One of the lovely things about growing your own vegetables is eating them. Today some of our vegetables spent less than a minute or two in the kitchen before being made into this salad (and we’re talking about food yards here). All of my salad recipes are here.

Everything is growing nicely (and the beds are all neat and tidy). I’ve potted on all of my chilies and sweet red peppers. I managed to give away three tomato plants to Jane and Mike, but I’ll still have a problem finding places to put them. At last carrots have started coming up in the bed to the side of the garage. I thought that I was jinxed. Speaking of jinxed; waiting until May to try and propagate green beans is a good idea, I’m having a lot more success.

Gill and I had a lovely time at the Barton open gardens afternoon (which is advertised under the National Gardens Scheme).

Everything is growing away except the seeds that I’d sown in the plot to the side of the garage. Not a sign of any parsnips or carrots. I planted out the carrots that I grew from seeds in the greenhouse (Paris Market). They don’t like being disturbed but they will grow eventually, we’ll see. I also planted up another row in the bed next to the greenhouse, along with another row of beetroot (good old Detroit). The other beetroot is doing fine and I’m looking forward to some.

Some of the runner beans, the Enorma Elite, are mostly up and growing but I’m still waiting for Prince, the dwarf green beans. The woman in the shop tells me that she doesn’t sow beans until May as they really like to be warm.

The tomatoes are all doing well and I’ve potted a few up into larger pots. I plan to keep these in the greenhouse in a bid to get tomatoes earlier in the year. I planted a couple of the Garden Pearl into a hanging basket. They’ve already got blossoms. I’m having a plant swap next week, so I’m trying not to pot on the rest as I plan to swap them. They’re getting a bit pot bound.

I sowed more lettuce (Blonde Maraicheri) and the American land cress (which Gill loves) in the herb and salad bed. I made a row of carrots (Nantes 2) and planted some dwarf green beans (Sonesta) directly into the ground. A little early, but let’s see how they go.

The salad and herb plot looks nice with its little box hedge, but I wish that I’d made a separate herb bed. Still I can always modify it sometime.

I’m playing catch up this weekend as I have 5 days of not working. In the greenhouse, I’ve potted out all of the chili peppers and most of sweet peppers and planted some runner beans (Enorma Elite) and dwarf green beans (The Prince). Meanwhile outside the potatoes are starting to show and, best surprise of all, the asparagus has started sprouting. Happy days!

It has been very mild with little rain. This meant that digging chicken waste into the new potato plot was hot work. That bed is now ready and I thought about planting some potatoes in it, but decided against it because they’re predicting frosts next week. Instead I planted 3 ‘Swift’ potatoes into a bucket in the greenhouse so that I can have some early potatoes. I also tidied up the small bed and covered it with netting to keep the cats out. Last year’s spinach is growing nicely and looked better for a bit of a tidy up.

I did plant some spinach (‘American Giant’) in the bed outside. The propagator got more pepper (‘Sweet Romano’), lettuce (‘Blonde Maraicheri’) and dwarf french bean (‘The Prince’). I moved out the carrots (‘Paris Market’) because nothing seemed to be happening with them and I want to get as much of a throughput as I can through the propagator.

I also bought another gooseberry plant to go with the other one behind the greenhouse. I picked a red one (‘Hinnomaki Red’) which had a lot of shoots showing.

Tags: root vegetables, salad, fruit

My plants survived a holiday. Mind you, it was rainy here. I put the peppers outside in a big tray of water. All but one (which has been a bit eaten) lasted well. I picked the last of this year's peas and broad beans. I used the peas and froze two bags of green beans. I think that I could have got more peas, but I suspect that Gill and Esther have been eating them. The green beans look about done, but I picked a whole load before we went on holiday and froze them. The old variety potatoes are not cropping that well, but they're ok.

The cabbages and cauliflower are being somewhat eaten by whitefly, but I've been spraying and watering them (and picking off caterpillars). I'm wondering what to plant as we slide into autumn.

Tags: blog, legumes

Tags: legumes

We ate the first of the Edzell Blues. They look very attractive, but if you boil them in their skins, all the colour goes (it turns the water an odd blue). Mashed they are somewhat floury. Taste wise, they're (I'm sad to report) nothing special. We also had a big portion of the green beans (Rocquencourt, I think). Actually, they're a lovely pale yellow. I steamed them for about 10 minutes and then added a bit of butter.

