leeks

Blimey Kristen, how many hours are there in your day?

 

Oak is in full leaf, Ash has not yet broken its buds ... so much for a "Dash" then ... I hired a petrol-engined pump yesterday to pump out the soak-away because the standing water on lawn and garden was over the top of the manholes ... ran the pump for 12 hours! and I calculate shifted between 200 and 300 cu.m. of water - that's ... ermm ... "rather a lot" !!

The level in the pond has fallen a foot overnight, I reckon that water pressure from below had pushed the liner up (and the pond water thus overflowed to the adjacent lower pond), and now the ground water has receded the liner has sunk back.

Maybe we are in for a "dash" during the Summer ... but I ain't got much faith in the saying that's for sure!

Yeah, I know, its sad isn't it! Although ... growing what we need, and no excess, means that I am not spending time growing stuff that is never used. Always surprises me when I see a whole row of Lettuce ready to eat ... all that effort sowing, weeding, watering even maybe (not this Spring though!) ... After 2 or 3 years of reasonably detailed recording I now have a vegetable growing plan that doesn't need much adjustment, and serves us well. I don't need to grow Asparagus Peas, or Salsify ... we've done all those experiments over the years and decided they didn't suit us ... I'm not even that keen to try new varieties, although I do grow a few alongside the "stock" varieties I've grown for years just in case we prefer them (but the way I see it buying two varieties / packets just doubles the cost of the seed bill!!)

 

So Kristen, with this wealth of experience in GYO, can you tell me which are the "!simply the best" vegetables that you grow
Jenny namaste

 

I produced scale drawings of all my growing areas with the intention of keeping proper records printed on the box of OHP sheets I have so I could overlay them, but never got around to it. Instead I always keep a camera in my pocket and take loads of pictures (germination, in growth, late frost damage, failures, harvests, etc.) which are far more descriptive than volumes of notes/plans.

The compulsive gardener in me also makes me take pics of other peoples' veg, fruit trees, flowers, etc. whilst away on holiday in other parts of the country for comparison (another one for JWK's list).

Same with chooks as well as cooks.

 

Sweetcorn. Absolutely nothing to beat home-grown Sweetcorn because as soon as it is picked the SUgar starts turning to Starch, so if picked and put into a pan of boiling water immediately there is no way that Supermarket Sweetcorn can compete, because that will always have spend a couple of days getting from field-to-table

Some people take the pan of boiling water to the vegetable patch ! although I don't think that the couple of minutes it takes me to harvest and RUN !! with it to the kitchen makes any difference

But the freshness of all home grown veg., and the available of varieties that are more tasty than Supermarket ones (often bred to survive mechanical harvesting, to all-crop-at-once, and for shelf life usually means that Flavour suffers) does it for me

 

Between Ziggy and Kristen, ALL my leeky doubts have been resolved.