2008's Self-Insufficiency

The garden is a bit of a mess still, and a touch thin on the ground for food. I didn’t get as much done as I’d hoped, and some things, that I’d hoped would take, didn’t. The exciting yellow carrots from Real Seeds only germinated about a quarter of what was sown, the beans haven’t bean’d at all (I’m blaming lack of pollinators for this though), the garlic was tiny (but did bulb up! Hurrah! More next year :) ), the onions are small, but growing, the rhubarb is HUGE, except that I don’t think I much like rhubarb – oops :) I have failed once again to grow bell peppers, and my tomatoes are all a bit pitiful. Erik’s 9 plants in his consevatory are fruiting like mad though, and we’re all sharing in the bounty (the seedlings were mine, shared between 3 houses).

There were about 8 raspberries again, no black or redcurrants and the tiny strawberries, while yummy, keep reminding me that I should probably go for decently sized ones next year, not alpines.

The Purple Sprouting Broccoli was delicious and fun, and I think I want to see if I can get hold of the summer PSB so we can eat it for longer. I’ve let the brambles on the back fence ramble further this summer, and hope to be rewarded with fruit. I like going out blackberrying, but having some in the garden would be neat.

The herb patch is struggling a bit, but nothing has died (except the dodgy Lemon Balm I liberated from Erik’s balcony, and it was pretty shot anyway) although the thyme and lovage seeds haven’t taken.

I cannot grow basil this year, but some coriander have germinated this week. One solitary woad seedling has come up, though the ones behind the squash patch are staying resolutely in the ground. Despite being weeds, I think they’ve decided they’re safer from the damp down there. I’ve not killed the new rosemary, and there is new growth on it. Erik’s old one is starting to take to the herb patch depsite getting crapped on by birds and soaked constantly.

The salad patch has had mixed success: the rocket, before it bolted, was delicious, and being able to go out and grab handfuls to scatter on gnocchi was amazing. The mixed lettuces mostly ignored me, but I got a couple of rapini, some mizuna(?) and a couple of pak choi. The red cabbages are being eaten by caterpillars, but I’m grabbing leaves as needed – they won’t heart up with this treatment I expect, but last year’s didn’t either, and quite frankly, considering that the baby wrigglies are curling up in the middle of their lunches and snoozing, I don’t think I want to risk letting them form complete cabbages lest I get a nasty surprise upon opening…

The two courgette plants are finally producing baby fruits, and will soon be ready to harvest. The pumpkin behind them is rambling over the soil and occasionally flowering, but then the tiny fruit drops off (sigh). The two winter squash are trailing around the stakes in the ground but making no effort to climb them – I shall have to go out with a whip (or some raffia).
The celeriac are now down to two plants, having survived being scratched up by the cat. I do have some more in modules, but I doubt they’ll be happy to go out. I could give it a go I suppose.

The potatoes are struggling; the ones in the huge blue planter are mostly leafless after insect attacks, but the tubers will probably be fine as long as they aren’t rotting with damp; the ones in the main plot are either sulking or completely fine, oddly enough. The two in a sack are fine, but I keep forgetting toearth them up. The oca in the ground is going slowly, and the two in pots are huge, but must be planted out as soon as possible. They are supposed to not tube up until the cold hits, so I am gambling on them staying in containers while I clear some space, probably under those damned beans.

Neither the tomatillos or the groundcherries have produced a single fruit. This makes me sad. See? —> :’(
I will try again next year, but with the same caveats regarding light and legginess as the tomatoes.

So, it’s lucky I’m not trying to subsist on my garden. Despite my aspirations, I’m not very good at all this yet. Next year I will:

- Start the tomatoes a little later, or at least, keep them from getting leggy by not putting them so close to the windows. Then they can go to be babysat by Erik or to work, because the house is no place for them it seems.

