Many Vegetable Firsts

My three word gardening post this month is a little round up of all the 'firsts' a veg plot throws up in the early stages. If you are up for copious amounts of produce photos then you are in the right place!

Got my first cucumber and had our first completely homegrown salad of lettuces, rocket, tomatoes and cucumber but I believe salads are much more than this. I really like the salads/sides in Tom Kerridges cookbooks because they are so interesting, flavourful and varied. We had it with a lasagne and it was sooooo good. Same again another day with salmon on a flatbread with a packet of samphire I found in Sainsburys for 30p!

The basil was going strong but I found some indoor caterpillars on them last week which must have been laid on the leaves when I had all the windows open in the hot weather. I cut the whole lot off and made a batch of caterpillar free pesto for a camping dinner next week so nothing wasted.

Fruit wise we have been having a bumper season despite my strawberry plot disaster where I fed them at the wrong time of year and they grew like crazy but used all their energy for leaves instead of fruit. We have been picking gooseberries and freezing them, making jam and I even got a gallon of wine.

My mum was given a jostaberry bush a few years ago and it outgrew her garden so she gave it to me when we first moved in. They look like goosberries but are not hairy and they taste like a cross between what they look like, goosberries and blackcurrants. A dark rich taste that is enhanced when you cook them. The bush has been a bit meh for two years but this year it was full. Again - some stewed, some brewed and some jamed.

It is the first time for raspberry picking this week. Again the summer variety I put in has not faired well over the last two years. The first year took some establishing and then last year the birds ate them all because these are not in the cage because I didn't have enough room so we have a make shift net thrown over them which is not ideal but will do for now. This variety is called cascade and indeed has that form. It makes them trickier to pick but does shield them from the birds. The Autumn bliss raspberries are coming up next so we should have a steady flow now until about October! The raspberries don't get to jam or wine or the freezer we eat them every night with ice cream or on our breakfast in the morning. 

We are getting our first courgettes which I am trying to pick young and stay on top of. We also dug our first potatoes. I was expecting the charlotte variety to yield little salad ones but they are massive. The size of a colander infact! Anyway I chunked them up and roasted them in the air fryer because I noticed on cutting them that they had two distinct rings inside which denotes varying water levels and this is what makes them blow in the water (incase you are wondering). When it was warm the growth is slow and dense and then over the last two showery weeks the growth is whiter and this is the layer that would split in boiling water.

First, and last to my families joy, are my broad beans. They don't like them but I picked a few when they were young here and there and threw them in with peas for Sunday dinners. They ate them. They can manage four at a time. This patio variety has been better for them in terms of sweetness but they took a lot of space for not very many in my farming opinion. 

First French beans this week too now that is a bean we can all hop on board with. I didn't grow runner beans this year - too much peeling effort on the mum front but french beans are fabulous hot or cold in salads - and virtually no prep.

Our chickens are still laying although one is broody so I have to keep hoofing her off the nest box every morning and shutting her out to cool down and remember to eat and drink. Some chickens instinct can be so strong that they sit on the eggs and won't move until they exhaust themselves or die so it a necessary upset of her daily routine. 

Our first tomatoes are ready and I pick a handful of cherry ones every day but the cordon varieties have hit a snag. They have blossom end rot. This is a calcium deficiency but you can't solve it by adding calcium. The condition is due to the roots being too knotted up to take up any calcium from the compost. I did grow my tomatoes in pots this year to enable better watering but maybe I need bigger pots. My lifetime fantasy of having so many tomatoes that I can make soup, sauces and chutney eludes me once again! We can eat them but I have to cut half off. :(

Hot on the heels for next time are peas, peppers, redcurrants, blackcurrants, beetroot, some weedy looking carrots, leeks and a shed load more courgettes I expect!

We have had some wonderful sunsets from the patio in the hot humid weather but the showers have been welcome for the garden even if a bit annoying for getting things done. Thanks for dropping by.

