My homegrown harvest, July 2018.

Lo!  Tis the first raspberry of the year!  I'm not sure why they're so early this year, they're autumn fruiting raspberries ('autumn bliss') and I didn't have any til late August last year so this is very strange but enjoyable.  I think I like raspberries even better than strawberries!

We've had the last of the strawberries, and some blueberries, black currants and blackberries too this year.  Joe's been eating most of them with yoghurt for his breakfast.

I planted a few mange tout plants, and the touts have been ready to mange this month. I'm not keen on the giant mange tout (although it doesn't help that I let some of them grow overly giant!), I think I'll just plant the purple ones in future. 

I planted my broad beans late this year, and only planted about 6 beans (because of snow!  It seems a long time ago since it was cold enough to snow!).  They've actually been the most successful broad beans I've ever grown, they were lovely plants that didn't need any support and had hardly any pests and grew loads and loads of beans.  If you've been reading my blog for some time then you'll know that I'm a very picky eater, so I, of course, don't actually like broad beans - but I do like falafel so these got turned into a batch of falafel and were frozen for a later day. 

How's your garden this month?  What are you eating? 

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Dairy of a permaculture (ish) garden, July 2018.

It's been another month of it's-too-hot-to-garden weather here, with a bit of it's-too-wet-to-garden weather at the end!

I'm looking forward to these apples ripening.  I think I shouldn't have let this tree make apples this year because it's a new one, but they're so pretty I couldn't resist. 

My side garden, which is the fruity bit of the garden, is looking good.   There's just one bit at the far end by the gate that's full of weeds, the rest is full of lovely productive fruit trees, raspberries and herbs, yey!  And I'm clearing the weeds away slowly when I have new plants to replace them with.  This month I've added chives and garlic chives, rosemary, strawberries and a tiny rose to replace some of the weeds.

My apple tree's recovering from it's ant/aphid attack last month.  I noticed a few aphids coming back, and I was about to start picking them off when I spotted a mama ladybird and some babies, so I'm going to leave it to nature to sort out.  Thanks nature.

I'm very late with all my planting this year (For which I blame the weather.  For which I blame climate change.  For which I blame our governments for doing nothing about it.  Anyway...) so I've just got round to planting out courgettes and shallots. 

I'm surprised the shallots actually sprouted because I bought them from the Wilko's sale for 50p and had them hanging round the house for a couple of months after that.  My one courgette plant looks ok in this photos, but actually isn't very happy in the middle of the clover cover crop, so I think I'll remove the clover to give it more of a chance.

Everything looks a mess at the moment (although I have since straightened up the falling over kale at least!) especially round the raised beds.  I've let the chard flower, and it's attracted so many hoverflies and other interesting insects that I can't bring myself to cut it back, even if it is flopping all over the place.

I've planted some tiny and sorry looking leeks I started off months ago into this raised bed, and you can see the ginger (in the terracotta pot) has been enjoying the heat, I wonder if it'll flower, of if I'll get any ginger root to harvest!?

I'm most proud of this little space.  I got rid of an old rickety garden table and replaced it with a tea trolley I bought for £2 that I'm going to modify into a potting bench.  There's room now for a couple of chairs so we can sit outside together.

Can you see my tomatoes in my big basket planter?  They've gone for it this month!  There are a few cherry tomatoes waiting to ripen on them already, which isn't bad because I planted them really late.  I planted purple mange tout round the edges of the basket and I've been picking lots of those too.

It rained!  And it filled my waterbutt all the way up!  And it's raining again now.  Thank goodness. 

I chopped down all the gone-over foxgloves and all the crispy bits of things that got fried in the 30 degree heat, the garden looks a little bare but I'm sure it'll bounce back in a couple of weeks.

That's it for my garden this month. I'll leave you with this pretty white flower, I can't remember the name of the plant right now, but the flower bud starts off like a little box and then they burst open into these beautiful blooms. 

How's your garden growing? 

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Review - Morrisons wonky veg box.

I've tried a few organic veggie boxes in my time, but when I spotted this Wonky Veg box from Morrisons for only £3.50 I couldn't resist and added it to my online shopping order.  

