We have come full circle from April 7th to November 22nd. The bananas have now moved into their winter shelter, following a touch of frost last night.
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Full Circle
Category Archives: home
Vine Harvest
We were faster than the starlings this year and harvested 2 buckets of dark blue grapes from the vine on the front of our house yesterday. Those were then washed and picked off the stalks, juiced, filtered, and preserved as a rich fruit juice or light cordial in sterilized bottles.
4.5 litres in total, that’s not too bad for a north-facing wall in London, I should think. And it has quite a nice flavour, too.
Container Harvest
Here’s the 2015 apple and pear container harvest from our own mini garden, or what I could rescue from the damp conditions, the slimy or multi-legged critters or the squirrels.
A good pear harvest, which we attribute to the much reduced pear rust infection now that a heavily infected tree in the neighbour’s garden is no more.
Only two Braeburn apples survive from the original five or six, but given that this is a tiny tree in a tiny pot, often fallen dry, I think it has done pretty well. I think I will probably set it free from its pot and put it into a bed this coming spring.
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Strelitzia Reginae
After years of waiting, caring, sometimes neglecting but always hoping, we are overjoyed to announce the first flower of our indoors strelitzia reginae.
It truly is the most amazing flower.
Nom Nom Nom
Ah, I love it when the garden begins producing. We enjoy regular and generous harvests of Swiss Chard already. The Mange-tout peas will be ready in two weeks, radishes in a few days, and herbs are available in abundance.
All just 3 steps out of my garden door, how cool is that?
Yesterday’s supper is today’s lunch: fresh garden vegetables soup with slow cooked crisp pork belly and spicy chorizo.
Love it.
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Next Level Gardening
We advanced to second gardening level this Sunday, with salad leaves in one half, radish in the third quarter and space for basil in the fourth.
1.20 m above ground, 3 m long, and practically the size of one small bed in the best sun-kissed corner of the garden, not taking any of our limited space away. Container gardening with a twist.
This should be perfect for herbs and some salads, and hopefully be a little less slug- and snail-ridden than ground-level beds.
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192 Hours
I released the Bananas from their winter protection on the 8th, when I took the first picture. The second picture was taken on the 16th. 8 days, or 192 hours.
Can you spot the difference?
Their speed of growth is simply amazing. One plant in the middle stands out, but the others show similar growth (not as evident from the photo).
Enough Is Enough
Our babies have come out to play!
The banana plants were covered with a sheet of reeds and bamboo to stop harsh winds or heavy snow from reaching them, covered on top with an old linen sack.
When we returned from our short break mid afternoon this Easter Monday, the thermometer reported a glorious 17 Celsius in the shade, and the bananas had lifted their protective covers up by more than a foot. A clear sign that they thought enough is enough.
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The Winner Is….
A
aaaaaand the winner is…..
[…insert dramatic slow drum beats and an annoying pause…]
the Nectarine!
Well done, Nectarine. First to blossom in the second year running.
Spring Clean
Monty’s back
, so it must be time to get a spring clean started in Ye Olde Orangerie. Now it’s all nice and tidy and awaiting seedlings, while this black and ageing fellow awaits nothing but the passing of time, at least until feeding time at 6 o’clock.
A Productive Year
The garden has been very productive this year. We have many, many more raspberries, tomatoes, peas and beans than every before, plus all the herbs, several batches of leaf lettuce three mini-pomegranates and five olives. Only the courgettes were better in previous years.
We enjoyed some of the runner beans when they were green, young and tender. A good amount of those is still in the freezer. I harvested approximately 1/4 of the remaining beans today, after deciding to let them grow into real beans. The girlish colour-scheme aside they look marvellous, don’t they?
We also made Blackberry jam, Mango jam (with late Indian mangoes) and two batches of yummy Tomato Jam.
Not bad for a tiny suburban garden, methinks.
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Meet Nutmeg
I am awaiting a pro-quality shot once the Missus returned home. For now, this one must do.
I decided to call him Nutmeg on account of his black and brown fur. While the little General watches proceedings from an elevated position, I believe that Nutmeg might become the boss soon. He is clearly interested in the job.
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