July 2006

1	I've planted out another 12 celeriac, but I've still got 12 more and I'm out of room. I seem to have one particular trouble spot in the veg garden where nothing survives.  The final test is that I've planted a small 4 station wigwam with the last of my runner bean seeds.  If anything will grow there, surely they will. Obviously planting activity is getting sparse now - it's all watering, weeding & pest control and harvesting, of course! Today's harvest: turnip and broad beans.
2	Snake in the grass!!  Well, in the woods, actually. We're having a party at Longfield today with a walking/treasure hunt element included - for those deranged enough.  Talk about mad dogs & englishmen out in the midday sun - it's over 30C!!  If you're interested there's more at http://2006.pegularity.org.uk Just checking around the garden at the end of an exhausting day and was horrified to find more sawfly caterpillars having a good munch on my gooseberry bush.  Crow harvested  a pound of gooseberries and helped me find the pests!  Another courgette too!
3	After a trip to Heathrow and a visit to mum-in-law, only time for watering in the garden.  Too hot for anything else anyway as it's still over 30C here.  I did notice that my newly sown raab is already germinating and there were two more courgettes to harvest.
4	At last, my remaining red egg aubergines look strong enough for transplanting.  Three went into the spaces preserved for them in the greenhouse.  I was beginning to think that my runner beans sown on 22 June were going to fail, when two of them popped up today.  However, one celeriac has died.
5	Broad bean harvesting this morning before a visit from friends who now live in Portugal.  Just time & energy at the end of another really hot day to pot up the last four aubergine red egg plants and try to rescue a fallen tomato plant in the greenhouse.  I seem to be a victim of my own success - some of the cordon tomatoes are growing so vigorously that they are pulling down their cane supports.
6	Cooler weather at last, but a day out of the garden for body maintenance - eyebrow shaping and hair cut.  Got beetroots to harvest, so I've been researching recipes. Changed my mind about the garden.  It's much cooler today (only 22C) so I've weeded around the fruit trees.  Deep joy this morning when I read that weeds among the onion crop in the late summer actually help onions to ripen by reducing the water content, thereby improving the flavour - so one less weeding job to do!
7	Time to use some produce as my fridge is full of courgettes.  Two new recipes tried resulting in two courgette loaves, two courgette muffins (as samples) and a big pot of curry zucchini soup. One and a half loaves prepared for freezing.  Also cooked gooseberries for tonight's pud. Oh - and my Kenwood Chefette hand mixer of 32 years expired in a very big puff of smoke after beating the enormous bowl of courgette loaf mixture.  Bet a new one won't last as long...... Still trying to defeat the gooseberry sawfly!
8	Harvest coming into full swing now.  My first crop of beetroot, loads of broad beans and some dwarf/haricot beans. Bean freezing and beetroot cooking ensued later.  Dinner was a rather nice Beetroot Risotto with Summer Greens which ingeniously used some of the beet greens along with the roots.  My kind of recipe!  A big pot of beet greens left though, so I must dig out the "spinach" recipes for tomorrow.  Sadly not enough beetroot left to make the Chocolate Beetroot Cakes that I had my eye on...... Unusually, I stepped out of the veggie garden to dig over and weed flower bed 5.  It was displaying some lovely wild pansies, but they were thoroughly mixed in with nettles and other weeds, so everything had to come out.  I scattered some poppy seeds given to me by mum-in-law, so we'll see what happens next. Carrot pot C2 (replanted on 30/6) is germinating. I've tried an experiment, freezing some mint and lemon balm leaves in ice cubes from which to make tea later.
9	Planted out all of my remaining celeriac today.  Two replaced ones that had died and at least one of the newly planted ones looks unlikely to survive.  Only three runner beans from the first wigwam have germinated (disappointing) and two from the second wigwam (more promising).  Harvested more broad beans and my first peas for tonight's supper, plus another courgette. Made spinach (beet green) and potato soup and a banana nut loaf, duly frozen.
10	Another banana nut loaf baked to use up the last of the over-ripe bananas.  This cake-like loaf is made in the breadmaker.  Still having great trouble in the greenhouse with gigantic tomato plants snapping & falling over despite my attempts with extra cane supports. Harvest?  What else but another courgette! Tried tea made from a lemon balm ice cube but I let it cool too much before I drank it, so couldn't judge the success. (ok, ok, I admit it, I fell asleep on the settee.)
11	Had to reorganise my enormous potted tomato plants today.  Had four standing down the centre of the greenhouse which I had to lift out every time I went in.  Two moved to the conservatory and one to the potting shed.  Harvested some baby parmex carrots to make a sweet beetroot salad with the last of the beetroot and some lettuce and nasturtium leaves to serve it on.  Topped it with my only gherkin to be produced so far.  And guess what?  You got it - 3 more courgettes.
