Matron's Tits!

I spent a good deal of my afternoon sweltering inside my greenhouse in order to get you some photos of my Great Tits.

These parents are working so hard to bring back mouthfulls of food for their growing brood.

The babies are getting larger now and from time to time they poke their little heads out of the hole to see what the big wide world is all about.

The adults are almost oblivious to my presence, flying over my head from time to time to go in and out of the nest box. I seem to remember a while ago one of the Australian bloggers expressed a wish to see my tits... well here you are!

Elsewhere in the sunny garden today I noticed the heart of a globe artichoke appearing. On closer inspection of this photograph I notice the dreaded blackfly already staking their claim. Most years my artichokes are inedible because of blackfly. How can I stop them??

I got all my squash and pumpkins planted out today, the weather has been too hot to leave them in pots any more. The varieties growing this year are:

Rouge Vif D'Etamps

Bush Delicata

Yellow Straightneck

Bush Table Queen Acorn

Black Forest Climbing Courgette

Defender Courgette

Here is an early tomato, my first one set this year. These are a bush tomato - can't think of the name right now.. will get back to you.

Finally a plea to anyone who might be willing to do a bean swap with me?? My other passion besides growing veggies is dog training.. can anyone provide me with a few of a variety called something like DOG BEAN beans? I can offer you either some Vermont Cranberry beans (liberated from Mount Vernon, VA) or some Royalty (liberated from Heligan). Anyone who can assist, please comment and I will email you.

A Sunny Weekend

This afternoon in the garden my thermometer in the shade registered 82 degrees. I could hear thunder in the distance and the air was humid. I decided not to do the digging today, but decided to do some planting out. Above is one of the first glimpses of my gooseberry 'Invicta' just about marble sized at the moment. Such a short season, but a really sweet, ripe gooseberry has to be eaten to be believed - a real treat!

The herb garden was enjoying the baking hot sunshine today. I know that every time I tell you all that Matron does not do flowers... you can't eat flowers.. some bright spark pipes up to tell me that you can eat nasturtiums and chive flowers.. well here you are. Satisfied? I'm not eating them. I did however, enjoy a potato salad today with my home grown garlic chives - a superb subtle flavour, highly recommended.

The highlight of the day today for me had to be finding my first purple podded pea. So soon after those beautiful flowers (see below) had gone over, I found this little gem nestling under the leaves. Fantastic!

I set up my automatic greenhouse watering system today. This really saves a lot of hard work and panic during the hot Summer days. A clever little valve system at the bottom of each of these 'autopots' dripsjust a continuous stream of water below the pots. These tomatoes are really taking off now, most have trusses of flowers and the Sungold has a tiny fruit set already!

Here is one of my greenhouse cucumber 'Tiffany'. This is an F1 hybrid all female variety. I am going to plant a later crop in mid July/August to grow later in the season when this one has started to fade.

Taking a chance - planting out

My beautiful purple podded peas have started to flower. Many thanks to Celia who suggested a seed swap earlier in the year. The plants are about 3ft tall now and looking good.

The weather has taken a warm turn the last week or so, the temperature has been up in the 70s most days and fairly warm most nights. I took a chance and planted out my sweet corn today. Sweet corn is wind pollinated so you must plant corn in blocks rather than lines. The pollen falls from a tuft on the top of the plant, and reaches the tassles on the cobs down below.

I also planted out a few more tomato plants, and one of my courgette Defender, in a black plastic dustbin. It is always taking a chance when you decide to plant out. We might be very unlucky and get a late frost... or we might not.

More family news..... my Sister has given her chickens names....

Tikka and Korma.

Rhubarb!

My rhubarb this year has been fantastic! I planted some new crowns last January and didn't pick any at all last Summer. I just mulched and watered it and gave it extra special treatment to build up the crowns. I enjoy it cooked in the microwave with some sugar, then eaten cold with a spoonful of raspberries. Another way I enjoy rhubarb is to use the rhubarb juice mixed with champagne!! The most English bucks fizz you can imagine! Thanks to a fellow blogger Greenmantle for that idea.

A New Arrival in the Family..

My Sister took posession of two hens today! Here they are in a cat-basket on the way home. These two are a breed called Bovan Goldline, which is a cross between Rhode Island Red and Light Sussex. Supposed to be easy to keep for beginners. Recent reports indicate that they have been tucking into a treat of squished snails! These point of lay birds were running round a field in the Cotswolds this morning... A bit scarey for them being taken away in a cat-box but I wonder how they feel about living in Cricklewood?

My Crimson flowered Broad Bean gets more spectacular day by day!

Has anyone noticed how much apple blossom there is around this year? It seems that the trees are smothered in blossom at the moment. Let's hope my Bramley does better than it did last year.

