August

I've discovered that now is the time to harvest peas! My mange-tout were looking dead and I thought I had done something to kill them off but then I found a neighbour shelling peas and she told me that pea plants will die off now. Next year I will try sowing a second crop and see if they last longer, I have quite enjoyed my mange-tout. I have also discovered that the plums are ripening, ripening so fast that they are already falling off the tree, this is my neighbours tree that leans onto my land, I have been having plums for a few days now, I tried to pick a lot this morning but it started to rain heavily, it will be a shame if they all drop off. My trees haven't started to ripen yet, I will keep watching and keep watching to see that no-one comes to steal them :(
The spring onions that I sowed last month are now through though there is no sign of the cabbage.
I have bought myself a strimmer, it is only small and runs on a battery but it will help me to keep on top of the grass and weeds that grow under my pear trees, mostly the work now is just keeping up with the weeds and that is quite a job.

August 27th
Well, no-one stole my plums!!!! I am now eating the last of those I have picked, some have stayed on the tree but out of reach and they are now over ripe, I reckon I have been eating plums for about a month, it is time to change fruit, having said that I still have some raspberries and I have been eating those since May:)
I still have a few 'Mange-tout', I pulled up most of the plants but one looked green so I left it and it is still flowering. I have had a plentiful supply of beans and the tomatoes are just ripening, I think they are very late this year but summer has not been very hot. All in all it has been good so far.
Having decided that my cabbage seeds were doing nothing I bought 3 plants only to discover that some of my seeds had germinated, I will have quite a few cabbages I think.
My courgette is very slow this year, I don't know if that is good or bad, I don't like being overwhelmed but I like to manage to have a supply in the freezer, hopefully it will continue producing for a month or two yet.
August 27th p.m.
Sooooo! I spoke too soon! I locked up this evening then, for some reason, I decided to go out again. I had just opened the door when I heard foot steps and my neighbour appeared from around the corner carrying a bowl of plums, they looked very familiar and she looked quite sheepish so I decided to check. There are now no plums on my tree and they haven't all fallen on the floor. She must be very athletic but I would swear to the fact that those plums were mine. Fortunately she has left it a bit late this year and I had most of them, to the point that I wasn't going to pick anymore. Next year I will know who to watch.

 

July

The weather is a bit temperamental and much cooler than last year. I have been away for nearly 2 weeks, though I popped back occasionally to pick raspberries, I have loads again this year, the freezer looks nearly full. I have now dug up my garlic, which look much healthier this year and some of my onions look like they may reach a decent size as well, though many have 'bolted'. I have dug up my first sowing of potatoes and there are a lot and all a good size.
My strawberries did well but now something has come and eaten the leaves, fortunately after I had the fruit, whatever it is, a deer I think, has also decided to eat leaves off the raspberries.
My last sowing of lettuce has taken off and the first plants are now very big so it is lettuce, lettuce, and lettuce! The 'mange-tout' have flowers and some of the beans are looking good. I think the courgette is slow this year but the last couple of weeks have not been very warm.
My leeks are getting very big but some-one (something) has broken one of them, I'm not sure if it is worth while digging it up and freezing it, I may try.
There are loads of plums, I will try and pick them myself this year and lot let someone rob me.
All in all things look promising.

9th July

 

These are the pretty flowers from the 'Mange-tout', I hope this means I will have plenty of peas.

 

These are some of the plums on one of my small trees, I am tempted to sit on the 'look-out' this year and see if I can catch whoever steals my fruit.

My raspberries have nearly finished, looking back to what I wrote last year they seem to have been much earlier this year. I have enough to last until the beginning of next week. The cherry season is under way but I think that won't last much longer either.

The courgette is still not doing well, it just gets one flower at a time so the fruit never has chance to be pollinated. My tomatoes are looking healthy, I have had 2 tomatoes already but that is because I bought one plant with baby tomatoes on it, I thought that was a good idea but it wasn't as the plant put all it's energy into the tomatoes and made no effort to grow, now finally it is growing but it is well behind the others. I have one plant that is a self seed and it is doing really well, it compares very favourably with the plants I tended carefully over the Spring!

The old barn I bought next door is now down and slowly turning into a garden, at least it is at the front, the back part is still full of wood to saw. I have bought myself a saw and have been very busy. There is now a good supply of wood in the garage but the mound of wood outside doesn't seem to get much smaller.

 

25th July

It is nearly the end of July and the Feast Day of Santiago, a special day here in the village. For lunch I had courgettes, potatoes, mange-tout, lettuce and Spring onions all from my garden and then finished with Raspberry Sorbet, made with my raspberries.

 

Once again my vegetable patch is nearly full.  I have frozen some beans and I have sown cabbage and some more spring onions, I will see what happens.

 

29th July

Nearly the end of the month and what a difference a month makes. This afternoon I sat outside in my garden and enjoyed a cup of tea.

