And tomatoes

Today, after 8 hours work in front of laptop (ok, I made few phone calls which meant I had to walk 150m away from front gate to get reception to my cell phone), baking pizzas (and eating some slices) and 'Suma walk I was ready to go to polytunnel and veg plot - there was rain only in the morning!
I had my peas and beans soaking, so I had to put them in soil.
About (I lost count a couple of times because 'Suma was helping) 450 peas (peas and magne touts) to the veg plot, 80 beans into the polytunnel (I use egg cartons to germinate beans, I have three more weeks until I can plant them outside). I even planted some beets to an empty spot in garlic frame.
And I planted 12 tomato plants.
Funny that. I haven't bought tomato seeds nor germinated them, and I certainly haven't bought any tomato plants.
Tomatoes apparently can germinate if you ended up loosing one or two mature tomatoes in your polytunnel in autunm. Seeds survive winter (snow and frosts) and germinate on spring. Ok, they are tiny, but I wasn't having any tomato plants, so this is a win.

My second batch of sweet corn is doing fine, first one died just like that. Zucchinis and pickling cucumbers are sprouting, as well as nasturtiums. Even sunflowers have some seedlings, never know if they make it or not after I have planted them outside.

Not so well doing is melons (watermelons, cucamelons and than one that looked like cantaloupe), and pumpkins. I don't have any melon seeds left. I took piece of paper towel and put some watermelon seeds, halloween pumpkins and giant pumpkin seeds too to germinate on that wet paper. Now I only hope that when I'm planting them straight in the big pots in the polytunnel, they enjoy themselves and start to grow like triffids.

So much to do, so little time. As always.

Thunderstorms and beginnings/ Oh bugger, not again

I was trying to find my glasses. Yep, 'Suma got them, one lens was popped out and now there's some scratches in lenses, but they are usable (I bended them back to their shape... somewhat, they now keep sliding down my nose). It's been a year since she ate my other pair.
I had to make an appointment at Specsavers, hopefully I'll get new pairs in few weeks, I need new prescription anyway, I have kept postponing it whole spring.

 Hot weather is now gone, it ended with a bang. We had a massive thunderstorm, some places flooded heavily, but we only got some puddles. Such a boring life here.

Sunshine after a storm, another one coming (all rain and storms have arrived from south)

Mu uncle got engaged and we popped in for a coffee (or tea in my case). It was very exciting - power went off so no guarantee to actually get a cuppa...

But it's been raining ever since. I got my broad beans sowed, as well as calendulas, swedes and chards.  Now I just can't go to the veg plot, my soil is clay so I really should keep off until it stops raining.
I need to get peas and magne touts sowed, if for nothing else, they'll bring nitrogen to soil. And I really need to sow beans, I can't put them outside yet, but in polytunnel or greenhouse they'll do fine. If only I would do it...

At least something is flourishing

But this rain is a good thing, no more warning for forest fires or bush fires, and I have managed to sew! Two pairs of trousers (I needed something to wear at home apart from jeans) and now I'm working on undies (I need find another pattern, these will not do, they're huge and I used smaller size pattern that I usually use).

My sewing is a process. I don't just grab a pattern and fabric, oh no. This specific session has started last autunm, when I was looking ideas for christmas presents. I didn't find a pattern for a wide brimmed sunbonnet, we have a summer picnic every summer (my family) and last summer many of my aunts and cousins were whining because one of my aunts had a nice wide brimmed hat and they didn't. I knew I had a pattern for one somewhere, but no luck. But I did find pattern for undies.

Now I was looking through those patterns again (in need of trousers) and found that bonnet. So, so far I have made those beforementioned trousers, cut most of pieces for a sunbonnet and made a test version for undies. But it did take three hours of browsing through my sewing magazines, two and a half hour of rummaging my fabrics (my colleague has seen my stash room and she thinks I'm utterly mad. So do I)... I have another fabric for trousers, but I'm not sure if I want floral ones.
But now I need to stop making my stuff and shorten jeans for hb (they has been waiting maybe six months?) and patching another pair for him. There's another pair that need patching, too, but I need to wash them first.
While digging into my fabrics I found a pretty floral cotton. Perfect for dresses for little girls! Luckily my cousin has two girls, so I had to find a dress pattern as well.

But it's not all doom and gloom. My potatoes in tyres have been sprouting...

Violet Queen, purple potatoes

I planted spuds in much bags like I have done few years now, but I'm not quite sure about the variety now...

Ms/Mr Toad wasn't happy when I watered that bag. Uuups, sorry.

Mixed feelings

I bought a bottle of maybe one of the most hated liquids used in gardening and farming.

RoundUp.

It's not that I don't know it's dangerous (carsinogenic and propably genotoxic; also toxic to aquatic life). It's not that I don't know how Monsanto has abused poor farmers in poor countries (well, around the globe). I also know it kills bees and stays on cold ground far too long (it actually halt it's breaking down during winter months).

