Tuesday 6 July 2010

Spuds, spuds, and more spuds

I am hoping my little veggie garden will save me a bit of money this summer, even though I haven't put much effort into it. All the raised beds, structures, tubs and boxes are already in place from previous years of growing. Things aren't looking too bad, but I wont have the quantities I have had, and things are a little slow in getting started due to my manyana approach, I'll do it tomorrow.

There are five tomato plants in my mini greenhouse. It has a pallet base with a frame built round it and it's covered in shrink wrap.

Some beetroot coming along nicely in a plastic storage box.

I have two raised beds of potatoes, but they also seem to be springing up everywhere else as well. I bought the seed potatoes, two packets, from Poundland. I stuck my hand into the compost yesterday and had a firkle about, there are quite a lot down there, ready for picking in a couple of weeks or so.

This raised bed is where I scattered the carrot seeds, there are a lot of tops but I'm not sure there is much going on down below. A few spuds have sprung up amongst them. I put the trellis round the edges to keep the cats off.

A bed full of tomato plants. These are a little bit late, if they get any fruits I will be eating them at Christmas maybe. Plastic shrinkwrap around the sides to protect them from the wind.

The beetroot in this one look quite healthy, but maybe there are too many. Can't bring myself to pull some up so I'll wait and see what happens. I can always eat the tops as salad.


These are raddishes, will they won't they give me something to eat, I haven't done very well with these in the past. We can live in hope.

Aha, my one courgette plant and it's looking good. I love courgettes.

This bed is usually full of runner beans but I always get swamped out with them, so I have cut down a bit this year. They are sharing with mangetout peas. I am eating the peas every day now.

This is a £1 raspberry bush, quite a lot of fruits coming but they are a bit slow. I think it should be in the ground. My friend's bushes are full of berries now.

Some more tubs with black and red currants in them. There won't be many but it's a start. I might juice them into a smoothie because I don't like picking pips out of my teeth, and the skins might be a bit hard.

More red currants.

I have some salad leaves in a wash up bowl which I have been picking at, I need to sow some more as these are coming towards the end. I have some small cucumber plants but I may be a bit late with these, they are the wait and see variety ;o) All I do now is water everything, pinch out the new shoots from the tomatoes, and pull a few weeds up before they engulf everything.

8 comments:

  1. "lot of tops but I'm not sure there is much going on down below" sounds a bit like me ha ha
    What a fab harvest you will be enjoying, can't beat home grown veg.

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  2. I love the shrink wrap greenhouse Illona, I would never have thought of that. I am considering buying a potting shed and a greenhouse, maybe I'll just buy a roll of cling film instead, much cheaper and it might do the same job,. :)

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  3. Great to see the return of the word, "firkle".

    The first person I knew who used it was the late Dr Peter Reynolds, who taught classics at my school.

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  4. Hi samfan. I have another bigger shrink wrap greenhouse, walk-in size. Shrinkwrap is an industrial size roll of cling film. It's very strong and will last a couple of years before it needs to be replaced. If you can get the wood free it's a great way to save money.

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  5. Very impressive indeed. Hope you manage to get a bumper crop:)

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  6. Love your garden and I love the "firkle" word. I've never heard it before. Well I must firkle off and get some work done in my postage stamp garden!

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  7. I love seeing other people's gardens and allotments, especially when they are growing food... and I hadn't thought about 'firkling' around my potatoes although I have been wondering if there were any there... it being so hot and dry and I havent watered them much. Guess I 'll have to go firkle!

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  8. Definately have a firkle in your potatoes, just pick out the decent size ones, and leave the rest to grow a bit bigger. Potatoes do need a lot of water.

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