Crop Failure

After an unhappy summer and a much needed break spent sky watching on a hill in Wales, I returned home to the inevitable. My veg had missed me.
It was a fun experiment if a little ambitious, an east facing balcony and no watering-can fairies wasn't the best combination for a heaving veg rack, but those three courgettes were the best I've ever tasted.

A Few Glamour Shots 6th August 2010

Making A Point

Flipper Vegs Out!

15th July 2010 What A Difference A Week Makes!

Giant plants need giant window boxes!

Rocket! Man 7th July 2010

The rocket really took off - and it was tasty!

Hubert Enjoyed The Welcome Shade 7th July 2010

It's A Jungle Out There! 7th July 2010

My Beautiful Courgette - 7th July 2010

No need to cook, they tasted lovely raw as part of a salad

It's a jungle out there!

After being away for 10 days, I was surprised and delighted by how much the courgette plants had grown. I'd had daily updates and received news of the first fruit during my absense.

I can't help but think how well they would do in a garden - and me.

Rocket man!

Having bought a small container of unpulled lettuce at the local shop which meant I cut it as needed and the rest stayed fresh in the compost I thought rocket would be a good crop to grow this way. As it doesn't have much in the way of roots I 3/4 filled an ice cream tub with compost and did a first sowing........this was on a Monday and I was surprised and delighted to see little plants peeping through by the wednesday afternoon - I wonder if this speedy growth habit is why it is called rocket?

A good wheze for taking plants on holiday I think!

Red Basil

Basil is still small and cute enough for a glamour shot but might have to be transferred to a flat share. A second and more generous sowing is imminent.

Basil enjoys a grand day out

Courgettes

Considering they have taken a bashing from the wind and have a pair of wood pigeons determined to set up home among them the courgettes are doing very well but are now too large for glamour shots. One plant now has four flowers for which I have a tickling stick to hand for pollination duties, we tried hard to will a visiting bumble bee to do the honours but it seemed more interested in admiring it's own reflection in the windows.

Oh..........

.................poo! Pesky wood pigeon. I have a spud gun on order.

Chives on an away day

Posing in the sun. It's a shame about the windows in the hillside on the right.

Chives

The chives are in need of a haircut but apart from pairing it with cream cheese, how else to use it? Troughing on cream cheese and chive sandwiches doesn't seem like too good a habit to get into.....

Beetroot

This second batch of beetroot is doing better than the first, it might be a bit overcrowded though.

Skomer!

During 2006/7 a wave of myxi or somesuch went through the Pembrokeshire islands, drastically reducing the rabbit populations. With but a handful of bunnies to eat their way through the vegetation, grasses such as Yorkshire Fog and Red Fescue flourished on Skomer and the Ramsey wardens were spending many evenings photographing low growing wild flowers that hadn't bloomed for many a year. We volunteered on Ramsey in '06 and 07 and were amazed to see that the low grass had turned into a tapestry of colour by the second year.

In 2008 we spent two weeks on Skomer which looked very different to our last visit in 2005 with tall grasses swaying and whispering in the sea breeze.

I'm sure my pot of Yorkshire Fog will flourish with just a few puffins and no bunnies for company. The copper pipe serves as a stand for hanging bird feeders so I could well get a sunflower growing on 'Skomer' too.

Beetroot and Garlic

I prefer ping-pong to tennis ball size beetroot so I've planted all seven of them with the three garlics. Only seven??? mmm, like I would have sowed seven beetroot seeds! I've sowed lots more in a bigger tub so fingers crossed for a better crop and no spindlies.

Courgettes

The courgettes have been moved to their final homes (well, proper final will be our tummies hopefully) the three square pots are 38cm wide and the round one is 42cm. They don't look very happy being blown about by the wind as a couple of leaves have been broken but I guess that could be character building. Now it's a case of watering and watching.

Amaranth aka Red Basil

A new kid on the block. I found half a packet of seeds in my puttings which I'd ambitiously bought at back end of t' year because the packet said 'all year' - tsk...it failed due to lack of daylight and warmth. This was a great success last summer providing a touch of dramatic colour to salads and quiches.

Cress

The first batch of cress was tasty but only enough for an eggy mayo pitta pocket each so I did a denser sowing this time. I must find seeds by the ounce instead of buying it by the teaspoon in packets - mind you, it's three packs a pop at the pound shop! Hmmm.... how much is a box of cress these days?

Garlic

In need of a larger space methinks. They actually smell, well, garlicky! I wonder why?

Courgettes

The courgettes have been moved on, they are growing apace. They had lots of day trips to the balcony before staying out all night. Now of course they want their own apartments.

Chives

The chives are coming along nicely. I'll be having a snip at them any day soon.

Cress

As the cold dull weather has not inspired a mood for egg and cress sandwiches, Simon has, thus far, avoided the chop. His hours are numbered though as he will soon be past his peak. A ritual eating of the said sandwich during the Monaco qualies could be on the cards for tomorrow.

edit. I'm thinking more the late Malcolm Maclaren look rather than Simon C at this stage.

Garlic

These chaps are doing rather well and don't seem to require a great deal of fuss. I don't know how tall they will grow but I think they are in need of seperate rooms already.

courgettes

These are looking stonkingly good with their new grown up leaves and smell tasty too. A couple more have sprouted since my last report. The big boys are definitely in need of their own space which I shall deal with later. Worthy of two pin up shots I think.

Chives

The chives are coming along nicely but I think I could have sowed the seed more densely. The 'tin bath' adds a little glamour in the meantime.

Beetroot

As you can see, Beetie has been joined by some friends. They're all a bit spindly though, most likely searching for the sun (who isn't?) I shall call them Leggies and Co so they'd better get a wriggle on.

Cress

You don't even need a balcony for cress of course and it will grow any time of year.

Rog has booked eggy mayo for any time soon so I'm hoping this batch will survive a lack of water - it was only 24 hours! Oops.