The return of Sustainability Sundays!

Does anyone else remember Sustainability Sundays, here on my blog?  I haven’t done these posts for about a year and a half; the garden ended up pretty much fallow (that’s a nice word for ‘neglected and messy’) last year, and the only sustainability post I wrote, at all, was on making pizza.  By this time last year, I knew I was packing in the day job to run Yarnscape full time.  (In case you’re wondering, that takes up most of my brain.)  In addition, my most local partner-in-sustainability, Geodyne, had recently moved to the other side of teh world, and then (ugh!) we had a long, cold winter.  Spring arrived late, and suddenly, and threw all my usual planting strategies into a tailspin.  We did plant garlic, onions, potatoes and jerusalem artichokes (see below!), and a few other things, but really, not much gardening took place at all.

Anyway: these posts are inspired by Sharon Astyk’s “Independence Days” challenge, over at The Chatelaine’s Keys.  Her focus, in this challenge, is to help people break their reliance on agribusiness and supermarkets for their food needs.  My interest is similar, but different: I am interested in the sustainability of my lifestyle, concentrating (in these posts, at least) on food.

That’s enough intro!  The rest of the post is broken down into categories.  The idea is to do something – anything! – in each one, each week.

Unseasonable

Well, it’s October tomorow, and yet we in England have been sitting in a heatwave for the last few days.  Lazy lunches, sunhats, ‘too-hot-to-do-anything’ afternoons and barbecue dinners.  I think it has everyone flummoxed, though few people are complaining.  (It’s the best summer weather we’ve had since April, which was also warm).

I have a tomato plant that I didn’t actually cultivate; it just popped up a while back in one of the veg beds.  I wasn’t going to grow tomatoes this year; we had such bad blight last year that I thought I’d give it a rest, but I find it quite difficult to kill a healthy plant, so this one has been allowed to remain on sufferance – as long as it stays healthy!

It started late, so I’d expected it to maybe produce a few stems of green tomatoes, which I could either chutnify or ripen indoors.  Instead, it is now loaded with small, green fruit, and I’m starting to think a few might actually begin the ripening process on the plant itself.

We also have a houseguest for a few days; J’s Mum is visiting, so the amazing weather gives us a chance to do all sorts of summery things that we normally wouldn’t have a chance of contemplating at this time of the year.  Yesterday was a day for relaxing though: some shopping in the morning, and just chilling out in the afternoon.  I made a couple of cheesecakes, and in the afternoon got weaving on a project that has been in the getting ready phase for a month now:

I’m really delighted with the way it’s coming on.  This is an 8 shaft pattern, by far the most complex threading I’ve ever attempted, and there was only one error.  I was worried the warp wasn’t up to it at one stage, but I think we’re doing OK now.

Today: the beach?

The Return of the Garden

Anyone looking at the UK weather reports for the last couple of months will know that spring arrived late, and fast.  I’d had my usual burst of seed-sowing enthusiasm earlier in the year (umm, late February?!), but things had damped off rather as the frosts and bitter winds persisted.

About a month ago, I made sure that all the garlic that wasn’t planted in the autumn finally made it into the ground, along with all our seed potatoes.  We have planted a *lot* of potatoes this year, in the hopes that we won’t have to buy many at all.  Additionally, we should be self-sufficient in garlic, as all the seed garlic was from last year’s harvest.  I also managed to get the broad bean seeds in the ground (also seed from last year’s harvest.  Given that the original seed was given to me by my Dad, I’m keen to continue the line), and to thin out the strawberry plants (the baby plants from last years’ runners have gone in a patio-strawberry-tower thingy).

…and last weekend, I finally got to plant out some of my rather overgrown seedlings, and tend to the veg beds.  I have rather a lot of baby chilli plants now (various varieties), and quite a lot of okra.  Also, three cucumber plants, which, bless them, may not survive the transplantation.  The biggest problem with leaving them in the seed trays so long is that, by now, they have a lot of roots to damage.  What follows is a quick photo tour of the things that looked interesting this evening (brought to you by A Failure To Focus.  Just *what* was going on with the camera, I don’t know, but the light is now Gone, so out of focus it will have to be):

The broad beans, tall and sturdy

Lots of strawberries! (Slightly blurry)

The blueberry bushes, in their second
full year, are looking promising too…

…though I think the white currants are
stealing the show! (Exceptionally blurry).