12	11am - the pot's boiling to brew up some courgette soup. My red spider mite (if that's what it is) is trying to make a come-back in the potting shed.  It seems to like the physalis and pepper plants, but not the tomatoes (thank goodness - too many leaves to examine) and gherkin.  So I've been examined each leaf on each plant and painstakingly removing the bugs.  Then I wiped over some of the wood in the potting shed with a Jeyes solution to see if that will help. Harvested lettuce, land cress and a snowball turnip to make a salad with courgette, mushrooms and tomato.  And two more courgettes! Tried another lemon balm ice cube.  Not as good as fresh, obviously, but better than nothing when the plants have disappeared in winter.
13	Boring jobs first, watering the potatoes in the paddock and weeding the veggie garden.  Followed by the best bit, harvesting gooseberries (800g) but it's the last of them.  Broad beans and swiss chard to accompany tonight's fish in foil (including hidden courgette), plus 2 more courgettes! I am also trying to get my cordon tomatoes under control by cutting off some of the foliage and pinching out the growing tips.  Sounds like I know what I'm doing, but I don't!  Greenhouse? - it's a jungle in there! A treat for tomorrow - Longfield rabbit provided my our shooting friend.
14	Feel almost self-sufficient tonight.  Dinner was Longfield rabbit plus veggies from the garden - courgette, broad beans, dwarf beans, snowball turnip and carrots.  And look --> 4 more courgettes! Garden activities included netting the blueberry plants, staking the sweetcorn (quite windy today), transplanting one of the new courgette seedlings, hanging some bay leaves to dry in the stable and replanting a Red Robin in the flower garden. And, I picked my first two ripe tomatoes from one of the hanging baskets potted up on 9 May - the tasted was sublime!  One of the long tom pots in the conservatory toppled over due to the uneven weight and growth of the trusses.
15	No gardening today, apart from watering, as shopping and baking for tomorrow's second Pegularity took preference.  Looking forward to seeing some old friends from work who I haven't seen for eight months and two of our best friends who ran away and had a secret wedding on 3rd!
16	Our second Pegularity day, and another hot one.  Another hit and £410 raised for charity from the two events. So, just watering at the end of the day and harvesting two gherkins and two more courgettes. (My courgette bake was a big hit at lunch time, raising quite a few compliments.)
17	Wow, 30C today and forecast to rise to mid 30's in the next two days!  Having trouble keeping the potting shed from getting too hot and scorching the plants.  My raab is scorched, despite me watering it every evening.  A friend kindly gave me some runner beans seeds, so I've planted again around the three wigwam poles which did not germinate.  Harvested another 5 gherkins, but hardly enough for pickling! However, the pickling factory did open for the first time this year for courgette chutney - six jars of varying sizes and four small pots for the freezer.
18	Another scorcher - way too hot for me.  I walked half a mile (slowly), hung out some washing and harvested some salad for lunch and felt quite ill. Our salad consisted wholly of home produce - lettuce, land cress, mint, white radishes, broad beans, courgette, gherkins, tomatoes and boiled eggs, laced with a touch of the newly brewed courgette chutney.  Delicious, even if I say so myself!
19	Expecting the highest July temperature since 1911 today - but not here, here is only 32C in the shade! Undeterred, I've been out completely covered (trousers, long sleeves, gloves and hat), harvesting my shallots and letting them bake in the sun.  If you want to know what 268 big shallots look like, see the Veg Garden page.  Also harvested tomatoes, dwarf & haricot beans, peas and all the remaining broad beans.  Then Crow helped me with the potatoes, digging up potato beds 1 and 2.  Quite a haul - five baskets full.  The basket I brought indoors weighed 6 kilos so there must be 60 or more pounds of spuds - and two more beds to go!  Harvesting does give you a very satisfied feeling :-)) Late night activity:  Took me an hour to shell the 6 pounds of broad beans  (2 pounds when shelled) which are all blanched, bagged and frozen.
20	Still 30C outside, but I had to open the soup kitchen as I have produce to preserve.  The basket of potatoes I brought in yesterday were damaged ones which will not keep well and, of course, I've still got courgettes in the fridge.  So, first on the menu was Courgette Rice, three lots, one for tonight and two "ready meals" for the freezer.  Then (five hours later) there was also potato soup, mushroom & potato soup and potato & bean soup.  Some kept for tomorrow, the rest frozen. Harvest: 2 courgettes, three gherkins, 5 tomatoes, blueberries and another Longfield rabbit.
21	32C again - this is getting boring.... and I'm not getting used to it! Another pound of courgettes used to make zucchini pineapple loaf - a very nice cake containing courgette, pineapple, raisins and walnuts.  Two loaves and five muffins produced. Yummy! A friend preserves lemon balm by drying the leaves to make tea, so I'm trying to do that too. Harvest: those tomatoes, gherkins and courgettes just keep on coming.
22	Lifted the remaining 23 onions from paddock bed 3 and then weeded it, ready for Crow to dig over.  Harvested my remaining 7 snowball turnips and planted out my four west indian gherkin seedlings (at last), under cloches as I haven't hardened them off and they look pretty fragile. 8 more tomatoes from conservatory & greenhouse, talking of which (the greehouse, that is) I can't get it there now without getting a face full of tomato plant! By the way, my melon pear pepinos which were banished to the carport covered in bugs seem to have survived and are now flowering.
