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
Tag Archives: garden
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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Orchard News
While a certain local community orchard is in full bloom, we joined 100000 others (possibly more) and made our way to RHS Wisley Gardens this May Bank Holiday, where the fruit trees, rhododendron and much more are in full bloom and stunningly glorious.
While we parked in overflow car park 5 on the other side of Wisley village, most people gathered in the central areas and around picnic areas and the restaurants, while we enjoyed a perfectly peaceful afternoon in the remaining parts of those magnificent gardens.
Here are some pictures.
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).
It Happened Today
Today is the first day of this year which I even start out in shorts and T-shirt. Long pants are pants, at least as long as this warm weather lasts!
All fruit trees in bloom while the tulips are still going strong. I can almost see the newly sown peas emerging from my window. I can definitely see the radishes emerging, and those Swiss Chard plants which overwintered in the bed are already in full production by mid April.
Makes me think that summer can’t be too far away, no? Certainly feels like it.
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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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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Harvest Time
Over 1400g of broad beans, after shelling. Pretty good for a tiny area, less than one meter square.
I’m mighty pleased with this harvest, especially after finishing removing each bean’s outer skin.
We enjoyed a summer vegetable garden soup with crispy grilled belly of pork yesterday.
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Banana Republic
It’s official! The United Kingdom of Great Britain is on its way to becoming a genuine Banana Republic.
Not that I ever had any doubt, but we are now growing our own, which I would have never thought possible.
We are proud owners of a Banana in bloom.
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Operation Sunshine
Operation Sunshine is complete and a huge success. See for yourself before, during and after.
The big tree on the right was 17 years old. Basically, when we bought the house, we could have cut it with ease. We made the mistake of ignoring the wild growing trees until we had to make it a fairly expensive professional job.
Ah well, it’s done, and sunshine once again hits the garden not only between 13:00 and 16:00, but pretty much all day.
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