Fennel shock

The new crop of fennel looks promising. The last lot were all gnarled and unpleasant. I think the recent rain has helped, so fingers crossed.

The leeks are looking good and I think I'll sell them at the Xmas fair. We'll also be selling some jams and chutneys made by a victim of crime that I met through work. Good cause.




The broad beans have stood up the recent high winds and hail surprisingly well. They may or not flower soon but the beans should be well set for a spring appearance.





I've now planted four varieties of garlic, including elephant garlic. Hopefully some of these should make an appearance over the next few weeks.




The spinach is coming along slowly but should be ready in a week or two if the weather stay mild.
I've also planted some seed grown onions and we have a bag or two of wintering onions to plant asap. Any volunteers? Let me know.

[Below] Our old favourite swiss chard (Bright Lights) is coming along well. A very reliable winter crop.

Broad Beans








This tomato is a bit of a mystery as it shouldn't be there! We only used small and cherry varieties this year. It's quite a mystery. It produces very large, very juicy tomatoes with good flesh and few seeds. A really excellent 'slicing' salad tomato. So... we I think we have a new variety on our hands, and we need a name for it. Any suggestions? How about Belleville Red?












Swiss chard. Pretty.

Expansion shock - winter veg

[Above - late season salads and strawberries
thriving in the sunshine]

Today I took advantage of a shorter than expected dental appointment and the beautiful late autumn weather and planted seed grown wintering onions, 'perpetual' spinch and broad beans. Hopefully these will have time to settle in before winter, and will be have a head start when spring comes round again. If it stays warm we may have spinach in November!

Tiny onion plants grown from seed, not sets (small onions). Hopefully they won't wither and die!
I covered the beds to stop birds pulling up the onions and the foxes who like to dig up worms (and slugs) in disturbed soil.













Broad beans, with little sticky supports and stakes with wire supports. Nothing can go wrong. Let me know if you see any greenfly!

Perpetual spinach which went all floppy when I planted it. It does this on purpose to make you feel like you don't know what you are doing. Then, when you're not looking, it springs into life again. I think.

Let's hope there's no overcrowding when the plants start growing! [Leave out the politics - Ed]

Tommy asked me to give you a preview of his halloween oufit:

CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE

Produce Sale

Sold nearly thirty bags of rocket, wild rocket, mixed salad leaves, pak choi, tomatoes and chili peppers today - sold like hot cakes, so thanks for your support!



The pak choi is great in salads or you can stir fry it the Chinese way.
One of my favourite meals is griddled salmon steak with steamed jasmine rice and steamed pak choi, served with a warm marinade of soy sauce, a little honey, ginger, garlic, and mirin if you have it. Highly recommended!


I mentioned before that the fennel wasn't exactly a triumph. Instead of a nice bulb we have this weird looking root conglomeration. Have tied this specimen to the fence to frighten the children.



Don't forget to sign up for the veg garden newsletter!

School Photo

October Crops

The warm September has extended the growing season and the salads and tomatoes are doing especially well. The fennel [above] looks very beautiful and smells great, but I'm not sure the heads are large enough to eat. I suspect a lack of water at a critical growing time might have reduced the bulb size somewhat.


The tomatoes have been a great success, the small orange 'Sungold' variety proving specially sweet.
They're definitely on my list a favourites for next year!






We can look forward to these Cos lettuce and Swiss Chard providing some colour and flavour in the weeks to come. The Swiss Chard is the multi-coloured 'Bright Lights' variety. Click on photo for more detail!



Mixed salad leaves and rocket make an attractive display and a delicious salad (which has been going down very well with home made pizza recently chez Dutton! Brilliant pizza dough recipe available on request.......)

The mizuna leaves look great and add a bit of spiciness to the salad [right]
Look out for the leeks that are doing really well. The difference between home grown and shop bought is massive!

Remember, if you want to help out with the garden email me or say hello when you see me in the playground. Thanks!!

