This week in your Kitchen Garden.

[invisibleplanet]

coriander seeds always have two plants inside them, and as they germinate they grow side by side, very close together, so I don't think it's coriander x

 

[BoatieBird]

don't listen to me diddly!

I had the last of the broad beans last night, now I'm wishing we'd planted more but we ran out of space.
The potatoes are ready, and I spied the first (almost ready) courgette this morning.

 

[invisibleplanet]

don't listen to me diddly!

It's possible that only one seed from each seed case has germinated. It does look more like Parsley (Envy, a curly variety) than cilantro (coriander leaf) though.

I had the last of the broad beans last night, now I'm wishing we'd planted more but we ran out of space.
The potatoes are ready, and I spied the first (almost ready) courgette this morning.

I've sowed a load of bush borlotti which I'm going to put into the front garden when they've germinated as a beany hedge, along with 4 sets of pyramid-canes (4 canes in each pyramid) which will have butter beans climbing up (Spagna). The space there isn't suitable for the lavender hedges I can't really fill it full of the blue & purple tall flowers until at least September to give me early blooms in late spring of next year (for the cornflower especially). I can sow the Campanula (Bellflower), the Salvia Turkestana (Clary Sage) and the Love-in-a-mist now (Nigella Damascena 'Oxford Blue'). I adore Love-in-the-Mist - it's such a beautiful shade of blue. The Sea Holly needs to be sown in autumn too - I'm expecting to have to raise it indoors overwinter.

 

[Biddlybee]

coriander seeds always have two plants inside them, and as they germinate they grow side by side, very close together, so I don't think it's coriander x

ooh, learn something new every day. I plan to just leave it and hope it's happy (of course I'll water it)... gets morning sun only.

*crosses fingers*

 

[The39thStep]

It's possible that only one seed from each seed case has germinated. It does look more like Parsley (Envy, a curly variety) than cilantro (coriander leaf) though.


I've sowed a load of bush borlotti which I'm going to put into the front garden when they've germinated as a beany hedge, along with 4 sets of pyramid-canes (4 canes in each pyramid) which will have butter beans climbing up (Spagna). The space there isn't suitable for the lavender hedges I can't really fill it full of the blue & purple tall flowers until at least September to give me early blooms in late spring of next year (for the cornflower especially). I can sow the Campanula (Bellflower), the Salvia Turkestana (Clary Sage) and the Love-in-a-mist now (Nigella Damascena 'Oxford Blue'). I adore Love-in-the-Mist - it's such a beautiful shade of blue. The Sea Holly needs to be sown in autumn too - I'm expecting to have to raise it indoors overwinter.

Those Spagna beans are runner beans. Lima beans which are butter beans are very difficult to grow over here. Should taste ok though

 

[invisibleplanet]

They're Fagioli Bianchi di Spagna (Spanish White Beans) - this variety has been grown in Italy since 1530, after a monk received a present of beans from the Spanish court. They're a large, firm, thin-skinned, meaty white bean with a buttery texture and climbing habit (rampicante). Like all beans, they originated in South America, and have traditionally been a companion plant for corn and squash. In Spain, the main 'butter bean' is again a 'giant white bean' (not lima variety) 'Judion de la Granja', from Granja, near Leon. I'd like to try growing some of that variety next year, but obviously they won't be 'de la Granja anymore'. They are very expensive to buy here (around £8 per kilo).

They're traditionally used to make many different white (butter) bean recipes in Spain and Italy and over there they are generally sold in tins (or jars in Spain) and also dry as ''butter beans''. They are usually grown as a shelling bean, but you can eat the young undeveloped pods, but I wouldn't bother - there are other varieties of French bean (e.g. cobra) which are better for that. They are used in all butter bean recipes and better than butter beans because butter beans are more diffiult to digest and disintegrate too easily. They are used in soups, casseroles, salads and chances are if you buy tinned 'butter beans' anywhere in the med, they're actually a variety of the Spanish White Bean sold as 'butter beans', not butter (lima) beans. They also make a brilliant ''fava bean'' substitute in middle eastern 'ful' recipes too.


Recipe: FAGIOLI BIANCHI IN PINZIMONIO

 

[sheothebudworths]

I've just finished repotting the rest of my tomatoes (have the first fruit set on the Gardeners Delight and the first lot RIPENING on the tumbling toms...woohoo - TOMATO TIME IS APPROACHING!!!), tied the peach onto it's wires a bit more tidily (I have 7 peaches growing and 17 pears ), planted more french beans (slugs got THE LOT so have put down some slug pellets this time), more raab and more chinese broc, more salad leaves, coriander and a new pot of night scented stock, cut the latest batch of sweet peas (I've got prob 60 plants so am getting a full vase full every 2-3 days), picked a load of peas and weeded all the veg and flower beds.


