Spring Clearing

Easter weekend is traditionally a gardening weekend. Garden centres brace themselves for what is often boasted to be their busiest time of year....The main growing season is fast approaching and it's time to get out, get tidy, get prepared for a very busy Spring. There  was just one problem with this however.....come Easter...it was still bloody freezing! It was snowing! After a very long, cold and dismal winter, Spring still seemed a long way off.

Still, never give up, never surrender!!! We get two weeks off at Easter and I planned to get the garden sorted come hell or highwater.  I mustered the troops....reminded them of the glorious bounty we had enjoyed from last years endeavours....It was time to man up, get out and get started.

Of course, once out there the troops were faced by the months of neglect, remnants of our very explosive firework party, and the havoc caused by the chickens having free rein of the garden all winter.....they weren't best pleased.

I thought they over-reacted

The patio didn't look that bad..

and there wasn't THAT much to do :-s

Ok, so it was a bit of a mess. But the wonderful thing about gardening is that you can make an impact very quickly. We all set about to raking, collecting, and burning, and in no time at all we'd made our garden look a bit more like our garden again.

First, we came up with a way to keep Minion 6 contained and occupied.

The boys perked up considerably once they'd got the fire going.

Even Minion 2 got stuck in.

It was a good day's work and even the minions agreed that we'd made a considerable dent in the mess...and then...the next day...the most incredible thing happened....the sun came out!!! Isn't it funny how everything looks better when the sun shines. Suddenly, we were filled will fresh motivation. Pretty soon, the garden was looking a lot clearer and we could get to work on our poorly, neglected lawn. 

We started by giving it a good rake over. We've had some much rain this winter that the soil was badly impacted so we used a Lawn Aerator to break up the soil a bit and give the grass some breathing space. After another raking we reseeded, though we will probably have to redo this should the weather take a turn for the worse again...which it probably will do. But it's a start...and it looks better than it did this time last year.

Yes, your eyes do not deceive you...Minion 2 is out, in the garden, in the sun, aerating the lawn!! I would like to say that he's had a change of heart and has embraced life in the open air but alas I cannot lie. He asked for chores to do to so he could pay for Wrestlemania on Sunday night. Ah well....we live forever in hope. He did a great job though. 

We even had some lovely purple sprouting broccoli to enjoy!

So, we've made a good start. Pretty soon it will be time to start sowing and then the real fun will begin. But in the meantime I have slight aside, non-kitchen garden, personal project on the go. Don't get me wrong...I do love the veggies but before the veg garden I had a beautiful cottage style garden that was an extravaganza of colour and beauty. I do miss it sometimes and am determined to have a few non-edible plants in the garden. 

A few months back I saw an old doulton sink on eBay...I got very excited as I'd always wanted on old sink to plant an alpine garden in....I won it for £20 which I thought was a real bargain -Charlie was less impressed with my purchase  (I've mentioned in previous blogs that he has very little respect for plants that aren't edible) and said that he couldn't believe I paid £20 for 'that beat up old cr** sink'- ...what can I say, the man has no vision :-)... anyway, this week..... I'm going to turn my beat up old sink into a beautiful little Alpine Garden. Slightly off topic...but hey, the soul needs food too :-)

Climate Change aka Time to Build a Big Boat?

When the boffins first started talking about global warming back in the 80s no one seemed that phased by it. This island is known for many great things but a beautiful climate is most definitely not on the list. Many Brits, ourselves included, cultivated the romantic notion of global warming turning our sceptured isle turning into a kind of Costa Del Sol giving us lots of scope to complain about being too hot, buy lots of sandals, wear questionable comedy t-shirts and have lots more BBQs. 

Of course reality is now sinking in and it looks like  an island paradise is not on the cards. In fact, our miserable climate is becoming even more dismal and we are experiencing rain and flooding of almost biblical proportions. This year it has rained and rained and rained. So much so that if my neighbour had started building a big boat in his garden and got a sudden interest in animal husbandry, instead of phoning the appropriate authorities as I would normally do under such circumstances, I might have asked him for a lift.... What does this mean for our garden? Well, good as freecycle is, I'm pretty sure we couldn't scrounge enough timber for an Ark so..... we need a plan! 

