harvest: raspberries & strawberries. Another terrific thunder & lightning storm this evening with yet more torrential rain.
20	A visit to mum-in-law for lunch, then back for gravelling until late, when I noticed that the first day lily of the year has bloomed.  That's nine days earlier than last year. By the way, that sweet potato slip that I thought would die because it had lost all of its leaves has grown a new leaf and is struggling back to life. However, my carrot parmex seedlings and a couple of red cabbage in the tunnel seem to have become a victim of yesterday evening's storm and disappeared - probably battered back into the soil.
21	Yet more gravel moving, then into the greenhouse to plant 6 golden berry, then weeding of the path alongside the veg garden & (guess what) more gravel there! Germ: chard & spinach in the tunnel, plus 1 lemonade berry in the potting shed and 1 lonely nasturtium in my hanging pots on the car port.
22	Built a second 6-cane runner bean wigwam and transplanted four plants from the first as only one per pole is best.  That left two empty canes where I sowed another four of my own seeds, saved from last year's crop.   Extra turnip and scorzonera sown in the veg garden to fill gaps in the existing rows and dwarf beans sown in the penultimate free bed in the net tunnel. Harvest: 5.5 oz strawberries, 9 oz rhubarb. Germination: Cauliflower, fennel, carrot, and leek in the tunnel where everything is showing some signs of success, except my courgettes.  I can't believe I'm going to have a courgette famine.  Usually it's the only thing I can't stop growing!
23	Our patio is flooded and the garden is a swamp after yet more thunder, lightning, torrential rain and hailstones!  June is just not supposed to be this wet. Who's out there reading this??  I see I've had 5 hits in the last two days.  Why don't you send me an email, give me some of your news and let me know what you like (or don't like) about the site.
24	Yet more rain all morning.  I can't recall the garden ever being waterlogged in June.  Another courgette plant is lost, absolutely drowned in the tunnel, although I've harvested the first courgette from my plant in the big pot.  Harvesting my first carrots from pot 2 allowed me to transplant some thinnings from the carrot trough.  I read that this is not really supposed to work but I've done it before with success. It's too wet for working on the soil, so I gravelled my veg garden path - and very nice it looks too!  But it's pouring with rain again now......... Harvest: salad leaves (last of very first saladisi pot), courgette, carrots, raspberries, strawberries.
25	This rain (still more today) is causing me serious problems.  I'm now losing another courgette and some shallots and onions due to waterlogged ground  :-(( So, three more courgettes seeds and 3 squash seeds sown in pots today, plus three ornamental gourd seeds to see if I can grow some "fascinating indoor decorations" for Xmas time. Harvest: chard.
26	Another serious amount of rain overnight.  I really wish in would stop.  Our pond is higher than it was even in the worst of the winter season. Harvest: first dwarf beans.
27	As if the rain wasn't enough, high winds last night have done their best to damage my jerusalem artichokes, bush beans and climbing courgette.  Had to make repairs and introduce stakes for support and hope the stems aren't too damaged. That was all I had time for before I made of to visit one of my best girlie friends for an afternoon of good old gossip!
28	A bit of TLC for my plants today - tending, watering (indoors, potting shed and greenhouse only, of course!) and weeding.  Veggie wise, I potted up another tomato in long pot, potted on two more while they are waiting to go outside and planted four peppers in the greenhouse.  Finally, I potted up three new houseplants which In have propagated from cuttings.
29	Still raining......  A very boring cleaning day, indoor windows and curtains and interior car cleaning, while Crow tackled the external car cleaning. However, this evening I finished my latest Chick original.  I might even keep this one for myself, as I really like it.  It's a sleeveless tunic, made in Patons Cargo tape yarn. Harvest: dwarf and haricot beans, first broad beans, carrots, salad leaves and strawberries.
30	Still raining.....  I can't imagine the anguish for all of those around the country who are caught up in terrible flooding.  Living in a bungalow, we would lose everything if we were flooded to four feet or more, like some I've seen on the news.  No "upstairs" to move precious items to.  Doesn't bear thinking about.