After all that I bought a bottle, and I'm going to use it. Neighbourgh's yard has still some giant hogweed growing, and because plants grow all over property, it is impossible cover all ground to prevent giant hogweed to grow. And because it grows in abandoned yard, I can't burn it down because that might cause a bush fire. Some plants grow between rocks (most of them) so cutting roots is not easy and not very efficient, because I can't cut deep enought to kill plants. Maybe I'm doing it wrong.
I was initially told that giant hogweed is biennial, but in poor conditions it might take three years to produce flowers and die. Bah, now I know that if it can't produce flower head, a single plant will stay alive up to 12 years! And seeds stay viable ten years years.
Great.
Ignorance is a bliss.

Anyway, I have managed to kill 90% of plants, there is a major seedbank in soil, but maybe after five more years I should be a winner! I have been cutting them, covering them, weeding them and finally spraying them.

So, when there is no wind and no rain, I'll wear my protective clothing, gloves and all (not only because glyphosate, but because of furanocoumarin, it causes photosensitivity) and start my war against poor plant that can't run. I'm doing my best to work along The giant hogweed best practice manual    and guidance from my local environmental authority.

Long time no see

So it's past Mother's Day and I'm hardly advanced my veggie plot at all.
Well, I have done several things.


Nature has slowly crawled and boldly leaped towards summer. First there was yellow sea of coltsfoot, and then one of my favourites, liverworts:

Along our walks we saw some almost white ones, normal blue ones, pink ones and dark purple ones. These are very pale blue.

I found again some whole milk reduced, and made cottage cheese. Still some milk left, so I wanted to try making yoghurt. After some googling I made a batch in crock pot, I was very suprised I actually got edible product!

I used turkish yoghurt as starter, final yoghurt wasn't as thick as original, but edible. Maybe it tasted a bit boiled because I had trouble timing everything, but nevertheless I'll make some more when I find whole milk reduced again.

I found strawberry plants that were grown in a big plant nursery I visited earlier, and I know they are excellent quality. I bought 20 plants, 10 early variety and 10 late variety. They have been planted now, I built a new frame for them. I have now 29/30 strawberry plants, maybe we can eat some berries all summer?

Ys helped watering. I ran out of ground cover so I used newspapers.

I bought small plastic greenhouse for the polytunnel, there are my brassica seedlings, some spinach and beets.

Still like chaos, but it's working.

Radish and lettuce in polytunnel

Ugly as hell but working.

 My suprice garlic. After all this work I found yet another one sprouting in one of the cold frames, but I'll plant it in the middle of this monstrosity when I have extra 5 min. Cold frame on foreground has more garlic - they were all supposed to be there, but stuff happens. And that cold frame was frozen when I moved those ones that ended in that brick thing, so I really had no options.

Since last time I wrote post on the blog, my rhubarb and lovage have proven to be alive (as well as horse radish). These, however, are not from my plants, they are from our neighbours garden.

Short but tasty!

 I had two options, soup or pie.

Well, if you ask children, it's pie every time! Rhubarb pie and rhubarbless pie for os who doesn't eat cooked fruits. or maybe this is bake, but whatever, it was yummy!

Spring took some serious setback for two weeks, we had snow and frost and freezing days. Now it
seems cold is finally gone and we can start eating from our garden/yard/field/forest...

First we had nettle pancakes, kids love them. Just ordinary pancake batter, some blanched nettles and stick blender. Can be eaten as savory dish (like ys with ketshup) or as sweet (like os with sugar or like sys with whipped cream).

But maybe even more important to me is fireweed, which I use as asparagus or as any other green veg.

This lot ended up lunch as omelette.

 And while I was cooking another lunch for me, it occured to me that I'm turning in to Ilona!
 

Stuff I found from fridge (leftover rice and corn, some old pepper, some ground elder, grated cheese and and an  egg. And spices.

 If I lived alone I might be able to live on food I forage and grow (well, I would need a root cellar and few freezers). Now it's time for first mushrooms!

Which are deadly poisonous, btw.  Gyromitra esculenta, sometimes known as false morel. Lethal if eaten without proper preparation. A bit like fugu. Nice if done the right way (boil 3x5min at time with plenty of water in place you have good ventilation, rinse between every boil). There might still be some poisonous gyromitrin left, so it is not recommended to eat several false morel meals in a row.

Gyromitra perlata, nor as poisnous as it's cousin, but I wouldn't eat it without the same preparation as false morels. Pictured this morning at 'Sumawalk. Worms are actually birch catkins.

But. Veggie plot is tilled last weekend, if it's dry enough this week I'll start planting and sowing soon. We have been sick, and I did a night sift last week - not my piece of cake and hb is doing them all the time (ok, I had to work first the normal day sift and then back at work at ten and then again working on the next day). Usually I'n doing night sifts at weekends so I have time to recover.
Cukcoos are back, so it really is nearly  summer. Even if it snows occasionally.