Pickling is a great way to preserve homegrown cucumbers. Especially when you have more appearing in summer than you can eat! There are lots of recipes for pickling cucumbers but I have adapted this one to suit my family’s taste. Cucumber Pickling – What I do! I start by washing the cucumbers before slicing them […]
harvest
Winter Garden Greens – So Amazing! Harvesting homegrown vegetables this season
My winter garden greens are thriving in the cold greenhouse! As you know this is my first year owning the greenhouse and I decided to plant some vegetables that love the cooler weather. As a result I planted kale, lettuce, chard, pak choi and peas in autumn from seed in the cold greenhouse. In particular, […]
Beetroot: Surprisingly Huge!
I planted beetroot seeds this spring in the raised bed and they grew beautifully through the warmer months. Once the seedlings had germinated, they only needed regular watering and a little thinning. This means that seedlings that are too close to each other needed to be removed. So the thinning allowed the remaining seedlings space […]
Tomatoes and Basil
Tomatoes have grown beautifully this summer and have resulted in lots of fruits to harvest! They have loved the heat but on the flip side, it has meant that we having been watering them twice a day. Growing tomatoes in pots means they dry out a lot quicker than being in the ground too. The […]
Harvesting Onions and Potatoes
Onions and potatoes are two of the easiest and undemanding vegetables to grow, even in a small space. I had great success last year with potatoes and so it was certain that they were going to feature in my garden this season. Onions are new to me and I have been inspired to grow them […]
Harvesting this Summer
My kitchen garden is thriving as the summer heat continues this year. Chillies are doing their thing and harvests have been bountiful! The cobra beans have grown so much that I can’t reach the topmost point of their bamboo wigwam. Of course there is a proud showcase of beautiful purple flowers and these have been […]
Summer Greens
The garden is thriving in the heat this summer! We have been watering and harvesting endlessly as the sun shines on this season. The greenhouse which protected the young seedlings and plants with such caring endeavour is now almost empty as all the tomatoes and chillies have migrated. With the heat beating down for days […]
Last Harvest
The last of my homegrown vegetables which I have now harvested as summer comes to an end and autumn brings in the cooler weather with its long dark evenings! Courgettes that were started indoors from seed were planted out in May, after the last frosts were over. Although I provided them with support for them […]
Tomato Harvest
I planted tomatoes for the first time this year from seed and they have been very successful in my raised beds and planters! There have been bunches and bunches everywhere I looked, from cherry tomatoes to the larger varieties. They have been ripening gradually, with the final harvest coming in this September. I have found that […]
Cobra Beans
I planted cobra beans for the first time this spring and I started them indoors by planting the seeds. Then gradually they were moved outdoors to their final position in the raised beds but unfortunately they didn’t do well. So I planted the next batch of seeds straight into raised beds outdoors in May and […]
Easy Delicious Potatoes
Homegrown potatoes are so delicious as we have found out this summer when we harvested our first lot! Phil, a friend of mine gave me four little seed potatoes to try and I planted them in reusable plastic grow bags in early spring. To our surprise, after 5 months we harvested two whole bowls of […]
Cobra and Dwarf Beans
In the middle of summer with all the days and nights of rain we’ve been having, there are green pickings ready for my kitchen …beans, beans and more beans!! Cobra beans have been racing up the very crude support made for them from bamboo canes and some string. They don’t seem to have minded the […]
Easy Potatoes in Containers
When my friend Phil gave me four little seed potatoes, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to grow them in my shallow raised beds as potatoes need some depth filled with good soil. My garden soil has heavy clay and it is the reason I have found raised beds such a treasure for […]
Summer Heat From Chillies
I am surrounded by chillies growing in huge numbers this summer in my kitchen garden! When I first planted the seeds earlier this year, little was I to know that these sturdy plants would happily withstand the heavy gusts and downpours that we have had this spring and early summer. As you remember, I bought […]
So Many Cucumbers!
Fresh cucumbers and so many of them from my kitchen garden this summer! So tasty and crisp, these are certainly a far cry from the ones we get all year round wrapped in plastic in supermarkets. I planted the seeds earlier this year in pots indoors and they were a delight to watch as pretty […]
My First Big Summer Harvest
This summer’s biggest harvest from my kitchen garden boasts of happy times! The peas that I planted outdoors in my raised beds from seed are looking so pretty and dare I say hidden amongst the green of the foliage. A lot of pods were popped just there and then and the sweet peas eaten on […]
Fresh Beetroot
My first time growing beetroot and I was not sure what to expect as I took some seeds out of the packet to plant this spring. As luck would have it, I was buzzed about by a couple of bumblebees visiting the last of the kale flowers in the adjacent raised bed which made me […]
Saying Goodbye
Perhaps the hardest part of this season is bidding farewell to my kale and purple sprouting broccoli that have given so generously. This has been the first time I have tried these winter hardy vegetables and they definitely will be featuring again soon! The kale has gone on produce some beautiful yellow flowers which have […]
Baby Leeks for My Chickpeas
There is no better way to flavour a dish of chickpeas than a bunch of leeks …baby leeks! It is such a proud moment when you harvest your first leeks. Yes, I know they don’t look anywhere near the size that are seen in the shops but I’m calling mine baby leeks. I’m sure they’ll taste […]
Beautiful Spring Harvest
Spring has brought a lovely lush to my raised bed where my purple sprouting broccoli and kale have been living over the cold winter months! Just a couple of weeks ago, I was so excited to see the first flowering of the sprouting broccoli. In the same raised bed, my green and purple kale has […]