Down on the Allotment

Matron grows vegetables and fruit in a Hampshire garden. I've been growing veggies since I was knee high to a grasshopper. Some traditional varieties and old favourites as well as new ideas. I share my garden with my allotment assistant Daisy the Labrador. On Twitter as @MatronsVeggies

Friday, June 18, 2010

Success at Last!

This was going to be my last ditch try at growing garlic! So after a visit to the Isle of Wight garlic farm last September I bought some bulbs of seed garlic. This is the result of the 8 cloves of Early Purple garlic I planted. I am going to dry these out thoroughly in the sun for a few days. This is a hardneck variety so I will probably string them together with a needle and thread.
Strawberries are just starting to ripen. I have no idea what variety these are, they are a lovely light, more orangey colour with a superb taste!
These Courgettes Soleil F1 are growing bigger every day. We are just lacking in a really good downfall of rain everywhere at the moment. Watering with a hose just isn't the same.
My poor neighbour lost his pet bunny to fly strike a couple of weeks ago. I let some appropriate amount of time pass before I asked to take his rabbit run as a brassica cage!! He was just about to take it to the dump! This looks just the ticket to protect my lovely brussels sprouts and broccoli from the pests!
I have a fantastic crop of Hurst Greenshaft peas developing at the moment. Each pod seems to have at least 12 peas inside, they are just fattening up nicely now. I just need that downpour of rain to help them along!
Grateful thanks to Petunias Garden for sending me these Bush Delicata squash seeds from Kent, Washington. These are one of my favourite squashes, just a small hand sized squash filled with the sweetest, driest flesh ever. I planted some seeds straight away and they are almost ready to go outside now.
Raspberries are ripening too. It seems that on the first day one raspberry is ripe. I eat it. The second day two are ripe. I eat them. The third day four are ripe... and this increases exponentially each day. I was up to 8 today! I usually don't bother picking them into a bowl and taking them indoors, washing them and serving with cream.... they get eaten, piggy style, right from the plant.. there and then!

13 Comments:

At 11:53 PM, Blogger Ribbit said...

Things are looking beautiful!

 
At 1:54 AM, Blogger lotusleaf said...

The rabbit cage is very interesting!

 
At 9:19 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

fantastic progress, i'm going to dig up a gravel area of my garden (it's mostly gravel) and buy some soil and make a garden, things are not doing so well in pots, it take so much water

 
At 9:48 AM, Blogger Kath said...

We really need that downpour too!First strawbs just colouring but as usual, the North/South divide means your crops are ahead of ours.

 
At 10:23 AM, Blogger Chicken lover said...

Hi Matron

congratulations with the Garlic, I love growing Garlic and have successfully grown it for 3 seasons now. This year I have been ambitious and have 5 different varieties growing including Early Purple, Lautrec, Chesnok Red, Siberian and some elephant garlic. I tend to leave it till the leaves go well over and yellow, siome are just starting to go now. I then dry it off on top of the raised beds (weather permitting) and then plait and string up in the greenhouse.

happy gardening

Jane

 
At 10:32 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I wouldn't bet on it, but the strawberries look rather like an early variety we have, called Honeoye

 
At 4:52 PM, Blogger Shaheen said...

Oh my you've already harvested your garlic. I have been growing some in tubs this year and the stems have gone brown, soI was thinking about harvesting them. I do hope they look something like yours.

I also enjoyed the up-date. I spotted my first courgette this morning too - made me smile.

 
At 10:29 PM, Blogger Mal's Allotment said...

It's Honeoye I reckon too. I'll post mine on my site for comparison purposes. It's reputed to tast a bit sharp ("tart") - which explains why its so popular here - that and being early.

Got a bit of a shock reading Frugal Life was going to dig up a grave area!

 
At 10:36 PM, Blogger Cabbage Tree Farm said...

Good one, great score re. the bunny cage!
We are just about to plant our garlic over here in NZ!

 
At 4:23 AM, Anonymous kitsapFG said...

Congratulations on the garlic harvest and for snagging that great bunny cage before it ended up in the dump! Perfect cover for the bed and would make a great chicken tractor for grazing chickens out too.

 
At 1:52 PM, Blogger Carrie said...

Everything is looking so good - well done you!! This is a great time to be an alotmenteer :)

 
At 6:33 AM, Blogger Kalena Michele said...

Wow! Your strawberries and garlic look great! In fact, everything is looking wonderful in your allotment. I just posted about my strawberry issues. Maybe you can check it out and help shed some light on what I need to do.

 
At 3:10 PM, Anonymous Kelinci said...

Useful post.

 

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