Oh, and an historic day at Belleville School - A masterclass in organisation!

New academic year!

[Above: Mr Grove's sweetcorn. Please do not touch!]
STOP PRESS: APPARENTLY THERE WAS AN UPTURN IN THE AMOUNT OF VEG BEING EATEN BY THE CHILDREN IN THE SCHOOL CANTEEN DURING THE LAST ACADEMIC YEAR, AND THE STAFF THINK IT'S BECAUSE OF THE VEG GARDEN!

Welcome to a new term at Belleville School.

The main frustration over the summer holiday has been that the school is closed when many of the crops have been ready for harvesting, especially beans and tomatoes, but also courgettes and carrots, in fact just about everything we were growing. Fortunately Lollo Roja has been able to harvest some beans and tomatoes for the restaurant, but nonetheless, there remains a problem of what to do in the summer when the school is closed and so many people are away. Maybe next year we should aim to have open days every Sunday morning when parents can come along and pick their own?

Here's a quick run down of successes and failures over the summer:

Failures

1. Fennel - it looks beautiful but no bulbs have formed at all, which according to the books is normally caused by low temperatures but, given the summer we've had (decent?) I'm wondering if it might not be lack of water at crucial times. Apologies for poor picture quality - blame Nokia!


2. The climbing french beans were great in that they grew very quickly in great profusion, but they did tend to pod very quickly if you didn't pick them in time. Next year, borlotti beans!

3. Dwarf beans. Hopeless. Not sure why. Probably my fault.

Successes:

1. Tomatoes. Very sweet orange coloured cherry toms were my favourite. Unfortunately I lost the seed packet so might not be able to grow them again.

2.Companion planting. That's where you grow one plant in close proximity to another for their mutual benefit. In this case I grew Nasturtiums next to the climbing beans, and they were successful in attracting the blackfly away from the tender beans which often get overwhelmed by the nasty bugs. Very green!

3. Pumpkins. Last year they all went spongy when only a few inches across, but it turns out we weren't watering enough. It was such a wet summer that the soil was normally wet, but because the raised beds are on top of concrete they were bone dry just under the surface, so the thirsty pumpkins shrivelled and died. In other words I killed them! This summer I tried to give them long soaks and that seems to have done the trick.

4. Carrots (partial success). We grew heirloom varieties, none of them orange, and although they tasted great they didn't have the modern carrots size and shape. The above the ground plant was often massive while the carrot was quite small. Modern varieties reverse those characteristics.

Also, the peppers again showed how easy they are to grown, the potaoes tasted great but were pretty small, and the strawberries are still going nicely.
But the biggest success of all was the recruiting of Evie who is going to run a veg gardening club after school every Thursday. Great news! More about that soon...

July update

PICK YOUR OWN THIS SATURDAY AT 10am

Above: (new 'superfood') Curly Kale, still going strong.
Below: Our extra produce is being sold by Dandelion in Northcote Rd. They seem to be pretty pleased that our courgettes are grown 150 yards from the shop are replacing those that were grown 150 million miles away in Costa Rica!














We've also supplied Lola Rojo with french beans and they'll be harvesting during the second half of August and beyond perhaps.
Here are some photos of what's else is on offer this Saturday.....
Right: Climbing french beans. You need to be tall to pick these!
Below: The tomatoes are ripening rapidly and there should be quite a few ready for picking on Saturday. The photos are a couple of weeks old.














Below: Pumpkins won't be ready until Halloween time, by which time they should be really large. They enjoy beer.

Right: The leeks also need more time to grow.

Left: We've already had loads of courgettes but there should be some more on Saturday?

Below right: The carrots (any colour but orange) have shot up (or should that be down?) recently. We could maybe pick a few to thin them out?



Below: For some reason the peppers are growing upwards rather than downwards.

Below: We'll have a dig for Pink Fir Apple potatoes (stock photo below). Seriously, they taste great, and they only need a scrub, no peeling required. Not sure if they're ready yet?