We’ve just been visited by a Kestrel who sat on our telegraph wire, starred me out, then moved onto the TV areal, and then off. I’ve not noticed a Kestrel visit before. I often hear the loud call of hunting buzzards high above in groups but until now we’ve not seen a Kestrel.
The Kestrel on our telegraph wire
Kestrel on our TV areal
The Kestrel leaving us
Last summer I was so taken with the beautiful contorted stems of the opium poppy seed heads that I decided to cut and dry a few to display in a vase. Not only did they look striking on the kitchen window sill they also filled the sparse home grown flower gap between November and February.
Last years poppy stems that have filled a space on my kitchen window sill
I love the dried poppies natural patina
This year I thought I’d fill a vase with poppy seed head stems, so we can have a large arrangement in our sitting room over the winter. I grow double opium poppies in my borders which happily self seed each year, they look gorgeous whilst in flower but once over their leaves start to die back leaving an unsightly mess in the border. Pull the whole plants out and break off the long poppy head stems from the main plant, stripping away the untidy leaves, this reveals the stunning contorted poppy stems and their amazing architectural seed heads.
The poppies finished flowering and are now a messy sight in the flower bed
The poppy in flower before revealing its wonderful seed canister
The poppy stems stripped of leaves and popped in a vase
The poppy stems left in a corner to dry, come November they’ll be moved to pride of place in the sitting room
I think the poppy stems muted green seed heads with the white hazy polish that coats them looks fabulous now but I know as they dry the colour will change to the golden brown which will give our sitting room a warm, natural statuesque dimension in those lean winter months.
I’ve discovered Mildew on my cucumbers in the green house. The cucumber fruit should be fine, but if the Mildew is left to spread it will reduce the vigour of the plant. So action is needed.
The white marks of Powdery Mildew on my Cucumber leaves
Mildew spots on this cucumber leaf
Powdery Mildew is a fungal disease that will frequently strike Cucumbers, Courgettes and Squashes. It often occurs during dry periods when the plant is feeling a little stressed by lack of water and is more susceptible to the air borne Mildew spores. When trying to combat Mildew your first action must be to carefully remove the affected leaves and burn them, this will hopefully reduce the spread of spores. Next give the plants a good water and keep them well watered for the rest of the summer. My mildew infected cucumbers are in the greenhouse with a watering system that comes on for a few minutes each morning. I don’t think this has been sufficient, so I’m going to start watering twice a day to help prevent re-infection. My final plan to rid us of Mildew is an untested treatment I recently heard about; spraying with bicarbonate of soda (baking soda). I am going to dilute 1 tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda to 1 gallon (4.5 litres) of water and spray the affected plants. I’ll report back on the effectiveness of this potion.
My first developing Cucumber (Burpless Tasty Green) which seems unaffected by the Mildew
I consider turning compost heaps, picking up hedge cuttings and thinning baby apples to be boring, laborious and tedious jobs; they’re essential but I’ll try desperately to avoid them! Thank goodness I don’t have an orchard, but I do have sixteen apple trees, so I’ve made a deal with myself to try and thin fruit on one maybe two (if I’m on a roll) trees a day.
Thinning apples down to two fruits per spur at this time of year has a variety of advantages: space is made for large fruit to develop, you can discard any unhealthy looking apples, and it allows air to circulate reducing the chance of pests and diseases to establish. Just pull by hand the apples you wish to discard from the cluster.
A group of apples ready to be thinned
The same apples after thinning
A very congested group of apples
The group of apples after thinning
To make the job even less appealing I stupidly dropped the apples to the ground; tomorrow I will come armed with an apple thinning bucket!
Discarded apples that need collecting up for the compost heap; before my boys find them for ammunition!
After completing the removal of apples from the first tree I wandered back up the kitchen garden, and was rewarded with my first Gladioli buds of the year.
Gladioli Purple Flora in bud
What a busy start to summer, sadly this blog has become a little neglected. I console myself with the knowledge that my third and final son starts school in September (I’m going to be cheering and clicking my heels when I leave the school gates that day). I fully intend to establish a weekly kitchen garden routine with plenty of time to blog, I do love a positive and productive plan of action.
I have not completely let the blog go, I have been taking lots of pictures so todays posting will be the story of the kitchen garden over the last few weeks told in pictures, there are triumphs, disasters, and a bit of death and destruction!
The cut flowers have been fabulous so far this year; the plants have thrived in the damp warm weather. These pictures show the amazing growth in the new cutting border in the space of just two weeks, the middle of June to the start of July.
The new cutting border at the start of July
The same border in mid June
The cutting border at the start of July
The same border two weeks previously, an amazing rate of growth
The star cut flower players have been Salvia Vardis Oxford Blue, Cornflower Black Ball, Nicotiana Lime Green, Antirrhinum, Calendula and Sweet Williams. The Dahlias, Cosmos and Sunflowers are bushing out well ready to produce abundant blooms in the next few weeks.
Salvia Viridis Oxford Blue
Cornflower Black Ball
Calendula
Antirrhinum
Nicotiana Lime Green
A bunch of flowers from the cutting border
Flowers for a BBQ from the cutting border
Ticking away in my head are plans for a new large ornamental border at the top of our lawn, it will incorporate roses I moved from a traditional (old fashioned) border I grassed over in Spring. I understand that Salvias possess many complementary qualities for roses, reducing risk of disease and encouraging strong healthy plants. This has sparked a new passion for me, Hardy Salvias, beautiful sophisticated blooms which just seem to go on and on. Here are a few of my current favourites and maybe the odd Penstemon and Dianthus. I do try very hard to keep this blog focussed on the kitchen garden, but, these are a bit special and can’t be missed!