The garden is a bog at the moment but we are hopeful that with reflection on the last two year's vegetable successes and disasters coupled with some careful planning, we can reach new heights of grow-your-own splendour. A lot has worked, and we just need to do more of that and less or the stuff that didn't...simple :-).

We ordered a seed catalogue from the Real Seed Company and started looking at what we are going to grow this year. Last year's successes included parsnips, carrots, leeks, onions, lettuce and peas...so they are all going on the list. Not so good were the more exotic crops which didn't get enough sun (tomatillos, tomatoes and peppers) so they're going on hold until we get the greenhouse up and running. I love the Real Seed Company because there is a story behind every heritage variety they sell. Here are the some of the varieties we've decided to go for this year:

'Baccalan de Rennes' French Variety of Spring Cabbage

Golden Chard

Striato di Napoli (Green Stripes) Courgette

Tender and True Parsnips

They did us proud this year. Very delicious and a good crop.

Giant Red Carrots

The D'Eysines were lovely this year but a bit on the short side, and you have to remember we have a LOT of minions to feed, so we're going to try this variety this year.

Giant Limousin Turnips

Chamette Dwarf Petit Pois

'Cherokee Trail of Tears' Climbing French Beans

I can't wait to grow this one. Such a beautiful name. This is the description in the catalogue:

'Simply the best bean there is. This bean was originally from the native North American Cherokee people. In 1838 they were driven out of their homelands in the state of Georgia by the US government to make room for more European settlers , a forced march known as the 'Trail of Tears'. This bean is one of their heirlooms they managed to keep with them and has been passed on from generation to generation ever since.We can see why the Cherokees valued it so much! It is incredibly prolific, cropping over a long season.

Giant Bulgarian Leeks 

These should be good fun. They were described as 'humungous' in the catalogue! Worth a try.

'Sicily Giant' Big Mild Radish

Salad Crops: Medium Mibuna (quick and easy cut and come again) and 'Golden Frill' salad leaf and a few more from the garden centre. In addition to this we'll get some spring onions and main crop potatoes locally. If you would like to check out the Real Seed Company here is the link:

http://www.realseeds.co.uk

After choosing our seeds we drew up a plan of where everything is going to go. If you have been following this blog you will know that we have very clay soil which is prone to water logging. This year, the surface flooding was so bad that we lost a lot of ground level crops. However, everything in the raised beds did well as these drained sufficiently. So, this year we have decided that everything is going to be in raised beds or pots. This will mean Charlie will need to build another one and we'll have to source some more wood but it's the only way we can beat the downpours. So here is the plan for next year:

Everything is rotating around to deter diseases and pests from building up. At the moment the chickens have the run of the garden and they're clearing all the ground and pooping all over it, getting it ready for spring. It's very exciting and we can't wait to get started but there are still a few months of winter yet which gives us time to get on freecycle and find some wood for that bed.

Ready for the Greenhouse...

 So after the party we had a big clean up job ahead but we soon got on top of it all. It's pretty difficult to keep chickens on fresh ground in the winter so we're allowing them to roam around the garden. This won't do the lawn any good but we can reseed it in the spring and it's really lovely having the girls follow you around the garden.

The wormery is going strong and I'm getting the first 'worm tea'. This is supposed to be a great fertilizer so we are using it on the last of the winter veg. It's taking a while for the worms to multiply and we still only have one level of the wormery in action but they seem happy enough.

The first of the 'worm tea'

We enjoyed the last of the parsnips and some leeks. We are definitely going to try both varieties again as they were delicious.

But at this time of year there isn't an awful lot to do so after the clear up we started to think about next year and clearing space for our next big project....a greenhouse. We picked a likely spot at the back of the garden near the hen enclosure. The beech hedges are beautiful but they take up nearly 4 ft around the edge of our garden so the plan was to take out a section of hedges to make way for a small greenhouse. It's just going to be a bog standard cold greenhouse but will increase our repertoire, lengthen the growing season and give us somewhere to work when the weather is awful...which has been most of the year in 2012! So it was out with the loppers! 

