Wee Veggie Patch

I'm back!

2009-09-09T10:58:00.005+01:00

Hmm... somewhat neglecting this at the moment. My excuse is that the lens on my camera has broken and I've had to send it off to get fixed and so haven't been able to take any nice piccies. No nice piccies = nothing to boast about :p = no writing.

I haven't been able to take piccies of:

1) My mahoosive sunflowers, all of which are over 2.5m tall, one of which have reached the first floor french windows. I'm so chuffed! And even P is happy even though he is *such* a non-gardener, but because he's a boy, he gets excited about big things.

2) My mahoosive second shark fin melon, which is now nearly 1.5 times the size of my first. I'm just letting this one grow on to the end of the season and see how big it can get, as I don't have to cull it prematurely to let others grow. Again, big. P likes. Very much.

3) My tomatoes! They were blighted, so I took advice and pulled all of the tomatoes plants up and harvested all of the green tomatoes. I gave half of them away as I didn't know what to do with them, and apparently you have to cook them up quickly to avoid the blight getting to them further. I wish I hadn't give them away now. As I sat there for days pondering about what to do, they started to turn red, not black. I bought a bunch of bananas and put them on top of the toms, and 90% of them have now turned red, with the rest to follow! I could have cooked up a vat of tomato base with the ones I gave away! A lesson to be learned here, I think - don't be too hasty with blighted plants. Will need to remember for next year. Do not panic, do not panic!

4) My cucs! Fortunately, I gave a plant away at the beginning of the season, and only one of the my remaining 3 survived. From this single plant (Marketmore), I have had over 10 cucumbers, with another 3 or 4 begging to be picked. I'm not sure if it's been the sudden additional blast of warmth from this 'Indian Summer', but the past week has seen an additional flush of flowers, which are beginning to bear fruit. Cucs coming out of my ears. Eek!

5) The courgettes have been brilliant, with the plants giving me around up to 5 per week at the height of the season. The green ones are succumbing to powdery mildew now and are beginning to show signs of stopping, but the single yellow plant I have (Jemmer F1) is continuing to keep me in courgette heaven.

6) French beans - one wigwam with about 6 plants (and a couple that I grew up a sunflower for fun *looks really pretty - Blauhilde, with purple stems and flowers winding around the stalk*) has kept a little tupperware dish in the fridge fully stocked for the past month.

I wish I had a camera, to take a pic of the trombocino squash that I've grown. I never expected these to come to anything as I sowed quite late on in the season (July, I think), but the first squash has appeared and is about 10cm long. I hope it has time to continue to grow and fill out - these are squash with bulbous ends, that can grow up to 30cm long.

I've harvested my Asian pears. I only let the one year olds fruit for fun, and the fruit that they produced were small. I think they would have been nice and crunchy if I'd harvested them earlier - I think I left them on the plant for a bit too long so they were a bit soft (but sweet!). My two year old Shinseiki, however, was a different story. It only bore 2 fruit, but oh, what two fruit! Crisp, juicy, and the sweetest that I have ever tasted (I'm sure the chuff factor has something to do with it). I can't wait until next year!!!

Who else is reaping in the delights of Autumn?

Blight!

2009-08-16T21:27:00.004+01:00

After the excitement of the past few days seeing my tomatoes ripening, my mood came tumbling today when I inspected the toms a bit closer. Yes, I have blight. Only a few tomatoes were showing the signs but the unmistakeable blackening of the stems means that the plant had to go to stop it spreading to the others.

One of the cordon plants in the ground is affected so far, with its neighbour showing early signs. I have pulled the affected one up, taking care to remove all the foliage and as much root as possible from the area. It's all going into a bag and to landfill. Blight affected material should never be composted in case the spores linger in your garden.

I had to go to the garden centre to get some Bordeaux mixture. It's approved by the Soil Association for organic use (I think, but the info might be out of date), but I still feel sad and a bit guilty, because, well, I really didn't want to spray anything in the patch. :(

Hopefully, this will slow down the process in the minor affected plant to allow the fruits to ripen, and stop the onset in the other plants. I have over 10kg of tomatoes in the garden. Losing the lot would feel like a stab in the heart. :(

I managed to salvage about 2kg of green tomatoes and have hung the bunch up to ripen. If on inspection tomorrow, any more shows signs of deterioration, I'm going to have to cook the whole lot up into, erm... something that uses green tomatoes.

Chutney, anyone?

Pasta sauce in a basket

2009-08-15T23:36:00.002+01:00

My first toms are ripening!

Balconi Red, two plants in a hanging basket, along with some basil that I propogated from a supermarket pot back in March.

Two of the larger fruits on the Harbinger toms in the ground are turning too - not too many days between me and my own home grown tomatoes!

Oh My Gourd!

2009-08-14T22:34:00.005+01:00

I'm growing shark fin melon (also known as fig leaved or malabar gourd) this year. I'd been advised against this, as the vines can grow up to 4m(!), but being one to pack as much in to the patch as I possibly can, I threw all caution to the wind and begged for some seeds (can't buy them in this country - nearest online place I found them was in Germany). Unfortunately, the seeds didn't germinate, but FIL came to the rescue and gave me about 5 seedlings from his garden. FIVE! I picked the two strongest ones to plant out to grow over the arch (space saving, see?), and cut down the weaker one once it looked like one would survive.

It doesn't take much looking after - the vines indeed do have a life of their own, and I swear that the tendrils wrap themselves around whatever it is I've freed from them, the minute my back is turned!

The melons themselves also grow by the hour. This is a baby melon just a couple of days after making its first appearance (28.07.09):

A week or so later(07.08.09):

And today:
I decided to cut it down today rather than let it get any bigger, because the other baby melons that were on the vine have stopped growing and are starting to shrivel up. I'm not sure if it's the same principle as courgettes whereby the plant stops producing if you leave a courgette to grow on? This size will be more than enough for myself and P anyway, although, I had wanted to save some seed but have just read this on the internet:

"The fruits are only properly ripe if they are left to run their full course on the vines until they are cut down by frost". Ack. Hope another one develops.

