June veggie bed

It’s all looking lovely and lush.   And not even nibbled by deer.   In fact the only enemy I have endured these past two months are a few tiny slugs.   They seem to lurk in the soil at the edge of the top left quadrant of the plot.   This year that means brassicas.   And I have lost about ten little plants.

So I have kept a few of the water bottles back from the mighty recyling trip; cut them in half and covered the new seedlings with the bottles.   I will have to be rather unlucky to have the slugs living in the soil directly underneath the new plants to lose this next batch. We shall see.   The rest of the brassicas are fine. A bit nibbled by those gendarme bugs. But they don’t wipe out entire plants overnight.

The carrots are putting on growth.   I thinned them out at the weekend, and enjoyed watching the little marigold plants open.   I suspect they look better planted en masse – but this year I have gone for the dotted effect.

Pause there: I just went down to the garden to photograph the rest of the vegetable bed and spotted a rather odd sight on the swimming pool cover.   Would you believe it? A deer. Broad daylight and standing on the blue pool cover. What cheek.   I suppose he or she (can’t tell if it’s Daisy from this distance) was drinking the water that had pooled on some of the cover.   It took off and I managed to snatch a quick shot of the departing animal. I wonder if it appreciated the freshly strimmed steps as it bounded down them and into the safety of the trees.   If you squint or use a zoom button, you can just see the animal half way between the stables and the pool.   The animal probably turned up just as I was typing the word on this post. Spooky.

Back to the mundane excitement of plants.   Here are a few shots of the veg.   I have the swiss chard and lettuce well protected under a cloche of enviromesh; so the picture isn’t particularly fetching. But from seed to young plants in just a few months is a wonderful sight.

And we may try some of the potatoes this weekend.   These are the charlottes in the tomato and radish and chard bed.   I can see a few flowers on one of the plants – so that might be the first one dug up in an attempt to find tubers underneath.   I did weaken and buy some new potatoes from M. Bois at the market last Thursday.   And they cost an arm and leg.  

We are going to get a meal of broad beans and peas too this weekend. Not a huge amount, but at least enough for a starter.   One of the plants that survived the November sowing is up and plump and has about six pods.   And when I wade through the thicket of plants I might find some more.   The lettuce quite enjoy the shade under here, and are growing well too.

And all the herbs are coming along. Shame it’s so unattractive, but here are the coriander plants that I grew from seed in Feb.   I pinched out the tips of all the young plants – and will garnish the stir fry swiss chard I’m planning on cooking tonight.

The onions and garlic might get lifted at the end of the month.   I like the saying plant on the shortest day, harvest on the longest day. So around June 21 I will lift them and see what I have.   This quadrant might become the pumpkin patch if I can get the plants safe from slugs and deer.

Right, that’s enough indoor stuff. I’m off to get the vine tying tool and go and put some more peas and climbing beans into place.   The sweet peas may flower this weekend. During the watering session last night I noticed a few flowers just hovering on the edge of ripeness.