The girls helped us pick out a spot.

Charlie even managed to have a go with his new chainsaw (I know, don't worry, I'm not going to let Minion 1 go anywhere near it). Of course cutting the hedges down is just the beginning. There will have to be a base...and that will probably mean a cement mixer and all that entails. Minion 1 will be so pleased :-). But for now it's time to curl up infront of the fire with seed catalogues and wait for the Spring. Happy Holidays! 

Season of Mists and Blowing Stuff Up....

Yes, it's that time of year again...time to check the bonfire for hedgehogs, clear away the leaves...then gather together, burn an effigy and blow lots of things up. No, don't worry, we are not members of a terrorist organisation...we are English and the English on the 5th of November celebrate the attempted blowing up of the Houses of Parliament and the then King, James I by that rascal Guy Faukes and his cronies.  (I'm purposely not describing us as British as I'm not sure if they share this tradition in our sister countries of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. In fact I'm pretty sure that there are lots of people in those countries who would only celebrate if the HoP HAD been blown up...come to think of it there are probably quite of few of those people in  this country :-) )

Anyway, I digress....the main growing season is nearly at an end, all the flowers have gone from the pots and the only veg left is the brassicas a few parsnips (which, by the way, have been a HUGE success and bloomin' delicious) and some leeks.... there's no escaping the fact that winter is nearly upon us. We decided to send the season off with a bang (yes, I went there) and have one last party to celebrate..well, the hideous death of a revolutionary over 400 years ago!

As tradition dictates we built our Guy. This is a strange tradition I've never fathomed as Guy Fawkes wasn't burnt to death but was in fact hung, drawn and quartered, poor chap....however, that was a very long time ago and it's all good fun so we just go with it....This Year, Guy's bottom half was made up of Minion 1's legendary 'chav pants'...

I should explain the significance of these pants to all those who have never had the pleasure of making my son's acquaintance. I might have mentioned that Minion 1 is at UCL studying medicine ;-). Well, despite the fact that he is really very bright he used to insist on dressing in these hideous, shapeless, tatty, grey tracksuit bottoms! We could never coax him out of them... He was even wearing them when he had a close encounter with our beloved Queen whose convoy was making it's way through Camden one day...Imagine what her Majesty must of thought when Shaun, sporting a russian hat and his chav pants gave her an innane grin and a two handed wave. He swears she smiled and waved at him...she probably thought he was a care in the community case and was fervently hoping he didn't throw a brick.

Anyway after nearly two years of putting up with them, of begging him not to wear them to a numerous gatherings and family events....Minion 1 foolishly forgot his pants the last time he was home and they met their end as Guy's legs. Minion 1, bless him, returned home to the sight of his pants sitting on the bonfire and he knew that their reign was at an end:

It might look as if Guy has had an unfortunate accident...which you couldn't blame him for considering his approaching demise, however, that is light fluid...Charlie swears blind he didn't do it on purpose.

Minion 1 took it on the chin and the burning of the chav pants caused much hilarity and,
for me anyway, was quite cathartic

Of course, what goes around comes around, and my punishment for burning the pants was another big hole in my lawn....and the other one had only just blended in properly. Oh well, we reep what we sow.

My friend Sam also said goodbye to some demons by ritually burning some notes from a horrible placement she had....

and Chris just enjoyed poking the fire...

It was a great night...Minion 1 cheered up when we let him set off all the fireworks.....Grandad even enjoyed a sparkler or two. Sadly, Minion 6 was in bed but all other minions had fun and even Minion 2 came out of his cave, albeit briefly. It was probably the last outside party of the year. We've had so much fun in our garden in 2012. From the Golden Jubilee to Minion 6's Christening. We're looking forward to having lots more next year. But for now, I've got a right old bloody mess to clean up! :-)

Under the Apple Tree

Its the time of year when everything starts winding down in the garden. The growing season is nearly at an end; the nights are getting colder and darker and it's a time to think about packing away the BBQ and covering the furniture. We still have lots to do in the minion garden and over the winter we will be pruning, sharpening and hopefully putting up a new greenhouse. But before I start the Autumn phase of this blog I wanted to share one of the last days of summer with you. It was just an ordinary day. Like many we have shared together as a family this year but I think that too often we overlook the day to day, so it's nice to stop and appreciate the small pleasures of ordinary life.

