Saturday 11 July 2009

Lovely Butterfly and Some Huge Gooseberries

Whilst harvesting on Thursday evening, I had the lovely and unexpected pleasure of a Red Admiral butterfly landing on my hand! It was even kind enough to stay put long enough for me to get my camera phone out, open it up and take a snap :)




And here's a couple of snaps of the gooseberries, looking suspiciously like entries for the Grapevine Virtual Show... :D You never know, we might actually get a Show to enter them in sometime soon *rollseyes*


Aside from the gooseberries (of which I got 3lbs from 2 bushes!), I also harvested half a dozen sticks of rhubarb, over a 1lb of blackcurrants, just under a lb of raspberries, another lb of strawberries, a lettuce, a cucumber, a turnip, a bag of peas, and the last of the broad beans (the rest will be left for next year's seed).



Friday 10 July 2009

Things Growing Apace!

Everything is growing like mad now, with the downpours we've had recently helping along the veg, AND the weeds! We were already eating the over-wintered onions, now we can add garlic, lettuce, cucumber, new potatoes, peas, broadbeans, strawberries, blackcurrants, gooseberries and raspberries too :)


Carrot and parsnip bed, in need of weeding, with the newly dug over and planted up onion bed behind - it's now planted up with cos & red oakleaf lettuce, mixed salad leaves, dahlias, nasturtiums, marigolds, and 10 swedes. And all the lovely onions hanging over the fence, drying out.
The peas - Pilot (from HazelAtTheHill) and Gladstone (HSL) are starting to crop heavily now, some being munched immediately and some made it into the freezer. The broad beans (Crimson Flowered) are almost over, just a few pods left on for next year's seed.

Another shot of the newly planted bed - I was so chuffed at doing the weeding and replanting all myself that I've included it twice :) I didn't half pay for it later though, dodgy ankle is still objecting a few days later!
Man-next-door-plot is doing really well too, considering the soil is a bit malnourished... (We think his main fertilizing routine involved Growmore at regular intervals... heigh ho, he was 81 after all).
The potato bed (on the left) had muck added to it before the broken ankle, so they're doing well. The onion bed (middle bed) had some used compost added to it over winter, and has had a liberal dose of chicken pellets. The pumpkins/butternuts/courgettes (right hand bed) were planted into compost filled mounds, and the celery next to it has had chicken pellets. The big bean bed (far end) had some spent mushroom compost, some muck, and some used compost and they seem to be doing fine.



A nice crop of strawberries and blackcurrants drying out on a tray - they were picked in the rain.