Inside the box were 10 medium size potatoes, 4 small onions, 2 small leeks, 3 parsnips, 1 cauliflower, 1 swede, 1 cabbage and 6 carrots.  As with lots of 'wonky' fruit and veg, I can see nothing wrong with any of it!  If I was being extra picky I'd say the potatoes have imperfect skin, but that's easy enough to deal with.

All the wonky veg from the box has been delicious and some of it's still in the fridge 2 weeks after we bought it, and it's lasting well.  The cauliflower was really nice and fresh, and the potatoes were really yummy.  

I do prefer an organic veg box, but this Morrisons Wonky Veg box actually has nicer veg in than the Morrisons organic veg box.  I regularly get an Able and Cole organic fruit and veg box, it has the nicest produce in it, but costs £14.50 plus delivery each week, whereas this Wonky box is a bit of a bargain for £3.50.  

In terms of packaging, the veg came in a carboard box, covered with a single sheet of plastic.  I'd have preferred no plastic, but 1 sheet is still less than if you were to buy all these veg wrapped singly. 

Have you tried a Wonky Veg box?  What do you think?

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Garden visit, Gardener's World Live.

Garden visits is a (newish) blog series where I visit gardens then blog about them! 

Last month, Joe and I spent a day soaking up lots of garden-y inspiration at Gardener's World Live at the NEC in Birmingham.  

Here are some pics of my favourite gardens and displays.  

  

I didn't take notes about who made what garden, but you can find info about all the gardens and stalls on the BBC Gardener's World Live website.  

My favourite moments were seeing a talk by the lovely Frances Tophill and this cheeky little bird hopping and cheeping about all the displays in the marquee collecting bits for his nest.  

Check out the other garden's I've visited too. 

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Charity shopping.

I keep going to the charity shops to buy new summer clothes, but I can't find anything right (I've had to go to eBay instead!).  I ain't mad though, because I've found loads of retro homeware instead. 

There's a pound charity shop in town and how am I supposed to resist huge retro jugs I don't really need when they only cost £1!

Taunton Ware jug, £1, Sue Ryder. 

I bought a couple of pairs of curtains too, I'm going to make a skirt (or a dungaree dress if I dare!) from the brown one because it's nice and cottony and soft, and the yellow and white ones will go up in the hallway when I've sewn them together to make one big front door sized curtain. 

Brown curtains, £1, Sue Ryder, Yellow curtains, £2, Salvation Army. 

These both count as plant pots because I'm going to use the bin basket as a plant pot too.

Ceramic planter, 99p, Oxfam, Basket, 50p, Air Ambulance.

This also counts as a plant pot, the bee on the lid has a broken wing, so I'll just use the base as a plant pot.  I don't actually need any more plant pots though.  This says SELCA made in Portugal on the bottom, I've googled it but I can't work out when this was made, but it's pretty anyway.

SELCA bee pot, £1, Air Ambulance.

My Mum picked me up these Doctor Who ice cube trays from the charity shop where she works.  They were originally from Lakeland's 50 years of Doctor Who collection, and I missed it when it was in the shops.  These were REALLY stinky (how much do you have to smoke to make your ice cube trays smoky??) but after spending about 4 months living in the dishwasher they smell fine and are ready to use. 

Doctor Who ice cube trays, present from Mummy, probably from Oxfam. 

I recently tidied up our conservatory and now it's lovely and clean it needs new cushions.  All the cushions I have in there at the moment are from my teenage bedrooms through the years.  I love this cushion cover, but it also reminds me of the cushions Mum had in the lounge when I was a teenager! 

Crochet cushion cover, £1, Sue Ryder. 

I spent more than I normally would on this because it's something I was actually looking to buy.  I don't really like kneeling in the garden because it hurts my knees, so I've bought this little stool to sit on when I've got weeding to do.  And if that makes me an old person I don't care, I'm happy with my weeding stool and my non-painful knees!

Retro stool, £8, Age Concern. 

I don't think this is a bad lot for just over £15, I love charity shopping. 

PS. Check out my other charity shopping posts for more like this! x

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