Snow and Rhubarb

 

 

This was our rhubarb, coming up nicely 10 days ago. We've had a couple of picks - rhubarb and custard and rhubarb fool - lovely! But today it's zero degrees and snowing! Last night I covered the rhubarb with hessian and fleece and I'm hoping it won't get zapped by the frost.

We don't force rhubarb because we don't see the need. Our rhubarb is really tasty and the early pickings are tender and sweet. But I guess if it's under a dustbin it is protected from the elements.

Forecast is for snow and frost for a few days, so Spring will definitely be on hold for a bit.

Around the vegetable plots

After the frantic Spring digging, sowing, planting out, the vegetable garden is producing the goods.

Everything seems to be coming along nicely, even the runner beans are catching up after suffering from frost, slugs and rabbits. This year I've been careful to protect the sprouts and cabbages from butterflies and pigeons, using frames made from plastic cable ducting and fine-guage netting. The cable-ducting was an idea picked up from the garden at the Men & Women in Sheds at Loughborough.
 

Middle bed has peas, broad-beans, celery, cabbages, brussels sprouts
- and poppies

Through the poppies - view of broad beans, coming to the end now,
and across to the walnut trees and up to the old school.

Celery doing really well - and tasty!
First time we've tried growing celery, but the shop-bought stuff is full of chemicals.

RH bed with rhubarb, horseradish, potatoes and runner beans on the frame at the top

Start of the year

We've had unseasonably warm weather for a week or so and its due to continue for a few more days. Mind you, along with balmy sunny days we've had some early morning frosts. The rhubarb that was beginning to shoot nicely has got zapped a bit. but it will recover.

The snowdrops are a joy - bringing elegant brightness to the borders and all over the lawn.

Trying to get an early start with potatoes in the last few days of December I planted up 2 large pots of Pentland Javelins, saved from last year's harvest, and have them in the conservatory. It's too cold up in the unheated greenhouse. They have just started to show some green shoots. Last weekend I potted up some shop-bought Maris Pipers that had gone a bit green and were displaying some impressive shoots. They were not fit to eat but may make some nice new potatoes around May before the outdoors ones are ready.

I've also sowed onions and lettuces in trays in the conservatory.  The lettuces over-wintered in the greenhouse have pretty much finished.

So the seasons move on. This will be our 14th summer at Froggarts Cottage.

Summer time

Clocks went forward to summer time today 

and appropriately it was a warm sunny spring day. It's the first time we've been able to get out in the garden due to the cold and very wet weather this year. There's been snow even last week, and everything is behind schedule. But this weekend the birds have started singing and things are looking up.

Yesterday I planted 60 broad beans - saved from last year's crops - in 12 pots in the greenhouse, and today I planted 48 beetroot seeds, 15 Alicate tomato seeds (favourites - tasty and good croppers) and 10 "Gardeners Delight" tomatoes which I haven't tried before. I noticed from our planting diary that most years I've had the broad beans in by early March, or even February and the tomatoes and beetroots in too. But this year it's just not felt like it was time until now.

I have some big pots of Sante potatoes in the conservatory which are now shooting nicely and 3 pots of Desiree up in the greenhouse planted a couple of weeks ago. These are all saved from last year's harvest. I've ordered up some new Desirees (red) and some Pentland Javelins (whites).

Today I was able to get started on some of the jobs in the garden. I cut back the raspberries and took out the dead canes, hoed our rhubarb bed - which are all looking pretty good - and started digging over the veg beds. The soil is pretty wet still and the green pipe and waterfall are in full flow.

Lots to do!

End of year round up

Well that was 2017!

A very strange year all round what with Trump and Brexit and the Weinstein fall-out, as well as all the problems out in the far east.

In the garden our efforts were much hampered by needing to spend a lot of time with an elderly neighbour, general care and keeping her company and also a lot of legal stuff. So the garden is a real mess - but will come up looking great in the spring as it always does.

