August 2006

1 Added another wire to my raspberry cane support and harvested the first sweetcorn, although it's not a great success.  Thinned out carrot pot C2, re-sowed pot C3 and planted more carrot parmex in the veg garden.  Noticed that the radishes are germinating and one of the melon pear plants is developing its first fruit.  Found a multitude of caterpillars eating my brussel sprout foliage.  Picked off as many as I could find, but needs another sweep tomorrow.
Also harvested tomatoes and physalis.
2 Much cooler and breezy so a fairly busy gardening day.  I started with seed sowing in the veg garden; kohl rabi, beetroot and turnip.  I harvested 300g beans, 2 courgettes, tomatoes, gherkins, chocolate peppermint, apple mint and lemon balm.  Hung some mint to dry and made mint and lemon balm ice cubes with the rest.  Couldn't find any more caterpillars on my sprouts but I sprayed the white flies that appear when the plants are disturbed.  Don't like to be non-organic, but I do want some sprouts!  More cutting back in the greenhouse - hope I'm doing the right thing.....
3 Positively cool (only 18C), wet and breezy.  Nothing in the garden except harvesting two sweetcorn cobs for our starter.  But I went almost a mile done the road and picked 6 pounds of cherry plums from a tree by the roadside.  Jam, chutney or fruit puree, I wonder?
Ron shot three rabbits this evening, two normal and one VERY big one, which will make two meals.  One prepared for dinner tomorrow and the other three portions frozen.
4 There seems to be signs of turnip and kohl rabi germinating in the paddock.
Those pesky rabbits have completely dug up my red robin plant.
The jam factory opened for the first time this year and produced 4 lbs of plum jam. 
We've got guests for dinner tomorrow so the bakery also produced a nice gooey chocolate cake.
Harvest: gherkins, tomatoes, physalis.
5 Cooking & cleaning. Then, just time for watering (hot weather's back again) before getting cleaned up for the arrival of guests.  Menu: Curry zucchini soup with herby bread, followed by five counties bean quiche, potato salad, courgette bake, tomatoes, gherkins & red tomato chutney, followed by rich chocolate cake with home-made choc & plum ice cream.
Only one courgette left in the fridge!
Until I harvested: another 2 courgettes and more tomatoes, gherkins and physalis.
6 In the garden: just pottering around, removing caterpillars from the sprouts, more cutting back in the greenhouse, other general nurturing and watering.  Picked the first cooking apples and selected a nice big onion for chutney making.
Harvest: my one & only successful cauliflower, 3 more courgettes, physalis and lots of tomatoes.
In the kitchen: 5 jars of apple & plum chutney.
7 Less in the garden this week as I'm looking after my god-daughter, Grace, whilst her mum's at work.  Today, as the weather wasn't too bright, was cake making, a jigsaw puzzle, a game of snakes & ladders, bangle making and card making.
In the paddock, there are early signs of carrot germination but the turnip & kohl rabi spotted on 4th seem to have disappeared!?!
Harvest: tomatoes and 2 courgettes.
8 Gave all six fruiting trees plus my two raspberry canes a feed with sulphate of potash.  Five seedlings have germinated in the kohl rabi trough and the beetroot is germinating in the paddock.  Also in the veg garden I've spotted germination of 4 kohl rabi, 6 beetroot and 3 turnip, but sadly the raab has died again.
Harvest: tomatoes, gherkins, physalis
9 Crow pruned the cherry plum tree for me.  It has virtually no fruit at the top and if it did, it would be well out of reach for picking, so I hope that pruning the top will put more energy into the fruit developing on the lower branches.  We then harvested a basket of potatoes from paddock bed 6.  But I've got trouble in the conservatory.  The bug that first attacked my melon pears in the potting shed, which I then spent a long time eradicating from there, has now appeared in profusion in the conservatory and now the plants are too big and have too many leaves to clean the bugs off by hand.  I had to ditch the trough containing three pepper plants and I think a bolivian chilli, physalis and three aubergine red egg may well have to be destroyed too.
Harvest: Potatoes, 3 courgettes, 8 gherkins (1 giant, 2 large and 5 normal), haricot & dwarf beans, tomatoes and physalis.
10 Our first ripe fruit fell from the mystery tree today.  It looked like a green plum.  I cut it open and it still looked like a green plum.  I tasted it and I'm convinced it is a greengage.  The remainder of the fruit is not quite ripe yet but there is an awful lot of it!  Carrots in pot C3 are germinating.
Harvest: tomatoes, physalis

11

 Two new chickensA trip to Marsh Farm with Grace today.  

Crow said I had to get two more chickens, so I did!