I had GREAT NEWS yesterday - which is that my landlord WILL accept a reduction in my rent when my lha goes down (cos I'm such a 'GREAT TENANT' ).....PHEEEEEEWWWWWWW, been well stressed about it......so I'm going to celebrate by buying a couple of climbers tomorrow for the back fence and some more flowers to stick into the spaces in the beds.

Also means I CAN be fucked to sort out the front patch too (it's just an odd mess of plants which look like they've been stuck in any old how....well, cos they have, tbf ) although that might have to wait till spring cos ideally I need to dig them all out, put down shit loads of compost (the soil's shit out there) and then do a complete re-jig.

Well happy though and the kids are made up (actually DAUGHTER is...my son's back from school journey later so will tell him then but he'll be right pleased)!
I enjoyed the garden that much more today knowing that all my hard work's not been for nothing after all....and that I'll be able to carry on watching it bloom for a while longer yet.

 

[BoatieBird]

Brilliant news for you and the family (and the garden!) sheo.
I'm really happy for you

 

[tufty79]

oh, fucking BRILLIANT sheo
after my courtdeathmatchdefeatingthelandlordsridiculousattemptsatmakingupthelaw, i got back yesterday to find that he's still not managed to give me a notice to quit for the correct date, so i've technically got at least another couple of months here if i want. plenty of time for me corgettes to do what they're meant to
me cucumbers are going a bit whooshy too

 

[invisibleplanet]

Good news on the rent reduction, sheo

My Gardener's delight aren't even flowering yet but they will be soon! The second trusses are forming on the Shirley's. My peas have only just begun flowering, the runners are climbing but nowhere near ready to flower yet. I keep pouring water on the courgettes (twice a day now) and they keep getting bigger and bigger, but no flowers yet.

Indoors, my pepper plant has three peppers on it now, and lots more flowers and the scotch bonnet is in flower at last! The other chilli plants look to be a couple of weeks or more before they're ready to flower (patience, patience!).

In the mini-greenhouse and cloche, the parsley, chives, lettuce (romaine) and more bean plants (bush borlotti, spagna, 'eden', cobra) have germinated and they can be planted out in a couple of days or so. The beetroot germinated yesterday, and the turnip and swede seedlings are going to need pricking out in the next couple of days or so. I've prepared the bed for them by digging in lots of blood and bone, watering it in, and then walking all over the soil to compact it.

The potatoes in bags are doing well.

I love gardening

 

[invisibleplanet]

I'm about to wage war on a colony of ants who are milking blackfly on one of the foxgloves - this means boiling water I'm afraid, as I've not got anything else to kill them with. I spotted an ant-nest in the compost bin replete with eggs. The foxglove is probably their 'cow' field ....

Sad to do it, because they've got as much right to live as any other creature, but I've worked hard in that garden and I don't want the ant's 'cows' to suck the sap of our veg plants

 

[The39thStep]

They're Fagioli Bianchi di Spagna (Spanish White Beans) - this variety has been grown in Italy since 1530, after a monk received a present of beans from the Spanish court. They're a large, firm, thin-skinned, meaty white bean with a buttery texture and climbing habit (rampicante). Like all beans, they originated in South America, and have traditionally been a companion plant for corn and squash. In Spain, the main 'butter bean' is again a 'giant white bean' (not lima variety) 'Judion de la Granja', from Granja, near Leon. I'd like to try growing some of that variety next year, but obviously they won't be 'de la Granja anymore'. They are very expensive to buy here (around £8 per kilo).

They're traditionally used to make many different white (butter) bean recipes in Spain and Italy and over there they are generally sold in tins (or jars in Spain) and also dry as ''butter beans''. They are usually grown as a shelling bean, but you can eat the young undeveloped pods, but I wouldn't bother - there are other varieties of French bean (e.g. cobra) which are better for that. They are used in all butter bean recipes and better than butter beans because butter beans are more diffiult to digest and disintegrate too easily. They are used in soups, casseroles, salads and chances are if you buy tinned 'butter beans' anywhere in the med, they're actually a variety of the Spanish White Bean sold as 'butter beans', not butter (lima) beans. They also make a brilliant ''fava bean'' substitute in middle eastern 'ful' recipes too.


Recipe: FAGIOLI BIANCHI IN PINZIMONIO

I know, I know and I will be eating them when i go to spain Tuesday but like I said they are runner beans really.

 

[The39thStep]

That heatwave on Mondayand Tuesday has produced a glut of blackcurrant and redcurrants that must be picked! Have been eating Chinese broccoli and some beautiful purple topped turnips.

 

[LilMissHissyFit]

first teeny cherry tomatoes have started appearing in my hanging baskets, spring onions are ready and I harvested a few pounds of new potatoes yesterday

 

[sheothebudworths]

Thankyou tufty/Boatie/ip!
(And tufty! Glad your court date was VICTORIOUS! Was always going to be mind, eh? Hope you feel more comfortable there too, atm x)

Had a gardening day with my bezzer yesterday....bought a climbing rose, a honeysuckle and another clematis to plant up against the fence, a reduced fern to go into the shady corner, some mini dahlia's to replace the love-in-the-mist in the beds and scattered some more flower seeds in the bare patches....more night scented stock, candytuft and some wild flowers.

