It’s a proper pile of black gold and we have another mound which will be ready for next year! We are the envy of our neighbours - donating it sparingly ! Not sure how to shade the poly tunnel… Thank you for the advice
Oh lovely, a gorgeous area! I’m so tempted to leave here but I’m very attached to my garden and friends etc. Ironically I work a fair bit in North Yorks and my partner lived up there for many years but couldn’t really cope with the winters. Maybe I will have to work on him a bit more. All the best with your new rural life!
I sow most stuff from seed. The tomatoes I sowed were tiny this year and I'm tearing my hair out about what to sow seeds into. The potting compost that I paid for is obviously not what seeds want. Do I mix it with garden soil? Anyway I planted several tiny plants and they're doing okay, as far as I know.
I'm in the mountains on holiday and had to leave my potager to the mercy of my neighbours' occasional watering but luckily it's rained at home.
I have a lot of butternuts, as I find that they keep well in winter and provide an immense amount of flesh compared to ordinary pumpkins. Potatoes are growing well in old compost bags. They're easy to earth up and to harvest. Peas were coming along nicely. Planted some broccoli and Chinese leaf. They were small but growing when I left. There are courgette plants doing very nicely and some cucumbers, which got eaten by something in the coldframe but seem to be making a comeback. Some ratte potatoes (french?) came back on their own in the potager so I left them and they should be ready to dig out soon. The French beans were all sprouting when I left. Got loads of Grenoblois rouge lettuce looking beautiful. Carrots, as usual and beets have done nothing, as yet. I'm getting fed up with sowing them as they don't seem to do well, despite the cow manure that I've put in the ground. A Lidl grape that I planted is growing well. It's a pink grape and I hope to train it along the fence and make wine with the grapes eventually. I have three archichoke plants in the flowerbeds. They're so pretty when they get bigger, I'll probably leave them and see if they'll survive winter with some mulch. I planted coriander and basil in rows, but they were very small. I'll sow some straight into the ground when I get back as I freeze them and they last all year.
Can't think of anything else. I'm grateful to have a well and to get roof-water at the front of the house for watering the flowerbeds. We've had substantial rain, which is the opposite to last year when the well ran dry and we had hosepipe bans.
If I get get to the barracks to see what's happening there, I'll bring you vegetable seeds!
Oh, I forgot. The strawberries are now in their second year. Got 3kg out in the week before we left! Great year for them. Hundreds more to come from a very small patch!
How long are you going to keep your strawbs in before you renew them? The books say every 4 years, but I reckon if you keep on top of the runners, and keep them healthy, you can leave them in a lot longer.
Another commenter on here is talking about growing lavender from seed. That is difficult. Growing a vine from a shop bought grape? That is seriously impressive green fingering!
Hi Ben. Nah, I'm no expert gardener but Lidl is a great place to pick up cheap plants and I've now grown three grapevines from there. This one is doing the best so far. The other two are in my old garden which I haven't been able to tend lately. I'm a firm believer in growing from seed. It either works or it doesn't, just try. I found that one dahlia, for example, gives thousands of seeds and they grow well. As for the strawberries, maybe when the old plants are lessening in crop, pull them out and leave the new runners? That's what I intend to do. At the moment, my tiny patch has hundreds of fruits. I can only attribute this to it being the second year and loads of lovely rain and heat. My lettuce, I tend to do what Dowding does ... Pick the leaves and leave them to grow for as long as possible. I've had kale in my garden that's kept on growing for three years. I'm still a debutante gardener but I keep an eye on Gardeners'World and I follow Dowding bon Insta. His results are always better with no dig and I got cardboard from a factory skip, but you need a lot of good compost and manure and I never have enough despite composting everything. The paysans here do as you do and use rotivators, compost and manure. Their veggies are fab !
I guess he's weighing, charting, comparing methods. His produce are usually bigger and heavier from the undisturbed ground. He puts it all here.... https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-masterclasses/guardian-masterclass-blog/2019/nov/15/what-is-the-no-dig-method-charles-dowding-demystifies ....... I've seen some remarkable results from people in mountainous regions in France , using permaculture where it's freezing cold and quite dry. We're in that mountain type environment here and it's very difficult to go from extremely cold springtime to really hot springtime in a day. My coldframes didn't work for that reason. Reproducing the 'forest floor' seems like a natural and very organic idea.
