The 2014 vegetable growing list

Following the golden rules of "grown what you enjoy eating" and "if short of space/time, prioritise what is expensive or difficult to find in the shops", these are the vegetables and fruit that I'm growing or planning to grow this year. And those which didn't make the short list.

YES:

Lettuce and salad leaves

Rocket

Sorrel

Herbs (parsley, thyme, rosemary, basil)

Chives 

Spring onions

Spinach

Beetroot: yellow and pink-striped

Radish

Courgette (but only one plant)

Cucumber

Romanesco

Purple sprouting broccoli

Climbing French beans, but next time I'll plant them in a wigwam among the flower beds, and leave the raised beds for smaller plants that need closer weeding.

Tomatoes (7) and chillies (2)

 

ON THE WISHLIST (as soon as I save the cash, they're going in - I already found them a spot):

Raspberries 

Blueberries

A quince tree 

NO:

Too much space and easy to buy: cauliflowers (with the exception of romanesco), cabbages, onions, potatoes. Strawberries (expensive fruit, but you need masses of plants to get more than a handful of fruit).

Because we never eat it: runner beans, broad beans, kale.

ON PROBATION:

To see if they grow well: Garlic: you can eat it fresh and it's nicer than the dry garlic from the shop, apparently. And Leek: they won't grow big but apparently they are very tasty harvested small.

Peas. Because they take space for months and are easy to buy. And we don't eat them enough to appreciate the mythical flavour difference between fresh and frozen. I have some in the ground already, but once these are gone I don't think I'll bother again. Might try growing pea shoots with the leftover seed, perhaps.

Parsnips and swedes. Because I had the seed and felt sorry for it and I was in a sowing frenzy and not thinking straight. I may put parsnips in the Yes list if they grow well because the bunnies like them. I might grow them as foliage in between the flower beds.

Pak choi: this is an experiment, I'm growing it for the first time. If it grows well and we eat it, I'll keep it on the list. The purple leaves look amazing in the seed packet.

(By the way, the photo is only a section of my vegetable patch, about half, the whole list above wouldn't fit in just this bit!)

Esta es la lista de frutas y verduras en las que me voy a concentrar este año - son cosas que a) nos gusta cocinar, y b) son caras o dificiles de encontrar en la tienda:

Lechugas de varios tipos, rucula, perejil, hierbas aromaticas (tomillo, romero, menta, albahaca), cebollinos y cebolleta, espinacas, remolacha amarilla y rosa, rabanitos, calabacin (pero solo una planta), pepino, coliflor pero solo la variedad romanesco (la de los "pinchos" verdes), brecol pero solo el que da floretes peqeños, puerros, tomates y judias (pero solo las que dan vainas estrechas. Ademas, la proxima vez las voy a plantar entre las flores, y dejar las jardineras de la huerta para plantas mas pequeñas que necesitan mas atencion).

Y tengo sitio reservado para plantar: frambuesas, grosellas y un membrillo. Fresas no, porque para un bol de fruta se necesitan muchas plantas y no tengo espacio.

Slug-protected petunias, and dahlias

I like petunias but I've never really grown them before. Now I now why everybody puts them in baskets, the slugs destroy them otherwise! I learnt it the hard way. I planted some in the open ground (fool!) and overnight about half the plant had disappeared. Completely vanished. Luckily there was some plant left, so I could move them today to this hanging "basket" (along with some verbenas that suffered the same fate). Hopefully the slugs won't attack them here:

Estas petunias las plante en el suelo antes, solo para descubrir al dia siguiente que son la comida favorita de los caracoles. Me habian comido la mitad de la planta! Por suerte quedo algo de planta (seis fueron atacadas, solo dejaron el tallo principal y poco mas), asi que las he puesto en el aire, junto a unas verbenas a las que les paso lo mismo, a ver si ahi no llegan!

And I also bought two red-leaved dahlias, which I've wanted for years:

Llevo con ganas de estas dalias años, por fin hoy compre estas dos.

Annual flowers and first crop ever from the new veg garden

The tray of annual flowers I bought yesterday in my local market, to help put some colour into the garden (next year, with more planning, it won't look as bare in June!):

Ayer compre estas flores en el mercado. El jardin todavia esta poco establecido y hay muchos huecos sin nada, asi que las flores son para poner algo de color este verano.

Neil painted the bench, and with a few pots of flowers at the bottom and the rhododendron in bloom it's one of the best corners of the garden at the moment:

Neil pinto el banco, y con unas macetas de flores y el rododendro en flor, es una de las zonas mas bonitas en este momento. Entre el banco y la huerta tengo esta esquina con alguna flores y arbustos perennes. Los astilbes estan a punto de abrir. He puesto unas petunias y una lobelia (del mercado), para completar, y espero que durante los meses del verano crezcan y llenen mas el espacio con hojas y flores!

This flower bed is in between the bench and the veg beds. It's got some perennial plants and shrubs I really like, but with still a lot of gaps. I put some petunias and lobelias (from the market), and I hope they will fill up the space a bit in the coming months with leaves and flowers:

But it's not only about the flowers: I also had my first ever edible crop from this garden!! It's only a few lettuce leaves, but they made the burger from the barbecue all the more delicious.

Mi primera cosecha comestible de este jardin! Porque no solo de flores vive el hombre (o la mujer)...