Oh, also trimmed and cleaned up all the garlic bulbs that I harvested last week and cut the chillies off the chilli plant. I've left a few on for decoration. I still have some in the freezer from the first de-chillifying... Hmm.. curries and chillies on the menu, ad infinitum?

Grow your own entertainment(!)

2009-08-13T09:26:00.002+01:00

Tomato evolving a new way of pollination?

:p :p :p

Wordless Wednesday

2009-08-12T09:23:00.000+01:00

Wee Veggie Patch 07.08.09

2009-08-07T23:21:00.005+01:00

All my babies have grown up! *sniffle*

French beans have reached the top of their canes and more, malabar gourd is threatening to take over the garden and I keep having to snip it back (the largest gourd on it is now the size of a galia melon), the sunflowers have reached over 8ft high, the cuc plant that you see in the corner is going mental (I didn't even know cuc plants grow so large and climb up everything available to them?), and the courgettes are going great guns.

We're eating a ridiculous amount of courgettes, but hey ho, just have to get a more adventurous with recipes. Courgette and chocolate cake, anyone? :)

Duck & pancakes

2009-07-30T22:08:00.004+01:00

What better way to use up my first cucumber? :D

First, shred all the vegetables as thinly as you can - I've used carrots, cucumber and chives here. I think restaurants give you spring onion and cucumber? I can't remember. But anyway, I'm using what I'm using, because it's what I can get from the patch. :)

Next, take a pancake, spread a little hoi sin sauce on it, and pile on the meat and veg.
My MIL made the duck, so I only chucked it in the oven and shredded it up - didn't have to slave in a hot kitchen for hours. :p

The trick here to to wrap it like a sandwich wrap. I've seen people just roll it up, and I hate that, because all the good stuff falls out of the bottom when you're eating, which means you end up eating pancake. Then duck. Then veg.

Then, bite into this:
Yum! :)

End of July at Wee Veggie Patch

2009-07-29T20:17:00.003+01:00

It's the end of the second month of not having to buy in any veggies - apart from onions and potatoes, because I just do not have the space, oh, and mushrooms too...cos there ain't mush room. Lol lol lol! *ahem* (¬_____¬")

*regains composure*

So, through the round window... we see:

Cucs becoming ready...

Garlic harvested (a little too early I think, but I needed the space for something else). Most have them have split into cloves, which was a surprise, as I didn't plant them til late Feb:

A malabar gourd (shark's fin gourd/fig leaved gourd) beginning to develop. The first baby one shrivelled up and dropped off, due to lack of pollination I think. This grows really fast - the vine can grow up to 2ft per day(!) and I can almost *see* the gourd swelling every day:

An abundance of tomatoes - all still very green. I think some drastic action is required - going to cut down some of the leaves so that the sun gets to the fruits. This is just a couple of trusses on one plant. I have 8 plants, with about 4 trusses on each. P is questioning just what I'm going to do with all these tomatoes:

End of July harvest - I picked this as a wee pressie for my friend Furry Fiend in Manchester, but alas, ended up not going because of an outbreak of swine flu at work and didn't want to risk transmission. :(

I finally have sweetpeas!

2009-07-25T19:08:00.002+01:00

It's taken 2 packets of seeds (which actually didn't come to anything), and two pots bought in from the garden centre, but I finally have sweetpeas for cutting!

They're well worth the wait - they're so delicate and pretty, and nothing beats the scent that they give to a room. :)

I've put them in with a few leucanthemum here, also from the garden. The variety is "Highland White Dream". Pretty, huh? :)

Courgettes a-go-go! Cabbages go!

2009-07-18T23:15:00.006+01:00

Courgettes again! I cut these yesterday, and already there are another 4 about to be ready. Must be all the rain we've been having. I'm not yet at the point of being sick of courgettes, so keep 'em coming, I say! :D :D :D

In other news, I've admitted defeat on my cabbages. I dug up (actually, P dug up, cos I was scared of the caterpillar infestation) the cabbages. I originally wanted to salvage at least some leaves or the heart, but the caterpillars had eaten their way in. It just wasn't worth the effort, so I've composted everything. What a waste of effort. I was out there almost every day squishing eggs and baby 'pillars. :(

Not sure if I'll grow these again next year. If I do, it'll have to be early, and harvested before the darn cabbage whites come in. I don't really want to net or fleece, because I really don't want the patch to look utilitarian. As space is at a premium, the patch has to look nice as well as taste nice. :)

Okies. Off to bed. London Bikeathon tomorrow. 6am start from here to get there in time. Eeek!

First carrots

2009-07-13T10:51:00.003+01:00

My first ever normal sized carrots! Some of them are from sowings of Suttons Speedy Seeds carrots (for baby carrots) in March, and some are from Early Nantes sowing in April. After this, I can understand when people say that once you taste a home grown carrots, you'd never want to buy them in again. They do taste so much sweeter, and not just compared to normal ones - they're sweeter than the organic ones that you can get from supermarkets. The only other carrots that I've tasted that are so sweet were from an organic veg box delivery from the local farm.

I had a wee helper pull them up too. My niece came to visit for the weekend. Isn't she cute? :D

And this was my first and only attempt at carrots 3 years ago. Understand why I'm so excited by the ones we pulled up yesterday? :)

...and it continues to grow:

2009-07-10T16:13:00.007+01:00

I haven't been out in the garden much since the weekend. It's amazing what a difference just a few days make.

In this summer warmth, all the seeds that I sowed over the weekend have already germinated and growing happily as seedlings. The malabar gourd has reached the top of its arch, and there are two gourd-ettes on it already. The toms have gone crazy - the side shoots that I missed have turned into plants with their own trusses, so I've had to leave them, and what was 6 tomato plants now looks like 10. Apart from that, I don't really take notice of the toms too much, but have noticed that they have all set fruit. The courgette plants are threatening to take over everything else, so I'm going to have to pull out some stuff to make room - methinks the marigolds, since I'm not going to eat them. I'll move them into the flower border or something. I'm waiting very impatiently for the garlic to be ready, since I could use that small foot square of space for something else.