Good to hear your progress this week, I think it’s all looking really great. I have a tiny allotment plot - 4x5m but I’ve managed to cram it all in and I’m on a waiting list for a bigger plot. I have a garden too which I’ve got toms and cucumbers etc. I have quite a scattered mind and find it a struggle to be methodical but I’ve tried hard this year everything so far seems to have forgiven me my chaotic approach and it’s the best year so far - (my 3rd) Lots of marigolds, borage and nasturtiums in between. Have been eating broad beans which have now been chopped and dropped around my sweetcorn, spinach (also gone to seed) first Calibrese, potatoes and raspberries. Not very often that someone asks about my veggie plot so there you go, thanks for asking! All your talk of digging makes my back ache, I don’t dig because I can’t. I know it’s not for everyone but I’ve been following Charles Dowding his instructions for sowing times etc have really helped. Feel a constant sense of doom about the environment and growing food and flowers seems to help keep me sane. There’s the constant threat of building and loss of habitat here - just outside Oxford - and despite the abundance of ecologists and clever environmental here, none of them seem to work in the planning department. Think lots of s**t in the river - I know, let’s build 2000 new houses, a new science park and a giant carpark on green fields that no one will use. My immediate concern is getting through July and August without the garden frying. How hot is it getting there? I always look forward to your Monday morning updates.
Hope this isn’t an inappropriately long comment. Hope you have a very good week. X
Hi Laura, I understand all that completely.. I have a 'sacattered mind' too and am sometimes overwhelmed by the amount of work there is to do! As I write (above) I watch Monty and follow Dowding on FB and Instagram and find his work remarkable. I also think that Morag Gamble (YouTube, FB) in Austr6, is interesting. She's a more 'natural' gardener. Interesting to keep in touch. I'm from the Isle of Wight originally, lived in Wales and am now in the Haute Loire in France. Last year we had very little rain and were very worried when even the well and source dried up in the summer. As for the s**t in the sea, here's a tale. My ex was too stingy to pay to get our cesspit (in Wales) emptied frequently, so he cracked it. It would then leak out. The potatoes that grew under/around that patch were the best! All the best, Sara
4x5m is adorable! I once did an experiment in a tiny flat in London where I tried an experimental 1x1m plot. Not only can you get a LOAD more out of a small plot than you would think, you can keep it looking super pretty all the time! Which I also like.
I have to say it’s been the perfect way to build up some confidence. It doesn’t feel too overwhelming and it is surprising how much I can fit in! I’d love to have seen the wicker duck!
We have been at our new home since last September - with a large very fertile vegetable area. We have inherited a huge pile of horse manure from the previous owners which has been a blessing. I had an urgency to get out of London last May/June - felt like I was in a disaster movie with the heatwave and drought ant stupidity of our governments- we bought and sold and moved within 6 weeks.- some feat! Moving from the unyielding clay soil of North London to this crumbly black gorgeousness has been a real treat.
This is my first proper year sowing and growing veg so it’s very experimental. I may well have over done the compost for some veg. Yesterday,
I discovered rats are at the potatoes- I’d already salvaged the seed potatoes in Feb which they has stolen from the poly tunnel and secreted away under a wood pallet! Now they’re digging them out- but I harvested the first for our consumption yesterday- utterly delicious melt in the mouth.
Much like you, broad beans a disappointment, spinach gone to seed, strawberries popular with the rabbits and squirrels, red currants devoured by the birds- but they deserve a treat - after the endless joy their birdsong offers. They leave us a generous amount of raspberries to be fair.
Success with courgettes, I have squash, cucumbers and an aubergine in the poly tunnel, but it gets so hot in there already, not sure if they’ll survive. Lots of tomato varieties doing well in poly tunnel and out doors and garlic too
I got some seeds from a seed cooperative - tree spinach and mustard leaves- both doing really well and delicious.
We have 6 happy chickens which supply us with more than enough eggs and amusement.
We have embraced the challenge and can’t imagine a life any where but here now. Yes we’re in a bubble, a beautiful tiny Yorkshire cul de sac village but we are aware how fragile that bubble is in this climate catastrophe and hopefully make the best of it and try hard not to exacerbate.
