Apologies for the absence, that’s if you are a regular reader – are there any out there?  We have been on holiday, although not away. In common with many this year we have stayed at home for our summer holidays. I would not recommend it in terms of true rest and relaxation, but it is great for the garden! We were saved that depressing explore round the garden on return from holiday when you discover that nature has the upper hand, everything is overgrown, eaten by pests, or cropped while you were away and you have missed it.  We have been able to do bits as we go along and generally keep on top of things in a relaxing way.

Doubtless they will trickle out in coming years, but this being our first year in the North, we have had the pleasure of an endless stream of visitors. It has been very satisfying to feed them almost entirely, vegetable wise, from the garden – broccoli and stilton soup for the lunchtime arrivals, and leeks, potatoes, carrots, courgettes, roasted summer veg and cauliflower cheese for those who stay for supper. With the lambs looking increasingly weighty, I am looking forward to the day when our entire Sunday lunch will be home produced.
I have just returned from a foraging trip outside and returned with carrots, broccoli, a fab cauliflower, leeks, potatoes and tomatoes. The dahlias in the tunnel are still going strong and the sweet peas seem to be having a second florish which is very satisfying. I would welcome any suggestions as to what to plant now in the tunnel to keep feeding ourselves over the winter. There is a definate autumnal feel in the air and the nights are suddenly drawing in so hardy varieties are a must.

I think this week I can safely say that we are entirely self sufficient in vegetables. In fact the crops are so abundant that I am madly looking up recipes to do with the surplus. The stars this week have definately been the brassicas. The broccoli goes on and on, and I have made copious amounts of delicious broccoli and leek soup to use up the heads that have gone to seed. I was pleased to see that where I have picked the main head little babies are emerging for a second crop. However, I am most proud of my cauliflower ( Clapton F1), the picture of which, below, speaks for itself – to be made into cauliflower cheese served with crispy bacon and new potatoes for supper tonnight.

Also this week I have discovered lurking under a mass of foliage six huge cucumbers (Diana), which I plan to turn into sweet cucumber pickle. And to great excitement I have picked my first tomatoes, the stylish Italian Bambino which taste delicious.

Typically, having not quite been ready for the show last week, this week there are some fantastic blooms on my Dahlia Tahiti Sunrise, which nonetheless look elegant and calm on the kitchen window sill. All in all a very satisfying week gardening!

Illumination White

I had meant to attach these to the last blog, but time got the better of me. The Nicotiana have definately been the best value annual, flowerning for over a month now and rejuvinating with lots of picking. The Trailing begonia – Illumination White – has restored my faith in this much maligned plant.

Nicotiana

In the veg patch this week the stars have been the broccoli – primer F1 – which has been abundant and I will definately plant again, and the french beans – dwarf beans Allegria – which have survived my neglectful watering and a munching by the lambs to produce a plentiful supply.

I went outside one early morning this week and felt a distinct chill in the air. It struck me that this is what people mean when they refer to the short growing season up here and I have the distinct feeling that the hottest days are behind us. That said the gloom was lifted by the continuing abundance of produce. The sweet peas are still producing madly, now moving onto a lovely white variety. The only draw back is that I planted them too close to the snapdragons, which are consequently rather smothered.

The big excitement this week is my first broccoli floret, whhich has come on one of the plants is the tunnel and looks nearly ready to eat. I have never had any luck with calabrese before, so this is very satisfying and the good news is that the boys like broccoli, so having turned their noses up at my broad beans, they will at last be eating my garden produce. The inevitable downside is that the the caterpillars have appeared and so the leaves are now resemblant of lace. I am afraid I will have to resort to a spray if they get any worse. I will try washing up liquid first and if that is no good may have to take a less organic line……all suggestions welcome

Had planned to spend my day off happily pottering in the garden in the sunshine, but it is not to be – it is raining cats and dogs today – so much so that the dog, usually bursting to get out of the door, took one look outside and promptly returned to curl up in front of the Aga, and I can’t say that I blame him.

That said the tunnel has once again come into its own and I have spent a happy hour tidying up in there as the gales blow outside. All the labours are now bearing fruit and I have harvested a fantastic array of flowers and veg. Lovely waxy Maris Peer potatoes, which I would highly recommend and the stylish courgette Rugosa Di Fruili, which lives up to its flamboyant Italian name. I noticed while in there that the broccoli heads are beginning to form, which is pleasing. The dahlias are now flowering profusely – Firework and Tahiti Sunrise, all fantastic for picking.

Outside the best bedding for this soil and climate has proved to be the Nicotiana, which outside have produced a rainbow of colours and fill in the gaps in the rose bed. If only the sun would shine so we could enjoy the fragrance. I am off now to do a spot of light flower arranging and then intend  to light the fire, curl up, admire my work  and drink hot chocolate – the only option on a day such as this…..

Have just been out to the tunnel to pick flowers for the house and have returned with a wonderful selection, nicotiana, sunflowers, more sweet peas and my first dahliaa, which is very exciting. I should probably have left them a little longer, but could not resist their blowsy charm. The nicotiana are flowering profusely, but lack in colour compared to their outside cousins and I wonder about how the plastic filters the light. I did have a conversation over the garden wall with a man in a village nearby and he said he had given up growing flowers inside for that reason. In addition everything seems to be putting its energy into the leaves, especially the courgettes, which are surpassing thier usual triffid like status. I think next year I will have to be a bit more discerning about what is planted inside and out.