It has now been almost 7 weeks since we have needed to buy in veg (apart from carrots and potatoes and onions). Still very chuffed with things are going so far! If I manage to get carrots earlier next year, then, well.... YAAAY! :D

French beans are in full bloom, and there are already some baby beans. I plant two different types to add interest - Blauhilde, which gives magenta flowers and a purple pod, and Blue Lake, which gives creamy flowers and a normal green pod. Don't they look pretty together? I also have some Cobra growing, which gives purple flowers and a green pod, but for some reason, they don't seem to be climbing - maybe the seed manufacturers got the beans mixed up?

Look what happens to strawberries if you don't keep picking every day, immediately as they become red - you actually get to have a decent bowlful from one or two plants!

And omg! What is this?! I know it's not a friendly, because it's a caterpillar, and it's chomping away at my already dying plum tree, but it almost looks too beautiful to kill. I've left it for now, because maybe beautiful caterpillars = beautiful butterflies (sorry, bog standard cabbage whites... sorry that I keep killing your babies....but only if you land on my brassicas though! You have to learn to put your babies on the nasturtiums and the sacrificial chard!!!).

Will we ever learn?

2009-07-07T22:55:00.003+01:00

Just going through old MJ songs and music videos - two in particular - Earth Song and Heal the World, are making me a bit sad.

These were from the early 90s - coming on nearing 20 years ago. The message in them is (was!) clear. We were aware at least 20 years ago that we were in trouble, and yet, still, we're continuing with waste, destruction and war.

Will we ever make this a better place? How may more 20 years do we have?

Mega-quick Mid-week Meal

2009-07-07T21:17:00.007+01:00

...and a great way of using your carrot thinnings - oh, I mean, baby carrots.

Saute one diced sweet potato with a generous slug of olive oil and a teaspoon of chopped rosemary. I tend to add a little water to help it soften without going brown.

Meanwhile, pan fry some lamb steaks with a little bit of olive oil, a little pinch of coarse sea salt and coarse ground black pepper.

As the sweet potato softens and the water has evaporated, add carrots and cook until just al dente. Add mangetout, and cook for a couple of mins until tender. You'll find that the sweet potato will have released some sugars that will caramelise and coat all the the veggies. Yum!

Fridge and plot to plate in 20 mins! (with an assistant chef who does washing of veg while you chop and fry). Brilliant for those evenings when you can't be bothered but don't want to eat junk. :)

All the colours of the rainbow!

2009-07-04T21:27:00.005+01:00

Red (radish & beetroot) and yellow (courgette) and pink (ruby chard) and green(lettuce), purple(sprouting) and orange (er... deep yellow chard?) and blue (ok, pushing it a bit here... no blue. Boo...)!

First courgette harvest of 2009! Have been watching patiently for the courgettes to swell up to a usuable size. They don't take long - just a week from female flower opening to becoming a fruit of pickable size.

The courgettes and chard was made into a veggie lasagne along with some shop bought mushrooms and onions. The beetroot was roasted and mixed in with the lettuce, radish and spring onion into a side salad.

We've finally managed to buy a salad spinner. Everyone on earth probably knows this already, but this is such a brilliant invention! Wash, spin, and chuck in the fridge for 15 mins for dry, crispy salads. Don't have salads without one! Unless you have a lot of time to drip dry your leaves...

Berry Cherrilicious!

2009-07-03T23:09:00.000+01:00

First (and only one for 2009) mixed fruit 'platter' from Wee Veggie Patch! :D

I've been picking raspberries and strawberries every couple of days for about a week now, but today was the day when I decided that I'd ogled the cherries for long enough. I've been coming home home every day after work watching them get redder and redder. I tested one straight of the tree and it tasted so devine! There are 16 in total, but I think P left some on to ripen a little more.

This is the first season that I've had the tree, so hopefully, the harvest will increase as time goes on. :)

First broad bean harvest...

2009-06-28T22:38:00.005+01:00

...not just for this year, but ever. This is the first time I've grown broad beans!

Today has been a busy day weeding, caterpillar killing, and generally keeping Wee Veggie Patch tidy and pretty. I pulled up the mange tout that are now past their best. They're still producing a couple of flowers here and there, but have lost their steam and so the area could be better used for something else. I managed to salvage a few pea shoots and a number of mange tout that I had missed, which I shelled for use as petits pois. Waste not, want not! :)

...all cooked up to accompany tonight's dinner of roasted poussin and rosemary sweet potatoes. Yum! Carrots and sweet pots not my own, but the carrots could have been, if only I didn't have a bag already in my fridge... :p

Lush-ious!

2009-06-28T20:48:00.002+01:00

Wee Veggie Patch 28.06.09

Tomatoes are going great guns, the courgettes are threatening to take over the patch (I have 3 in there and one in a pot. They all germinated and I couldn't bear to throw any away...), the fig leaved gourd is making its way up the arch, french beans have all reached the top of the wigwam, and carrots and beetroots are nearly ready, not to mention the unstoppable lettuces...

Dear P,

The grass needs cutting.

Love,

Wife x

Wee Veggie Patch's Wee Helpers

2009-06-27T22:44:00.009+01:00

I got a huge shock yesterday whilst picking lettuces for dinner. As I reached down, my hand nearly touched what I thought was a huge slug...but it looked too big to be a slug...so I thought it was a the rotten stem of a courgette plant...until I realised my courgette plant was a couple of feet away... And it was only then that I realised that I had a huge frog in my garden. I say huge, because all the other frogs that I've seen before have been tiny. This one was about the size of my hand (ok, I have quite small hands, but still... ). Once I'd got over the initial shock, both P and I got very excited; me because frogs are brilliant well-oiled slug assasins, and P because, well, he's a boy and boys like all things slimy/reptile-y/squirmy/amphibian-y...

I have no idea how he got into our garden. We're in new build suburbia, no pond in or garden, and still surrounded by construction... but I'm not complaining. I hope Kermit stays... Yes, my new pet is called Kermit, although I looked for him this evening but couldn't find him. Isn't he a beauty? Huge, and with what I hope is a huge appetite!