I've planted potatoes in old compost bags (I hate to throw away plastic). It's easy to earth them up and they can be harvested quickly and simply. It also saves a lot of space for other things in the garden and maybe (?) the rats wouldn't bother them so much?
Sounds fantastic. Well done. Can't imagine living in town any more because of the heat but if I did, I'd fill my balcony or get an allotment. Yorkshire is ver pretty!!
Is it horse manure, or stable manure? Like, dried horse apples (as they call them around her) or lovely deep piss-soaked straw as well? Both are good, just wondering :)
Shade your polytunnel! For sure. And plenty of mulch. I saw a post somewhere where a photo of tomatoes in a polytunnel was being roundly criticised for having "too much" mulch. No such thing! They probably read it somewhere in a book. Or got it from an "expert" Bahhh. :)
My raspberries still have a good few weeks to go. In fact, you sound like a good one or two climate zones ahead of me. In Yorkshire!!! Told you it was cold around here :)
The bubble sounds lovely. Well done on getting out!
We moved to Nun Monkton, North Yorks, an ancient village with one of the last working greens in the country. It sits on the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Nidd, and is mentioned in the Domesday Book. We have a long 1/3 acre back garden. It’s a very special place!
The state of my garden: we just sort of let it do what it wants back there but I've been growing some stuff with the kids in a big pot. In box pot #1, I put some lavender seeds and some bought strawberry plants. The lavender is at the seedling stage and the strawberries produced three (3) fruits.
In box pot #2, I am growing sunflowers and peas together. A cat got into the box and effed up the middle plants (I assume they attacked first?) but they're still clinging onto life. Only one of the peas and sunflowers got what I was trying to do and are growing up together. The peas are flowering, some have started ... fruiting?? and there is no sign of a flower in any of the sunflowers yet.
The drought we had here has been a major problem. It was frost, frost, frost, frost, no rain for three weeks, and none of the plants I chose was down with that. The strawberries seemed ok with it but I guess not or I'd have more fruit.
I did put a metric f-tonne of wild flower seeds into the back of my garden and they are going like the clappers now it has rained a couple of times. My moss seems also very healthy.
Hi Kel, strawberries always do better after the first year. Need a lot of water too. Well done for the lavender. I have quite a few plants and shall try to harvest seeds this year. You've inspired me!
I heard lavender seeds were notoriously tricky to get started? How was it, ok?
I love the sunflowers and seeds idea. There is an urban myth of Incas growing beans up sweetcorn, (and pumpkins on the ground) but that always sounded super unbelievable to me. And probably not a good idea now I think about it. But sunflowers and peas sounds perfect! I might try that next year.
Oh, did a boat load of wild flowers this year. I dont think I've mentioned that anywhere. I shall try to remember to put it in a post at some point. Probably when they are flowering :)
The lavender is still a bit of a work in progress. Maybe I should try it with plants from the garden centre next time.
I saw a thing for kids on TV about native American religion/culture and they had a thing about three plants growing up together: corn, squash and beans. The way Spirit Rangers tell it, it's a great way to grow the three crops 😅https://m.imdb.com/title/tt22006070/
And for non-German speakers, "Prachtschwein" comes from the book Charlotte's Web (which is called "Wilbur und Charlotte" in German (!)). The first words that are discovered in the titular web in the original are "Some Pig", which we take to mean "oh, what a wonderful pig", not "here's a random pig". The potential confusion (wonderful vs random) is cleared up very nicely in German by translating it to the vastly superior "Prachtschwein" - a made-up portmanteau, like so many of the best words in German - combining Pracht - magnificence with Schwein - pig. You can put Pracht in front of anything to make it rather charmingly grandiloquent :)
ok, some more word salad for the non German speakers: Pfifferling is named according to it‘s taste Pfeffer/pepper but soundwise has a Pfiff/whistle in it. so that a mushroom whistler catcalls a Pracht-pig is a rather nice image...
Thank you for the tip Sara.
It’s a proper pile of black gold and we have another mound which will be ready for next year! We are the envy of our neighbours - donating it sparingly ! Not sure how to shade the poly tunnel… Thank you for the advice
Oh lovely, a gorgeous area! I’m so tempted to leave here but I’m very attached to my garden and friends etc. Ironically I work a fair bit in North Yorks and my partner lived up there for many years but couldn’t really cope with the winters. Maybe I will have to work on him a bit more. All the best with your new rural life!
