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April has been a busy month. Constructing our poly-tunnel has taken a lot of our time but we were lucky that the weather was mostly fine. The tunnel is now almost complete; all that remains to be done is covering and hanging the doors. The tomato, cucumber, sweet pepper, chilli and aubergine seedlings are developing well, now in the greenhouse after germinating indoors but it won't be long before we will have to move some to the tunnel.
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The vegetable garden has been left to itself for most of the last month. The continuing rain and wind made it unpleasant and difficult to work. In the drier and sunnier spells most of our time was spent tidying up, cleaning pots, collecting leaves for leaf-mould, storing away equipment for the winter and shredding the last of the beanstalks and raspberry canes for the compost heap. The late fruiting raspberry canes yielded their last small pickings on 5th December - slightly frozen fruits direct from the plant, still tasted good.
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Most of November has been wet and windy so time in the garden has been limited. The holly tree and the hedge rows of holly and hawthorne are loaded with berries, as are the berberis and cotoneaster, and we are wondering how long they will last before the birds have eaten them all. Usually only a matter of weeks so by the time the ice and snow arrives there is little left.
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The last couple of months have been a bit hit and miss in the vegetable garden as the wet weather put a dampener on activities. It has all been rather frustrating as the chores have piled up. Never mind we have been busy in the kitchen processing our excess harvest into pickles, chutney, jam and - new to us this year - fermented produce.
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At the start of August we planted the new bed with winter brassicas, covered them with super-fine micro mesh and looked forward to curly kale, broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower in the darker months to come. Our summer cabbage and kale had been plagued with snails and slugs and, despite the butterfly mesh, ravaged by caterpillars. With the new plantings we were taking no chances. A month later and they are looking good and I've replaced the mesh with standard mesh.
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The first batch of seeds I sowed this year either germinated quickly, became straggly and many died or did not germinate at all. On the second attempt I sowed far more than I needed not expecting much success. However, all but the cape gooseberries germinated and thrived. Result: too many seedlings.
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In a previous article I lamented the fact that my parsnips had failed. I spoke to soon or was too impatient. A couple of weeks later they appeared. Not all of them but more than half, so there will be enough for Christmas dinner. After a slow start the kale also shot up and not all of it has been eaten by caterpillars. I've used Grazers sprays to fend of caterpillars and slugs but they have only been partially effective. Not sure whether it is the product or my faulty application of it.
