July in the garden (Pics and text)

dr rockerdr rocker Regular
edited July 2011 in Life
Well, everything is at full growing pace at the moment, lots of stuff to harvest, and a hell of a lot of stuff that should start to come good this month too.

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Here we have my dwalf french beans, a patch I have dug over and added some organic matter for another sowing of peas and a couple of rows of my early peas. You can see the dwalf french beans are a little patchy - down to slug damage but I plant more seeds as fast as the fuckers eat the plants - I check after dark when it is damp too and chop the slugs in two with a trowel, the bastards.

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Here you can see more of my peas - you can see some of the plants at the back yellowing - these were the earlies and I plant a new row evrey two - three weeks to keep harvesting from spring to Autumn.

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Here you can see some young peas and some very small ones that I sowed just two weeks ago. You can also see my broad beans which have just started to crop and I should get shit loads. On the left are my climbing french beans - they are a variety called Cobra and for my soil and location, I can find nothing to beat them in vigour, crop and taste.

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Here are some of my winter brassica - members of the cabbage family. We have Cavelo Nero kale, Fielderkraut - a German pointed cabbage and a winter cabbage called Guardsman. The net over them is to protect them from birds as they will quickly eat small plants. On the left of the netting I have what I call turnips, what people in the south of England call Swede and what americans call Rutebega. Cant beat it boiled up with roast beef.

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My sweetcorn is on the right, a variety called Lark. They are around 4 1/2 foot high and just beginning to put the stalks out the pollen will fall from. I have 105 plants and will get 2 very good sized cobs per plant and 2 more smaller ones. If I was certified organic (and I only grow to organic standard) I would be selling this lot for around £300. I then have my pumpkins in the foreground, just starting to really spead, behind them squash and behind those cucumber plants. On the left are summer cabbage at the back, savoy cabbage in the middle and purple sprouting broccoli which I have already taken a couple of harvest from but it will keep on putting shoots out.

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You can see the broccoli etc on the right, in the centre we have Brussle Sprouts - a variety called Evesham I grow and mid to late winter kale. To the left of that their is Swiss Chard - the stuff with the bright stems, beetroot, carrots, spring onions (scallions), lettuce, some spare winter brassica in pots in the trays so I can move them around when I want to use the space and you can just see my leeks on the left.

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You can see my leeks and onions better in this pic. Two rows of leeks, a row of onions grown from seed and a few rows of onions grown from sets (small bulbs you buy in the spring). I think from now on I will grow all of my Alliums (onions, leeks, garlic, shallots) from seed as then their is no chance of bringing disease in from outside.

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This is the crowning glory. My tomatoes. The greenhouse is 15x10 foot and most of the plants are 6 foot + with 7 trusses of tomatoes each. I have a mix of Alicante, Sweet Million at the back and a couple of Roma on the left. I have been eating the sweet million since the last week in June and started eating the Alicante this week. The Roma should be good in 2 weeks or so.

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Here we have my three dwarf apple trees. Dont know what variety, but I get shed loads of apples. Beneath them are two gooseberry bushes and, mint and a hell of a lot of rasberries. I am eating the rasberries and goosberries at the moment, but I will dig everything out this winter to give it all more space. I am getting more land so I will move my fruit to the new land I think.

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Here are my outdoor Roma tomatoes. Funnily enough, these are further on than my indoor tomatoes and I expect to get my first ones this weekend.

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These are some of my potatoes - I am growing them in some space in a neighbours garden so thats why you can see hedge - I chainsawed a bit out in spring so I can get in easy to earth them up. I am growing Kestral, both from seed potatoes I bought and some I saved from last year, Anya, a small, knobbly salad potatoe and International Kidney, which is what Jersey Royal potatoes are. I should get 150-200lbs of potatoes. Been harvesting the International Kidney since last month and the Kestrals will see me through until March, maybe April next year. I will harvest them over the next two weeks and store them in sacks.

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This is a typical load of manure - I get around about this many bags of it a week and it goes on the manure heap - I have two which you can see next to the outdoor tomatoes. As I am going to build a shed where the heaps are, I am having to store the manure in bags at the moment until I clear some space for new heaps. The manure is the engine that keeps the garden going. Its a mix of horse shit, piss, wood shavings and sawdust. The wood shavings are the reason my might have noticed a lot of mushrooms growing in the garden. It has been unussualy wet of late and the mycellium in the horse shit collonise any un-rotted wood. I dont mind as the mycellium break the wood down into better products than bacterial action alone.

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Here you can see some of my spare winter brassica in pots and guttering. I tend to start a lot of things in guttering, it makes it easier to move around and it saves making seedbeds in early spring - although I add a lot of organic matter, I have only been on this plot for four years and it is a very heavy clay soil. It is getting there, with the manure, crushed granite, soot, ash and sea weed I add but is always a little cold in early spring.