Hi Ben,
I sow most stuff from seed. The tomatoes I sowed were tiny this year and I'm tearing my hair out about what to sow seeds into. The potting compost that I paid for is obviously not what seeds want. Do I mix it with garden soil? Anyway I planted several tiny plants and they're doing okay, as far as I know.
I'm in the mountains on holiday and had to leave my potager to the mercy of my neighbours' occasional watering but luckily it's rained at home.
I have a lot of butternuts, as I find that they keep well in winter and provide an immense amount of flesh compared to ordinary pumpkins. Potatoes are growing well in old compost bags. They're easy to earth up and to harvest. Peas were coming along nicely. Planted some broccoli and Chinese leaf. They were small but growing when I left. There are courgette plants doing very nicely and some cucumbers, which got eaten by something in the coldframe but seem to be making a comeback. Some ratte potatoes (french?) came back on their own in the potager so I left them and they should be ready to dig out soon. The French beans were all sprouting when I left. Got loads of Grenoblois rouge lettuce looking beautiful. Carrots, as usual and beets have done nothing, as yet. I'm getting fed up with sowing them as they don't seem to do well, despite the cow manure that I've put in the ground. A Lidl grape that I planted is growing well. It's a pink grape and I hope to train it along the fence and make wine with the grapes eventually. I have three archichoke plants in the flowerbeds. They're so pretty when they get bigger, I'll probably leave them and see if they'll survive winter with some mulch. I planted coriander and basil in rows, but they were very small. I'll sow some straight into the ground when I get back as I freeze them and they last all year.
Can't think of anything else. I'm grateful to have a well and to get roof-water at the front of the house for watering the flowerbeds. We've had substantial rain, which is the opposite to last year when the well ran dry and we had hosepipe bans.
If I get get to the barracks to see what's happening there, I'll bring you vegetable seeds!
Bfn.
Sara Dawn.
Oh, I forgot. The strawberries are now in their second year. Got 3kg out in the week before we left! Great year for them. Hundreds more to come from a very small patch!
How long are you going to keep your strawbs in before you renew them? The books say every 4 years, but I reckon if you keep on top of the runners, and keep them healthy, you can leave them in a lot longer.
Another commenter on here is talking about growing lavender from seed. That is difficult. Growing a vine from a shop bought grape? That is seriously impressive green fingering!
Hi Ben. Nah, I'm no expert gardener but Lidl is a great place to pick up cheap plants and I've now grown three grapevines from there. This one is doing the best so far. The other two are in my old garden which I haven't been able to tend lately. I'm a firm believer in growing from seed. It either works or it doesn't, just try. I found that one dahlia, for example, gives thousands of seeds and they grow well. As for the strawberries, maybe when the old plants are lessening in crop, pull them out and leave the new runners? That's what I intend to do. At the moment, my tiny patch has hundreds of fruits. I can only attribute this to it being the second year and loads of lovely rain and heat. My lettuce, I tend to do what Dowding does ... Pick the leaves and leave them to grow for as long as possible. I've had kale in my garden that's kept on growing for three years. I'm still a debutante gardener but I keep an eye on Gardeners'World and I follow Dowding bon Insta. His results are always better with no dig and I got cardboard from a factory skip, but you need a lot of good compost and manure and I never have enough despite composting everything. The paysans here do as you do and use rotivators, compost and manure. Their veggies are fab !
I don't subscribe to his version of "better"
I guess he's weighing, charting, comparing methods. His produce are usually bigger and heavier from the undisturbed ground. He puts it all here.... https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-masterclasses/guardian-masterclass-blog/2019/nov/15/what-is-the-no-dig-method-charles-dowding-demystifies ....... I've seen some remarkable results from people in mountainous regions in France , using permaculture where it's freezing cold and quite dry. We're in that mountain type environment here and it's very difficult to go from extremely cold springtime to really hot springtime in a day. My coldframes didn't work for that reason. Reproducing the 'forest floor' seems like a natural and very organic idea.
_shudders_
Please, no more talk of either Dowding or permaculture.
Everything you said about him just now, including the word "masterclass" I find repulsive. The article is riddled with lies.
