Closing down for the winter!

Here we are at the start of November and things are still alive in the garden! There has been the odd bit of ground frost but not enough to kill off the carrots.

Today is sunny but cold and it seemed about time to do some tidying-up.

I dug up the last of the potatoes (more of that later) and all the remaining carrots. The parsnips are actually starting to fatten now so perhaps there will be a crop after all. The weather forecast for the week goes up to 12°C which seems unlikley but at least indicates that they could grow a bit more yet.

I pulled up the broadbean plants and put them in the compost bin. I used to leave them over the winter because the nitrogen nodules are supposed to release nitrogen into the soil but I just read that by the time they have made beans there is hardly any nitrogen left in the nodules, it has all gone to leaf and pod production, so in the bin with them. A couple of the plants had begun to shoot again from the bottom and I just cut those down a bit, just to see what happens over winter.

The red cabbage are pathetically tiny so I have left them in there for now. Might give them another try next year. I did plant them pretty late.

The big garlic experiment continues. I bought some Chinese garlic, and also single-clove garlic. I planted 9 cloves in one square, 5 single cloves in another, and replanted my own funny looking garlic in another two squares. I will leave them uncovered, except perhaps for acryl sheeting over the worst of the winter.

Will post some photos later.

Carrot time!

Starting to pull some carrots now and although they are not fully grown they are big enough to be worth pulling. The chicken manure did the trick and the leaves greened up nicely and the carrots grew a bit more too. Glad I decided to do that. Next year I will just mix some into each bed in the spring.


Here are pictures of yesterday's and today's pickings. The purple sprouting broccoli had very wooden stems but the other one was fine.
Each bean pod had about 4 or 5 good sized beans in it. These were the Masterpiece beans which lived up to their claim of being fast at growing. The Medes ones need a couple more weeks I think but do have a lot of pods on :-)






































This shot is of the two left hand boxes. The potato plants are just beginning to yellow. I'm very happy with the growth this year. I think I could have planted the potatoes a bit deeper - and earlier would have been nice too.
The onions did very little. I don't think I will have onions next year.
The strawberry plants from seed are still small but have afew flowers so it will be interesting to see how they do next year - if they survive the winter.











This is the deep box on the right. You can see how well the beans are doing. The parsnips are coming on slowly as might be expected. One or two may actually be a decent size.

























This bed looks a bit of a mess. One of the purple broccoli plants I pulled up as it looked sick. It had white grubs around its roots. Some of the others do not look to great either.
The swede are getting to an edible size but I will leave them longer. The slugs seem to like their leaves though.
The red cabbage is far from hearting-up. These were plants from Hveragerði and may just have been put in too late.
Spinach was disappointing, did not get so many leaves off it this year I think. I may look for a better type.

Mid-July

I have mixed news on the garden front. Below is a picture of the whole garden as it is today. It is obvious that the carrots on teh right are all much paler than the ones on the left (which are in fresh mix). I'm guessing that the amount of mushroom compost which I added was not enough to supply the needed nitrogen. The broadbeans seem to be perfectly happy, but I think they bind nitrogen themselves? Anyhow, I've been giving a liquid feed of seaweed fertilizer and that does not seem to have changed much so today I sprinkled on some chicken manure and I am watering it in now.
I dug up all of the garlic today because the grass had dried. Each clove only made one round bulb so not sure what is happening there. It is juicy enough but just doesn't look like garlic!
We have eaten most of the spinach, I've pulled half of it up as it had begun to flower. The broccoli is just coming on, had 4 tiny heads last night. And the strawberries are very good now.

June update

Finally the weather has picked up a bit. It has been very dry and I think it is time to give the beds a good soaking so I'll be doing that later. These photos were taken on the 20th.
Since then I have transplanted the strawberry plants which I grew from seed. Today I staked the broadbeans better. The two types are completely different, one is in full flower and the other has no flowers at all yet.
There have been a lot of green insects on the onions. I sprayed with some soap solution and they have at least reduced in number. The carrots are growing rather slowly, but perhaps no worse than last year, hard to be sure.

End of May

I am still adding things to the new shallow box. The two squares of spinach are up now, still only with seed-leaves. I sowed another two squares today, that should be more than enough! I think I am the only person to actual like it in salads.

I sprinkled some very old English mixed salad leaves over one square too. No loss if they do nothing.

Most of the carrots are up now, and the parsnip too.

Three empty squares left in the shallow box, plus what looks like space in the centre of the purple sprouting broccoli squares. Those plants are very small and it might be good to put a beetroot or something in the middle of each square.

Potatoes in

It is stupidly cold here now. The potatoes were barely sprouting but I put them in anyway (on the 24th) because the forecast is for rain later in the week.
I used the back two rows of the new deep box, so now it is full of potatoes and carrots - though they have not come up yet.
The kalibroc which I had grown indoors was hardened off a bit at least, and then put in the back row of the new shallow box. In front of that I put the purple sprouting broccoli which I grew in the winter sowing experiment. It is not as big as the indoor plants so I doubt if this will be a way to get things growing quickly. It will be interesting to see if it produces anything edible at all.
I now have three full boxes, space only in the new shallow box. If I get to Hveragerði next week then I will buy some plants to put in there, have to see what is available but perhaps some cabbage.
With temperatures well under 10°C and dropping to 3°C often over night, things are just hanging on rather than actually growing :-( We did have a very small amount of rhubarb though, mixed in some apple and made a crumble!

Quickie

Just ran out and added some seed to the new shallow box.
Sowed two squares of spinach, same sort as last year, and one square of coriander.
Plan to sow another square or two of spinach in two weeks time, perhaps more coriander then too, depends on how much space I have.

Most of the carrots which I sowed May 6th are up now.