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Here is a better picture of my sweetcorn. Bearing in mind I am 55 degrees North I can be smug as fuck about this. I do not know of anyone in my part of the country that does as well as the stuff. I think its down to instinct in when to sow, pot on and plant the corn.

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No garden is complete without an area for shit. Bricks, sandstone, timber, a pallet truck, a wheel and tyre from my truck, a few old baths, scaffolding, old propane canisters, granite worktops, cement mixer and timber. Never know when those damn Russians are going to attack and you need to rebuild your town in 15 minutes.

Comments

  • skunkskunk Regular
    edited July 2011
    Wow that's quite a garden you have there, how many acres do you have? I only have a small garden at my place as we only have a tiny piece of land around our rental.
  • buddhabuddha Regular
    edited July 2011
    I envy your garden, any chance of getting you to show us how you store all that? Mainly 200# on potatoes.
  • dr rockerdr rocker Regular
    edited July 2011
    skunk wrote: »
    Wow that's quite a garden you have there, how many acres do you have? I only have a small garden at my place as we only have a tiny piece of land around our rental.

    Acres? I wish. Its about 1/20th of an acre. My new plot I should be getting will be of a similar size, maybe a little bigger. Then I will have 1/10th of an acre (although they will be 15 miles apart). Probably grow my fruit, potatoes and alliums at the new place.
    buddha wrote: »
    I envy your garden, any chance of getting you to show us how you store all that? Mainly 200# on potatoes.

    I buy paper potato sacks - they hold about 50lb each. Just keep them somewhere that the temps stay 5c-15c and they are fine. Beans, sweetcorn and peas get blanched and then frozen in a chest freezer, tomatoes get turned into sauce although I will keep some to ripen for Chrismas. apples get stored on wooden trays with the potatoes and I allways have fresh brassica and salad leaves. I will be starting a load of salad August / September that will get moved into the greenhouse / under cloches and in coldframes. In the early spring, the salads come out of the coldframes and a load of horse muck will go in. After a few days, this heats up to around 70-80c, it will get a couple of inches of earth on top and its free heating for seedlings.
  • skunkskunk Regular
    edited July 2011
    For such a small parcel you have quite the variety. I'm trying to focus on perennial crops, although I do love my annual veggies.
  • ChupaloChupalo Regular
    edited July 2011
    Shit man, nice garden...

    I JUST barely got into gardening. Although my lot is around 1/6 acre, my backyard is only about 1/12 acre. I just purchased 5 acres in the Pacific Northwest US that I plan on moving to once I get all of my shit in order. I need to master gardening here first, though.

    Do you have any recommended study materials? I'm studying ways to be truly self-sustaining when it comes to gardening. I don't want to have to rely on a store to supply me with materials, if the shit hits the fan and there are no more stores. I would like to avoid having to stockpile fertilizer and other materials, but would instead like to do things "from scratch" - like using chicken/sheep/goat/rabbit shit to fertilize (I plan on raising those animals on my 5 acres).

    Also, do you use compost tea at all? Have you considered co-planting something like wormwood (or another plant) to keep the slugs away?

    I've also been studying root cellars. I would get in major trouble with the city if I dug one where I live and got caught, but I might dig one anyhow. The problem is that I'm in a MAJOR metropolitan area, so if the shit did hit the fan, my house would either be looted, burned to the ground, or both within a matter of days.
  • buddhabuddha Regular
    edited July 2011
    For comparison, when you started...

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  • skunkskunk Regular
    edited July 2011
    A few helpful resources, see if you can find these at the library as they can get pricey (although they're definitely worth the price).

    Bill Mollison- Permaculture: A designer's manual

    Dave Jacke- Edible Forest Gardens

    I've also read a little bit about Sepp Holzer, a german permaculturist, he seems to have his shit together.
  • ChupaloChupalo Regular
    edited July 2011
    I definitely want to focus on perennials as well, since they require so little work.

    Here's an awesome torrent that has a shitload of stuff in it:

    http://torrents.thepiratebay.org/6075023/Gardening__Farming__Ecology_and_the_Environment_Mini-pack_Update.6075023.TPB.torrent
  • dr rockerdr rocker Regular
    edited July 2011
    Chupalo wrote: »
    Shit man, nice garden...

    I JUST barely got into gardening. Although my lot is around 1/6 acre, my backyard is only about 1/12 acre. I just purchased 5 acres in the Pacific Northwest US that I plan on moving to once I get all of my shit in order. I need to master gardening here first, though.

    I think PNW is closest in climate in the USA to me - its maritime temperate up there?
    Chupalo wrote: »
    Do you have any recommended study materials? I'm studying ways to be truly self-sustaining when it comes to gardening. I don't want to have to rely on a store to supply me with materials, if the shit hits the fan and there are no more stores. I would like to avoid having to stockpile fertilizer and other materials, but would instead like to do things "from scratch" - like using chicken/sheep/goat/rabbit shit to fertilize (I plan on raising those animals on my 5 acres).