Good to hear your progress this week, I think it’s all looking really great. I have a tiny allotment plot - 4x5m but I’ve managed to cram it all in and I’m on a waiting list for a bigger plot. I have a garden too which I’ve got toms and cucumbers etc. I have quite a scattered mind and find it a struggle to be methodical but I’ve tried hard this year everything so far seems to have forgiven me my chaotic approach and it’s the best year so far - (my 3rd) Lots of marigolds, borage and nasturtiums in between. Have been eating broad beans which have now been chopped and dropped around my sweetcorn, spinach (also gone to seed) first Calibrese, potatoes and raspberries. Not very often that someone asks about my veggie plot so there you go, thanks for asking! All your talk of digging makes my back ache, I don’t dig because I can’t. I know it’s not for everyone but I’ve been following Charles Dowding his instructions for sowing times etc have really helped. Feel a constant sense of doom about the environment and growing food and flowers seems to help keep me sane. There’s the constant threat of building and loss of habitat here - just outside Oxford - and despite the abundance of ecologists and clever environmental here, none of them seem to work in the planning department. Think lots of s**t in the river - I know, let’s build 2000 new houses, a new science park and a giant carpark on green fields that no one will use. My immediate concern is getting through July and August without the garden frying. How hot is it getting there? I always look forward to your Monday morning updates.
Hope this isn’t an inappropriately long comment. Hope you have a very good week. X
Hi Laura, I understand all that completely.. I have a 'sacattered mind' too and am sometimes overwhelmed by the amount of work there is to do! As I write (above) I watch Monty and follow Dowding on FB and Instagram and find his work remarkable. I also think that Morag Gamble (YouTube, FB) in Austr6, is interesting. She's a more 'natural' gardener. Interesting to keep in touch. I'm from the Isle of Wight originally, lived in Wales and am now in the Haute Loire in France. Last year we had very little rain and were very worried when even the well and source dried up in the summer. As for the s**t in the sea, here's a tale. My ex was too stingy to pay to get our cesspit (in Wales) emptied frequently, so he cracked it. It would then leak out. The potatoes that grew under/around that patch were the best! All the best, Sara
Morag Gamble in AUSTRALIA
4x5m is adorable! I once did an experiment in a tiny flat in London where I tried an experimental 1x1m plot. Not only can you get a LOAD more out of a small plot than you would think, you can keep it looking super pretty all the time! Which I also like.
I had a wicker duck in that garden. I miss it.
I have to say it’s been the perfect way to build up some confidence. It doesn’t feel too overwhelming and it is surprising how much I can fit in! I’d love to have seen the wicker duck!
I am sure I have an old photo somewhere. Look out for it in a future newsletter!
We have been at our new home since last September - with a large very fertile vegetable area. We have inherited a huge pile of horse manure from the previous owners which has been a blessing. I had an urgency to get out of London last May/June - felt like I was in a disaster movie with the heatwave and drought ant stupidity of our governments- we bought and sold and moved within 6 weeks.- some feat! Moving from the unyielding clay soil of North London to this crumbly black gorgeousness has been a real treat.
This is my first proper year sowing and growing veg so it’s very experimental. I may well have over done the compost for some veg. Yesterday,
I discovered rats are at the potatoes- I’d already salvaged the seed potatoes in Feb which they has stolen from the poly tunnel and secreted away under a wood pallet! Now they’re digging them out- but I harvested the first for our consumption yesterday- utterly delicious melt in the mouth.
Much like you, broad beans a disappointment, spinach gone to seed, strawberries popular with the rabbits and squirrels, red currants devoured by the birds- but they deserve a treat - after the endless joy their birdsong offers. They leave us a generous amount of raspberries to be fair.
Success with courgettes, I have squash, cucumbers and an aubergine in the poly tunnel, but it gets so hot in there already, not sure if they’ll survive. Lots of tomato varieties doing well in poly tunnel and out doors and garlic too
I got some seeds from a seed cooperative - tree spinach and mustard leaves- both doing really well and delicious.
We have 6 happy chickens which supply us with more than enough eggs and amusement.
We have embraced the challenge and can’t imagine a life any where but here now. Yes we’re in a bubble, a beautiful tiny Yorkshire cul de sac village but we are aware how fragile that bubble is in this climate catastrophe and hopefully make the best of it and try hard not to exacerbate.