Before Kermit stole the limelight, I was counting my lucky stars at having not one, but two ladybirds - a 2-spot and a 7-spot. Ok. I'm going to come clean here and confess that I did relocate the 7-spot from an overgrown walled garden that I had to do site visit to a few days ago, but the fact that it was still around and clearing up the aphids on my stems of my scabious was an event worthy of celebration. But the 2-spot! Oh, the joy of having willing visitors... :D :D :D

To top it all off, I've spotted a few hoverflies (obviously too quick for an amateur photographer like me). Oh, can I stand all this excitement?! :P

It's not all about food...

2009-06-26T18:31:00.002+01:00

I put in some dahlias for cutting, but I think I bought mini ones cos the stems don't seem to be growing long enough for a vase...

Even so, I think it looks quite pretty on the kitchen table in a shot glass along with some Hidcote and French lavender (Purple Ruffles).

What you don't get to see...

2009-06-25T23:46:00.000+01:00

Just to show that not everything is perfect...

Looking very sorry is the plum tree that I decided to dig up in a moment of misguided action. I had put the plum in as a cordon against the brick wall last winter. However, I read recently that you're not supposed to train stoned fruits as a cordon, so I decided to uproot the poor thing and relocated it to another corner of my garden. I know I should have waited until winter and dormancy, but I didn't want the roots to spend the summer growing, only to be broken in the winter. Anyway, it was left barerooted for a few moments too long, and it now looks like this. The single plum that was on it is now a shrivelled prune, and the whole tree really doesn't look very happy. To top it all off, after this mistake, a knowledgeable gardener from the GYO forum told me that you CAN train plums as a cordon after all! All you need to do is to make sure that the pruning is done in the right time (can't remember if that was winter or spring - it's NOT when you prune the other fruit trees anyway...). Oh dear.

...and another distressed looking thing. One of my pots of raspberries is under attack from loads of tiny caterpillar-like things. I have no idea what they are, as they don't look like the cabbage white caterpillars on my brassicas. I have to admit though, that I'm spending more time picking the caterpillars off my other pot of raspberries, since that one looks as though it's going to give me some fruit at least.

Is that being unfair and a tad cruel, like a parent favouring one child over another?

Promises of yumminess to come!

2009-06-24T19:19:00.006+01:00

Cherries starting to blush...and amazingly, haven't yet been eaten up by birds.

Reach for the sky! French beans reaching the top of their canes... do I need to 'pinch out', like broad beans?

Pretty strawberries, all in a row.

Courgettes - all of these are female flowers, with a baby courgette behind each flower. From what I've read, the male flowers usually bloom first. I hope that the males catch up, as the courgette babies won't come to anything unless they're pollinated...

So much to look forward to!

Maturity...

2009-06-23T18:26:00.001+01:00

...isn't something that I have, despite my 3 decades on Earth, but boy, are my veggies getting it instead. :)

I'm so glad that I did a lot of early sowing, as in previous years, I didn't start sowing until May/June. I'm reaping the rewards for being so much more organised, as I haven't needed to buy in vegetables since the beginning of June (that's over 3 weeks veggie shopping saving, but more importantly, you just can't buy the feel-good factor that comes with going out into the garden after work to pick dinner). I've been harvesting pak choi, mange tout, spring onions, lettuces, radishes, spinach and all the herbs. The greyhound cabbage is ready, but I haven't had a chance to pick it as everything else needs eating first. The annual sprouting is nearly ready (picked one single floret tonight).

I'm no longer picking 'baby pakchoi' - I only needed 5 of these for dinner for two.

...I think I should have harvested this one earlier, as you're supposed to do it when they are slightly larger than 10p size - but this one was still ok and wasn't woody in the middle.

I think we should be set for some broad beans next week? I'm going to do an autumn sowing of broad beans this year, so that they're ready to harvest and finished before late summer/early spring crops need growing space. Space is a premium when you only have 5m2 to play with, so I'm going to try to plan things a bit better next year. :)

Something Un-plant...

2009-06-20T08:10:00.000+01:00

You'd be forgiven for thinking that my whole life revolves around my 5m2 of patch. Not so! I do sometimes take time out to do other stuff. Other stuff like... to pick up a paintbrush for the first time since my final art exam in school, and paint something 'arty' for the sitting room, because I couldn't find any canvas art in the colours that I wanted, and didn't want to pay £100+ for the ones that I did like. It's not perfect, but passable for now. And for the time being, I think I'll stick to veggie growing...

My First Fruit!

2009-06-19T22:03:00.003+01:00

Ta daaaaaa!!! Wee Veggie Patch bears fruit!

I've been quite busy this week so hadn't been pottering in the garden after work so much. Imagine my surprise when this one single big perfect globe of red peeked out from under a strawberry leaf! I was so excited that I ran upstairs with it and both P and I both took a bite out of it before I remembered to take a pic to mark this momentous occasion. :p

It was big enough to be a three-biter, so guess who had the last chomp? :)

To wait or not to wait...

2009-06-17T08:51:00.004+01:00

A beautiful tiny floret has started to peek through on one of the annual summer sprouting plants. I have 6 of these in a block. The question is, do I lop this one off, or do I wait until the others catch up? Will this one burst into bloom if I wait, and so I'll have killed my chances of tasting my first broccoli? Will it continue with florets sprouting from the side if I lop the main one off?

So...many...questions...

What's in the trug tonight?

2009-06-16T20:49:00.008+01:00

Tonights dinner - mange tout, radish, baby beetroot, red salad bowl lettuce, chives, little gem lettuce & nasturtium leaves.

All made up into a chicken salad, along with potatoes and carrots left over from last night's roast. (Don't tell P that he ate nasturtium leaves - he still thinks that it's just meant to be a flowering plant. I'll have to gently ease him in before I serve up the flowers in salad...).

Oh, and another 57 mange tout since last update. Not sure whether to sow more for when these plants run out of steam, or whether we'd be sick of them by then...

Alien in my garden...

2009-06-15T21:02:00.000+01:00

...a.k.a. kohl rabi. It's the first time I've grown it. Doesn't it look strange, almost space-ship like?

I'm supposed to harvest this at golf ball size. As someone who has only ever been to a driving range once in her life, I can't exactly tell when this will be.

Eek! Attack of the mutant mangetout!

2009-06-11T20:50:00.004+01:00

...although, obviously, I'm *very* happy about it.