Salvia Cerro Potosi
Salvia Nachtvlinder
Salvia Stormy Pink
Penstemon Just Jayne
Penstemon Sour Grapes
Dianthus Rainbow Loveliness – a stunner!
Compared with the cut flowers the vegetable plot has not felt so productive. Like many we’ve suffered terrible slug problems. I started going out in the evening and cutting the slimy vermin in half, this seemed to have no impact. Our slug population was enormous thanks to the mild winter and wet spring/early summer their perfect climate, slug paradise was then achieved by feasting on the sumptuous delicacies that were being planted out and germinating from my directly sown seeds. Sadly the only viable solution was slug pellets followed by crack of dawn trips to the kitchen garden to collect up the poisoned slugs before the birds got to them. It worked; I filled flower pot after flower pot with dead slugs – YUK! But thankfully the vegetable plants are starting to recover and begin their productive romp. My main gripe which has made me very grumpy has been the lack of salad leaves, I now live in hope that the seeds will develop and I’ll soon be able to pick my lunch again on a daily basis.
I make the vegetable patch feel and sound worse than it is, we’re not going hungry. We’ve been cropping Mangetout, Courgettes, a few French Beans and Tomatoes, Peas, Broadbeans and enjoyed some delicious Artichoke suppers. I’ve harvested the garlic and will plant out the winter cabbages in their place during the coming weeks.
Some of the Vegetable beds at the start of July
A mixed vegetable bed of Kale and Cape Gooseberries, the Nasturtium are a sacrificial planting for the cabbage white butterflies and their hungry caterpillars
French Beans
The Courgette bed making a recovery frm the slugs
Tomato Sungold
Cucumber – Burpless
My best looking Aubergine plant. I never manage to grow successful Aubergine, maybe it’s time to accept defeat!
The garlic harvest, ready to be dried out in the conservatory before storing in a cool dark place
There is definite hope for the kitchen garden, bumper crops will be on their way, it’s just been a tricky start to year and I do miss my salad leaves.
Sweet William my new no.2 all time favourite cut flower (nothing can knock my treasured Dahlias off the top spot!). This is my first year of growing them; I’m not sure why I’ve not grown them previously they just seemed to have passed me by. I‘m now smitten, they’ve sent up bloom after bloom since May with a vase life in excess of two weeks and smell divine. The seed packet says they’ll flower all summer so I’ll report back on their summer performance in a few months.
Sweet William in the cut flower border
I love the whispy acid green flower buds that set of the blooms perfectly
What a beauty!
This is the time of year to start sowing Sweet Williams. They’re biennials which will germinate quickly and easily. Transfer the seedlings to individual pots, and leave outside to grow until Autumn when they’ll need to be planted in their final flowering position. Biennials may seem a bit of a faff but they really are worth it, I think Sweet William must be one of the hardest working cut flowers in the kitchen garden. I’ve had twelve plants of ‘Sweet William Auricula Eyed Mixed’ in my cutting border this year and apart from two white ones the others have all come up in different shades of pink and red. I understand that if you wish Sweet William to take up a permanent position in a border, just leave a few flowers to set seed and they’ll self seed for you.
Sweet William seedlings ready to be transfered to individual pots
Whilst you’re sowing your Sweet William it’s well worth sowing a few foxgloves too. Another must have biannual; I love the white ones in borders at this time of year.
White fox gloves lift a border at this time of year and stand out like ghosts at dusk
A self seeded invader. pretty but not white!
It’s that time of year when the weeds are fighting back and doubling in size on a daily basis. It’s time for a quick fix. Mow the grass and cut the edges, the garden gets an instant lift and you’ll barely notice the pesky weeds!
Before edging the lawn
After cutting the lawn edges, a huge improvement. Shame the boys can’t tidy up their toys!
The First dahlia of 2016 and it’s a stunner! The variety is unknown as the tuber was kindly given to me by a friend who’d had a garden clear out. It’s currently residing in a pot as I’ve run out of dahlia space (there are secret plans afoot though, I just need to evict my children from part of the garden!). Currently a pot is the best place for dahlias; the slugs are worse this year than I’ve ever known. A mild winter has failed to keep their population to a manageable size; they’re decimating my dahlias that were left to overwinter in situ and munching through my squash and courgettes. It is therefore with great guilt that I have succumbed to slug pellets, sadly they have become essential. I was up at the crack of dawn after applying the dreaded lurid blue poison, collecting dead slugs before the birds got to them. I managed to fill two flower pots. It was a revolting job but it did seem to work, there have been very few slugs the following mornings and my treasured plants are looking better already. Fingers crossed using such horrid chemicals will not have impacted too much on the wildlife.
The Produce from the Garden £1 honesty stall is open again for business. Today’s delicacy is Rhubarb. Flowers and much more to come in the next few weeks.
We’re on Claygate Rd on the way to Laddingford.
St Michael’s Mount attracts your eye wherever you are in Mounts bay, Cornwall. So it was top of the list of things to do on our family holiday. I was expecting a boat trip as the tide was in, a steep walk up to the castle and fun exploring the ramparts, but I wasn’t ready to be wowed by a garden on this windswept, sea salted island. It was a tropical paradise and we loved it, steep winding paths for boys to explore, amazing beautiful plants so well tended I can honestly say there was not a weed in sight. The Walled Gardens are a fabulous subtle and sophisticated surprise, sandwiched between the exotically planted East and West Terraces. St Michael’s Mounts Gardens have jumped right up there into my all time top ten gardens.
St Michael’s Mount
Pictures of the East and West Terraces
Pictures of the Walled Gardens
Geranium Maderense, a tender perrenial which seems to thrive in West Cornwall
An enormous Aeonium (I think) growing out of a wall
Lotus Berthelotii, I love the firey red colour
A miniture Allium
Aloe Polyphylla, a geometric wonder