Have a productive week,
Rachel and Tom
Hi Rachel and Tom.
I've planted potatoes in old compost bags (I hate to throw away plastic). It's easy to earth them up and they can be harvested quickly and simply. It also saves a lot of space for other things in the garden and maybe (?) the rats wouldn't bother them so much?
Sounds fantastic. Well done. Can't imagine living in town any more because of the heat but if I did, I'd fill my balcony or get an allotment. Yorkshire is ver pretty!!
Is it horse manure, or stable manure? Like, dried horse apples (as they call them around her) or lovely deep piss-soaked straw as well? Both are good, just wondering :)
Shade your polytunnel! For sure. And plenty of mulch. I saw a post somewhere where a photo of tomatoes in a polytunnel was being roundly criticised for having "too much" mulch. No such thing! They probably read it somewhere in a book. Or got it from an "expert" Bahhh. :)
My raspberries still have a good few weeks to go. In fact, you sound like a good one or two climate zones ahead of me. In Yorkshire!!! Told you it was cold around here :)
The bubble sounds lovely. Well done on getting out!
I agree about the mulch.
Loved reading this! I wonder where you escaped to?
We moved to Nun Monkton, North Yorks, an ancient village with one of the last working greens in the country. It sits on the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Nidd, and is mentioned in the Domesday Book. We have a long 1/3 acre back garden. It’s a very special place!
The state of my garden: we just sort of let it do what it wants back there but I've been growing some stuff with the kids in a big pot. In box pot #1, I put some lavender seeds and some bought strawberry plants. The lavender is at the seedling stage and the strawberries produced three (3) fruits.
In box pot #2, I am growing sunflowers and peas together. A cat got into the box and effed up the middle plants (I assume they attacked first?) but they're still clinging onto life. Only one of the peas and sunflowers got what I was trying to do and are growing up together. The peas are flowering, some have started ... fruiting?? and there is no sign of a flower in any of the sunflowers yet.
The drought we had here has been a major problem. It was frost, frost, frost, frost, no rain for three weeks, and none of the plants I chose was down with that. The strawberries seemed ok with it but I guess not or I'd have more fruit.
I did put a metric f-tonne of wild flower seeds into the back of my garden and they are going like the clappers now it has rained a couple of times. My moss seems also very healthy.
Hi Kel, strawberries always do better after the first year. Need a lot of water too. Well done for the lavender. I have quite a few plants and shall try to harvest seeds this year. You've inspired me!
I heard lavender seeds were notoriously tricky to get started? How was it, ok?
I love the sunflowers and seeds idea. There is an urban myth of Incas growing beans up sweetcorn, (and pumpkins on the ground) but that always sounded super unbelievable to me. And probably not a good idea now I think about it. But sunflowers and peas sounds perfect! I might try that next year.
Oh, did a boat load of wild flowers this year. I dont think I've mentioned that anywhere. I shall try to remember to put it in a post at some point. Probably when they are flowering :)
The lavender is still a bit of a work in progress. Maybe I should try it with plants from the garden centre next time.
I saw a thing for kids on TV about native American religion/culture and they had a thing about three plants growing up together: corn, squash and beans. The way Spirit Rangers tell it, it's a great way to grow the three crops 😅https://m.imdb.com/title/tt22006070/
Would like to see that. Did you use yellow rattle to stifle the grass growth?
ein prachtschwein und pfifferlinge? very doomy makes you very funny❤️this newsletter
And for non-German speakers, "Prachtschwein" comes from the book Charlotte's Web (which is called "Wilbur und Charlotte" in German (!)). The first words that are discovered in the titular web in the original are "Some Pig", which we take to mean "oh, what a wonderful pig", not "here's a random pig". The potential confusion (wonderful vs random) is cleared up very nicely in German by translating it to the vastly superior "Prachtschwein" - a made-up portmanteau, like so many of the best words in German - combining Pracht - magnificence with Schwein - pig. You can put Pracht in front of anything to make it rather charmingly grandiloquent :)
ok, some more word salad for the non German speakers: Pfifferling is named according to it‘s taste Pfeffer/pepper but soundwise has a Pfiff/whistle in it. so that a mushroom whistler catcalls a Pracht-pig is a rather nice image...
This made my day!
I know you prefer the cheerful ones :P