So far, I've had 3 harvests of mangetout:

02/06 - 16

09/06 - 44

and then, just two days later... 48!!!

That's over a hundred mangetout in just 9 days, and I don't even think they've reached their peak yet. Must be all this rain and intermittent sunshine. :D

I think I should start a diary to keep track of when I sow, what I sow, how much I reap, so that this blog doesn't just turn into a blog of figures... :D

Mahoosive Cabbage!

2009-06-10T23:34:00.000+01:00

Singular. Cabbage. I have four, but the other three were mollycoddled too much and were a bit spoilt and aren't doing as well as they should be doing. The one to the left of this has been attacked by a caterpillar. Caterpillar singular, as I managed to get the rest at egg stage. I actually feel a bit bad. I keep imagining The Very Hungry Caterpillar when I squish them off my cabbages... :(

They looked like this exactly 7 weeks ago.

Garlic-ky Chicken and Mange tout in 10 Easy Steps

2009-06-08T21:26:00.014+01:00

Had quite an amount of mange tout this evening, so made this into a stir fry.

Ingredients: chicken, garlic, mange tout, carrot (optional - I use it for extra veg and for colour), rice wine (optional), oyster sauce (or soy sauce if you don't have oyster sauce)

1) Finely mince some garlic (I use 2 cloves cos I love garlic!).

2) Thinly slice one chicken breast.

3) Put a heaped teaspoon of cornflour in a glass with about 100ml of cold water.

4) Heat a little oil in a wok on the highest heat (I use non-stick wok to minimise amount needed).

5) Place garlic into oil before it gets too hot (you don't want to burn the garlic).

6) Place chicken into wok and quickly stir around until slightly brown and just cooked.

7) If using carrots or rice wine, add at this point and fry for another 30 seconds.

8) Add mange tout, stir fry for a minute.

9) Add 2 teaspoons of oyster sauce (or soy).

10) Stir cornflour until flour is in suspension, add to wok and stir until thickened.

This is the kind of typical Chinese homecooking that I grew up with. Stirfries aren't supposed to be swimming in sauce, as you would get from the local takeaway. I haven't used any salt in this as I tend to do low fat, low salt cooking and I think the salt from soy/oyster sauce is sufficient to taste. Stirfrying is a quick cooking method. The heat should be on high, so you have to work fast. This dish shouldn't take more than 8-10 mins on the hob - the time being determined by the thickness of the slices of meat.

Serves two.

Another herby experiment...

2009-06-07T20:06:00.003+01:00

First, take some leftover lemongrass stalks and put in a glass of water until they root:

Carefully peel off the outermost layer(s) of stalk until you see new budding shoots (you should see a little bulge at the base just above the roots). Once you've revealed these, place back in the water for a few more days to let the shoots toughen up a little. Take a very sharp knife and cut through the woody stem so that only new shoots remain:

Lastly, pot up! Simple!

I don't know if this will work enough to provide me with enough lemongrass for cooking, but the grass-lings are looking quite happy living in the heat of Mini Motel. Lemongrass is a tropical grass that can grow very big, but as we have winters here, they'll die back then. My mission will be to just keep them alive over winter.

Showing off...

2009-06-04T18:43:00.000+01:00

My new trug and tonight's food!

Spinach, lamb's lettuce and radishes.

Day trip to Venice!

2009-06-03T23:53:00.000+01:00

It's P and my first wedding anniversary today. I can't believe it's been a year already. To celebrate, we've taken the rest of the week off work (hooray!!!) and went to Venice for the day.

...Venice of the Cotswolds, as Bourton-on-the-Water is apparently known as.

We've decided to do touristy stuff around the locality for the rest of the week. Today, we headed North into the Cotswolds (it's only 20 mins from us - people travel from far and wide to holiday there - I can't believe we've only been there in passing!). We stopped off in Bourton-on-the-Water, a quaint English village and wandered around for a few hours before finishing with an ice cream by the river. Unfortunately, I was too distracted by the small independent shops (even spent a good half hour in an ironmongers - don't see many of them around nowadays!) to take pics.

We then headed further North and went to Hidcote Manor House and gardens, a National Trust property. Gardens were gorgeous and I've now decided that I have to make space for allium flowers in my own wee back garden.

We took out National Trust couple membership. You can't get more grown up than that... Came with a Lavender 'Hidcote' too!

Harvest 02.06.2009

2009-06-02T21:20:00.008+01:00

Harvested my first mangetout (all 16 of them!) and some baby pak choi for dinner tonight. Pak choi was stirfried with some olive oil and garlic, and the mangetout was tossed over the top of some steamed fish for the final few minutes of steaming.

Fish steamed with Thai green curry paste, coconut, lemon grass and coriander - a variation of the 'Amok Fish' recipe I learned from Saturday:
And the mange tout is finally in full bloom!

The Big Eat

2009-06-01T23:05:00.005+01:00

Saturday was a haze of activity here with friends over for a 'pan-Asian' cook up. I showed everyone how to make sushi, and was shown how to make a Cambodian 'Amok Fish', Vietnamese spring rolls, and Malaysian desserts. I attempted my first 'inside out' sushi roll (above). Didn't turn out too well, but still quite pretty and yummy. All in all, a great day in for a gannet like me.

Onde Onde - a Malaysian dessert:

Final spread:

# I'm strong to the finich cos I eats me spinach...

2009-05-27T21:49:00.001+01:00

My first spinach harvest! A whole colander full, which was just enough for P and I, stirfried up with some minced garlic and topped with a dash of oyster sauce, just like mum used to make.

*pats tummy*

Popeye would be so proud...

Wile away the hours @ the white horse...

2009-05-26T19:32:00.002+01:00

Spent Bank Holiday Monday at Uffington, doing a whole load of nothing. P and I walked up to the White Horse, laid out a rug, scoffed down our picnic and read/slept an afternoon away. Scho scho relaxing...

We have company:

Buttercup bouquet from P:

Pics from around the garden

2009-05-25T22:30:00.004+01:00

Happiness is...

2009-05-24T23:50:00.006+01:00

...seeing less and less bare earth as your garden grows.

Patience is a virtue...

