Veggie meal

We had a meal tonight which included 10 vegetables from the garden! Stuffed courgette with salad and potatoes. The courgette was no 1 stuffed using tomatoes and poblano pepper. The salad included pea shoots, radishes, radish pods, chives, garlic chive flowers, strawberries and my Nicola potatoes, which were very good.

Garlic harvests - first courgette

The elephant garlic was ready in mid June so I harvested my 4 bulbs. All good. They are hanging up to cure in the old greenhouse.

The two garlic cloves planted last winter solstice grew well and looked ready to harvest on June 30th. Each had a good firm bulb but they were less than an inch across. Maybe it's not a good variety for my conditions. Still they are curing with the elephant garlic now and will be used in the kitchen. The scapes have been saved for use in the kitchen too.

I might try another variety next winter.

First courgette was picked today, good size from Verde d'Italia in the bed.

The longest day

Last Saturday we had the first courgette off this year's plants. A Verde d'Italia. That plant is growing another one now, but none of the other zucca/zuccetta/zucchini are setting fruit yet. Quite a few male flowers around though.

On Sunday I sowed the biennial flowers in three inch square pots or modules. 10 of each - foxgloves (white, apricot and excelsior), hesperis (white and purple), sweet william (nigricans),  honesty and 5 daucus carota. They are outside this year.
The vipers bugloss sowed April 2015 is huge now and covered in flower spikes. The bees love it.

And today was the solstice. It rained heavily and some of my potted tomatoes were beaten down and needed staking. I planted three deeply into the large bed where I had just taken up the elephant garlics. They were not so good this year. They didn't send up scapes, are now yellowing and collapsing, so I lifted them. They are all "rounds". I will probably save them to plant again in the autumn.

More potting

Yesterday, I put out the rest of my squash/courgette varieties into pots. One of each variety is still waiting to go into the haybale bed. (They went in on 29th) I also potted a "left over" red kitchen potato that had sprouted in the cupboard. This is an experiment to see if that gives decent results, but I don't know the variety. (Maybe Désirée)

The day before, I potted on the eleven tomato plants (right) that are waiting to go into the broad bean bed. We ate broad beans in their pods last night. (They were lovely!) So the tomatoes may not have to wait too long.

The foxgloves (left) sown last June are flowering now, along with the hesperis and putting on a good show. The vipers bugloss are getting enormous and nearly ready to flower. The James Grieve apple tree appears to have set about 200 fruits!

Beans are started

Last week of April. Sow beans my calendar said. So I did. 10 Hestia, dwarf runners; 10 Boby Bianco, dwarf French beans and 6 Meraviglia di Venezia, climbing French beans. They all went into the conservatory and the Hestia are up today. (The others followed in the next couple of days.)

I planted one tomato Principe Borghese out in the plot three days ago and a couple of purple basils went out next to it today. Six garlic chives were potted up, one gardeners' delight tomato went out in a pot next to the conservatory today and one Verde d'Italia courgette went into the squash bed. Broad beans are just beginning to appear and the apples have an enormous amount of flower just opening.

I bought two cucumber plants this week and potted them up into small pots in the greenhouse. Pak choy and salad greens have gone out into the shady plot and chard seedlings are just showing.

Squashes and courgettes

Last week I sowed squashes and courgettes. 2 seeds to a 3 inch pot. 2 pots each of 8 varieties! Golden Zucchini and Butterpie were seeds left from last year and new from Seeds of Italy are zucchino Verde d"Italia and Custard White, zucchetta Rugosa Friulana and Tromba d'Albenga, zucca Marina di Chioggia and Butternut Rugosa. The Verde d'Italia were first up but they are all up now and the weaker seedlings are being discarded from each pot.
	My basils had their first potting on last week and are sitting with the tomato plants in the conservatory.
The tomatoes have been up a month now and are doing well. The new Italian varieties are about 6 inches tall and the old seeds are about 3 inches.

Try again!

On Thursday I potted up my late sowings of courgette (Golden Zuccini) and the first Butterpie squash into large pots for the summer outdoors. Must remember this next year. The early ones were hopeless. I still have some small things trying to get going. It seems there is no recovery from an early check to growth. I used a 50:50 mix of the growbag material with my leaf mould as the medium for these.

My potatoes look fairly good. I saw some peeking through the surface today so I did a topping off with sandy garden soil to keep the tubers in the dark.

Second tries!

My second sowings of courgette (Golden Zuccini) and squash (Butterpie) came up this week. My first sowings have nearly all failed completely under the assaults of slugs, snails and cold, wet weather. The extra sowing of chard in modules has germinated too. At the same time a few have come up in the outdoor bed! The next sowing of spring onions is just beginning to show as well in the greenhouse, while acouple of the previous sowing have come up in the bed.

My second sowing of cucamelons is doing well in the conservatory. I potted them on today and am keeping them in the conservatory birdcage. With luck that should make a good picture later.

Squashes all out.

The rest of the squashes and courgettes went out today.  9 into growbags (3 each) and 2 into large containers filled with rough compost and a potting compost topping.

The first vipers bugloss has germinated - just one so far.

The small trays of catnip and valerian have some seedlings showing as well.

Beans out.

 On Monday I planted out my French beans by their supports. I also planted a courgette and a Hunter squash in the haybale. I'm interested to see what happens to them! It's time for some pictures I think.

Squash and beans

The squashes were all up yesterday in the conservatory and the French beans (at last!) made an appearance. I moved them to the conservatory about a week ago to give them more warmth. It took 24 days for them to show.

The first rocket (just 1!) went into the ground on Tuesday covered by a top half of a tonic bottle.

Big sowing day

Warm weather and things are getting moving. The beetroot are all up in the greenhouse.

Today's sowings:-  Basil 6, Coriander 6, Kale 12, Squashes 3 ea of 3 types, Courgettes 6, Cucumber 1, Cucamelon 2, second sow of Rocket 6.

First outdoor sowings Carrot 1x16 square, Swede 2 x 9 squares.