Light after a long wet winter...

Well, have to admit we had a long wet winter and even though winter isn't official over yet - this weekend we've been having lovely weather and the garden is drying out nicely.

We've been busy in the garden. We made a shelter for the asparagus (photo on left).

Hopefully they can start growing quickly...now!

I have sown some radishes and rocket (photo right - covered by fleece)

And I have planted my early seed potatoes Red Duke Of York and Sharpes Express - these are both first early potatoes (photo above).

Photo on the left is the garden today 18/2/13 - my greens are going to seeds - we've grown cava nero and they have been brilliant - they are delicious and are very easy to grow.

Have we had summer?

I was talking to my son and he said this summer 2012 makes all the last few summers seem really good! He has a point though.

But...Last week we have had a gorgeous week of hot sunshine. We live 5 minutes from the sea and we went for a swim most days. It was my mini holiday. Anyway we have just started picking runner beans, french beans, kohl rabi and of course other vegetables such as courgettes: I grew the courgettes from my own seed they are a round ball yellow variety. We've also had mangetout and sugar snap.

Because we grow vegetables in raised beds I don't think the vegetable crop has been affected by all that rain - that's because the raised beds drain well. I have talked to some gardeners and they say there soil is very, very wet, no wonder with all that rain we have had.

My greens are at the moment caterpillar free, all the rain must have stopped the white butterfly from coming in my garden. But I am starting to see a few.

I have had a wonderful crop of loganberries, tayberry and jostaberry i picked them everyday then popped them in the freezer. When I had 6lbs I made jam with the mixture, I have done this twice so have a lot of pots of jam.

Rain never stops

Like most of the rest of the country we've had a lot of rain. Not a lot you can do about it - and I see from this weeks forecast we have a little more rain to come just to keep the dust down!!

Here are some of my latest flower photos:

A glut of lettuces - June 28 2012

Just pulled about 8 little gem lettuce that weren't growing very well and we are in a glut of lettuce state alert!! So we had to make lettuce soup. It's a quick way of getting rid of a glut of lettuces. 8 lettuces might sound a lot of it boils down to nothing.

Any way the fruit is ripening very quickly and i am picking it just before its ripe so the bird don't have it. Then I leave it in a bowl inside and they ripen completely before I freeze them - then when I have enough I'll make jam.



I've also picked some purple mangetout is called Shiraz from Thompson & Morgan and they look stunning, they also taste pretty damn good. Not many make it indoors because I eat them whilst picking them.



Also picked some more beetroot and cut the leaves off and gave them to the chickens - they love them. I'm going to roast them again.

hello

I dug up my first purple potatoes the variety is actually 'salad blue' but to me the look purple! Read my article here on - how to grow potatoes - i also write on there about the other variety I grew which is 'mayan gold'. I went to dig some potatoes up with my 21 year old daughter. And we were both like look at that big potato - but it was only a old egg shell that hadn't composted yet!!

Below salad blue potatoes (they look so dark and almost like a beetroot)

Below - Mayan Gold potatoes

My trio of potatoes: red duke of york, mayan gold and salad blue - ready to be cooked.

I absolutely love the colours - I boiled them then added a bit of margerine and chives. very, very nice.

Picked my first beetroot last night - they've been quite slow this year. They have masses of leaves but just haven't grow big. Discover how to start growing beetroot in your garden.



I washed the beetroot and put some olive oil and a bit of salt over them - then popped them in the oven - 190C - for about 45minutes. Very delicious - they looked pretty ugly and the daughter kept looking at them - i said eat them - finally she did and the verdict was 'mhh very nice. The son he doesn't eat beetrrot usually that's because hubby usually boils them and covers them in vinegar. But he also ate them and found them 'yummy'.

I also picked some rainbow swiss chard I love the colours it produces.



My favourite recipe for swiss chard is this: chop the swiss chard, take a knob of butter put in a saucepan and let in melt, toss the washed swiss chard and add some salt and pepper and a little bit of water. Put a lid on the saucepan and cook for around 5 minutes.

Also have pulled up all the onions are they are hanging in bunches drying. You can dry your onions by tying them in bunches and hanging them in a dry and airy place - the tops will die down and then we cut the tops of and put them in onion bags in a dry cool area. You can also dry onions by placing them on wire netting in the sun - but sun isn't something we have a lot of here in sunny UK! You need air to circulate around them.



I've also pulled up the garlic and I cut the tops of as mine always seem to suffer from rust. I then place the garlic bulbs in a tray and put that out into the sun - when we get some.

When they are completely dry - I clean them of by rubbing off the outer layer, this then makes them all lovely and white.



The shallots were also pulled up I also cut the tops of as hubby has a way of mixing things up and I want the onions and shallots seperate. You can dry shallots the same way as the onions above. But I cut the tops of and place them in an old fish tray - you find these here on the beaches. This works just like the garlic above I place them in the sun when we have sun and if it's like today cloudy and rainy on this June day I keep them in the dry until I can put them out again.