2009-05-23T20:43:00.001+01:00

...of which I have none.

I'd started off two panic topics on the Grapevine forum earlier this week - one panicking about lack of babies on my broad beans (I was worried that lack of bees = lack of beans), and one panicking about my mange tout plants being all leaves and no flower.

Well, lookie here!

Evil thoughts running through my head...

2009-05-18T22:55:00.006+01:00

I am eyeing up Darling Hubby's lawn and scheming on how to take it over bit by bit to make more room for my beloved veggies...

Currently scribbling out my masterplan to take over the World. MWAAAHaaaaahhahaahhahaHAHAHA...

Ok. Not World. Lawn.

Oh, the chuffed-ness of it all...

2009-05-18T20:43:00.010+01:00

Tonight, Matthew, I'm going be... A. Chef! And using produce from my own garden:

Fish, scallop & mozarella kebabs on a salad bed with chive buttered Jersey Royals...

Basil, chives & salad from the Wee Veggie Patch.

Fish and scallops from the garden pond.

Just kidding... :D

Hopefully next year, the asparagus & new potatoes will be from Wee Veggie Patch too. And maybe I'll grow my own pig for parma ham. Ok. Maybe not...

Figgin' Fantastic

2009-05-17T20:44:00.004+01:00

She fruits! Bigger than ever before!

Ms. Figgy arrived in a 9cm pot in 2007 and hasn't really done well due to my neglect. I'm sure I'm supposed to 'prune', but I don't know how. Besides, she only has two branches. If I prune, there'd be nothing left...

Drum roll....

2009-05-16T18:46:00.006+01:00

Presenting..... first harvest of 2009! (excluding all the herbs that I've been harvesting, of course):

Lettuce red salad bowl, corn salad, chives and beetroot and radish thinnings. Will be eating this tonight with our lamb curry. Yum!

How does your garden grow?

2009-05-16T14:50:00.001+01:00

Wasn't around last weekend and been staying late at work. That, coupled with pants weather, has meant that I haven't really been out in the garden as much. Quite surprising when I stepped out during one of the sunny spells today - the rain has meant that loads of stuff have shot up/popped up/grown up.

Broad beans bloomed this week:

Second row of spring onions have germinated and growing well (not the big ones...look beyond! Look beyond!). I sowed this first row in modules and transplanted. It turned out to be very fiddly and a bit of a faff, so I've decided to sow these in-situ from now on:

The corn salad and red salad bowl lettuce have suddenly filled out. Must be all the rain:

Carrots. They're a bit randomly spaced and all over the place as the damn neighbourhood cat got to the patch when they were germinating:

Beetroot and radish seedlings are up. I don't like beetroot and I don't like radish, but sowed these for the hell of it, as the seeds were free from mag and a seed offer. I'm going to try and like them for this year at least:
Mange tout has almost reached the top of their twiggy supports:
A small pot of osteopernum to brighten up the corner of the patch:

Veggie patch 16th May 2009:

Bzzz...bzzz...bzzz...

2009-05-15T19:36:00.001+01:00

Oh! Bumble bee! We will have beans!

...did I mention how chuffed I am that my broad beans are in flower?

Million dollar question...

2009-05-14T19:17:00.001+01:00

One thing that I wondered about a few weeks ago when I was doing my basil trial was, "would the roots grow from the end of the cut stem, or from a leaf node?"

Well, the answer seems to be, "everywhere". From the node, from end of the stem, and all the way up the side of the stem. Never knew it'd be so easy!

Basilicious!

2009-05-01T23:44:00.016+01:00

Another experiment (new to me anyway!) today with supermarket herbs. Having read that you can make a pot of supermarket basil last FOREVER, I set about making this happen with the pot currently sitting on my kitchen windowsill because, well, I'm never one to turn down making things last forever, and mostly because of procrastination (I've taken another day off work to prepare my professional review paperwork).

Firstly, I learned that the plants from supermarket pots are planted really densely, so what you have to do is separate them out into clumps and pot them on to different pots to allow the roots more room to grow. Secondly, I learned that you can propogate new plants from cuttings from an existing plant, and that it was dead easy - just take a sharp knife to the growing tip and put into a glass of water until it roots, and pot up.

I first separated out the plants - they had quite strong looking root systems, so that was good:

And potted on... I put the strongest looking plants into the big plastic pot and took cuttings from these (they're in the black dish in water - will see how they root). The rest are in 9cm terracotta pots. I even found a baby basil plant amongst one of the clumps and potted it into a novelty miniature terracotta pot. Doesn't it look cute? :)

I'm going to put the plastic pot into Mini Motel until it gets a bit warmer and all risk of frost has passed, and the terracotta pots will sit inside on my kitchen sill. If these pots and cuttings take, I'll have enough plants for companion planting with my tomatoes!

Basil can last all year round if you continuously take cuttings from plants before they flower, root them, and pot them on. Will try this and see how successful it is.

Cucumber surprise...

2009-04-30T23:13:00.003+01:00

These cucumbers (Marketmore) were sown from old seed given to me by Fi a couple of years ago (I think 2007, since I didn't do anything at all last year due to wedding stuff), and they had a 'sow by' date of 2007. Didn't have much hope for them, as they didn't really come up for ages, and when they did, they looked a bit spindly. I'd panicked a bit and asked Fi to sow me some cuc plants this year as I didn't think mine would make it. I'd say that they were doing quite well, wouldn't you?

Then and now:

2009-04-29T22:25:00.005+01:00

15th March/29th April: just 6 short weeks!

More Garden

2009-04-28T22:01:00.001+01:00

So happy that I can finally start to make the garden pretty... :)

Borders: Leucanthemum "Highland White Dream", Cystisus "Albus", Scabious "Pink Mist", Osteospernum, and I don't know what the blue one is called. I'm growing things that I can use as cut flowers, so I can bring the outdoors in, and save money on floral arrangements. Still learning as to what things are good for cutting (tulips have to be good for cutting, as I've somehow ended up with 80 bulbs from our trip to Amsterdam. I just couldn't help myself... ). Oh, and the goji berry takes pride of place in the middle. It's grown quite a bit so I transferred it from pot to border.