It's a rare occasion that we have all the male minions in one place these days. I've explained about Minion 2s aversion to being out in the garden (which I believe stems from a fear of being given a job, coupled with the fact that as Minion 2 delicately puts it: 'the garden is crap for playing football in') also Shaun, aka Minion 1, is reading medicine at UCL...have I not mentioned that before?!?! :-)...so to have all of them in the garden at once is a real treat. Last week Minion 1 made an impromptu visit and we all found ourselves chilling out under the apple tree. Here are a few moments from our evening in the sun....

All the male minions together...and even Grandad put in an appearence

Charlie stoked up the BBQ and we all relaxed enjoying a beautiful late summer evening.  We lay under the apple tree chatting and Minion 6 was fascinated by a beautiful dragonfly which was flying around the courgettes. 

A welcome visitor to the Minion Garden

Of course, Minions 1 and 5 being together meant that it didn't stay quiet and chilled for very long and their first escapade including Minion 1 using his little sister to pick apples for him....

Then he stole Minion 5s space hopper...

But it was recaptured near the parsnips...

On the way back to camp Minion 1 got lost in the corn jungle. The corn is HUGE some of it has reached 7 ft. I only hope we get some edible kernels off it!

 But he soon escaped and was looking for more trouble to get into...

Charlie starts juggling in a desperate attempt to distract Minions 1 and 5
from whatever mischief they had planned next but Cricket aka Minion 3
saved the day by getting their attention with a very large courgette.

Ooer, what a whopper! :-)

 All in all it has been a lovely summer in our garden and despite the rain we have really enjoyed this season. It's not quite over yet. The corn is still growing, as are the courgettes and tomatillos, and we have Brocolli and Cabbages for winter...but there is a distinct feeling that the garden is slowing down and getting ready for a long rest. In the meantime we will continue to enjoy the few last days of sunshine in our lovely garden with as much of our lovely family as we can muster up....and we get to do it all again next year....

We Reep What We Sow...

Anyone who has ever grown vegetables knows that although this may be true in a metaphysical sense it doesn't necessarily hold true for horticultural endeavours. This season has been a bit grim for all growers. A dry Spring followed by torrential rains and periods of scorching sun have done for many-a seasoned gardener's crops. We at the minion household have, however, faired reasonably well. 

Last year we were grabbed by the whole idea of planting traditional varieties as opposed to the F1 Hybrid EU approved varieties which have been heavily inbred and are the ones available in most garden centres. In our search for more eco crops we discovered 'The Real Seed Company':

www.realseeds.co.uk

They specialise in vegetable seeds for kitchen gardens and include both heirloom varieties and modern strains but no genetically modified or hybrids so you can save your own seeds. 

We chose our seeds from their catalogue last winter and, with the exception of our leeks, which were bought as plants and our potatoes, ALL our veg is from their seed. Perhaps our success had something to do with that...I can't be sure but we are definitely going to get our seed from them in the future (what we don't save this year that is). This year our shopping list looked like this:

Early Purple Sprouting Broccoli

'Placenza' Savoy Winter Cabbage

D'Eysines Fat Carrot

'Verde di Italia' Courgettes

'Tender and True' Parsnips

Sturon Onion

'Bijou' Giant Sugar Pea (Mangetout)

Serpette Guilloteau Pea (Second Early)

'Kaibi Round' Red Pepper

Golden Bantam Improved Sweetcorn

'Verde Pueblo' Tomatillo

Quite a nice mix we felt. Well, we said goodbye to the red peppers quite some time ago...no sun and too much cold rain (we will give them another go next year when we have our greenhouse). We can't comment on the Broccoli, Parsnips and Cabbage yet although they all appear to be growing very nicely. Other crops however are starting to make their way into the kitchen! Here is last night's veg..our 'Fat Carrots' which were short and delicious, and our 'Bijou' mangetout. 