The end of the year has been cold and wet. We had some serious snow and then rain, freezing and further snow. Today the soil is still frozen, so there's not much to be done. Yesterday while the sun was shining briefly I cleared out the spent tomatoes from the greenhouse. I was harvesting ripe tomatoes right up to the end of November.

Generally the year was fairly good for vegetables and absolutely crazy for fruit.

Potatoes

The early warm weather meant that the potatoes grew pretty well and harvested before any blight attack, and unlike last year they didn't drown. I just planted two varieties this year - Desiree reds and white Sante. The Desirees were really good with some nice big ones good for baking, the Santes a bit small but OK. There were very few worm holes or other kind of pest problem. The Desirees have kept well too.

Beans

All the beans were all pretty good - French climbing, runner beans and broad beans. This year I planted "Fasold" French beans and they were great. I won't bother with the Blue Lake again.

Beetroot

The first sowing was really good. I sow the seeds in modules and then plant them out in the veg patch. They all grew well, I think because of the warm weather. Most of the second batch are still out there, didn't grow so quickly, but will provide a few serving during January I should think.

Chard

I bought the wrong packet of seeds - Rhubarb Chard instead of Rainbow Chard - but still pretty tasty and continuing to produce dark green leaves on their red stems to replace those harvested.  They've taken a battering during the snow but are starting to shoot again already for meals during the winter.

Brussels Sprouts

Well, they started out fine, all seedlings surviving. I erected a netting cage to keep off the butterflies and pigeons and pheasants. But they really haven't done too well. They haven't grown very tall and the sprouts are the size of peas. However, we've had a few meals of sprout tops and they were very tasty. Hasn't helped that the strong winds during the autumn and the snow just before Christmas collapsed the cage!

Soft fruit

All the currants did well. We netted the redcurrants and one row of the blackcurrants and got a good crop off both. The gooseberries were good, especially the new bush which I took as a cutting a few years ago - it's really got into it's stride now. The jostaberries also produced - but I don't really think they are worthwhile. They don't have the flavour of blackcurrants.

The raspberries did very well at the beginning of the year, the fruit produced on last year's canes. This year's canes weren't so good, probably because it was cooler and much wetter by the time the fruit formed.

My strawberry plants have increased and we had some lovely fruit (Elsante). I took more cuttings.

Rhubarb

We completed the clearing of the first rhubarb bed and transplanted about 9 plants. We treated them with some care to let them get established, but still managed a few pies and crumbles and some rhubarb and redcurrant jam.

Apples

Amazing! More apples than we could eat, cook up, freeze or give away. Especially amazing because last year was a good apple year and some varieties like Bramleys tend to be one-year-on one-year-off. We have put some in store but some varieties don't keep.

Pears

The pears produced a good crop for the first time in years. They've been devastated by some fungal / bacterium thing which makes the little fruit turn black and drop off. For about 3 years I've been spraying the trees with a "winter wash" which is supposed to kill off such diseases and also eggs of moths and such which would turn into worms in the fruit. Maybe this has had some effect, or maybe just the weather - who knows?  - but I'll be out there spraying again during January and again before the blossom forms.

Plums

Mixed.  We have 4 plum trees of different varieties and a damson. One plum tree which we had given up for dead two years ago produced some lovely fruit, as did the purple plum which makes excellent jam. But the big plum tree (produces BIG PLUMS) was not so good, despite there being very few wasps this year. The wasps usually get to these luscious fruits before we do. The damsons were productive as usual, and we are enjoying damson vodka and vodka-soaked damson chocolates!

Cherries

We have a large, wild cherry tree which the birds love. We once managed to pick enough to make jam, but we don't usually bother and leave them to our feathered friends. The morello cherry produced about 12 cherries which were carefully observed and eaten by the birds when they were just ripe (before we got up in the morning). The Stella cherry is still getting going with only a few, quite tasty, fruits.