Clematis "The President", that I'm growing along with morning glory on the trellis to hide the wheelie/recycle/compost bin area.

We turf!

2009-04-27T21:27:00.001+01:00

We finally have lawn! The garden is finally complete! It's been a hard slog but with me supplying ideas (^_^) and P supplying the muscle, we have turned the new build quagmire, complete with builders' rubble and heavy clay soil, into a garden :)

Last weekend, we rotavated in nearly 20 bags of sand and a ton of compost. This weekend, we laid lawn and I could FINALLY go out to the garden centre to buy nice things :)

From this: To this.......

Supermarket mint makes super recovery!

2009-04-25T21:15:00.001+01:00

This is the mint that I bought for 79p from a supermarket back in October. It sat on my windowsill in the kitchen until it was attacked by aphid-like beasties in the winter, so I threw it outside into the garden. I was going to throw it out a few weeks ago, as all the leaves had withered and died, but as I lifted it out of the pot, I saw that the roots (rhizomes?) looked quite strong and green-ish, so I gave it another chance and put it in a pot with some fresh compost to see what would happen.

It's coming back to life, and the new leaf growth looks strong, unlike the tall spindly supermarket stems it had when I bought it. Lots of tiny baby plants popping up too. Exciting!

Treat 'em mean?

2009-04-22T19:31:00.000+01:00

To the right of the pic is one of the 12 greyhound cabbage seedlings that I transplanted into cells a few weeks ago.

To the left is one that I couldn't bear to throw away during transplanting, and popped into bare ground. I popped a plastic bottle over it for a few days as I felt sorry for the poor thing - it'd had no 'hardening off', and had just been yanked out of a seedling tray and plonked into the soil.

As it stands, I only have 4 cabbages left - the one that I planted out, looking healthy and strong, and 3 of the original 12 that I have so lovingly looked after (taking them out during the day, giving them room in Mini Motel at night). Body count total = 9. The 3 are looking as though they're wanting to join their brothers in Cabbage Heaven.

After this accidental experiment, I think I will plant out my cabbages immediately at seedling stage next year.

As promised...Tulips (and other flowers/inspirational ideas) from Amsterdam:

2009-04-15T19:00:00.000+01:00

Tulip Fields:Pretty Bulbs:

Fridge shed: Ingenious! Screen with planting troughs - brilliant idea for a small garden:

Cut ranunculus and eggshell arrangement: beautiful Easter display:

When it's Spring again I'll bring again...

2009-04-09T12:00:00.001+01:00

...Tulips from Amsterdam #

Off to Amsterdam for the weekend!

...but not before I've sown my courgettes. :D

Gotta get the priorities right. :p

The Big Move

2009-04-08T19:43:00.009+01:00

...a.k.a. transplanting of seedlings. I've been using old food packaging as seed trays for sowing indoors, and as the seedlings have germinated, I've been moving them into individual modules. I know at the seedling leaf stage, I should be letting them grow on a bit more, but they were looking a bit sad and crowded and didn't seem to be putting on any growth.

I've tranplanted: tomatoes, cabbages, purple sprouting, annual sprouting and lettuces. The pic above is of the Little Gem lettuces. Don't they look so neat and tidy? :)

When transplanting:

1) Don't be fooled by what you see above the surface of the soil. Especially if you've sowed in shallow seed trays. A tiny mini gem lettuce will have a root system 5 times the length of the tiny thing at 2-leaf seedling leaf stage.

2) When tackling something like above, a teaspoon is your friend. This amazing gardening tool will help you tease apart entangled roots easily. I've also used it to make deep planting holes in the module cells.

3) Be prepared for heartbreak when you have to ruthlessly discard germinated seedlings, especially if you have a tiny wee veggie patch like me. I don't know why my fat fingers sowed about 50 seeds of each of the brassica types, but I've had to cull it down to 12 cabbages, 12 early purple sprouting, and 12 annual sprouting. Good going, except that my space probably limits me to 2 of each. I have nightmares of sitting down to dinner with one single spear of broccoli on my plate. This must not happen!

On using seed trays: I find that the seedlings end up looking messy and straggly and you have to disturb them to put them somewhere for growing on. On top of that, you risk damaging the root system when you prick them out (maybe I 'pricked out' too late?). One lesson I have definitely learnt is never to use seed trays again, whether purpose made or recycled from old food packaging. (She says, as she chucks a load of garlic chive seeds into an old plum case).

Oh well...

Ladybirds Are Go!!!

2009-04-06T20:00:00.007+01:00

As I was inspecting Mini Motel after work today, I bumped into this little lady:

My first ladybird of 2009! Ladybirds are a beneficial insect in the garden, since a single one can eat more than 5000 aphids in its one year lifetime. Both adult and larvae will also chomp away at other garden nasties such as red spidermites and scale insects. With that in mind, I promptly relocated her (again, I'm allocating a gender based on nothing but my whim) to one of my broadbean plants, since broadbeans are notorious for blackfly. A couple of hours later, she was still there, despite the plant swaying side to side in the wind. I hope she stays. I'm not sure of the order here - if I don't have blackfly, will she stay? I want her to stay in case I get blackfly, but if I don't have blackfly, do I need her? What if she decides that food's looking a bit scarce and goes hunting elsewhere? And when the blackfly catches wind of that, comes to live on my beans? Oh..... my head hurts...

Doesn't she look pretty? :) I hope she finds a mate and falls in love soon and make me lots of ladybird babies.

Oh! She blooms! They bloom!

2009-04-05T17:30:00.009+01:00

Ms (I've decided that she is a 'Ms') Cherry-Tree-in-a-Pot has bloomed! I didn't think she would, as I expected that cherries flowered before showing leaves, which was what I saw during Hanami in Japan. She'd obviously decided that she'd do what she wants to do, in her own sweet time. Still, better late than never, eh?

All the Asian Pears have bloomed too. With the number of fruit trees I have here in my garden, you'd never know it was stamp-sized suburbia. I have no less than 3 Asian Pear trees. I'd ordered two, but because they didn't have the ages I'd asked for (2-5 years) for one of them, they gave me two one year olds to make up for it. The pear blossoms are slightly different to the cherry in that they point up instead of hang down.
I love fruit blossom, they're so delicate and fragile looking. Pretty, pretty, pretty, with the promise of fruit too!

