Permaculture productivity
Lunch.
If there isn’t another cucumber in the harvest basket then it’s not a weekday in summer.
What a crop.
You can spot the cucumbers not only climbing but draping horizontally along the raised beds.
And being scientific about this permaculture lark, I have no idea how I can prove that it is the growing medium that works here, or the ridiculous damp and mild summer.
Perfect growing conditions. Warm and sunny and then suddenly it’s a downpour and it’s grey and we all reach for our cardigans and huddle.
Do we call it Cardigan Summer?
I should of course have planted the exact same cucmbers and the star climbing beans – Barlotto Lingua di Fuoco 2 – elsewhere in the vegetable garden to compare.
But I didn’t. And right now I pick every single morning. So imagine the glut if I doubled up.
We are eating beans, I am blanching and freezing beans, and if I don’t find the clever ones lurking in the undergrowth they will be the veg I leave to dry.
These seeds definitely are keepers.
I’m giving you the link to Chiltern Seeds if you want to try and order them yourselves, or just get the information you need to make your very own Jack and the Beanstalk crop next year.
https://www.chilternseeds.co.uk/item_1817A_bean_climbing_french_barlotto_lingua_di_fuoco_2
This is what they will look like if I let them ripen.
We are eating them young and green.
And the tomatoes, thank goodness, still think they are growing in a mountain mediterranean climate.
But in keeping with the tradition of glutty cucumber madness, the daily luncheon of tomato, basil and buffalo mozzarella has an interloper.
Just wait for these aubergines to come into full maturity.
Then it will be serious glut adventures.
I am nothing if not utterly delighted.
6th August 2021 @ 2:38 pm
SO impressed. Permaculture beds for the win! Your aubergines!!! And of course not a single bit of bindweed to spoil the show and take up your time. My mind is made up, I will follow your example – this autumn I will stack up my existing low raised beds to make fewer high beds with chicken wire and weed suppressant fabric lining the base. Goodbye rat taupiers, goodbye bindweed. I expect great things next summer.
6th August 2021 @ 6:34 pm
This is great news Christine! I can’t tell you how amazing it is to be rid of bindweed in the potager (we don’t mention the jungle up at the asparagus bed…). I would say that you need a huge volume of compost to get a good bed. So start stockpiling the weedings and the branches etc.
6th August 2021 @ 8:26 pm
Thank you Lindy! I’ve made the calculations for filling my new beds (2x60cm highx150cm widex300cm long) and it’s a little bit frightening (5.4m3). But I have a huge amount of raw material available, which I will start gathering in earnest. A mini-digger booked for October for other work (planting a wood!) will help too. And neighbours can supply aged cow manure. By the way, I’m testing sugar cubes steeped in castor oil + garlic essential oil as a rat taupier and mole repellent (dropped into any visible holes). So far, so good. Garlic also seems to work against ants. And unwanted human visitors if needed… I love garlic but just opening the bottle of oil is enough to make me retch.