    The Self-Sufficient Gardener by John Seymour, although you might want to go for his other book 'The Complete Guide to Self Sufficency' - that has around 60% of what the other has for general veg, but advice on building, animals and all kinds.

    Salad Bar Beef and Pastured Poultry Profit$ by Joel Salatin - they are geared towards extensive, low impact farming, but have a lot of tips, inspiration and the man is a genius / nutter / successful.

    The waste products of agriculture: Their Utilization as Humus by Sir Albert Howard. I am sure I have posted this link several times. Its old - from 1931, but this guy was the God of compost. No two ways about it, Genius. Still as relevent today as 80 years ago. Dont scrimp on reading this or read some ones web page that describes Sir Alberts 'Indore Method'. Read the whole thing.

    On top of that, read what ever you want, but take it all with a pinch of salt. I must have a couple of hundred gardening and agriculture books, but the above are the ones I would not do without. Also, find an old gardener who grows first class crops. Spend a year or two or more working with them. You will learn x5 faster. I have been quite lucky in that I have the benefit of hundreds of years of familial experience, passed down. Been growing near 25 years, first 15 with my Father, him with his and his Grandfather etc. Still speak with him everyday about plant husbandry, soil biology and the like.

    I have alot of old Victorian gardening books, manuals, pamphlets and essays, along with old works from the market gardeners of Paris 1600-1900 and Amsterdam and Holland from the same time. Also, look into the English practice of High Farming from 1700's - 1930's. Those guys simply cannot be beaten - even if you used every chemical fertiliser, fungicide, herbicide and pesticide, you would still not get crops of the volume or quality of those guys.

    Most of all, best wisdom I can give in a few short words is feed and work the soil. It will respond like a young man and grow in strenth and continue to do so for as long as you feed and work it. It will get better every year - while the rate of improvement may slow after 10 years, it will improve every year. You could not live long enough to not see it improve.

    Do some research on the Terra Preta soils in the Amazon. Through the addition of organic materials and bio char, even tho the soils have noot been looked after for near 400 years, they are still able to self regenerate. Plenty of stuff on the web about them.
    Chupalo wrote: »
    Also, do you use compost tea at all? Have you considered co-planting something like wormwood (or another plant) to keep the slugs away?

    I make a tea with poultry manure and crushed bone to feed my tomatoes. I would have used sheep shit this year due to its high Phosphorus, but the wife is pregnant and I did not want to go collecting sheep shit when lambing was on earlier in the year - lots of nasties that can fuck up a pregnant woman when sheep are lambing.

    Others I know use nettles, comfrey, horse manure or seaweed to make teas.

    W/R companion planting, its always been something I have not got into. Sure, I get slugs, but if I had 'waste' plants growing I could not grow as much veg - I dont lose so much from the slugs as I would if something else was in the soil robbing nutrients and water. I do by nemotodes from time to time - microscopic organisms you water into the soil that kill slugs and a whole lot of other pests, but never ordered any this year.

    I find by keeping things tidy and burning the bottoms out of my hedges mid spring it robs the slugs of a place to live, but you cannot get them all!
    Chupalo wrote: »
    I've also been studying root cellars. I would get in major trouble with the city if I dug one where I live and got caught, but I might dig one anyhow. The problem is that I'm in a MAJOR metropolitan area, so if the shit did hit the fan, my house would either be looted, burned to the ground, or both within a matter of days.

    Make a clamp rather than a root cellar. Put down some sand, then some straw, stack you root veg, cover with straw and then soil. Roots will keep all winter, pests are usually dormant at this time of year and it does not have to be large. In my area for example, 12-18" of soil keeps the frost off and we get -12c (10f) here no probs in winter. Again, clamping is a very old, if not ancient method.

    Man has probably forgotton most of what we knew about plant husbandry since the advent of chemical ferts, pesticides, fungicides etc in the last 100 years or so.

    Always look to the past, for there in lies the answers. Look at historical fuck ups too, such as how the Levent and the mediteranian became how they are - they were once lush and fertile -now they are good for goats and olives.
  • ChupaloChupalo Regular
    edited July 2011
    Thanks for the info...

    It's amazing that 12,000 years of human knowledge has been lost in the last 100 years. 99.9% of us would be up shit creek without electricity.

    My property is about 200 miles inland, so it doesn't get anywhere near as much rain as the coastal region (only gets about 12"-15" per year). There is a lot of farming in the region due to nearby rivers, but my property is up in the nearby hills. Haven't tested any of the soil, yet.

    Looks like I'm going to be the first in my family to start the gardening trend. I hope my two boys are interested when I try to teach them...
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