Update from Anglesey

As the seeds I have ordered begin  to arrive through the letter box and we start to think of a new growing season, I realise that almost the whole of last years season went unrecorded on here.  I blame the most excellent Anglesey summer and the fact that that the internet connection here is shall we say... fluctuating!  So, a review of 2014 before the looking forward to exciting developments!

This was the year when chilli and sweet pea obsessions grew to worrying proportions! Despite the fact that I forgot to switch the heater on in the greenhouse during a few cold spring nights, the chillies thrived, I sold young plants, big fruiting plants(someone even bought some fruiting plants as they matched their lounge) and fresh chillies and still had enough in variety to use freely, preserve, festoon the house with and make gifts. All my chillies were grown in peat free compost, Melcourt to be exact, which is made from composted bark and I was more than happy with the results and its a beautiful compost to handle. I particularly liked the 'Palivec' chilli, a large goats horn type with medium strength.

The task of cutting the sweet peas was usually happened at 5.45 in the morning as I was having trouble keeping up the picking. However, as the weather was dry it was difficult to keep up with all the watering and  the stems became shorter near the end of the summer and I was actually quite relieved! That soon wore off though and the first lot of seeds went in  during October for the coming year. Two favourite varieties are Albutt Blue and Anniversary, both picotee.

The kitchen garden, greenhouses and vegetable plot were very productive. Once again I grew too much of some crops and struggled to keep up, so a resolution to grow less beetroot and summer cabbage and chard is a must. We are still munching our way through all the winter veg!

Reminds me of summer!

Romanesco

Burgess Buttercup squash

Loads of coleslaw!

Cucamelons, tomatoes 'sweet olive' and 'sungold'

Plenty of cut flowers

While we were busy in the garden so were the bees and August was time for a big  honey  harvest! Then we embarked on the task of selling it at various fairs which proved to be most enjoyable, meeting up with friends old and new. The enthusiasm from customers, friends and family has really encouraged us. As we had such a large quantity of good quality wax I have been experimenting with making more hive products and this has led us to trading as Smallholder Plants and Bees, selling vegetable plants,  and other edible and bee friendly plants, honey and hive products! What an exciting year it is going to be!

Extracting the honey and some of the resulting products. Smallholder Plants and Bees now has a Facebook page.

Perfect Timing and Seedling City

Over the last year we have been thinking about buying a polytunnel. We have a small glasshouse, numerous cold frames and lots of windowsills and it seemed like the best way to increase protected growing space for tomatoes, peppers etc. Then the idea came to convert the inherited aviary built to withstand a major air strike! So, many sheets of polycarbonate later, we have a 5x3 metre Ice Cube ready for the growing season.  Although I am planning to grow tomatoes in the ground, I had been thinking about benching, when a generous Freecycler on Anglesey advertised some benching framework. It was originally shelving for pallets in a warehouse but can be dismantled and used at various heights. We cut up pieces of old picket fencing removed from the rails to make the shelves and covered with landscape fabric. After all the gales this year, I think we have a something a bit more likely to stand up to high  wind speeds and the benching will certainly not blow away! The lucky timing of the benching means I have been able to move in a few seedlings just as everywhere else was filling up.

The Ice Cube during construction

Think I might have gone overboard on the chillies and sweet pepppers again!

 

I wonder if anyone else has problems with seedlings on windowsills and inquisitive cats? As we have become surrounded by seed trays, pots and propagators, the cats need to be banned from certain areas. The spare room has been out of bounds to felines for a few weeks now following an incident with an upturned seed tray and compost all over the bed but not a cat in sight.

After we increased from three ducks to seven ducks and a pair of geese our pond has been transformed from being slightly murky to something resembling a puddle of spinach soup! So, a pond extension is in progress. We have removed the edges of the pond and Paul has been gradually digging around it. Next weekend should see the transformation complete. We shall line the pond with clay instead of a liner as we have lots of clay and a high water table.

Ducks, geese  (and hens!!) still use the pond while work is in progress.

Despite the fact that the sunshine everyone else has been having over recent weeks seems to have by passed us, spring is getting into full swing....

Primula denticulata

Brocolli 'Claret'

Hellebore and Hyacinth brightening up the kitchen

Daffodils... Ice Follies and Rip van Winkle

A wonderful selection seeds from seedy penpal  Andrea. I have sown many already and have pricked out the alpine strawberry seedlings today.