Meet Stripe and Cluck -->

12 In the garden: radish thinning, more tomato trimming in the greenhouse and some repositioning in the potting shed to stop plants falling over and allow me access.  Land cress is germinating.
In the kitchen: courgette cake and pickled gherkins.
Harvest: gherkins, tomatoes, salad leaves, physalis, greengages.
13 Visit to mum-in law and a walk so no time for gardening, just harvesting more tomatoes, gherkins and physalis.
14 OK, time for that harsh conservatory clear out.  Much as it pains me to destroy plants I have lovingly nurtured from seed, this unidentified bug is just spreading, so drastic measures are required.  I removed two aubergine plants (one red egg, one Rosanna) and my giant physalis.  This really hurt as it was covered in fruit, but some of the fruit was covered in bugs.  I also ditched the white tomato as it hasn't developed any flowers.  That leaves one aubergine and two bolivian chillis which have minor infection that I'm still hoping to conquer.
Having cleared some space, I brought in another cherry tomato plant from the potting shed, where it was being crowded out.
On a better note, I picked my first green pepper.  I've got lots available, but I prefer them red so generally try to leave them to fully ripen.
Harvest: Chard, haricot & dwarf beans, green pepper, tomatoes, gherkins and 4 courgettes.
15 My outdoor cherry bush tomatoes are doing very well, but some of the tomatoes are touching the soil so I've put straw under them for protection.
16 Fleeced carrot pot C3 and the kohl rabi trough as I think they could both do with a little more warmth and some protection from the forecast heavy rain.  Otherwise, just general tending and choosing recipes for some more serious courgette cooking as there were two more in today's harvest!
17 Time to try to save the remaining aubergine and bolivian chillis in the conservatory.  I've carefully wiped them with a diluted solution of Nature's Disinfectant, but it's impossible to get every bug.  Then I crawled around the conservatory floor with anti-bacterial spray and a hot cloth.  There were so many bugs this almost made me ill, especially when the live ones continually tried to crawl up my arms.  Yuk!!!!
Still harvesting tomatoes every day, but today was an exceptional 1.25 pounds!
The greengages are ready.  Picked 3 lb for some jam making.
18 Harvested another courgette today, so really had to do some cooking with the ten now available, all being between 8 oz and a pound in weight.  Tried two new recipes; spicy african stew and zucchini carrot kugel.  Well, that used 4 - just 6 to go......
Ron paid a visit and was willing to use a ladder to climb up the greengage tree and harvest fruit from the top.  That resulted in another 13 lb for jam and chutney.  I think I'll have to try freezing some too.
We sampled the two new recipes for supper and, even if I say so myself, they were both delicious!  I've frozen the leftovers so I hope they're as tasty when they're thawed.
19 Right!  Got to tackle some of these greengages.  Result - 5 jars of mild greengage chutney, 5 jars of greengage & orange jam and 3 jars of greengage-honey preserves.  Still got enough for another batch of chutney and jam, so I picked 4 lb apples from the orchard and walked down the road to pick 1.5 lb blackberries.
20 Well all 16 lb of greengages are gone with a mammoth production of nine jars of greengage & blackberry jam and eight jars of greengage chutney (different recipe to yesterday).  And they're not small jars!
21 Harvest 210806A bumper and varied harvest today comprising:

haricot beans (14 oz), dwarf beans (12 oz), 12 greengages (for dessert), 3 courgettes (2 lb 4 oz),

asparagus peas, gherkins, physalis and tomatoes (1 lb 8 oz).
22 Pruned my two bay trees which were getting out of hand.  My efforts to try to use all of the courgettes resulted in a courgette 'n' coconut cake and a hearty zucchini pesto soup for dinner, with home-made bread.
23 Some tidying up in the veg garden today.  I dug up all of the sweetcorn which hasn't been a great success, but the chickens are delighted as they get all the cobs not fit for us.
Courgette pot C5 is finished and composted and I think I've just picked the last courgette from pot C4.
I planted out the 2 surviving swiss chard in the 8 inch pot as they were a bit choked.
I trimmed the outdoor brandywine tomatoes and did most of the weeding.
Harvested 3 more courgettes and there is still a steady flow of tomatoes and gherkins.
Made more greengage chutney (3rd recipe variation, with dried apricots) which yielded 5 lb jars.
24 More jam & chutney making produced 6 jars of greengage jam and 8 jars of greengage & date chutney.   Plus, Crow "pruned" the pampas grass for me, removing all of the snapped and tatty fronds.
25 Out and about today, followed by a late walk.  My latest knitting project is a blue & cream striped cotton jumper for a 1-2 year old and I've just got the stitching up to do.
26 I'm still using my breadmaker and it was cheese & onion bread today.  I've emptied the fridge of some produce by making two jars of pickled gherkins, zucchini tomato soup and zucchini carrot kugel.  Still got a fair few tomatoes in there but no courgettes!!!  The greengages are getting very ripe on the tree now so I picked most of the remaining ones within my reach which gave me 3 lbs for greengages in syrup to go in the freezer.
A big green pepper dropped off one of the potting shed plants.  It's a fine specimen!
27 Just time for a quick indoor watering and a tomato tidy-up in the greenhouse, then off to the wedding reception of two of our best friends.  Wonderful do!
28 In the veg garden: weeding, watering, tending and general nurturing.
In the harvest: 1.75 lb dwarf & haricot beans, 1 lb tomatoes (including my first white tomatoes!), the last 4.5 lb of usable greengages, 2.5 lb cooking apples and the first 5 dessert apples.
In the kitchen:  10 jars of greengage & apple chutney.
29 Quite a few odd jobs on the gardening front:
In the conservatory: I removed the remaining red egg aubergine as it is not successfully producing flowers and/or fruit and it's grown to over five foot high.  I also removed a spent bush tomato plant.
In the greenhouse: I removed all of the bush tomato plants and cut foliage from the cordon tomatoes to let in light and air for ripening.
In the paddock: I checked on the blackberries and they're developing nicely and I picked a sweetcorn cob, but when unwrapped from its foliage I found it wasn't fully ripened.
In the orchard: I picked and ate my first pear.  Quite crunchy, but I hate a soft pear!  I'll be picking more soon.
Harvest: tomatoes, gherkins, physalis, asparagus peas, swiss chard and rhubarb.
30 A social day - pub lunch with freinds followed by a trip to London for dinner with Crow's eldest.
31 A visit to my old workplace to deliver jam & chutney to my jar providers and have a lunchtime walk and gossip.
Back at home Crow mowed the lawns for the first time since late June/early July.  It's taken the grass this long to recover from the heatwave.
Meanwhile, I potted up a free bamboo from Gardener's World magazine and a Festuca Blue grass.  Then I harvested a courgette, white & red tomatoes, golden berry and lettuce which ended up in a lettuce risotto!