Now is the time to think about preserving any superfluous herbs in the
garden for use in the winter, when the fresh herbs are no longer
available. Dried herbs keep for years but are better if used within a year.
Frozen herbs do loose their colour, but some flavour is retained.
* *Woody herbs* such as rosemary, sage and thyme can be dry-frozen.
Place the leaves in a plastic freezer bag, squeeze the air out of
the bag, tie and freeze. Parsley can be frozen in this way. When
frozen, the bag can be rolled and squashed to ‘chop’ the parsley.
* *Soft herbs* like tarragon, chives, dill, fennel, lovage, parsley
& basil can be frozen in ice. Chop the leaves finely and pack into
ice-cube trays. Cover with water and freeze. When frozen, tip the
cubes into a plastic bag and store in the freezer, using a cube as
needed.
* *Basil* can be frozen as a puree. Wizz the basil in a blender with
a little olive oil. Freeze in ice-cube trays, then store the cubes
in a plastic bag in the freezer.
Gardener’s Delight Tomatoes, delivered on Friday, have been planted out. Gardener’s Delight is a Cordon type suitable for the greenhouse or outdoors. It bears lots of bite-size fruit, ideal for salads and sandwiches and full of vitamins.
There was room for two more growbags in the greenhouse. But the gardening budget prompted a compromise on the growpots , and we adapted some plastic ventilation brackets to fit in the growbag to:
* lift the plant out of the bag and provide extra growing space for roots
* provide a reservoir for water
* allow feeding close to the roots
- greenhouse-tomatoes
The remaining plants have been put outside against a southfacing wall. The bricks absorb the heat and act like a night storage unit, keeping the temperature slightly up.
- outdoor-tomatoes
Gardener’s Delight Tomatoes, delivered on Friday, have been planted out. Gardener’s Delight is a Cordon type suitable for the greenhouse or outdoors. It bears lots of bite-size fruit, ideal for salads and sandwiches and full of vitamins.
There was room for two more growbags in the greenhouse. But the gardening budget prompted a compromise on the growpots ,and we adapted some plastic ventilation brackets to fit in the growbag to:
* lift the plant out of the bag and provide extra growing space for roots
* provide a reservoir for water
* allow feeding close to the roots
greenhouse-tomatoes
The remaining plants have been put outside against a southfacing wall. The bricks absorb the heat and act like a night storage unit, keeping the temperature slightly up.
outdoor-tomatoes
A stale seedbed is one that has been about for a bit, so that there has beenplenty of time for weed seeds to germinate.
The seedbed is prepared so that the soil is in fine crumbs. This is called a tilthe. If the seedbed is left, weed seeds will germinate.
weeds-in-stale-seedbed1
These weed seedlings can be removed when they are tiny, by raking thesoil. The roots will be pulled out of the soil, and if left on top so they will die.
stale-seedbed-half-raked1
The seedbed should be raked whenever the weeds emerge. The longer thisgoes on, the more weed numbers will be reduced, and the better the staleseedbed will be. It is much easier to produce a stale seedbed in thegarden if the bed can be covered with some sort of polythene to keep it dry- such as a polytunnel.
The soil needs to be dry:
* to allow the rake to be pulled easily through the soil
* for the rake to pull the seedlings out
* to allow the roots of the weed seedlings to dry out & die
This stale seedbed will make a perfect environment for carrot seeds to be sown in.
The cabbage plants grown from seed sown a month ago are large enough to plant out into their growing site. They have 2 cotyledons (seed leaves) and 2-3 true leaves.
brassica-seed-rows
cabbage-plants
Before starting, the plant-bed is watered to make the soil crumbs stick together and adhere to the plant roots. The strongest plants in the bed are selected, and dug up with a trowel. The summer cabbage are replanted in rows 45cm apart, and 30 cm between plants within the row. Summer cabbage can be closer together because they are cut with smaller heads.
cabbage-row
There are now three different stages of plants in the cabbage patch.
They are all covered with mesh to protect them from aphids and cabbage white butterflies.
brassica-bed
brassicas under mesh
enviromesh-over-brassica
Onion Rust is caused by a fungus Puccinia allii. It is uncommon & rarely
causes significant damage to onions in the UK, unless it is being grown
next to an infected garlic crop.
SYMPTOMS
Small, reddish to dull orange, yellowy, oval-shaped spots and blotches
(pustules) develop on the leaves. They produce reddish airborne spores
in a powdery mass. These turn black later in the season. The pustules
enlarge to form a girdle around the leaves or seed heads. All plant
tissue above the girdle turns yellow and dies. If the infection is
severe, the size and quality of the onion will be reduced.
PREVENTION
* Destroy volunteer onion, garlic and leek plants – that is any not
planted in the garden that have grown on waste ground etc..
* Do not grow onions on land affected by rust in the previous
season, because onion rust overwinters on garlic and volunteer
Allium crops
* Grow varieties resistant to onion rust
TREATMENT
* Remove and burn diseased leaves
* Apply fungicides if a lot of pustules develop on the plants.
Follow the instructions on the label.
Gardener’s Delight Tomatoes were delivered yesterday by our kind neighbour. He brought so many that they will not all fit in the greenhouse, but the remainder will go outside and should do well against a wall.
Gardener’s Delight is a Cordon type suitable for the greenhouse or outdoors. It bears lots of bite-size fruit, ideal for salads and sandwiches and full of vitamins. Just what we need for picnics!
tomato-gardeners-delight
The plants do look rather leggy beside the Alicante. But they do have a different habit, so we will keep our fingers crossed.
The Alicante planted in growpots a couple of weeks ago have settled down and are growing well.
alicante-tomato
Aphids (such as greenfly and blackfly) appear on leafy vegetables at this time of year, and they need controlling.
As the aphids congregate on the growing tips of vegetable plants, beneficial insects will start to eat them, so that the aphids will gradually disappear after a few weeks. These beneficial insects include ladybirds, green lacewings and larvae of hover flies, which all feast on
the aphids.
Beneficial parasites (such as small wasps that don’t sting humans) don’t eat the aphids, they lay their eggs inside the adult aphid. The baby wasp develops inside the aphid and kill it off.
Gardeners pinch out the tip of Broad Bean plants to prevent damage by
Blackfly.
This video demonstrates the process. Click How to Prevent Blackfly
from Damaging your Beans. Click on the arrow at the bottom
left of the screen to play the video.
Click here for more information on how to prevent blackfly damaging your beans.
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has produced a wonderful omlette recipe using broad bean tops.
Ingredients:
* handful leafy broad bean tops
* 4 eggs
* 50gm of butter
* salt & pepper to taste
Click here to see Hugh’s article in The Gaurdian (Saturday May 12, 2007).