- Either give up on beans, or plant them in tubs again. If they aren’t going to produce fruit, then I’m not giving them soil space I could use for guaranteed producers (potatoes, for example, or salad.) I’d rather not totally give up as I have about 5 sorts of bean for some reason (not as bad as my tomato collection, which was about 13 varieties before this year’s planting – I think it went down, then I bought more!) and they are quite nice to have, especially when pretty colours (Hestia, Borlotti and Cosse Violette for example, are turning the garden quite colourful, but not edible).

- Plant more salads. The basket I was supposed to have leaves in failed to produce even a single seedling, to my confusion. A second sowing of herbs into it has had similar results, and I think I’ll have to just transplant into it in future.

- Stick to my vows about not putting potatoes in the main plot. They take up space! And the veg box provides more than we can use anyway, even with splitting them between two houses.

- Buy sensible-sized strawberry plants, put them in hanging baskets or wall-mounted planters (for decorative purposes really – I have more problems with birds than with slugs on the fruit) and farm out the alpines to work and friends.

- Stick that poor raspberry cane in the ground instead of lugging it about in a pot with a small apple sapling elbowing it. No wonder it’s not fruiting.

- Lop the bamboo mercilessly. It will grow back, and it does not look pretty at all. It is truely only useful for a) cutting off light to the containers by the mirror, and b) for hanging baskets off.

- Have a smaller onion/carrot patch. And either give up on onion sets or just plant spring onion/onion seed and eat when thinned. I need the onion smell to keep off carrot fly (which has worked it seems) but the patch is huge, and I think I should have put leaves there.

- Work out a way of stopping Rob jumping into the carrot and onion patch from the windowsill and crushing what’s under his paws. I’m thinking of building a ramp… Or a frame. Or landmines.

- Start the curcubits earlier and pile on more manure (assuming I can get non-contaminated stuff). I may be able to steal use of Mish’s coldframe (in potentia – we took the doors over this weekend) to grow a cucumber.

- Clear the borders, minding the tulip bulbs of course and leaving the mint to straggle (it has finally started to do what mint is supposed to do, and get everywhere. I’m quite relieved about this as it was looking like I was about to lose the vegetable garden eqivalent of a spider plant), and avoiding the landlady’s blasted slow berberis (no offence intended to her, but berberis planted to keep local kids out of one’s property should probably be planted about 6 years before said children start to be a problem, not a week after your tenants have complained) and then…I can’t remember. I’ve completely lost track after all those random clauses. Er. Herbs? Dye plants? Probably. Plant things in the borders. Useful things. Anything with tinctoria in its name, for example. A dyer’s garden would be fantastic, except that I have very little space, really.

- Investigate and apply for a course in good time so I can start in September without giving my supervisor at work a nasty headache by going p/t without notice. I know it seems as if every person who can get a seed to sprout and Blogger to remember their password from one day to the next is nipping down to the local college for everything from C&G to full-blown BScs, but you know what? That’s the whole damn point. After working in HEIs since gaining my own rather useless degree, I am firmly of the opinion that one should only do courses that will hold the interest, in subjects you want to study in depth, whether for a private passion, or a practical ambition. I’m not completely convinced that I can get a job after a FdCert or Royal Award, it’s true, but if I sit at this desk for much longer I will go spare, and since I can’t move away without losing my home and partner, the local ag. college will have to provide (and they provide very little PT it must be said).

- Stop buying every seed that catches my attention. Seeds are, it is true, cheaper than shoes, and take up rather less space in one’s house, but I am told that this is not the point. To use every seed I currently have, I would need approximately 4 acres, 2 polytunnels, a large and well-equipped greenhouse, an orangery, five undergardeners and one of those Edwardian conservatories with interesting cast-iron furniture and men in frockcoats with dangerously permissively-loosened cravats. Mrowr. Any longhaired, monied gentleman in possession of above glasshouse and with own velvet frockcoat should apply by email. I am not technically single, but I’m also not technically married off yet… (The frockcoat should be green, for preference, but other jewel tones will be considered upon application.)