In the veg plot – July

Time for this month’s veg plot update. We’ve not been eating nearly as much as usual from the veg plot this year, thanks mainly to pigeons, which have been a menace. They somehow managed to get in through the fort I’ve built around the beans, and have eaten all but one plant. Grrrr.

This little update is for the Garden Share Collective. Hosted by Liz from Strayed Table in Australia, this wide-ranging collection of blogs brings together lots of us growing food on many different scales (from back gardens to big farms), from Australia, New Zealand, the UK and beyond. I’ve found it very interesting to have a monthly peek into so many different gardens and veg plots. (And I’m not at all envious of the folks eating things like pawpaw and olives, while I’m tucking into my yummy spinach and chard. No, not envious at all….)

Harvesting:  Despite the pigeons, some things are doing well. After rabbits ate one pot of salad by the back door, the plants have regrown – including some lovely little edible viola flowers.

Sweet viola

I have had to create a Lettuce Fort encased in wire, which does not look lovely but has done the trick. I added a toy windmill to deter bombardment by pigeons – I am getting devious!

Fort Lettuce

The courgettes are flowering, and the sage has gone mad (we have enough sage for a lifetime…does anyone have good ideas for what to do with a sage hedge…?)

Sage-tastic

Well-defended courgettes – just in case!

It is shaping up to be a bumper year for top fruit, thanks perhaps to the mild spring, with no late frosts. We have lots of lovely apples, pears, gages and damsons ripening nicely, including these beauties:

Discovery apples, always the first ones to ripen…

Grenadier apples – a useful early-ripening cooker

Pear – no idea what sort!

First crop of damsons from a tree we planted 18 months ago

It’s going to be a good apple year – we don’t mind if the chickens pinch a few…

We’ll just help ourselves, thank you

Yum

Now I know this is not strictly in the veg plot, but our two pigs, Biscuit and Curly, are now part of our home composting system. That’s a fancy way of saying we feed them veg peelings as well as gone-to-seed plants from the veg plot. They eat these offerings with relish and turn them into ‘fragrant’ pig poop. Their paddock is going to be one well-fertilised bit of land when they’re done…

Pig love

 

Mud, mud, glorious mud

PJs and pigs – a pre-bedtime visit to take the pigs some treats

My jobs for July:

• Harvest redcurrants and gooseberries, before the pesky birds do…

• It’s still not too late to plant more seeds. I’m going to plant some nice leafy greens (probably more spinach and chard…!) that should last well into the Autumn, maybe even through the winter if it’s mild. I’m also going to plant another batch of salad and some more coriander, as I forgot the last lot and it got burnt to a crisp on the windowsill over one long, sunny weekend.

• Plenty of weeding. We’re having lots of rain this summer, and the weeds are growing like crazy. I’m also going to put ‘weed mat’ (plastic mulch) down between rows, where I can, to help keep weeds at bay.

• Have a think about what crops I can grow this Autumn and Winter – one of my goals this year is to get better at growing cold-season crops.

I hope all your gardens are faring well, and you’re enjoying your harvests, whatever they are…