Stripped and pulled up about half the pea plants - still got a few more to go on the rest but then I'm going to try sticking some more seeds back in and hope the soil's not too fucked. The sweetcorn will be relieved to get a bit of light in the meantime!
Got aphids on my squash AGAIN so squashed/sprayed them and mowed the lawn.

Going to pick the first three or four tomatoes today!

 

[invisibleplanet]

I'm really tempted to see if I can persuade a local farmer to give me a small piece of his land as an allotment, as all our allotments are full and there's a mahoosive waiting list for them. I need more land than I've got. One by the dyke would be best as I could steal water from that

 

[Voley]

My brother planted em so I can't claim any credit but the spuds we've got are unreal right now. Nice saladdy stuff, too. Mangetout are bit puny, though. Not sure what happened there.

 

[invisibleplanet]

Marrow/courgettes are flowering ... nipped off most of the male flowers.
Gardener's delight are flowering
Peas (mange tout) are flowering - another 12 have recently germinated, to be planted out.

Got a busy evening ahead of me, weeding and watering.

 

[invisibleplanet]

Bush marrow inside cobra wigwam, surrounded by Red Baron onions

 

[invisibleplanet]

Bush marrow flower opened this morning!

 

[Biddlybee]

I've put my chillies outside on the windowsill after talking to a fella at the garden centre, hoping nothing eats the chillies

 

[invisibleplanet]

I hope so too, diddlybiddly!

Here's my kitchen capsicum, now with three peppers on it

 

[Leafster]

I've just been outside to check on the plants in my lunch hour. It looks like I'll have some courgettes to pick soon. I planted one in the middle of my wigwam of runner beans which are now reaching the tops of their poles and the bean flowers are beginning to open. It's the first year for me growing any veg and although the tomatoes seem to be taking a time to swell and the mange-tout still don't have a proper home it's been very satisfying so far!

 

[invisibleplanet]

I've just been outside to check on the plants in my lunch hour. It looks like I'll have some courgettes to pick soon. I planted one in the middle of my wigwam of runner beans which are now reaching the tops of their poles and the bean flowers are beginning to open. It's the first year for me growing any veg and although the tomatoes seem to be taking a time to swell and the mange-tout still don't have a proper home it's been very satisfying so far!

Wigwam courgettes are cool - my running cobra beans aren't very big yet, but I'm very happy to wake up to the second female flower today (bush marrow which I'll pick as courgette) from another of the six bush marrow plants

 

[invisibleplanet]

The shallots are doing well:

The 'free' potatoes from Gardeners' World/Thompson and Morgan are doing very well.
I also filled another three bags - (old compost bags) with remaining potatoes (Vale and Charlotte).

Here's what's now behind that first flower from the bush marrow ... taken today
I can also see a greenfly which I'm going to go out and squish in a moment

 

[Leafster]

Wigwam courgettes are cool - my running cobra beans aren't very big yet, but I'm very happy to wake up to the second female flower today (bush marrow which I'll pick as courgette) from another of the six bush marrow plants

They certainly are! As you can see from the photo, I've planted the beans in one of those plastic bag type things. When I filled it with soil I thought there was loads of space in the middle so thought I'd try a courgette.





PS Those shallots look very healthy!

 

[invisibleplanet]

PS Those shallots look very healthy!

Thanks - they're my favourite. I don't know why I bothered with the onions, other than they were only £2 for for around 120 in the bargain bin and I put them in quite late so they won't get very big.

I think that yellowing on your courgette leaf is magnesium deficiency. They're very hungry plants @courgettes/marrows/squashes.

 

[invisibleplanet]

Mutant Marrow!

A form of fasciation has occurred in this one bush marrow plant - two unusually small flowers appear fused together - so far, they look as though they're male flowers, which is a pity as they courgettes from them would be very odd looking!

 

[Leafster]

I think that yellowing on your courgette leaf is magnesium deficiency. They're very hungry plants @courgettes/marrows/squashes.

I hadn't really thought about the yellowing on that one leaf. It was planted in fresh vegetable compost which was supposed to have five week's worth of feed in it but I guess that's come to an end now. I'll put some tomorite (sp?)from time to time in the can when I water it from now on. Thanks for the advice.

 

[invisibleplanet]

You're welcome, Leafster. I keep a close eye on the leaves in my garden and my 'homepage' has a couple of very good links to diagnosing nutritional imbalence.

Back to my mutant marrow - Gardeners' World Richard 'Bugman' Jones blogs about the wonderful weirdness that is Fasciation: http://blog.gardenersworld.com/2011/07/06/fasciation/