The patio isn't quite large enough so I have bought more slabs to add another row but, all in all, I am very pleased with my garden, all I need now is a door into the kitchen.



 

June

The weather is Spring like i.e. it is variable. Mostly everything seems to be growing well. The lettuce are reluctant this year, I have sown seeds yet again, the seeds that have germinated must have been from lettuce that flowered last year because they are not where I have sown seed but that doesn't matter. I don't have very many but I had lettuce from the garden for lunch today. The carrots are also slow and I have sown more. My beans shoots are being eaten by snails but I still have about 8 that seem to have survived.
I have eaten gooseberries from the garden and had 2 helpings of strawberries, so far they have not been eaten by the wild-life. I have also been given strawberries by a neighbour. It looks like there will be loads of fruit this year. All I need now is patience.
14th June
Nearly half way through and nearly summer. After a slow start June has suddenly got very warm and dry. The raspberries and cherries are now ripening, just as I go away again. The lettuce and carrots remain reluctant everything else is doing well.

May 2014

11th May

The weather brightened up quickly and it has been warm and dry all month so far, the result is that I am having to water frequently. It is the usual story outside, somethings are doing well and others are not doing at all.  I have now sown lettuce for the third time, so far 3 have germinated but they are still tiny, like wise the Spring onions are on the annual 'go slow', as are the carrots.  I don't want to tempt providence but so far my strawberries have not been attacked by any thing so I may have strawberries this year. My first planting of potatoes have all sprouted and I have planted a second lot. In my bottom plot I have leeks, that I was given and cabbages, peppers and tomatoes that I bought as plants. The 'mangetout' are sprouting and I have sown runner beans. This is really the week for planting tender plants but the weather has been good so I have risked putting things out this weekend. I still need to buy a few more peppers and a courgette, maybe even a few lettuce plants to get things started. I have 3 nice tomato plants, that I have grown from seed, they are doing well now and I will plant them out next week.
I expect to have loads of raspberries again soon so I ma trying to finish the frozen raspberries that I still have from last year!  On the whole progress is now being made, the season is starting.

April

The good weather continues. My tomatoes, lettuce and Spring onions, that I sowed indoors, haven't done anything useful whilst I've been away so I've topped up the tomatoes indoors, hopefully I still have time for them to germinate. I've now sown lettuce and Spring onions outside. I've planted some potatoes, the onions are growing well and all the trees have blossom so hopefully there will be good crops. Now all depends on what frosts we get over the next few weeks and no-one can do anything about that.
April 28th
The good weather didn't persist for long and the temperature dropped considerably, to the point that it snowed on the mountains, though not here.
I have now sown; leeks and sugar snap peas (mangetout), that's a first so I'll see how they do. I've also sown more lettuce and spring onions though the first sowing hasn't done any thing yet, I'll probably end up with them all germinating at once. I have 3 small tomato plants indoors, the time has come to start looking for plants to plant out.
One apple tree has blossom but the other has done nothing but I look to have quite a few cherries and the pear tree will be loaded again this year. Another month and I should have something out of my garden.

2014 March

This winter has been very wet. It has snowed and rained every day for weeks, right until last Thursday, suddenly it turned very warm, unseasonably so. We have had wall to wall sunshine for 5 days and it seems set to continue. The constant rain has meant that it has been impossible to do anything but now is time to start, or maybe it isn't but as, once again I am going to be away I am having to start anyway.  Today I have dug and manured my top plot and tomorrow I will plant my onion sets, fortunately the ground there is not too wet as it is higher up.  I have sown tomato seeds in doors and this year, for the first time, I have sown some lettuce and spring onion seeds in doors. I have sown them in an egg box and it seems to dry out very quickly so it may not be a good idea as I will not be here to keep them watered. It will be interesting to see what happens.
Everything else will have to wait until I return at the end of April. 

more autumn!

Now it really is autumn, though after a week of rain we are going to have warm sunny weather again.
The other night the local dogs were barking furiously, when I went for a walk next day I discovered that a wild boar had been having a digging session, just inside the village. I can't imagine what could have been so interesting for a boar but it has made a lovely mess.

 

My vegetables continue to do well, I have had loads of tomatoes and have made plenty of soup. I have also found a great recipe for using tomatoes and courgettes. Yesterday I found a great supply of mushrooms, I ate some for lunch today and have frozen some. I went for a walk this morning to look for more but I couldn't find any. I think that that was the field that had early mushrooms last year, so I will keep watching.

I am tidying my top plot and I have found a use for some of the roof tiles that I will shortly have an excess of.



I don't think I will ever pass muster as a builder but I think they will make the plot look tidier. It is a sloping plot and I have never tried to flatten it but now I am making small terraces. I will also use some to define the paths which are just a weedy mess at the moment. October is going to be a busy month there is a lot of tidying to do.

30th October

Autumn is really with us, we had the first frost last night. I have cleaned and cleared, ready for winter and my freezer is full, this really is a good life!