REVIEW OF THE SUMMER VEGETABLES

REVIEW OF THE SUMMER VEGETABLES

The summer harvest of vegetables is well under way and now is a great time to reflect on progress. We can look back on a fairly decent summer with always just enough rain to keep plants growing and at times it has been quite warm. The promise of really hot weather blowing up from the Continent on at least three occasions kept us waiting patiently to ripen up the crops, but it never quite got that far north. Afraid this is nature so we cannot blame Brexit or the Tory Government.

Tomato Sweet Million

The first crops to pick in spring were my overwintered mixed lettuce with the star performer Lollo Rossa, a beautiful crinkly red cut and come again variety with great flavour. This is marked up for growing again in 2017.

Early potato Casa Blanca was getting lifted as a salad potato in mid June with 1.5 lbs on the first shaw. This increased to 2.5 lbs per shaw by the end of June. The flavour is fantastic, so this variety is again a must for 2017. My other two salad potatoes, Charlotte and Gemson were fine, but could not compete with Casa Blanca for flavour, and Gemson size was very disappointing. Talking of size, the variety Amour gave a huge crop of very large spuds, and Sarpo Mira was not far behind and although this was a bad year for blight and blackleg Sarpo Mira was the last to get affected.

Runner bean Enorma

Early peas Kelvedon Wonder and maincrop pea Hurst Greenshaft are probably as old as me, but have been so reliable, (just like me) and prolific that I keep growing them every year.

This year I tried Dwarf French Bean Compass. It was very prolific but the beans were small and thin though very tasty. Runner bean Enorma is still a great cropper.

Onion Globo gave me a big crop from one packet of seeds, but the humid weather brought on a fair bit of white rot where ever the bulbs were too close together. However these are now dried off and ready for storing in my cool garage to provide enough onions to last till the end of March.

Scottish weather and soils seems to be perfect for courgettes and no matter what variety I grow there is always much more than two people can use, even though Anna tries them fried in butter, in risottos, soups, in pasta and lasagna where thin slices of courgette replace the pasta to give a very tasty and healthy dish.

Pumpkins swelling up

Pumpkin Hundredweight just like the courgettes is having a great year. Four plants is giving me at least eight large pumpkins which just keep growing and will be huge by the end of October when they get cropped just ahead of Halloween.

Sweet corn Sweetie Pie has been a bit disappointing with very few cobs full of corn, so next year I will try a different variety.

Standard beetroot Detroit and Boltardy are hard to beat for reliability, but this year I tried the long rooted type Cylindrica. Very pleased with results giving a beetroot shape which I am told is easier to work with in the kitchen, and flavour is excellent. Swiss chard Bright Lights is still a favourite.

Swiss chard Bright Lights

All my cabbage, cauliflowers, Brussels sprouts and Swedes have to be the clubroot resistant varieties as the soil is totally infected. This however limits the season of use especially of cauliflowers.

In the greenhouse both cherry tomatoes Sweet Million and Sungold have been outstanding with massive crops of delicious sweet wee tomatoes, but my maincrop Alicante suffered an attack of bacterial wilt and the crop was lost by early September. Looks like I will have to replace the soil or go back to growbags next year.

Wee jobs to do this week

Winter lettuce Vaila

Plant out winter lettuce Vaila, Valdor or Arctic King sown a few weeks earlier in trays or direct into the soil in a well prepared seed bed. My more successful methods were to choose a sheltered spot adjacent to a south facing fence. Last winter my over wintered row of lettuce was in mid plot with no protection, but then we got a very mild winter so lettuce just loved it. Lollo Rossa appeared in a batch of mixed lettuce leaves and was very much appreciated with brilliant colour and flavour.

 END

PLANT A FEW SPRING BULBS

PLANT A FEW SPRING BULBS

As summer gives way to autumn, now is the time to skip thoughts of winter and start to plan for the spring garden displays. Hopefully notes were taken last spring as the weather was in our favour and bulbs from snowdrops to crocus and then daffodils to tulips had their best show for years. It was relatively dry and warm without being too hot so the spring display lasted for weeks, but as always although we meander around enjoying the colourful flowers, we always find areas for improvement.

In my case some areas of crocus were fantastic, but the drifts can be enlarged into new areas. One large rhododendron got too big so will be removed and replaced with dwarf azaleas and underplanted with crocus. This will give more colour for a few years till eventually the azaleas take over, and the crocus can be shifted to a new home.

John planting a few tulip bulbs

Another area with a palm tree, Cordyline australis reaching for the sky, is now ripe for an under planting of bulbs as the older leaves around the base are withering and will be removed. This palm sits adjacent to a large drift of yellow flowered saxifrage at its best in March, so I will plant a drift of early flowering tulip Scarlet Baby to add a touch of red alongside the yellow saxifrage. As this display has its day it is followed by another show elsewhere as my yellow Doronicums come into flower in April. These were under planted last year with some deep purple Triumph tulips Negrita, but I will add to the show with another triumph tulip Ile de France, a blood red colour. Hopefully they will all flower at the same time; at least that is the plan.

Apeldoorn and Golden Apeldoorn tulips

The tallest tulips with the largest size of flowers have always been the Darwin Hybrids with the red Apeldoorn and yellow Golden Apeldoorn the two most spectacular for a dazzling display. I have a drift of these in several locations, but will buy more to make the drifts larger and create an impressive flower power border.

