THE VEGETABLE GARDEN IN MAY
Yesterday we celebrated the 75th Anniversary of VE day today. We decorated our house and the hedges with bunting and the whole village did likewise.
This week's post is focused on the Vegetable garden,. It seems fitting since my Grandpa, who was a Second World Veteran, was also a keen vegetable grower and bee keeper. I should, at this point, have an anecdote about how I was introduced to the love of gardening by following my Grandpa around his allotment and sowing some Sunflower or radish seeds. However, I don't think I showed much (any?) interest in gardening as a child. I'm making up for lost time.
1. Alliums
The path in the vegetable garden is lined with chives because I love the little purple pompom flowers. Chives are nice in a tomato salad too, of course, but there are more here than I'd ever need for that. Although they look very pretty the downside is that they seed into the pebble path and are a real pain to weed out.
Leaving the vegetable garden for a moment , these alliums are flowering in the Rose garden. Usually they are hidden behind the emerging Roses, but not this year.
2. Potatoes
Remember the 'pets' graveyard'? The first early potatoes are coming through, and have been earthed up.
3 Broad Beans
These have put on lots of growth and are flowering. I sowed two batches. The earlier plants are nearer the camera.
4. Mixed leaves
These were sown in plugs and planted out last weekend. The ones which were direct sown at the same time failed to germinate. It seems that this clay soil dries out too quickly and is too coarse for seed germination.
At the other end of the bed are Strawberries Mara de Bois. In between I've sown peas, which haven't shown themselves yet. In every bed in the vegetable garden there is a random potato plant gown from tubers that got left behind in previous years.
5. Artichoke
There is one head developing on the Artichoke plant already.
6. The first Strawberry
I picked the first strawberries today from plants grown in the greenhouse. Just five of them were ripe, but they are a little treat with the promise of more to come.
I hope you have been able to get out and enjoy your garden this week. Find out what other gardeners have been up to by visiting The Propagator, who kindly hosts Six on Saturday.
To sign off this week, I leave you with Fushia 'Winston Churchill' who, right on cue, started to flower for VE day.
I already said it this morning in comments, I should be a little late for my Allium. I have to wait another week…
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I ate my first strawberry yesterday too , the artichokes are soon ripe and ready to pick. The broad beans in bloom and the potatoes soon too because I should harvest them on June 15!
I think the exceptionally warm weather this Spring has meant we have kept up with you in France. I'm sure most years you would be a couple of weeks ahead of us in central England.
DeleteAll looking wonderful, love the photo at the top leading us into the garden. The pet graveyard looks less pet graveyardy now. I laughed about the random spuds, so true, however diligent you are! Have a great week. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm pleased to know I'm not the only one with random spuds. Crop rotation has a lot to answer for!
DeleteSuch as inviting garden, with the gate and all. What's the castle, rook, in the middle? I love it.
ReplyDeleteIt's a Victorian chimney pot which I found in the garden when we moved in. The same kind are on the chimneys of the house. In the summer I drop a geranium into the top of it.
DeleteThe fuchsia timed its flowering perfectly! The allium flowers are lovely. I'm trying to grow some more chives from seed as they're a nice addition to most dishes. I love the view through the gate in that first photo.
DeleteMy chives came from one small pot I bought. The rest have self seeded and then been moved around.
DeleteI'm just done marvelling at Stasher's chive border & here you have one as well. Where've I been all these years that I've never encountered one before? What a great idea. Am planning where mine shall go. Love the trellis fence around your veg patch as well.
ReplyDeleteI have a chive border because they self seed very happily and I thought I'd make use of them. It was serendipity. The trellis fence was copied from Vaux le Vicomte (Chateau near Paris), where it surrounds their flower borders, presumably to keep rabbits out. We thought it was very attractive, and copied it for our vegetable garden.
DeleteYour broad beans are way ahead of mine. They were direct sown, are small but robust. It's all looking lovely in your veg patch. Very pretty and productive.
ReplyDeleteThe broad beans were sown under cover earlier this year. I've overwintered them outside in the past, but didn't get around to it this year.
DeleteThe potato/pets graveyard still makes me smile.
ReplyDeleteMy husband has just direct sown mixed leaves in a raised bed, but I didn’t realise that germination is a problem on clay soil, which our is. Perhaps we should start some off in the greenhouse.
Oh, the very first taste of home grown strawberry is always the best. I hope you savoured every juicy morsel!
Savoured them to the full! Our vegetable patch was created from an area of hard core on which port-a-cabins had been placed. The soil is understandably not the best. I expect your clay soil will be fine.
Deletei am an indifferent grower of veg at the best of times, but this year i'm not feeling it at all. carrots continue to be very fickle, barely germinating then disappearing, even salad is proving problematic. i do have lots of onions and garlic, and i will have beans, so not a total loss. i mainly can't be bothered compared to the rest of the garden which gets nearly all my love and care.
ReplyDelete