Well that was 2017 - so now it's time to start planning 2018!

Early harvest

The garden is beginning to provide us with its bounty.  We've had a few lovely strawberries from the baskets in the greenhouse, a kilo of gooseberries, rhubarb and some chard from last year's sowing and a handful of sugar snap peas.

We're looking forward to having some broad-beans in a few days and we've had a few meals from potatoes (kestrels) grown in big pots.

Strawberries (Elsante) in the greenhouse im May

The Elsante strawberries which we've had for 2 years produced early but have nearly finished now. We've got some more strawberries from a neighbour which are just ripening now. Don't know the variety.

Rabbits in the Rhubarb

Our garden is surrounded on 3 sides by a field. We used to call this "Billy's Field" after the previous owner - a local farmer. Now it's owned by the family that bought the old School House at the top of the road. They're not farming types, so let it out to a guy that uses it during the summer for young expectant-mum cows. They have a lovely time on the lush meadow - long grass, buttercups and other wild flowers and a little stream running down the middle.

It's also home to an increasing number of rabbits. The ground is undulating with a large embankment which used to hold a rail track to service Peggs Green and other mines. So there are lovely banks just perfect for building warrens. We used to have foxes. They'd often come in the garden and sometimes take food put out for the birds (hungry mums with pups to feed probably). But not so many recently. Also the farmer used to shoot rabbits from time to time which kept the numbers down. So bunnies are flourishing.

We're used seeing them hopping about under the apple trees and occasionally around the vegetable beds. We saw tell-tale signs of fur on the twigs I put in to protect the sugar-snap peas I planted. However, they have set up home in the Rhubarb Patch!

We have been gradually reorganising the rhubarb beds to get rid of the choking weeds and have a nice fresh bed into which we have planted the rhubarb which over-wintered in pots. The bunnies have moved into the weedy rhubarb bed, nice and protected with the large umbrella-like leaves.
Here's a picture from last year - so you can see it's ideal bunny-wise!

Home for bunnies

However, they haven't got a paradise. Yesterday morning I found the back half of a small rabbit and various bits of entrails on our back step. Our neighbour's cat, Nip, is a great hunter and often takes pigeons, mice, rats as well as young rabbits - so he's the likely culprit. But it could also have been a buzzard which are plentiful here.

Cold and grey

The temperature didn't get above zero today. After quite a mild December and early January when we had just one day of snow this week has been pretty chilly - proper winter. This morning no frost despite the cold. We haven't had any rain for about a fortnight, so too dry I suppose.

There hasn't been much activity in the garden. Stormy weather at the start of the month flattened the cage protecting the brussel sprouts. I was worried the pigeons and pheasants would strip the unprotected plants but so far they've kept away. We're having a good feed of sprouts at least once a week.

Snowdrops are just poking up through the grass. One or two helebores are flowering. But generally things are taking their time. Last January daffodils were out up at the crossroads in Coleorton and we were pulling rhubarb. This year the rhubarb is just starting to shoot, although a couple of plants we transferred into big tubs are further ahead. I dragged them into the greenhouse to protect them from the frost.

Plenty of wild life activity. Moles are very active in the fields all around and along the grass verges by the roads. They are also busy around our bonfire and have come down the garden as far as the kitchen window. Birds visiting the feeding area include a pair of pheasants, large family of magpies, crows, wood-pigeons, great-tits, sparrows, robins, blackbirds. And a couple of squirrels. The bird table is slowly falling apart. We don't put much food out - just scraps and in the cold weather a scoop of peanuts and seeds. When we filled all the feeders most of the food was taken by squirrels and wood-pigeons and sometimes rats. There's plenty of berries and seeds in the garden and surrounding hedgerows and woods so I don't think they will go hungry. It's nice to see the birds feeding, but the bird-feeders are more for our enjoyment I suspect.