Tulip Abba

Flower tubs around patios and entrance door ways get planted up with wallflowers, polyanthus and pansies. Good tulips to go with my Golden Monarch wallflower are the Fosteriana type Red Emperor and the pure white Purissima. When warm humid spring weather coincides with the flowering of Purissima the scent is brilliant, but it is not guaranteed. I purchased a whole range of scented tulips last autumn, and not one lived up to the catalogue description, but maybe the weather was to blame; who knows.

For tubs planted up with low growing polyanthus, myosotis or pansies I use crocus in between otherwise the tulips would

Tulip Monsella

compete for space, and some will get a planting of hyacinths for colour and scent that is guaranteed.

Even in these times of mild winters we still like to see the first signs of spring, and this is usually when the snowdrops appear, which with our unpredictable climate can be anytime from late December onwards. Snowdrops are followed on with the aconites flowering in February to March.

Other less prominent bulbs but always very welcome are the blue flowered Anemone blanda and the Chionodoxa, Glory of the Snows. Every garden should find space for these beauties.

Anna picking the last Rhubarb

Drifts of daffodils and narcissus fill the gap between the early bulbs and the tulips so they allow the show to continue without any breaks.

Two colourful favourites with blue flowers are the grape hyacinth and bluebells, but use carefully as they can be very invasive and will want to take over the whole garden.

Wee jobs to do this week

It is still possible to take another picking of rhubarb, but as the growing season is just about over only pick a few leaves so there is plenty of foliage left to build up strength in the crowns for the next year. Rhubarb has now come back into fashion, as health conscious people realise just how healthy this product is. It is packed with vitamins, minerals, dietary fibre and proteins. It can be used fresh in pies, stews, crumbles and mixed with saskatoons or blackcurrants for a delicious jam, and any surplus can be frozen for future use.

 END

Art Exhibition "Summer Colour and Nostalgia"

A HEALTHY SCOTTISH DIET

A HEALTHY SCOTTISH DIET

There was a time when everyone had a garden or allotment to grow food, as money was tight and a packet of seed could go a long way. Being almost self sufficient saved a fortune, but we were never fully aware of the health benefits at that time. As wage levels rose and working hours decreased we found ourselves with time to spare so the range of leisure pursuits grew to satisfy this demand. Unfortunately gardening became a bit out of fashion as space was needed to park a car or two, and most of our food was available in supermarkets, much of which was ready to eat so less time was needed in the kitchen.

Anna picks a feast of summer berries

Nothing stays the same for long, as knowledge through travel, television, the internet and magazines broadens our horizons. Manual labour is being lost through technology, so slowly the nation is getting less fit and putting on a wee bit of weight. This has been recognized as we now get bombarded with ways to keep fit and eat healthy food, and programmes on cooking are now a major industry. As we are still in summer many folk will have been abroad on holiday and looking for a break from the kitchen, so salads will be high on the menu, and even when you go out for a meal we tend towards the Mediterranean diet as it is quick and tasty and has a great reputation as a healthy way to dine.  It includes plenty of fresh salads, ripe tomatoes, olive oil dressings and a range of fruit in season, plus nuts for variety and oily fish high in omega 3 oils.

Early salads under tunnels

Looking back over the years, I have come to realize that I have been unconsciously on this diet for a fair time, but thought it was a Scottish diet, not Mediterranean. In younger days our true Scottish diet did have a fair bit of fish suppers, and chips appeared on a daily basis to accompany the pies, bridies, mince, beef burgers and sausages (we liked to have variety,) but as we did a fair bit of manual labour and in our spare time we were always active so gaining weight was never a problem. Today we may not be quite so active, but with more knowledge on good foods and superfoods combined with a great cook in the kitchen the diet has evolved. The first changes happened a long time ago when a TV show highlighted what gastronomic delights from the abattoir went into various meat products, so sausages, mince, beef burgers got dropped, and pies and bridies became a low priority. Then a surgeon attending my art classes had done a study on the affects of sugar on humans and gave me his thoughts. I immediately stopped taking sugar in coffee and tea and even omitted my spoonful of honey in my porridge. My weight went down by ten pounds within one year. Chips were next on the endangered list when I accidentally set the chip pan on fire. The kitchen is no place for a man with artistic and gardening skills. However I soon found that chips could be replaced with salad potatoes (Casa Blanca is a favourite) and baked potatoes from the larger Sarpo Mira and Amour spuds, and now we have been exposed to so many other exotic food dishes the Scottish chip is becoming a rarity.

John picks early apple Discovery

Having a garden, a greenhouse and allotment means that with a wee bit of forward planning you can have fresh fruit, vegetables and even salads just about all year round. A good range of nuts (unfortunately not home grown) are now added to many dishes, such as walnuts with our salads and I mix ground almonds, pine nuts, Brazil nuts, hazelnuts and walnuts into my muesli in the morning as well as adding at least three different fruits. This is seasonal fruit though at present I have autumn raspberries, perpetual strawberries, blueberries and ripe figs to last through till late autumn.

To replace our fish suppers we have now turned to trout as it just needs 2 minutes each side to cook on a pan with some Scottish rapeseed oil rich in Omega 3 oils, and served with beetroot, French beans and some salad potatoes.

Clover green manure

Wee jobs to do this week

Late blight and a wee bit of blackleg caused potato foliage to wither away sooner than intended so the last of the crop of Sarpo Mira has been lifted. There is still time to use this land for a green manure crop to grow through autumn and be ready to dig in during winter. This helps to break up the soil and add humus.

 END