Kindest. Jo (and all her veggie helpers) xxxx

June...ing

 Have you all been having a joyous June? Things have been good over here on the hill - hot but good. In no particular order and possibly things I have already mentioned, here goes!

Buying - Four Orla Kiely glasses, it was a treat but they were seconds meaning they were discounted.

Picking - more radishes. I have been sowing every four weeks but as the weather has got drier I seem to have a gap now before the next ones are ready.

Shearing - our sheep at the beginning of June. They were relieved before the very hot weather came along.

Visiting - Barmouth for a few days in the June Break. Good for big girl who was doing GCSE's and just needed to cool off in the sea for a few days; mentally and physically.

Using - up a little fridge haul from our neighbours who were going away on holiday and gave us a bag of veggies. I made a Mediterranean tart and a couple of salads.

Experimenting - with my new toy. A circular knitting machine. Mmmm, more practise needed I think!!!

Refashioning - a size 10 linen dress which was too small for me into a top for the Big 'un.

Knitting - the start of six different jumpers to try and get something started with my pink yarn. None of them were the right gauge or texture then some were just too hard to concentrate on or I didn't understand the stitches. I have settled on the simplest sweater from ravelry. Seems apt for my brain capacity at the moment!

Crocheting - a version of the Aster top. The pattern is actually for much finer yarn but I wanted a break from the knitting fails of late. Might do something better with the sleeves??

Going - strawberry picking. You may think this strange if you have seen my massive fruit cage full of strawberries but I made a gardening error and fed the plants at Easter then they put on colossal amounts of leaf growth and there are no strawberries. Whoops!

Making - some jam from my bought strawberries. I love homemade jam and have become such a snob about jam; bought jam just tastes of sugar not fruit.

Loving - my current table vase in my vase challenge to have flowers from the garden continuously on the kitchen table. The sweet williams seem never ending and have such a long vase life. I have paired them with a zingy euphorbia. 

Cleaning - up my treadle sewing machine. I used to use it at my nan's farm when I was about 10 or 12 to mend my grandads work overalls. My nan hated me using it incase I caught my fingers but I never did. I have had it all apart, cleaned the components and then put it all back together. After watching a very useful Youtube video of someone setting up a similar one I have got it going. I am just getting a bit of tangling after a run of about 8 inches because the spring on the tension discs has bent out of shape so it catches the threads when I get a bit of speed going. I am going to get a new one. After looking up the serial number, it is from 1858.

There is thunder in the distance so I had better pop out and bring some things inside. Toodle oo!

Jo xxxx

Looking Great Here

Well the gardening has certainly picked up since my last gardening post. The weather here in the UK has warmed up considerably at the start of June and everything is growing well. Lets's take a little tour shall we.

My best thing to show you is this yellow peony in my warm tones garden. It was one of the original plants I put in 3 years ago and it has never flowered. Peonies take a few years to get established so I am thrilled. There were five flowers and now these have gone over, the yellow rose behind has taken over the bloom position. Perfect. 

Next to this is another new one to blossom which is a new bearded Iris which I bought in a sale at Autumn. It looked so sad in the pot but I love an underdog. It was £2 and I gave it a home next to the peony. It has been stunning.

They both sit in this border which is looking fab. I love the foliage contrasts. This was a couple of weeks ago so the daff leaves have now been removed to make way for the summer flowers. I now have plans to empty some of this border because I over planted it when it was new. Now that I have found out what survives in full sun and what has filled out into quite substantial sized plants I can do some moving come the autumn to give the thriving things more room.

In the greenhouse the tomatoes have gone from this...

To this in a matter of two weeks. Similarly, the veg patch has had a full planting going from this...

 To this. A few things didn't come so I have, with immense amount of hope, re-seeded some crops but I know it is a little late really.

My table vase challenge has been helped by the contribution of flowers from my flower grower companion Beth. If the flowers don't fit her wedding brief then I get them!