Finally, here is Buddy trying to look excited at how much everything has grown in the last couple of days.. Behind him you can just see my purple podded peas. Actually I think he was enjoying getting his paws muddy.

Going Bananas!

A couple of weeks ago my Birthday present arrived in the post. This is a variety of banana which is the one most suited to grow in our climate if at all possible. This is 'Musa Basjoo' a dwarf variety which should survive our Winter if protected well. I am going to plant it in a half barrel container, so it would be possible to give it some protection in Winter.

I did grow a banana plant once before in a pot. It grew enormous! Apparently they can sprout one leaf per week! The large leaf shown has grown entirely since it was delivered in the first week of April. You can see at the base of this leaf, the second leaf is now ready to grow! Has anyone grown Musa Basjoo ?

Springing Up!

Just two weeks after starting off my bucket of comfrey tea, you can see that the liquid has now started to brew. We have just had two warm-ish days here in London and as yet, it has not started to stink. No problem! just wait...

Having sown my curcurbit (squash/pumpkin) seeds on 18th April, they have made a great start. They have been inside a heated propagator in the greenhouse on several warm days. The temperature there must have given these seedlings a great start. Also starting to germinate and enjoy the heat in there are my okra seedlings and scotch bonnet chillis.

I planted my seed potatoes in time-honoured gardening tradition on Good Friday March 21st this year. I must admit that these days with my 'no dig' gardening regime I do not go to all the bother of digging out a trench to plant potatoes. The ground is well manured anyway and I just dig a little hole with a hand trowel, perhaps a bit of growmore to help it along - that's all. The last 2 days of sunshine has brought up my potatoes. These are Red Duke of York - you can see the crimson colouring in the leaves already.

I bought one of my strawberry plants into a pot in the greenhouse in early January. It looks as if it is already several weeks ahead of the others. One potential problem for strawberries in the greenhouse like this is that they sometimes do not get pollinated properly, this results in deformed strawberries (should I say physically challenged strawberries?) anyway, you can get over this problem by hand pollinating the flowers with a small paintbrush or Q-tip.

My asparagus has also made about an inch a day in the past couple of days. Everything was just sitting dormant in the garden, now it looks as if Spring has sprung!

Last, may I make a recommendation? Wickes sell 4 bags of multi-purpose compost (75l) for £10. I used it last year, and it is some of the best I've had in a long time.

Matron Doesn't Do Flowers!

I don't do flowers! You can't eat flowers! Well, here is the exception - we are in full flow down on the purple sprouting broccoli (PSB) patch. One day I pick a whole bag full, and then a few days later it is like I was never there, a whole load more appears. My magic broccoli! I really don't do any other brassicas because I have such a small patch I cannot afford to have something in the ground for almost a whole year. This must be the exception, I have been batting off slugs, pigeons, squirrels, dogs, caterpillars, slugs, whitefly and more caterpillars for a year. For next year I have just bought some extra early PSB called 'Rudolph' which should crop in January. In that case I will look forward to an extended season.

Flippin' Freezin!

Look what's happened this week! One of my beautiful crimson flowered broad beans has started to flower. Again many thanks go to Celia at purple podded peas who swapped some seeds in the post. I am looking forward to keeping this beautiful heritage variety alive by saving seed.

I read on a blog somewhere that the 18th April was a good day to plant seeds of the curcurbit (cucumber/squash) family. Something to do with a new moon according to bio-dynamic gardeners. Sorry chaps, I'll give it a try - but highly sceptial. Above are Black Forest climbing courgette, Defender courgette, Yellow Crookneck squash, Bush Delicata squash and Rouge vif d'Etamps (last two courtesy of Paula at Petunia's Garden). Swapping seed is such fun!

The night time temperatures here in London still go below freezing most nights at the moment. We have had a flippin' freezin April so far. Quite a change from last year when it went up into the 70's. Here are my tomato plants that have grown out of a propagator and have to sleep under a bed of fleece at night. How much longer??

Here are my early sown ultra-early Rocket new potatoes sown in a compost bag a few weeks ago. Even they have to be covered with a fleece inside the greenhouse at night due to the frosts. All they need is some warmth and they will be off... like a rocket!

Make your own hormone rooting liquid

Did you know you can save money and do your bit for the environment by making your own hormone rooting gel? All you have to do is pick a bunch of willow stems, put them in a glass or vase of water for about 24 hours.... that's it ! The active ingredient found in willow stems is rhizocaline, a substance which is the active ingredient in many proprietary ready-made hormone rooting powders and solutions. All you have to do is to dip your cuttings into this solution. I'm not sure how long you can keep it once made, but it is not difficult to make some more - and it's free!