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Category Archives: Vegetable gardening

Slugs rule ok!

07 Saturday Jul 2012

Posted by marytheherb in Gardening, Pond, Vegetable gardening, Wildlife

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frogs, slugs

You may not have believed my last post when I commented on the disastrous vegetable situation this year so I am posting some pictures of the damage, almost entirely due to the slugs, although pigeons are not wholly without blame, and the weather started things off badly and ensured the plants were poor specimens and ready to be attacked. (Click on the first two photos for larger slugs!)

Broad bean brunch

Radish relish

Pathetic peas

Calamatous cabbages (note potato intruder)

Paltry potatoes

I have been fighting a brave battle on the strawberry front and we have had plenty of lovely fruit, but yesterday’s rain re-inforced slug numbers and I am giving up there too.

I suppose I should say that I don’t use slug pellets because we have a couple of ponds and there are loads of frogs hopping about the garden and they come first. Frogs are having a hard time over the planet and I am trying to make their lives as easy as possible here, so I suppose there will be the odd year when I really pay for that strategy.

Looking forward to next year now. It can’t be this bad can it?

Roses win the day

04 Wednesday Jul 2012

Posted by marytheherb in Flower garden, Vegetable gardening

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Roses

I returned from a week’s holiday to find the garden very verdant, apart from the vegetables, many of which have been decimated by the prodigious slug population. The potatoes have not grown and are going yellow and the broad beans are still small and although they have flowers I do not expect much of them. The strawberries, however, are ripening well and only a few are succumbing to mildew.

In the flower garden the roses are performing admirably. The hybrid tea ‘High Sheriff’ is in its beautiful first flush.

Rosa ‘High Sheriff’

I hope I can save it from the black spot that disfigured it so badly last year.

Here are some ‘Harlow Carr’ blooms picked for the house.

Rosa ‘Harlow Carr’

Meanwhile ‘Wedding Day’ is doing what it does best, scrambling through a tree.

R. ‘Wedding Day’

Jubilee plantings

07 Thursday Jun 2012

Posted by marytheherb in Greenhouse, Vegetable gardening

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cabbages, tomatoes

Pity it was so wet for the Diamond Jubilee this weekend. I feel sorry for all those holding outdoor activities. Just to brighten things up here is a picture of one of my jubilee pots (the blue isn’t out yet!)

Jubilee pot minus blue

Pigeons have already started their jubilee fest on my young cabbage plants. They will be netted after today.

Cabbage complete with brassica collar

My tomato plants are the sturdiest ever this year. I think it must be the seaweed feed I have been applying to all the herbs and vegetables. I hope they are as prolific with their fruit. I have been growing Alicante and Gardener’s Delight for the past few years with success, also the hanging basket variety Tumbler, which is marvellous. I keep meaning to try some different varieties but then I think I will play safe.

Tomato plants ready to pot on

November 22nd 2011

22 Tuesday Nov 2011

Posted by marytheherb in Autumn plants, Greenhouse, Vegetable gardening

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viburnum

What a damp, bedraggled looking garden, but still with a few flowers in bloom. Cornflowers and cosmos still flowering, as well as a climbing rose and various primula. The cotoneasters (C. franchettii) are looking bright and cheerful and the mahonia is a welcome source of scent for us and nectar for the bees. In this garden the viburnums are rather irregular in their habit and they are just in bud. They were attacked by viburnum beetle last spring but seem to have recovered remarkably well. They are some sort of Viburnum tinus, possibly ‘Gwenllian’. They are now large bushes and have really dark, glossy leaves.

In the vegetable garden

 This mild weather is giving my rather belatedly planted out leeks some good growing time. I have tried growing broccoli several times now and this year is as unsuccessful as the other times. I planted autumn broccoli and have tall, healthy looking plants but with no sign of any tender side shoots. They have been hosts to a large number of white fly but I am not sure that they have caused any damage. Broccoli will definitely be off the planting schedule from now onwards although I will leave these until spring to see what happens. Carrots, on the other hand, have been surprisingly successful. The second crop is now being harvested and they are very good. I have planted a small area with field beans as a green manure and they are looking very healthy.  Whether I will ever notice that they have enriched the soil in that area is another question.

The greenhouse

This is a cold greenhouse. The tomatoes and cucumber have finished and I must take them out and tidy the place up a bit. Some hardy annuals sown in the autumn have appeared and are looking strong – cerinthe and larkspur. I will be sowing sweet peas in the near future. Usually I have taken in the tarragon before now and must do it before the frosts arrive. I will also move the lemon verbena in case that can be saved for next year.

Next year

This is when I start planning for next year and for the first time we have no large changes to make to the garden. Getting the beds we already have up to a better standard is the plan. For the last couple of years I have had one small annuals bed (annuals planted onsite) and it has been interesting work but I think for next year I will make this a mixed bed and have more perennials.

Annuals bed July 2011

 My aim is to get as many herbs into the garden as possible but planted in a variety of locations including the rock bed and a number of perennial beds in different situations. More of herbs next time.

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