 We have people to stay this weekend, so I am looking forward to feeding them on garden produce – potatoes, which I hope have benefited from a few more weeks in the ground – same aforementioned man said ten weeks was the minimum – lettuce, mangetout, broad beans, and courgettes – I aim to impress upon them that life up North is not all turnips and mushy peas!

My middle son and I have decided we are moving to Barbados – this weekend we sat under a ‘sea fret’ for three days as the rest of the country was bathed in unbroken sunshine – apparantly this is a well known phenomenon at this time of year in the north east – a fact that my husband handily neglected  to mention as he listed the merits of Northern living. Still there are compensations – as I walked the dog early this morning in the field out the back I was accompanied by a barn owl, presumably on its way back home. However, although the sun is a bit lacking, it is fabulously hot. As I walk out of the back door, I am greeted by the wonderful aroma  of Nicotiana from the pots , and I can imagine myself in Bali.
The highlight this week continues to be the sweet peas in the polytunnel. My outside ones are still only a foot or so tall, but the tunnel plants are producing a big bunch every two days or so. I have also picked several bunches of nicotiana for the house – all very satisfying. I have a feeling that the tunnel is going to prove most successful for flowers and salad veg and the rest may be better off outside. Gardening is nothing if not a steep learning curve…

I have been tempted to throw in the towel this week. When we acquired the lambs, I was aware that sheep are famous for their escapology, but have now discovered that the problem is not so much keeping them in as keeping them out. This week they have managed to find their way once again, past netting and other barricades, into the polytunnel and have helped themselves to the first dahlia flowers, the broad beans and have taken the tops off the sweetcorn – the sooner thay are on the table the better, all sentimentality has gone out of the window. Not only that, but having fenced off the outside beds to keep out the chickens, lambs and rabbits, I have discovered a rabbit hole in the potato bed – I am tempted to just open the door and put up a ‘help yourself’ sign. It is SO disheartening.
Nonetheless, I am bent but not broken,, and my spirits have been raised by more harvesting, the first broad beans, some fabulous sweet peas and yet more lettuce. I have also dug a root of Maris Peer – a little too early I think as they are very small and have lots of early formed, but tiny tubors. The foliage is very tall and they are flowering, but I wonder whether the poly tunnel is the right place for them and may just grow them outside next year – I don’t know what experiences others have had….?
The pots outside the back door are doing well and the gazinia and nicotiana are in flower to cheer me up, that and the wonderful scent of the sweet peas in their vase in the kitchen - this gardening is a roller-coaster ride.

If you are a regular reader – not that I am sure there are many, apologies for the late blog – it is just that suddenly there is so much to do in the garden. The plants are arriving thick and fast and need instant care – I think next year I will follow the ‘less is more’ philosophy and go for less but bigger plugs – I am both running out of pots and places to plant.

This week it is ‘compare and contrast’ – photos attached. The broad beans in the tunnel are now a good two feet taller, than their outside counterparts, just showing you what the extra warmth can do. Neither are as yet showing any pods.

I am busy harvesting and giving away lettuce which has thrived in the tunnel and as usual there is a glut. Hence, I have treated myself to a lettuce and marmite sandwich, which is one of my most evocative memories of childhood – if you are a marmite lover, and you need to be, it is the most delicious combination and worth a try!

The other contrast this week is that of the leeks. I have finally recieved and planted my pot leeks for the show and any resemblance to that I am used to is hard to find. I have planted both out in my raised bed , bottom filled with manure as instructed and we will see how it goes. It does feel strange giving up space to something that is not going to end on the plate.

Just to update you the lambs are now grazing the paddock and, as I was warned, are driving me to distraction. They still think I am their mother and, unlike my actual children, want to be next to me all the time. I am reduced to baricading myself into the tunnel to get on with things. They are definately meat and I was pleased to see that the herb ollection arrived ths morning, including mint……

The past two weeks have seen a flurry of activity in the garden. The combination of the warm and at times wet weather has meant that you can almost hear things growing. A whole array of plants has been arriving in the post and I have been busy potting on. I have some relaxing and satisfying times in the polytunnel with my dibber and accompanied by the sound of the lambs, who are getting bigger and bolder and see every fence as a challenge to be breached.

I now have a wonderful array of nicotiana, cosmos, gazinia, anthirrinum  and dahlia, not to mention asparagus and leeks.  They are all now patiently waiting for the moment when it feels safe to plant them out to take their chances in the northern weather. The advantages of the extra warmth provided by the polytunnel are now becoming very apparant. The lettuces are now almost harvestable, if there is such a word and the potatoes I planted two weeks ago are already peeping out of the soil. The peas are now well on their way in their guttering and ready to plant out now that the magic May is here.

I am on tenderhooks, as I am just about to go and collect my competition leeks from up the road. I am already feeling nervous about the responsibility of caring for them to show standard, and hope that my totally amatuerish aproach is not too apparant on the day!