It’s technically already August, but here are my observations and notes from the garden this July.
In the raised beds
let’s start with the salad…
Salad leaves
I had high hopes for my salad bed. As I mentioned in June’s post, when I started “gardening”, salad was going to be one of those items that I used loads, and I was hoping to cut down on the amount of bagged salad that we buy.
I started off some rocket, wasabi rocket, then later, spinach and mizuna. Staggering their planting so each would be ready at different times.
It seemed to be going well. I picked the first fews leaves early in July, though there was never enough ready at the same time to create a whole salad. Adding instead a few of our own leaves to supermarket-bought ones. Then there seemed to be no time at all between the leaves being too tiny to pick and the leaves being past their best.
And then there were the caterpillars and the nettles to contend with.
The caterpillars all but demolished the rocket. They can be forgiven when the butterflies look like this:
Peas & beans
The sugar snaps and French beans have been doing really well. The beans soon outgrew their cane supports, calling for a taller structure.
Again, I’d benefit from planting more next year, as we’ve only harvested a small handful of each at a time. Enough to add to a salad. And that’s only when the sugar snaps made it to the kitchen. More often than not, they are eaten straight from the plant by my daughter.
Potatoes
I had no expectations for our inherited crop of potatoes. My mum advised to try digging a few up “sometime in July” to see if they’re ready. This would depend on what variety they are, as we had no idea. It was only when my friend saw the plants had “fallen down” we dug. So that’s when they’re ready.
We had two varieties. A few plain new potato — I’m not sure of the variety. Plenty of what I think were Pink Firs. These were delicious and we had enough for three or four meals. The bigger ones to make a Tartiflette or roasted with oil, garlic and rosemary. Then the tiny ones simply boiled and added to a hot smoked mackerel niçoise, along with a handful of the French beans.
We need to have one final dig to see if any more are hiding in the bed.
In the greenhouse
Courgettes & marrows
Courgettes will definitely be back on the list for next year, they’re easy going — as long as they have enough water — and easy to harvest, as they can be picked small or left to get much bigger. I love them sliced and fried in olive or rapeseed oil with nearly too much cracked blacked pepper. I haven’t cooked with the courgette flowers yet, something to try soon.
Let’s not talk about the marrow plant. It keeps trying its hardest. Bloom after bloom but alas no fruit as yet.
The butternut squash seedlings will be planted out soon.
Tomatoes
These are nearly there. Plenty of fruit, they’re just being a bit slow to ripen up.
I’ve got three varieties growing: Alicante, Sungold and Money Maker. Impatiently we picked and ate these very nearly ripe Sungolds. Any day now for a few more…
Around the garden
The fruit trees are laden. I’m watching the damson closely as it looks nearly there, although, from what I’ve read, they’re not usually ready until early September.
The apples will let us know when they start to fall I guess.
The strawberries are all done for the year. They look so untidy now! I need to find out if there’s anything I should do with them between now and next summer.
Notes for next year:
- Plant more salad varieties so there’s more ready at one time
- Cover the salad leaves with a netting (or only plant one row of rocket as a sacrificial crop for the caterpillars! They didn’t touch the spinach)
- Start everything earlier
- Plant more peas and beans
- Don’t bother with the marrows. No one likes marrow anyway!
- Use actual compost for planting, the tomatoes will do better and they’ll be no nettles in amongst the salad
- Pinch out the tomatoes as they grow, to encourage the fruit
Until next month…