I peeped under the tarpaulin we had left lying over part of the rhubarb patch we are reorganising and found a spherical nest beautifully crafted from dried grass with a small entrance hole. I think it's a field-mouse nest.

Rhubarb de-weeding and re-location

Another busy weekend. 

The rhubarb de-weeding and re-location project moved forward significantly. We completely cleared one of the original two rows, putting rooted rhubarb plants in buckets of water and pots hopefully to survive re-planting. There is room for 3 more in the new row (which used to be the asparagus bed and lately used for sweet peas). Now we have to clear the soil of weeds, especially the dreaded couch grass, add lots of compost and then we can plant back 6 good rhubarb roots in the middle row. We still have some plants in the top row which are producing good and tasty stems for rhubarb pie, crumble or just on its own.

The trouble with couch grass (and bindweed and ground elder) is the roots which can go as much as 12 ins below ground. If you leave even a tiny bit in the soil they start up and invade the patch you've broken your back over clearing.  So we've put in some barriers beween the cleared bits and the still-infested. We had some panels of old polycarbonate conservatory roofing which were just the right length and depth. (Never throw anything away!)

Clearinf the rhubarb patch - polycarbonate conservatory roof panels divide the clear soil from the still-infested.

View across the veg beds - young marrows, squashes, potatoes and broad beans in the near bed.

Winter update

The strange weather is continuing. It's been more normal winter with some frosts and a few flakes of snow, but interspersed with heavy rain and winds. But spring is creeping nearer and the daffodils are starting to brighten things up. The soil is still pretty wet, although last weekend I managed to finish digging over the old asparagus bed. Since Christmas it's either been horribly wet and heavy or frozen.

"Digging over" is a bit of a euphemism. It's been shifting and sifting networks of couch grass roots, old asparagus roots, buttercups and dandelions. I also discovered a large colony of horseradish. There are patches all over the garden which I plunder from time to time to make horseradish sauce from the roots. But it's pretty invasive. The huge roots spread and it seeds if you're not quick enough to dead-head the pretty white flowers. Had to dig really deep to try to remove it - but like dandelions, a little bit of root left in will generate a nice big plant in a couple of months.

This bed is going to be a new rhubarb bed. The existing rhubarb patch (8 plants plus a few off-shoots) are completely infested with couch grass. Every year we try to get rid of it but with only short-term success. The couch grass roots have sharp growing tips, like bamboo, and grow right through the rhubarb roots. So although the rhubarb plants are still producing a reasonable crop there is a definite gradual reduction in quality and quantity.

So the plan is to lift 4 or 5 plants, clean up the roots, and then place them in their new bed. Then dig over and clean up part of the current rhubarb patch and transplant the remaining plants.

So the next job is to shift a barrow or two of compost over and dig into the bed to give the rhubarb a really good feed. The sun is shining now - so I'm getting out in the garden while I can!

It's Freezing!

After a very warm start to January it's turned really cold. A heavy frost yesterday morning with a sprinkling of snow and again this morning. I've been putting sacking over my big pot of potatoes in the greenhouse overight but even then there's just a little damage. Outside the rhubarb seems to have survived however. The ground is frozen and the grass all crunchy underfoot. It hasn't thawed all day despite being quite sunny. I thought I'd take advantage of the dry conditions to have a bonfire and clear the enormous pile of prunings and seedy weeds. It wasn't a success, though. The dry grassy bits flared up but didn't get hot enough to dry out the wet woody bits.

Frost-edged sedum rosettes.

The rhubarb survived the frost last night.

This is the first serious frost of the winter. It's pleasant to have the mild weather (although could do without all that rain!) but some plants, like raspberries, need the frost to do their best in the summer and the cold helps to kill off pests and nasty bacteria.

Early harvest!

After all the rain we've had two dry days - and it's amazingly warm. Up in the garden, tidying up around the leek bed and cutting back the ivy round the "thunder box" it was sunny and very still. The buzzards were soaring overhead and woodpeckers were calling around the woods. Almost like summer!