Foxgloves in the front garden

The best thing in the garden at the moment is the front, which was all planted up when we bought the house. The only thing I've done to this is weed a little. I do like a lot of the plant combinations (the foxgloves are particularly nice right now), and since I've never had a whole flower bed like this to play with, I'm trying to learn as much as I can to make sure I can replicate this myself in the future!

El frente del jardin estaba plantado cuando compramos la casa, lo unico que he hecho aqui es quitar alguna mala hierba. Estoy intentando aprender como funciona un jardin en suelo directo a esta escala, porque es nuevo para mi, a ver si puedo repetir un efecto tan bonito.

Behind the flowers there is grass and a few plants by the low wall. I made the strip wider and planted two yellow roses. Next to them I am going to sow some beans (pretty and edible and will improve the soil).

Aqui he ampliado el espacio para plantas y he puesto dos rosales amarillos. Al lado voy a sembrar unas habas, que ademas de ser bonitas y comestibles condicionan el suelo.

Next to the front door we have this. I think it's a climbing hydrangea. It smells very sweet!

Junto a la puerta de casa tenemos este arbusto, no se muy bien lo que es pero las flores huelen de maravilla!

Finished raised beds

The raised beds where I plan to grow (mostly) vegetables are finally ready! ¡Por fin terminamos las jardineras donde voy a poner la huerta!

The topsoil got delivered in this big bag. We carried it all to the garden at the back of the house in buckets between the two of us, and it only took a few hours. 

La tierra nos la dejaron asi delante de casa, y entre los dos la transportamos en calderos al jardin (sarna con gusto no pica).

These are the beds with anti weed mat, ready for the buckets of soil. Las jardineras con membrana anti-raices, esperando la tierra.

And this is how they look now. It's still work in progress (it's always work in progress, you never finish gardening) bit looking a lot more finished now. I had trays of little plants I sowed 4 weeks ago, with which I've filled the beds on the right: three types of lettuce, spinach, rocket, parsley, sowed spring onions, and some flowers: calendula, cornflower and sunflowers. With green netting because there are lots of pigeons around, and local cats in search of a toilet.

To the left I've got two cane structures for peas and French beans. In the middle I've got two trays where I keep pots of stuff I'm propagating. Still to fill are two black planters (in the middle) and the bed in the front left. Still to plant are the courgettes, cucumbers, radishes, carrots and parsnips.

We won't be self-sufficient (maybe lettuce, but nothing else) but I'm having fun and we'll get a few special meals out of it.

De momento he plantado: a la derecha, lechugas de tres tipos, espinacas, perejil, rucula, cebolletas, y flores: girasoles, centaurea y calendula. Las sembre en el invernadero hace cuatro semanas y ahora ya estaban listas para el transplante. Les he puesto red encima para que no me las piquen los pajaros, ni vayan los gatos del vecindario a usarlo de retrete.

Atras a la izquierda tengo dos conos de cañas, uno con guisantes y otro con judias. En el medio tengo plantitas creciendo en macetas para transplantar mas adelante. Aun me queda por llenar las dos macetas negras grandes del medio y la jardinera de la izquierda delante. Y por plantar me quedan: calabacines, pepinos, zanahorias, chirivias y rabanitos.

La produccion sera pequeña porque el sitio es limitado, pero por lo menos ¡para un par de comidas especiales so que dara!

The 2014 tomatoes are out

I planted my tomato plants this week. And because it's still quite chilly at night and could even frost (which kills the plants) I've protected them with these screens improvised with plastic bags. My greenhouse is too small for anything bigger than seedlings and these plants were all squashed there. 

I bought them from my new local garden centre last weekend, and I was very pleased to see they had a big choice (at least 9 varieties of tomato that I could see!). I'm not bothering with growing tomatoes from seed anymore: I only need a few plants, and I'd rather buy one of each variety, for less than a packet of seed, than end up with too many of the same type. This year I'm growing: yellow, plum, big boy, sweet cherry and gardeners delight tomatoes.

Mis plantas de tomates ya estan fuera. Aqui aun puede helar por las noches, asi que los he protegido con estos plasticos por un par de semanas mas. Los compre en mi nuevo vivero/garden centre, que por suerte tenia gran variedad. En otras cosas ahorras dinero sembrando directamente, pero con tomates yo creo que no compensa. Solo necesito unas pocas plantas y prefiero comprar distintas variedades - un paquete de semillas cuesta mas.

In the smaller pots I'm going to plant marigolds and basil (currently in a seed tray in the greenhouse). En las macetas pequeñas voy a poner tagetes y albahaca, que tengo en el invernadero en semillero.

Raised beds ready for topsoil

Today is a very special day, for we finished building the raised beds! All the woodwork is done, the only things left to do now are: lay down the rest of the weed membrane, buy topsoil to fill them in, and plant them up!

La huerta ya esta casi lista! Hoy acabamos de constrir las paredes divisorias entre las cuatro paneles en las esquinas, que es donde va a ir la tierra. Me falta por acabar de poner la membrana anti raices de los arboles, comprar tierra para rellenar, y plantar!

The narrower strip in the middle is going to be the access path. The purple tray with plastic on top is my improvised cloche, with my lettuce seedlings underneath.

La bandeja morada tiene mi semillero de lechugas, cubiertas con plastico de momento porque aun hace frio por la noche. Esa parte central va a ser el camino de acceso.