Things are really kicking off now in the garden with everything growing like mad. Still not much to eat apart from lettuce and rocket though. I should be enjoying nice crisp radishes by now but I either have some Fraggles living at the bottom of the garden or some mice have taken up residence and are helping themselves.I do have some good news on the war against pests and seem to be getting the upper hand with the slugs eventually, but not until they decimated my courgettes and squashes. I had to go to the garden centre yesterday and buy some plugs to replenish my stocks! As I said before I am trying to grow everything from seed as against buying plugs (small plants bought from garden centres). The cost difference is massive. You can buy a pack of seeds for a couple of euro and it can have hundreds of seeds in it while I paid €4 a pop for some squashes yesterday!
I am nearly all planted up now for the summer and it wont be long now before it is a struggle to keep on top of everything. It just grows so fast and can go over the top just as quick. We do of course have methods to preserve many things for the winter and I will be sharing with you the various recipes as we go along.
We try hard to pick a variety of crops that will not just give us food during the summer but also right through the winter and spring, not always an easy task. Below is a list of what we are growing this year and when we should be able to harvest it.
We have Spinach and Lettuce all year round along with;
January; Brussels Sprouts, Kale and Swiss Chard
February; Kale.
March; Kale and Purple sprouting broccoli.
April; Purple sprouting broccoli.
May; Radish, Rocket and Broad beans
June; Radish, Rocket, Potatoes and Broad beans
July; Radish, Rocket, Potatoes, Peas, French Beans, Courgette and Broad beans
August; Radish, Rocket, Potatoes, Peas, French Beans, Courgette and Tomatoes
September; Garlic, Rocket, Potatoes, Peas, French Beans, Courgette and Tomatoes
October; Peas, Squash
November; Brussels Sprouts, Kale and Swiss Chard
December; Brussels Sprouts, Kale and Swiss Chard
Nice post. Regarding Purple sprouting Broccoli, I planted in about March and now have some big plants, but I've heard different opinions on when its ready to eat, this autumn, or some say next year...?
ReplyDeletePurple sprouting Broccoli wont be ready untill next spring. Try picking the spears as they appear but leave the plant as it and they will produce more spears, so you get a second crop. when they are finished you can eat the leaves also.
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