Kitchen garden - 15th June

Here's the garden photographed this morning, June 15th. At best it's looking more productive than it did in April. The soil is now warm and welcoming; things are growing at last after a slow start. We've had hot. We've had cold. We've had wet and we've had windy. Now it's warm again, let's hope it stays that way. Rain is allowed in hours of darkness.

( If you click the picture all will be revealed in greater detail. Those with keen eyes will note the new pizza oven just to the left of the green house complete with a fleeting glimpse of its builder, my Glamorous.Ass. More on this at a later date.)

Turning back this blog's pages I do get a sketchy picture of my gardening year - well, at least I get an idea of when the garden's green and when it is brown. I'm very keen on produce, the fruits of my labour. I've pictured a myriad of fresh fruit and vegetables in a myriad of arty poses but have only the vaguest memory of what the varieties were. I should make a record of what has gone where, and when, in order to improve in subsequent years - or at least not waste time and money on seeds which will never thrive in our 'overcoat colder' mountain climate.

All the beds are planted up - just waiting for a bit of vegetable action now. (I'm not too sure where the young brassica plants I have on order from Thompson and Morgan are going to go yet - perhaps by the time they arrive in the post the autumn planted onions will be ready to harvest thus freeing up a bed.) We've feasted on asparagus and are eating the early potatoes started in pots under glass. There have been a couple of cauliflowers, some wonderful cabbage and spinach, lettuces and salad greens too. It's good to put our own food on our plates again after a winter of vegetables from Morrison's.

The cavolo nero is looking good - there is a lot of it too so I hope we enjoy it. Climbing beans (White Lady and Cobra) are starting to twine up their sticks, but not with any degree of urgency. The broad beans (Express and the wonderfully named 'Bunyard's Exhibition') are full of flower and a magnet for bumble bees. Peas (Hurst Longshaft), leeks (Porvite) and squash (Avalon, Hasta la Pasta and Mixed Winter), even some sweet corn (bred for the northern climate) are underway. We'll gloss over the pathetic bed of roots, which even before the carrot fly takes its share looks dismal. But onions - I hold out great hope for the onions and garlic.

Next week we will have lived here for 4 years exactly. We started work on the garden the year before that - building raised beds anywhere that the builders wouldn't reach. So happy 5th birthday kitchen garden. 'Gro-more' all round I think.
The story so far:

Summer 2002Autumn 2004

Summer 2005