A Calm Day at the beginning of February

After a grand selection of storms, gales and rain we had a fine day today so what did I do? I watched the geese for a while in the sunshine as they preened themselves and then cropped the grass. Then I watched the bees around their hives for a bit as clusters of them were busy round the hive entrances. .. It wasn't all gazing around though as we had hen houses to clean, repairs on greenhouse again (gales recorded at 80mph in Gwynedd yesterday), kindling to chop and the most important task for me was to sow the chillies, sweet peppers and aubergines in the propagator!!

I know the containers dont look that professional but it means I can get loads in the propagator at once.Chillies are Thai, Habanero, Palivec, Black Hungarian, Lemon Drop and early Jalapeno. Sweet peppers are Sweet Chocolate and Californian Wonder. Not forgetting Aubergine Ophelia! More seeds to sow next week. I enjoyed sending off a parcel to my seedy penpal in Germany and looking forward to what might come through my letterbox! However, I am still enjoying the fruits of previous seedy penpal treats with oca and mashua from Carl Legge being a great addition to the kitchen garden and winter salad courtesy of Bethan. A gift of seeds and plants can last for ever and can so easily be passed on to others as well.

Some of the garlic doing well. I have kept the bed free of weeds so they should do ok. We are still very well supplied with a variety of winter vegetables and stored veg so that we still havent bought any veg or salads but expecting the hungry gap in the spring! Luckily  broccoli is just beginning to spear despite the  'trunks' being a bit battered into twisted shapes by the wind.

A delightful little clump and sadly one of only two clumps of snowdrops so I must order some bulbs in the green to naturalise.

I checked through the coldframes today and found this  cheerful Hellebore.

We now have seven ducks and two geese who have made a bit of a mudbath! We are planning a new pond for them and making the current rather small pond into a wildlife pond

Some of my sweet pea plants which seem to have tolerated the gales that have passed through the greenhouse on several occasions since Christmas. I became a regular at the glaziers!

 

 

 

 We are expecting a week of further gales but now all the beds some of the beds are ready for a bit of soil warming so I am bracing myself to build some industrial strength cloches next weekend!

Mustard Pickle Recipe for when you don't know what to do with all that stuff from the garden!

This is an excellent pickle for using up surplus courgettes, cucumbers, onions and beans from the garden. It is my adaptation of an Australian recipe in the book, 'Perfect Preserves' by Joan Wilson. Hence, the amounts are in cups but this makes the preparation much quicker anyway.

Mustard Pickles

Makes about five jars

2 cups peeled chopped cucumber

2 cups chopped onions

2 cups small courgettes chopped

2 cups of sliced runner beans or green beans

As long as I have 8 cups of veg, I make this in any combination and small florets of broccoli or cauliflower can make up the amount.

3/4 cup salt

5 cups water

2 1/2 cups malt vinegar

1/2 cup plain flour

3/4 cup sugar

2 tsp mustard powder

1 tsp turmeric 

1/4 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp chilli powder

1/2 cup water

Put all the veg in a large ceramic bowl and sprinkle the salt over before adding the five cups of water. Cover and leave overnight. When you are ready to make the mustard sauce, sterilise the jars. Strain the veg, rinse and then drain thoroughly.

Mix together all the dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Add the 1/2 cup of water and blend into a paste. Measure the vinegar into a large pan, stir in the mustard mixture and heat gently so that that it boils and thickens as you stir. Stir in the vegetables and heat until the mixture returns to a boil. Remove from heat and put into the hot jars. Cover the jars until the pickles have cooled, then seal jars. 

This is tasty and crisp and is even good to eat in a sandwich on its own. I cannot always keep up with consumption and hide some of the pickles so there are some to eat at Christmas!

In praise of a summer

There are times when I look around our garden and find it difficult to remember the empty beds, bare trees, blizzards and deep snow of the winter (and the spring!!) months. Foliage and flowers clothe everything and a walk around the garden involves plenty of ducking and dodging as plants have outgrown their spaces in the most glorious fashion.

Our cut flower beds have been producing enough to fill several marquees!

We only moved here in October 2012 so this is our first growing season at Ty Hen Cottage. We could not have asked for better sumer weather and we have been overwhelmed with the amount of produce. We have made mistakes so have learned plenty and can do some things differently next year.

Garden produce dried, bottled, pickled , frozen etc. Still loads more to do!

We have been extracting honey and have about 100 lbs. Now I am rendering the wax to make some candles. We shall be selling our honey at the Honey Fair in Conwy on 13th September. It is a set honey as we have so many OSR fields nearby.