These are cherries…

…whereas these are plums!

Trying to grow hops between two poles
to minimise vertical height required…

The last shot and the blurriest (but I love it!)
FIGS!

Quick update on the Leylandii

The wretched hedging plants seem to have struck a chord with a few people! UK residents might like to know that the ‘high hedge law‘ applies to any group of two or more evergreens which form a barrier to light or access and is over two metres high. If you own such a high hedge, affected neighbours have recourse under the law to get it sorted out.  (Or, if your neighbours own such a hedge and it is a nuisance to you, then you can start complaining, too).

Anyway, removal of our hedge has (predictably) left a lot of debris and mess in the garden, though most of the actual vegetable matter has been removed now.  It’s also allowing a lot more light into the garden, especially in the evenings, which is lovely!  It’s a lousy phone-snap, but just to give you an impression, we have before:

And after:

Not quite the same vantage point, but the bird feeders are in both shots.  And the new fence is the same height as the one you can see in the left hand side of the ‘before’ shot.

We’ve regained a lot of space, over four feet in depth, and the ‘feel’ of that end of the garden is much more open and light than it was.  We like it!

Bye-bye, Leylandii

One of the ‘features’ of our garden is a Leylandii ‘hedge’ along one of the borders.  For anyone who isn’t familiar with these monsters – firstly, congratulations.  Secondly, they’re a coniferous hedging plant, common in suburban gardens, presumably because they’re difficult to kill and form a tight, meshy growth that isn’t easily seen through.

Unfortunately, they are also very vigorous, and need regular attention if they’re not going to get away from you.  If they *do* overgrow, you end up with a huge, bushy, straggly and potentially very tall hedge which is only thick and green on the outside.  If you cut it back far, you will be faced with scrubby, brown, dry growth which will take forever (read: years) to green up and look nice again – if it ever does.

Our hedge was a little rambunctious when we moved in, but I managed to trim the sides back up to a height of around six to seven feet.  The plan was to take the tops off above that height and maintain them there.

As you can see, it hasn’t happened (dog included for scale):

The ‘controlled’ part is still about six feet tall; there is at least another six feet above that, now, which takes us well beyond the ‘tall hedge’ height (above which neighbours have the right, under law, to ask you to sort the damn thing out).

As you can probably imagine, we also lose a lot of depth (easily a metre, at a guess, probably more) to the thing.

There is, in fact, a path (juuust visible in the picture above) that runs alongside the hedge and which can hardly be walked thanks to the overgrowth.

Much as it pains me to cut down a tree, these are clearly beyond our control.  In addition, they don’t add much, if anything, to the ecology of our garden.  So today, we have some nice men coming in to cut them down and erect a fence in its place.  The reclaimed space will become a border, either for flowers or to house my collection of Fruit Trees In Tubs (more on those later) – or possibly for a cold frame or two, because the location and orientation is ideal.

We’re also going to have this ‘passageway’ down the side of the house cleared and the fence will continue down there:

That’s the wall of our house on the right.  The Leylandii start just outside the left hand side of this shot; that fence panel behind the elder bush is (mysteriously) the only one standing on the border.  The old shed door, on its side, stops the dogs getting down the passageway, which has a dead-end and has become a bit of a dumping ground for Things That Need To Go To The Tip.  I will be *so* glad to see it opened up!

In fact, I think the only person who will be sorry about any of this is Woody, who spends a lot of his garden-time investigating the myriad smells to be found under the hedge.  Quite often, all that can be seen of him is his tail, bottom and hind legs, sticking out from the undergrowth as he sniffs and snuffles eagerly.  Still, I’m sure he’ll cope: there’s still the back of the shed to enjoy.

92) Of socks and carrots

…in which we prove that something is always better than nothing.  First, I think, the carrots.  Some of these carrots are Very Small:

I planted these carrots as part of a second crop, much earlier this year.  For the two or three days immediately after I sowed the seed (evenly, in a well prepared bed, I might add), it rained, solidly.  When the carrots germinated, they were all on one side of the bed, where the seeds had been washed.  I ignored them totally until it was time to clear the beds back.