Also in this picture are a weeks worth of eggs from our lovely chickens!

One thing we love about The Real Seed Company is the little stories that accompany some of the seeds. The 'Bijou' is a really old fashioned sugar pea that was very popular in the 1880s but is now almost completely extinct. It has now been reintroduced by TRSC from a handful of peas found in a cellar....from there it made it's way to the minion garden and onto our dinner plates last night...a little bit of horticultural history. The plants are enormous! In fact, if we grow them next year I'm going to grow them up 8ft wigwams. The other peas have done well but are showing a bit of mildew now. None of them made it into the house as they were too delicious. We ate them straight out of the pods. Minion 4 was particularly partial...

Minion 4 scoffing!

Elsewhere in the garden the courgettes are going bonkers. We are having to put courgettes in every meal we cook to get through the vast quantities the 3 plants we have are producing. The fruits of the 'Verde di Italia' are pale green and delicious. We also have some pretty potent little onions and tonights meal is a Bolognese that contains them both!

We're rather proud of our 'from seed' onions.
Watch it though, they make your eyes water.

Courgettes anyone?

No inappropriate jokes please :-)

So that's about it from the minion garden. Our sweetcorn is 6 ft high now though so we're hoping for more delicious crops. I'm going to extend my flower growing on the patio. I got a lovely little patio rose which has inspired me to plan a container rose garden and we're going to try to sow some 'quick cropping' veg to make the most of the Indian Summer we're hoping to have....well, we can but dream! 

Ready to Entertain!

Hello All,

We have been busy busy at Minion HQ and things are going great guns in the garden. Despite the weather's best efforts we are finally seeing some results Veg wise and this week we were scoffing delicious carrots and homegrown potatoes! The mangetout are also starting to pop out and we're hoping for lots more sun so everything gets the boost that it needs. This week however there were more practical considerations as I had to tackle one of the toughest jobs of the year and cut back the Beech Hedges and we had to tidy up our 'patio' area ready for Charlie to have a few friends round. 

Exhibit A, the hedges are going a bit mad. There's also been
an explosion of pink as Minion 5 is currently in residence.

As you can see from exhibit A the beech hedges were looking a bit wild and wooly. So I set to work. It really is a massive job and requires lots of precarious ladder climbing. The lady who lived here before us apparently broke her wrist falling off a ladder when cutting these hedges and I almost did the same. Shortly after Charlie took the picture, when I was overextending to cut the back edge of the hedge I went one way and the ladder went the other. Luckily my fat bottom broke my fall and I ended up with just a few bruises...phew!

That's some precision hedge cutting for you! To the Right is the
  aforementioned fat bottom that saved the day!

It took me all day to get the beech hedges under control but it makes such a difference when they are done. However, it is a truth universally acknowledged that you get one job done in the garden and there's another huge job awaiting, and after the hedge-cutting there were a LOT of clippings to clean up and the patio looked like this...

Minions 1-3 and Charlie are good for heavy lifting etc. but they are sandpeople (i.e they get the job don't but it's not pretty)...for aesthetics you need precision, you need a woman's eye for detail...you need the Imperial storm troopers that are myself and Minion 5. We set to work raking weeding and relocating and pretty soon the patio area and the rest of the garden was looking good.

I'd like to point out that although Charlie managed to sneek into this picture putting those candles back in was his only
contribution of the day :-)

So a good days work and although I had a sore hip for a few days I was relatively unharmed by the experience. The next day the table turned up. This was time for Charlie to come into his own and for me and Minons 5 and 6 to relax and enjoy the fruits of our labour. After a little self assembly the new table and chairs were ready to go and we enjoyed an impromptu BBQ before Charlie welcomed his guests.

The Master at work :-)

The prospect of food even smoked Minion 2 out of his cave!!

Charlie, with wine and snacks awaiting the arrival of his cronies...it doesn't get any better than this!!