Winter Slowdown

There's not been a lot to blog about recently.

It's been cold and frosty, then wet and windy and it looks like we are going back to cold and frosty for the weekend.

The onions on the plot have pretty much stopped growing now, the garlic is putting out loads of roots but no shoots from the other end (I only found this out becasue the pigeons have pulled up a couple of cloves - they must have mistaken them for worms).

The winter cabbages are beginning to heart up nicely and the first should be ready for harvest by Christmas.

No sprouts as yet, but the purple kale is looking wonderful.

The tallest of the perpetual spinach is suffering with the frost - I may have to cut it back hard as it is flopping all over the chard, which is doing remarkably well despite the hard frosts we have had.

The remaining two Pak Choi have survibed the frosts well and are looking good.

The rhubarb has finally admitted defeat and is dying back - this should be fine where it is until January when I will transplant it into the rhubarb bed near to the pond.

At home I have a couple of Romanesco Caulis forming nice curds, but a couple of the others look like they will be going to seed instead - not a problem as I will try to harvest the seed for next year.

My Cavolo Nero have recovered from being ravaged by caterpillars in the Autum and are producing lots of nice-looking leaves and are almost ready to start picking from.

All four apples on my trees were still on as of last weekend, and I was debating as to whether I should leave them or pick them - high winds have made that decision a bit unneccessary for the green apples as both were blown off, but the reds are still hanging on.

Until I can get the drainage problems at the plot sorted out I cannot build any fruit beds so the bare rooted strawberries that I bought have had to be sat in water for far longer than I was anticipating - I hope that they survive. 

I had them in the kitchen to start with but I had to move them off the worksurface so they ended up on the boxroom windowsill where I thought they would do well with whatever little daylight they could get, but I have noticed tonight that the fresh green leaves that appeared whilsat they were in the kitchen have started to fade and go brittle - maybe the cold from the glass has been too much?

I have now moved them away from the window in the hope that they will hang on until I can get them into a prepared raised bed at the allotment.

Has the Growing Season Finally Started?



The first of the peas I sowed straight into the bed eight days ago is just starting to show through the compost.

I had begun to think that they might have been taken by marauding mice (even though we have four cats in the house - they are all inherrently lazy!) so last Sunday I carefully removed the top inch or so of soil over them.

Thankfully they were still there, and were starting to sprout, so I replaced the soil, watered heavily and went back to waiting impatiently until tonight when the first tiny green shoot was visible.



The first pea shoots make an appearance


I am expecting great things from these legumes and can't wait for them to start to grow up the trellis, not just for the harvest but to also give our patio a bit of privacy.



One thing in the garden that I am over the moon with is my dwarf apple trees - for the past two years I have had plenty of blossom, but not a single one has set.





Very young apples forming



 This year I moved the trees down the garden as my wife thought that the pollinating insects might be missing them where they had been sat close by the front door - looks like that may have been a good call as we appear to have several potential apples forming, but even now I have not even had a single flower on my Conference Pear.

Non-Flowering Pear

Maybe next year?

Possible Allotment??

I have just got back from viewing an allotment in South Chadderton, and after speaking to the chairperson(?) it is quite hopeful that I may have a chance at one when they come up for review in a couple of weeks as there are a few that have been left to run wild.

I have tried to grow veg in the garden at home for a few years with varying degrees of success - the blackcurrant bush is amazing - I regularly get several kilos of fruit off it, and the rhubarb has gone absolutely wild this year after doing absolutely nothing for the past two summers.

Another success story from last year was the broccoli - I planted purple sprouting and tenderstem and we have now got a couple of freezer bags full of the stuff, we have also had loads straight off the plant.

Not quite as good are my fruit trees - I have two dwarf apples and a dwarf pear - and despite loads of flowers last year not a single fruit set.  Hoping for better things this year - both apple trees flowered together and there are about five potential apples on one, but about thirty on the other.  There have been plenty of little bees around this year too, so hopefully .....

Another area I am pretty poor at is propogation from seed - I can normally get them to sprout, but after that most of my plants tend to wither pretty quick - I am hoping for advice from one of the other allotmenters who is retired now but who apparently used to have a huge allotment.

I will try to stick a few pics in here to show the progress in the garden, and also hopefully in the allotment too - maybe even a video if I can master the technology!