Tags: root vegetables, legumes

The first of the green beans, these are a mixture of white and green.

Tags: legumes

It's all happening in the garden. Clockwise from top left:
tomato
potatoes
green beans, peas, turnip
asparagus
turnip
strawberries
peppers
beetroot, shallots, parsnips, broad beans, carrot, onions

In the middle is garlic, onion, spinach and swede

Tags: root vegetables, legumes

I have spent weeks meaning to create a planting diary showing me when to plant successional plants. This weekend I failed (again) and decided to sow some new seeds of stuff that I want anyway but ran out of time. So, tonight as Gill made supper, I went out and pottered in the greenhouse. The result was a row each of green beans (Sonesta), rocket (Suffolk Herbs salad rocket), beetroot (Detroit 2), parsnip and broad bean.

Having lost a lot of green beans, I first put the soil in, damped it off, planted the seeds and then sprinkled a thin layer of soil over the top. The tray is under a lid in the greenhouse, but not in the propagator. I'll see how it goes.

Tags: legumes, root vegetables, salad

These are my dwarf green beans. They're coming along but I have a high failure rate. The problem seems to be that I'm waterlogging them and they end up rotting. Still these are being hardened off ready to go out next weekend.

The tomatoes are looking good too. Again, I'm hardening these off. The tallest one is Red Pear, the rest are Gardener's Delight.

These poor souls are also Red Pear. I nearly killed them by leaving them in the propagator one hot, sunny afternoon. Most of their leaves turned brown and died. I've nursed these back to health, but they're way behind the others.

Tags: salad, legumes

Lots of gardening jobs today:

Outside

Planted spinach seeds in the small bed.
Built cane supports for the peas (which are now starting to come through)
Planted first early potatoes ("Rocket")

greenhouse

Planted "slenderette" dwarf green beans
potted up Gardener's Delight tomatoes (next stop outside in the garden at the end of April)

propagator

Planted more Rocquencourt (here's hoping)
Added more basil, only one plant came up.
Planted chilli pepper ("Anaheim"), these came free with Gardener's World

Tags: salad, herbs, root vegetables, legumes

The tomatoes that planted (Red Pear) have started to come through (no idea what happened to the first lot). Also, both varieties of the green beans are coming through. The gardener's delight (and one Red Pear) are out of the propagator and are doing well.

Tags: salad, legumes

It's been surprisingly dry, I've had to remove the cloches and water under them this weekend (as I did last weekend). Still no sign of any outdoor seeds sprouting (carrot, peas, beetroot). The greenhouse sown seeds are making a showing, but I'm disappointed in the green beans. Some just expired. One of the green beans that I sowed last week has sprouted - I wish the others would be more enthusiastic. I'm not too worried, I checked last year's blog and I finished the raised beds at the end of April and planted out bought seedlings at that time. If all else fails, I can still buy seedlings.

I've used about 2/3 of the soil that I had delivered on Thursday, I think that I over estimated how much I'd need. I've been filling up the raised beds (I didn't quite buy enough soil last year and my compost heaps are not producing enough (yet)). Maybe I'll get some of the paths done this weekend; I bought some weed membrane yesterday.

Tags: root vegetables, blog, legumes

I think that my other beans are dead. Maybe I'm just being pessimistic. Meanwhile, I've sown some more Rocquencourt and some Sonesta. Mostly these have gone into the propagator, but I've put a few Sonesta into a normal pot just in the greenhouse.

Sonesta

Early maturing, waxy yellow beans on compact plants. Pods are slender, straight and stringless reaching up to 13cm (5 inches) long. Early to mature with a long cropping period. Plants are resistant to Common Bean Mosaic Virus and Anthracnose.

Tags: legumes

My tomatoes and green beans have stubbornly refused to sprout so I've bought myself a heated propagator which I hope will help. Actually, I had a little accident with the green beans and I saw one of them - it is starting to sprout, but hasn't reached the surface yet.

Tags: salad, legumes

Still optimistic, I planted out dwarf french beans and rocket salad. The dwarf french beans are Rocquencourt. Apparently, a very productve, primrose-yellow podded dwarf French bean. One of the most cold tolerant of all French beans. They're both planted up in nice new compost.

Tags: salad, legumes