Mrs Long hits the patch!

Well as Mr Long is away at the moment, it is down to me, Mrs Long, to take care of the veggie patch. And I must say, i quite enjoyed myself. I potted out a couple of new plants, picked some strawberries and raspberries, made my own stakes from a rowan tree and added them to the row of peas along with an additional climbing line for them. All with the help of my little Pixie of course!
So babe, here are some pics of the patch at the mo, you can see how well (terribly) I'm doing...

...peas...

...first courgette coming through...

...Pix sorting out whatever they are...

...are these beans? Don't think they are doing so well...

...tomato plants; should they be taller?


She is obsessed with this!?!

RADishes

There's radishes galore on the patch at the moment...

found a great recipe in Sarah Ravens garden cookbook using radishes and their leaves

For 4:
25 radishes with their leaves
350g pasta
3 tbs olive oil
1 onion, choppd
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
75g pine nuts, toasted
75g parmesan cheese, plus more to serve

-cook pasta
-heat oil in pan
-sweat onions for 3 -4 mins
-add sliced radish, chooped leaves, garlic & pine nuts and cook until the tops wilt and soften
-remove from heat and season
-drain pasta and add radishes & parmesan

Yummy

We got the style

Oh it's getting hot out here
Must be something in the atmosphere
Oh I should be blogging about it
And making the most of the true French climate

I've seen,
The seedlings on the veg patch growing lately...

...potted on coriander, pumpkins, courgettes
...planted out red cabbage & tomatoes
...sowed two varieties of french bean
...built support structure for mange tout
...harvested salad leaves, radishes & strawbs
...weeded & watered (lots)
...declared slug wars!

Rotivation to mastication

It has been a busy time on the patch this week…

we ‘rotivated’ the patch and sowed parsnips, radish, mange tout, spring onions and beetroot direct and red cabbage, courge, squahes, pumpkins and leeks in modules under cover

We also had our first harvest of salad thinings - rocket, cos, pepper grass and green oakleaf

today on the farm...

sowing surplus salad seeds

It has been a productive day on the farm today, after morning prayers…

I filled & covered the right half of the compost bin with the contents of last year’s plant pots and window boxes ready for re-planting

I emptied THREE WHEELBARROWS FULL (120L I reckon) of 18-month-old-home-made-compost from the left half of the compost bin ready for re-filling

I sowed last year’s surplus salad-leaf seeds under a spontaneously-scrap-built ‘polytunnel’; old wire fencing covered in the ripped remnants of the trampoline netting

I had a picnic lunch with Pixie al fresco

I had my hair cut by Rebekah…

… who rewired the light fitting in the hallway so that it holds three light-bulbs instead of one

made some chai syrup

And had a French lesson