Congratulations Daughter Soggy

Yes, she did the Race for Life for Cancer research, brilliant.

Nature's Bounty

I couldn't even begin to guess how much food I have gathered in over the years, but it still never ceases to excite me, just picking, handling and of course eating those crops of fruit and vegetables. Here's a few from yesterday.


(Calabrese - Pacifica; Broccoli - Tenderstem Green Inspiration; Salad Onion - Performer; Carrot - Flyaway; Potato - Cosmos; Radish - Scarlet Globe, Pea - Norli, lots of different salad leaves and of course strawberries - variety unknown, we inherited them)

Sunday Roast and Succession Planting

It's a sunny Sunday here, and a pleasure to dig some Cosmos 2nd early potatoes for roasting later with Sunday lunch. You can see sitting there ready the Courgette (variety Defender) in its pot ready to go into the space released by digging a few potatoes. (I wouldn't plant anything from the same family - which potatoes and courgettes are - for anything going on to next year, as that would encourage disease).

Busy, busy, busy

I haven't posted much in recent days, for which I apologise, but it is for good reasons. We have our family visiting from South Africa - timed perfectly for the fresh veggies in season!) and, as all the rest of you with mucky hands will attest, it's busy out there isn't it?

We've been harvesting baskets full of calabrese, the Tenderstem is my favourite, so sweet; sister-in-law Soggy made a delicious broccoli and cheese soup. Beetroot has been cooked, strawberries made into jam or just eaten for breakfast, dinner ans tea and the mange tout peas are lovely, to mention but a few things.

More succession sowings have gone in and I'm just about to do sowings of turnip and swede for the winter.

This morning it's farmer's market and then there's a food fair and craft show in Beaminster, so it's all go.

Happy gardening!

Here are the spinach pies

From plot to table, and friends here for lunch today, that's what it's all about isn't it.

(Oh, and that's some more broccoli on the table for our dinner last night)

Spinach

Yesterday I harvested two rows of spinach, with deep green, and in some cases, huge leaves. I put it all in the sink for rinsing and Mrs Soggy cooked it up with some onion ready to go in a spinach and feta pie (Spanakopita - we first enjoyed it in Greece). It's amazing just how much spinach reduces when you cook it isn't it.

Here are three pictures, one with the sink brim-full of spinach, then the cooked spinach in a container within the sink just for scale then then same closer in.


If I don't eat it without forgetting, I'll post a picture of the pie when cooked.

The succession sown spinach is ready to follow on, but I suspect it won't be as good as this lot.

Broad bean setting

Here's a question for fellow UK gardeners.

We have two varieties of broad bean growing (both spring sown). The flowers on the earlier ones are not setting well and those that have are not producing nice swelling pods. The other variety though are setting well and those pods which have set are growing pretty much as you'd expect.

A friend in the village has had the same problem with his broad beans (a different variety again) - he thought it was a problem with bees, apparently this year there is a shortage of bees with a long enough tongue to pollinate some broad beans. Has anyone else heard of this or had a similar problem?

The Flower Garden

Wouldn't be complete without some of the flower garden, as we found it on our return, too would it? Yes, the blueberries are in pots in the flower garden - production encroaches everywhere doesn't it!

See today's other post, below, for the veggie plot ....

Back home from North Wales and Wirral

If you had rain this week you might have wondered why there were no Soggy Blogs! Well we enjoyed a couple of nights in the camper-van in North Wales at Beddgelert (beautiful) and visited Nana Soggy too.

So here are a few pictures of the garden and plot as we found them when we got home yesterday. Thanks to the rain and our lovely neighbour who always looks after our greenhouses everything was doing fine, we enjoyed some of our strawberries with our evening meal - very healthy - apart from Mrs Soggy's delicious home made ice cream!

The young lettuce plants look as though they are enjoying their shady spot.

New month - what to do now

The - "what to do in your garden now" column on the right has been updated with what we'll be up to in June, it's not just a busy time, but a fruitful one too, with crops you are already enjoying or just about to.

Not just the Soggies planting

We went and enjoyed a picnic with our daugher and her partner in the Isle of Purbeck yesterday with lovely views over Corfe Castle before going to see their allotment. This is their first year of growing and they are doing brilliantly, you can see how much from the pictures here.

Note the fennel - why can't I grow it like that?!