Sad Little Marigold...and other sad things.

2009-04-03T23:00:00.008+01:00

I sowed marigolds along with sweetpeas and morning glory last week, and kept them in my potting shed (read: utility room) as it was full house at the Mini Motel. I figured that a few days standing in a corner wouldn't do the flowers any harm - as soon as they popped up, I'd transfer them to a light window sill. As it turned out, work's been manic and I'm ashamed to say that I totally forgot about them during the week :(

I had a bit of a breather before heading off to work this morning (figuring out that I'd done my full week's hours by last night) and had time to check on garden stuff. Here's what greeted me:

They actually look a lot better than this morning, since I immediately put them next to the patio doors and so have had a full day of sun and so look a bit green, but they still look a bit etiolated. Luckily, the morning glory and sweetpeas haven't yet popped up, and they're all out in Mini Motel now, so won't suffer the same fate.

I'm trying to grow flowers alongside my veggies, partly to make the wee patch pretty to look at, but mostly to try and encourage busy bees into my garden who will work on pollinating my veggie flowers and give me veggie babies....who will grow into big fat veggie...veggies. Oh yes they will!

So. The other sad thing. As Mini Motel came sans door latch thing (P is still trying to get them to send it to me), I'm using my fig tree pot to keep the door shut. As I was bending down to put the flower trays into it this morning, I managed to bump off one of the growing tips. Baby leaves, so full of promise, severed in such early infancy. Death by Arse. What could be sadder than that?

Hello, Green!

2009-03-31T22:46:00.004+01:00

I planted the garlic mid-Feb, which is a bit too late according to books - they're supposed to need a period of frosty weather for the bulbs to separate into cloves. On top of that, I think I planted them too shallow, as I just popped them half in the soil when I planted in case they rotted away in the damp. As they've begun to emerge, I've been throwing thin layers of compost on them in an effort to fool them into thinking that they'd been planted at the right depth. They seem to be doing ok - they're the only thing that's actually in the veggie patch at the moment, a few shards of green in the vast expanse of bare soil... well, not exactly vast, since the plot is about the size of a hankerchief, but bare soil in a veggie patch is just so very wrong.

I'm thinking that even if they don't split into cloves, all I'd end up with would be one massive garlic clove, which I guess wouldn't be the end of the world...

Another quick fix

2009-03-29T17:55:00.000+01:00

I needed another instant gratification kinda thing recently. Beansprouts! Pour mung beans into a jar, and sprout! What could be easier? Well, a lot of things actually; things that wouldn't require rinsing twice a day, and maybe did what you meant for it to do. Still, I was mega chuffed with the result. I grew something! Something I could eat! Result!

I chucked the whole lot (not actually a lot, I didn't know how much a mung bean would grow, and didn't want to chance a triffid in a jar) into a chow mein, which is what we Chinese folk would normally use beansprouts for. P's comment was, "hmm...it's more 'bean' than 'sprout'..." I would have to agree with him, as I bit into more 'bean-ness' than 'crunch'. Why do the sprouts stop growing after a while and start going brown, even with tons of TLC and twice daily baths? Answers on a postcard please...

Yummy Minty Smelly

2009-03-28T15:36:00.000Z

Smelly, but in a good way. I planted up this barrel planter with garden centre bought herbs. Ok...ok... I'm cheating... I needed some instant gratification in the garden that is so depressingly bare...

Behold! Instant oregano, thyme, sage and apple mint!

Not-so-hanami

2009-03-27T15:52:00.013Z

The cherry blossom around these parts are in full bloom - such a gorgeous sight! Here in my wee garden, I was waiting for My Very Own Mini Hanami(TM) from my cherry-tree-in-a-pot (also TM?). It showed great promise, with juicy buds of green goodness as soon as Spring had, er.. sprung. One warm day earlier this week, it gave a final *poof* and the cherry blossom turned out to be not so blossom. It looks like a baby leaf. Not sure. Should I have expected blossom this year? It's the first year I've had it, but it's supposed to be two years old. Hmm...

And we're off!

2009-03-27T14:30:00.006Z

Can't contain my excitement at the start of spring, this year especially, as P and I have moved into our new house. :D Whilst still in new build postage stamp sized garden hell, this one is a *wee* bit bigger than my last garden. A 50p stamp rather than a second class one, if you like (how much is a second class stamp nowadays?)

So, new garden. It's great! Despite the size, in the 5 short months that we've been here, I've managed to squeeze in 3 Asian Pear trees, a plum tree and a dwarf cherry in a pot. It's looking ok at the moment, but I wonder if it'll be a forest rather than a garden in a few years time? I've picked the dwarfest of the dwarf, miniest of the mini trees, so *fingers crossed* it won't be a problem.

I even managed to squeeze in a dedicated veggie corner - courtesy of P, who hates anything garden, but still managed to knock together a couple of beautiful raised beds (my design of course :p). It's not much, at just around 5m2, but that hasn't managed to stop my daydreaming and getting overexcited and stocking up with *yet another variety* every time we go anywhere with a seed stand. I seem to lose all memory of where I live and think that I own acres of farmland.

Since the beginning of the month, I've sown: broad beans (The Sutton), mange tout (Oregon Sugar Pod), lambs lettuce, baby carrots, spinach (Tetona), spring onion (White Lisbon), tomatoes (Harbinger and Black Cherry), summer cabbage (Greyhound) and coriander. Also bunged in some garlic as soon as the beds were ready at the end of Feb, which I think was a bit late (apparently needs a period of frosty days to split into cloves and so should have been planted in Winter), but they've sprouted (as can be seen in pic) and so I'll see what happens.

Seedlings are happy in their new mini greenhouse (a.k.a. Mini Motel). I hope they're happy. They obviously haven't told me themselves, but *I'd* be happy in a brand spanking new house made of oak...............

We'll see how my grand plan of being self sufficient in veggies this summer pans out. I have visions of me coming home from work and picking trug loads of veg for dinner. I just know that it's going to end up with me picking a pathetic bean every now and again. Good job P isn't too keen on veg...