The rhubarb is coming up and, without any frost to knock it back, there's enough for a little taste. I roasted it gently in the oven with a little water. Lovely with some custard.

First rhubarb of the year

Rainbow chard leaves

The rainbow chard sown last summer is still going strong. I have been cutting off the flower stems and any old raggedy leaves and now there are lots of new leaves. So tonight we had steamed chard, potatoes (our own Desirees) sliced with onions and cooked in the oven with milk to accompany some left-over roast lamb.

It's great to be harvesting again - and unexpectedly early in the year.
.

Rhubarb

Harvested our first Rhubarb today. This year I tried "forcing" the rhubarb by covering one of our eight plants with a big black dustbin. The result is slightly earlier harvest of tender pale-pink stems. Some people reckon this is the only way to have rhubarb, though I've always loved our rhubarb just as it comes. Today's "forced" harvest was very tasty. Definitely tender - had to be very careful harvesting to avoid pulling up whole shoots instead of just a single stem. I pulled four stems from the unforced plants and cooked them all together - just roasted in a covered dish with a little sugar. Looked so pretty with the sugar I took a photo. Tasted pretty good too (with custard & cream!).

Forced rhubarb on the right is paler and longer and the leaves look very anaemic.

Rhubarb cut and sugared in the dish ready for roasting.

Review of the year

New Year's Eve and looking back over 2014 there have been highs and lows with our garden:

Highs

• The greenhouse tomatoes were great. This year I sowed all Alicantes and they gave us consistently delicious tomatoes right through till early November. The green ones ripened on the kitchen windowsill but didn't quite make it till Christmas.
• Raspberries were pretty good, especially the early ones
• Beetroots were spectacular - 2 sowings. Plenty of beetroots for salad and soup.
• The Bramley Apple was loaded with good quality apples. Bramleys are notorious for "one year on one year off" so probably get none in 2015. Have quite a few in store (mice willing) and lots of tubs of cooked apples in the freezer.
• The little Elstar Apple we planted 5 years ago has just got into its stride. Only about 10 apples - but really delicious and seem to keep well.

Not so good:

We had quite a few failures or problems with vegetables:

• Potatoes were generally a bit small. But the biggest problem has been when we have come to used them Some of the Colleens and a few Desirees have nasty brown cavities in the middle. No sign of ingress by worms and generally only the larger potatoes are affected. Looked up on Google and identified this as Hollow Heart - not caused by a bug, bacteria or rot but by rapid changes in growing conditions. Indeed this we had see post http://www.froggartscottagegarden.co.uk/2014/07/hot-potatoes.html. So, in future need to be more rigorous about watering during dry spells.
• Runner Beans sown directly into ground were infested with bean fly so we had to plant a second sowing in pots. These grew well and we had a good crop.
• Broad Beans grew quickly and we had a good crop. But some of the mature beans had brownish markings on the bean. I usually save beans for next year so have picked them over carefully.
• Leeks again suffered with allium leaf miner. Managed to get a few early ones for eating 
• Brussel Sprouts were a disaster. new variety this year and we netted them against butterflies and pigeons, but they didn't thrive and some had big swollen stems with only tiny sproutlets.
• The blackcurrants were completely stripped by pigeons and blackbirds, presumably to spite us because we netted the redcurrants.

Couch grass was everywhere. The rhubarb patch is completely overrun with couch grass actually boring holes through the roots, However much I dug up it was there again a week later. Bindweed seems to have reduced a bit though.

Looking forward now to planning the sowing and planting for 2015.

New Year

The New Year has continued with the wet, windy and rather warm theme although interspersed with some fine sunny moments.

Not a lot happening in the garden just small shoots from the rhubarb, bunches of yellow flowers on the mahonia and little yellow stars of winter jasmine. Surprisingly - few spring bulbs are shooting. Usually by now there are little green shoots and maybe the odd snowdrop showing some white. I wonder if this is warning of a long, cold winter to come.