Her plot changes so much. She doesn't take any passengers - once they are cut and used, the are removed and the next variety fills its space. These ranunculus were just amazing though. The sheep fleece covered area is the dahlia plot starting to make shoots.

Other vase combos from my garden include...

A lighter arier collection of sweet rocket, allium, cornflowers and aquelegia. And this week...

A sample vase of all the things I knocked off while weeding! A lupin, snap dragon, a pink rose, an iris, a cornflower, a fox glove and the start of my sweet williams. 

 My first crops of the year are lettuce and radish. I am trying so hard to reseed every two weeks for a succession - the gardeners dream. This prize, unscathed radish was the size of a cocktail tomato. It wasn't even woody; it was delicious!

I have had a good old tidy up in the green house where I am watering twice a day. Thinking ahead I am also trying some dried flowers this year. 

Hope you are getting out to enjoy summer whatever you like to do. 

Jo xx

Woolly Chit Chat

 Feeling inspired to catch up with a few wooly makes today. Especially as me, my daughters and my mum went to Wonderwool Wales last month. I had it in my head that I should use up any wool from last years purchases in order to enjoy buying some more.

This was one of my usual mash up knits where I used the Bardini vest pattern as a base and made it work for the materials I had. I sized up as this is 3ply yarn and the pattern is for 4ply yarn.

I had a go at fading. I wasn't so successful on the first fade from green to the flecked blue but then I learnt, as I went along, how much yarn to leave from the old ball to fade in. You switch in the new colourway every other row until the last one runs out. The back and rib is made with a 4ply cream yarn from Drops which works well because you can see the fade on the side seam.

My last bit of stash knitting before our visit to Wonderwool was to knit all of my sock yarn scraps that would not be useful in an actual pair of socks into a cowl for skiing. We were lucky with the weather this year when we went skiing; it was sunny and there was not any driving snow. I had in mind when I knit this that it would hug my neck and be supper warm. 

I really don't like cowls that fold in on themselves into a useless ring around your neck. Harsh words I know. Without a pattern, I cast on the sock yarn on 3mm needles. Starting with the finest wool and then kept changing up a needle increment with wool thickness as I continued. It meant that with a stretchy cast off, it was wider at one end than the other and sits really well. The 3xrib was perfect and easy to do while watching a bit of TV. Functionality wise it is a 10 out of 10.

OK, back to the shopping. Yarn wise I had quite a haul. I always go to a guy at Wonderwool who looks like a market trader and if I am honest is a bit miserable. He has huge cardboard boxes with hanks of yarn with barely any details. Signs might simply say '4ply £5 hank' I am guessing it is deadstock but I like the jeopardy of buying something both unknown in quantity and composition. So many of the traders at the show sell expensive hand dyed artisan yarn that I would say it is hard to buy anything 'normal' so I think he has a good USP. 

I went for really harmonious choices. Everything is 4ply. I had ideas of what I wanted to buy wool for and then also I had in mind what I could use the left overs for. The pink, ran double, works well for any of the knits in my Ready Set raglan book so there is plenty of scope there. I then thought about a fair isle knit with the left over pink and chose some ivory and green to mix in with the left overs. The ball on the top is genius - it is a sock yarn split into two yarn runs so you can have matching ombre socks!!

Megan spotted this cotton in a sale basket, 5 balls for £10, and alerted me to it so I snapped it up and started a summer crochet top when I got home. This is my current sit-outside-to crochet project.

My girls always like the show day out...mostly because I promise them a crepe and there are always some lovely Angora rabbits, crazy looking goats or sheep with amazing fleeces to ogle.

I must admit to struggling with blogging at the moment. With a job that involves social media content it is hard to muster the motivation to write again here but I like to keep in touch with family and friends. I love reading blogs but can't always write my own. That said, I will definitely continue with my three word gardening posts, my ing posts and of course any ta dah! moments. 

Always happy to see you here. Love Jo xxxx