23	Started my gardening day by trying to find a way to support the conservatory veg plants which are getting very big.  A mini disaster with the cape gooseberry ensued as I didn't realise it was resting so heavily against neighbouring plants and was pinned to my giant cactus.  Yes, the gooseberry snapped, the cactus fell over and left its pot and spawned several babies on the floor.  And OUCH, the cactus spines are lethal!  Well, I had been trying to find a way to get it out of its pot for some months, so now was the chance to repot it and try to propagate from the fall-out (or fall-off, in this case).  So I've now got a repotted cactus plus four new cactus plants and a rather messy but strapped together cape gooseberry.  I was more successful with the bolivian chilli and aubergines which weren't quite as large.  However, I had to spend some time de-bugging the aubergines, which have somehow inherited the bug which invaded my potting shed. This trauma was followed by harvesting of potato beds 4 & 5 to yield another five baskets!  Crow assisted again and had a surprise when he dug up a nest of baby mice amongst the plants. Then, oops - I found that my enormous prize courgette plant was concealing a rather large 2.5 pound fruit and underneath that a 1.5 pound one, which combined with the more normal half pound one from the plant next door.  More tomatoes and lettuce in the harvest too. This all led to another self-sufficient salad made from grated courgette & turnip, with lettuce, gherkins and tomatoes. A late night visit from Mr Toad --->
24	Back in the kitchen with another big basket of damaged potatoes to preserve, not to mention yesterday's giant courgettes.  Four hours later and I had 18 savoury potato cakes, 3 litres of baked potato soup and 3 litres of curry zucchini soup for the freezer. Time for a wander around the conservatory, garden and orchard taking some photos of the growing progress.  Then watering, when I noticed more courgettes to harvest (but I left them for tomorrow), and the two weakest of my west indian gherkins have already perished.  Not shrivelled in the sun, but nibbled to almost nothing by something insect-like I guess, since they were cloched.  Luckily, I didn't plant all four in the same spot. Harvest: gherkin plus more tomatoes.
25	I have three asparagus pea plants that have survived and two are flowering.  Meanwhile the ordinary peas are finished and dug up to make space for new sowing. I had three tomato hanging baskets in the greenhouse but two had become completely hemmed it and crushed - one I couldn't even reach to harvest without damaging cordon tomatoes.  So, with a lot of effort and minimal cordon damage I removed them and hung them outside the carport.   Now at least them will give some produce and the cordon tomatoes have a little more space. Harvest: rhubarb (1/5 lb), haricot beans (0.75 lb), gherkins, tomatoes, my first 12 cape gooseberries, 3 courgettes (1.5 lb), potatoes from pots P1 (1.75 lb) and P2 (2.75 lb).
26	Just too hot for me to want to venture into the garden to dig over beds for my summer planting.  Yes I know it's only 32C like last week, but there's no breeze and it's humid and  I think the prolonged heatwave is starting to get to me.  Instead I stayed indoors and made a big potato salad from the remaining damaged potatoes.  Then I pickled a jar of gherkins and perused my new planting plan.  After 5pm I ventured out to collect four bags of hay for lining the chicken nest, then did the harvest (tomatoes, gherkins and 3 more courgettes) and watering. Once again my fridge is bulging with courgettes, but will have to wait until Friday to get adventurous with them.
27	I prepared the ground for my summer planting, transplanted three courgette seedlings (two into paddock bed 1, where the shallots were) and two runner beans from the four station wigwam to the six station wigwam.  Harvested tomatoes and 3 more courgettes.
28	In the veg garden; summer planting of land cress, polycress, radish, raab, chives In the paddock; summer planting of turnip, beetroot, kohl rabi, carrots In the kitchen; seven jars of sweet zucchini relish In the orchard; one rabbit
29	13:00 Supposedly, this is the last day of the heatwave.  Certainly the breeze is up, but the temperature is not down as I have just returned from a walk to town on a severely melting and sticky road! 16:00 I've got a new courgette cake recipe, so I'm in the kitchen trying it out. Harvest: 3 eggs, 4 more courgettes, tomatoes, golden berry, 6 plums, 4 normal gherkins and oooooops! one enormous gherkin hiding behind a very large leaf.  This one will make a whole jar of icicle pickles by itself. On the news this morning, I heard how the hot weather is destroying harvests of, in particular, peas, cauliflower, broad beans and courgettes.  Can't imagine how the courgette growers are suffering.......
30	Made a large jar of icicle pickles with that big fat gherkin, but generally had a lazy garden day as Crow's eldest daughter was visiting.  Just harvest (gherkins, tomatoes and yes, another courgette) and watering, of course. Looks like the blackbirds have eaten most of the blueberries, despite my attempt at netting :-(
31	Can't believe the polycress and raab have germinated in only 3 days! My hessian sacks arrived so I checked through all of the potatoes before storing them in their new packaging.  Tidied up my strawberry pots and pinned 9 runners into 3 inch pots whilst leaving them still attached to the mother plants until they are rooted. Harvest: chard, tomatoes, physalis and 3 more courgettes!