Cold end to the year

During the week before Christmas we had severe storms with violent winds. Thankfully only minor damage here but friends further south were flooded out.

The corrugated roof on the lean-to was lifting off with the wind and the rose arch (tubular metal construction which replaced a previous home-made one a couple of years ago) is flattened. Also a section of roofing-felt on the summer house was blown off. So far nothing serious - but the forecasters are promising more wind and storms for the new year.

Yesterday was fine and sunny and this morning is cold and frosty with just a little breeze. Doing a few tidying jobs in the garden:

• Cutting back the old leaves from the hellebores so we can see the flowers - and indeed the little buds are already showing colour.
• Clearing the overgrown reeds from the little pond. I'm always worried about disturbing the hibernating frogs and newts but it has to be done to stop the pond getting smelly.
• Covering the already-emerging rhubarb with compost to protect from the frost.
• Removing the dead leaves from the hostas which are lying on the gravel and getting soggy and messy with all the rain.
• Trimming the climbing roses which seem to have ambitions to reach the sky.
• Having a big bonfire!

Spring hasn't sprung yet!

We've had massive snow - eight inches and higher piled up against the back wall and patio doors - and a biting easterly wind. Supposedly the start of spring last week but it feels like midwinter. We keep getting hopeful of better weather but they're promising another week of cold and even more snow.  Last year by this date in March we had planted broad beans in the ground and started on the potatoes. This year the ground is frozen and/or waterlogged. It will be a few weeks before we can plant. I'm going to start off the broad beans in pots in the conservatory (the greenhouse is too cold) and hope that by the time they are big enough to plant out the ground will be warmer and drier.

Still - some bright spots: I crept up to the top of the garden yesterday evening and picked some rather sorry, snow-covered rhubarb. Some stems were frozen and broke off but I managed to harvest enough to make a rhubarb fool.

Here's a picture taken nearly 2 weeks ago with the snowdrops still blooming and the cocusses providing a splash of colour:

And this yesterday from the warmth of our bedroom window!

Early Rhubarb

Last Saturday the rhubarb was under 6 ins snow. Now the sun is shining and it's relatively warm (10 deg C) and the rhubarb is sprouting beautifully. I really don't see the point in forcing rhubarb when it comes up quite deliciously without any attention (except a bit of compost from our huge heaps). Maybe some rhubarb and custard at the weekend!

Rhubarb sprouting colourfully after the snow.

End of the snow?

For the first time for over 2 weeks I've woken up and the garden is not covered in snow. The grass is green and the snowdrops are just beginning to push up through. There's not a lot of colour - a few primroses and helibores - but lots of daffodil and other bulb leaves showing and buds are swelling on the shrubs and trees. There are catkins on the hazel tree.

When the weather started to get really cold I spread sacking over the rhubarb plants and yesterday still with 3 ins snow on the ground I uncovered them. Today the red stems and yellow/green leaves are looking perky and bright in the sunshine.

Stormy weather

It's been a pretty horrible week - Mum ill with shingles and very wet and stormy weather making gardening a bit difficult. The weather people say we've had the wettest April and are set to have the wettest June since they started recording these things, and that after the driest winter and warmest February! 

However, everything in the garden is growing, including weeds of course, and it looks like a jungle.

On Friday we had a heavy thunderstorm with hail which has shredded the leaves of rhubarb, marrows and squashes and snapped off the top 18ins shoots of the broad beans. Joe Hashman (On the Plot with Dirty Nails) says he pinches out the tops of his broad beans to deter black fly (before they get infested) and steams them like spinach so I had a go and they were really nice. A bit more bitter than spinach but good with butter and pepper. Shame to waste them!

On a good note, we've harvested the 4 pots of potatoes planted in February and the first early Colleens in the veg plot are starting to flower so a good sign they'll be ready in a couple of weeks.