 

In the spring I received a parcel of assorted seeds and tubers from Carl Legge as part of the Seedy Penpal group that he organises using Twitter. It was such an interesting assortment and I got to try some new things. These Giant Sugar Peas have been amazing mange tout... they do have huge pods that stay really tender and the flower is very pretty! I shall be saving some of the seed  for next year.

 

 

This is a newly cultivated area of our field. Paul had a surge of enthusiasm after visiting CAT and created this huge allotment space. In our eagerness to get going we forgot all about the fact that we had disturbed a seed bank and have not been able to keep up with unwantd grasses and dock plants etc. Next year will be better and the areas we did get to grips with have been very productive. We made the mistake of economising on canes and the beans climbing up strings were decimated one windy weekend. We now have a great bundle of beans growing wherever they can get a hold.  After talking to others at CAT Paul  has been keen to ensure all our effors result in some sort of  'harvest' so all the stones dug from here have been harvested and used to repair the road and its made us think more seriously about composting as much as possible... needs a lot of space though! Our existing kitchen garden  of raised beds will be for  a wide variety of more unusual veg next year and this big space will be  for some of the staples.

A tranquil scene as I write this but sadly we lost a duck to a fox.

July

Sarpo main crop potatoes  a week or so ago in our new plot.  We are eating our way through the delicious early potatoes and due to the weather, blight seems to be less of a problem this year but didn't want to chance it with the main crop, so went for these blight resistant varieties for the first time.

http://www.sarvari-trust.org

Harvesting this month.... Leeks, chard, beetroot, Romaine lettuce, salad leaves, basil, broad beans, early potatoes, purple teepee french beans, radish, courgettes, onions,  cucumber, sweet peas, strawberries,raspberries.  

     

The bee hives have been so busy for weeks now and when Paul is checking the hives I spend a a bit of time indoors  away from a few angry bees which seem to follow him back to the house! Forgot about this recently and got dive bombed as I weeded! We have decided to leave areas of white clover uncut as its a great nectar source... Also it's very fragrant on a warm day as an added bonus for us!

White Clover... Paul is just keen to maintain all the hives and build up colonies this summer but I am sure we shall have some honey again this year too! We are also enjoying discovering the number of wild flowers and grasses  in the paddock.

We have disturbed so much ground that poppies have grown everywhere so we shall enjoy these and control next years seed distribution a little.

We are beginning to get a few good colour combinations in the garden. I love the Lysimachia and Aconitum growing alongside but the former is taking over.... Anyone want a clump??! Lastly we have to thank the previous residents at Ty Hen Cottage for planting some great roses!

Next post will be tomato and chilli news! Also seedy penpals!

June

Meet the new resident of Ty Hen Cottage, Maureen. Recently we lost one of our young cats, Maeve, to the cat virus FIP.  It was so sad to see her short life fade away but she had been a very happy, loving little pet. So, from a friend, came this beautiful cat, still getting used to life here but we are very glad she seems healthy and strong.

Our garden and paddock continue to keep us busy and we are quite used to eating dinner after 9pm as we get carried away outside after getting in from work each evening. Flowers, fruit and veg are now threatening to take over the place. I think everything is about two weeks behind, we usually have a house full of sweet peas by the second week in June but they are now just into full swing. Strawberries, usually plentiful in time for midsummer, are just beginning.

Paul's veg garden in the paddock which I showed in the last post is now fenced and partially planted, the Sarpo blight resitant maincrop potatoes are doing well. Photos soon! Our raised beds nearer to the house are very productive and its great not to have to buy much food at this time of year.Every night is a garden dinner so we are determined to grow a bit more variety next year. 

Tomatoes, cinnamon basil and habenero chillies in the glasshouse.

Broad bean leaf showing  advanced chocolate spot! I have sprayed with biopesticide, Serenade, which contains Bacilis subtilis so there is no harvest interval. It seems to have worked!

Like all other veg gardeners we are swamped with lettuce so today I made lettuce soup. It was not strong flavoured but fresh and pleasant tasting. It also looked pretty. Wonder whether we liked it enough to make some more this week!

First Dahlias in flower today, cant wait to start picking! I managed to get these going early by using bell cloches during the cold spring.

Some of todays cut flowers. Sweet pea seed from Eagle Sweet Peas

We have worked very hard  here since we moved in but cannot take credit for the fantastic wild flowers surrounding us!