And when I cleared the beds, I found carrots.  As you might expect, they were very variable in size and shape.  Some of them (top right, for example), are almost normal.  Others… aren’t.  But they are carrots.  Between them, I managed to salvage enough actual vegetable for seven portions of squash and smoked paprika soup (recipe possibly to follow – it’s good), and around ten portions of bolognese.  Sure, I’d have gotten more carrot if I’d dug up the cramped ones and sown more, but since I never got around to it, I still got some carrot.

And so to socks.  I rarely knit socks.  I think they take forever, and I’m tough on my footwear, so it seems I wear them out faster than I knit them.  But when I do knit socks, it’s almost always as a secondary project; I hardly ever actually work on them.  These, however, have been my main project for the last ten days:

For me, that probably means 10-20 minutes in an evening, plus whatever time I can snatch at my desk during the day.  Time is short round here.  And see?!  Progress!  It’s amazing.

Take home message: Doing pretty much anything towards what you want is better than doing nothing.

76) The garden roundup

It seems appropriate that I post the close-of-summer garden post today; last week, we had the first plant-killing frost.  It didn't kill everything, but the bush beans have definitely had it, so it counts.  And this morning, a harder frost; when I set out for work this morning, de-icer was called for (not my favourite thing in the world)

Executive summary:
My gardening has been diverse and varied this year; I've had successes and failures in probably equal measure – and it's notable that last year's successes have been some of this year's disappointments, and vice versa.  Most notable, though, is that I haven't actually followed through on a lot of my gardening commitments.  If I'd committed to less, and invested the same total amount of effort into that smaller goal, I would have reaped a much larger harvest.  This is something to think about, in the context of my life as a whole, not just the garden, and something to remember for next year.  I'm probably not ready to take on that allotment just yet, eh?

Legumes

• Peas - I grew dwarf hatif peas, green telephone peas and golden mange tout.  The hatif I think have potential, but I planted them too late in the season for them to have a good chance.  I'm not sure that it's worth trying to grow your own green peas (except to harvest the pods, which make excellent wine!), and this year the telephones were particularly disappointing.  I planted two 'pyramids' of mange tout, but one would have been plenty – or two, but not at the same time
• Soy beans - Like the hatif peas, these went in too late and got swallowed by the one successful squash plant.  I wasn't paying attention.
• Chick peas - These were fun!  They were victims of my erratic attention span, though, and I missed the harvesting window.  They went from 'green' to 'gone' in what seemed like a blink of the eye.
• Bush beans – I'm a total convert to these.  They take up so little space, start producing quickly, and crop and crop and crop for aaages.
• Pole beans – Cherokee Trail of tears and Rhinegold (I think).  The Cherokees were not bad, but given that I planted the others very early in the year, its sort of a shame they're just coming into their maximum productivity now – because they were badly affected by the (very mild) frost this week.  I will probably grow the Cherokees or a similar variety for drying next year, but skip the others – the bush beans were so much better for a French/runner type
• Broad beans – I planted some of my Dad's seed for these, and they were delicious – but the third and onwards 'layers' of pods rotted off.  I'm not sure why, but fungus seems to have been a recurring theme in my garden this year.

Alliums

• Onions - unfortunately, a lot of my onions got crowded out by volunteer tomato plants, which I decided to let grow because hey, if it's a good year for tomatoes, then I want all I can get!  Even more unfortunately, the tomatoes all succumbed to blight, so I got nothing from the onion bed.
• Garlic - one of this year's success stories!  Albegensian wight, Chesnok wight, Lautrec wight, Picardy wight.  The Albigensian Wight variety produced the biggest bulbs – but no scapes (we really enjoyed the scapes!) Planted late last year, we have enough garlic that, with care, we might manage to be self-sufficient in garlic next year.
• Leeks - another crop lost to my erratic attention span, early in the year.  I'm sorry about this; I've had some pretty good success with leeks in the past, and I miss them.

Root vegetables

• Beetroot has been a raging success this year, with much bigger roots than last year's efforts, and luscious, prolific greens.  I've only grown one variety – the white ones from Real Seeds – which I picked specifically because the greens, as well as the roots, are supposed to be good to eat.  I love the roots chopped and roasted in olive oil, with dried rosemary and salt.  I'll definitely grow these again next year.  Phased growing seems to work well with these, too, so you don't get all your crop at once (I still have a few in the ground!)

• Carrots have been pretty much a non-event this year.  The first carrot bed was overrun by weeds due to neglect, and a downpour washed all the seeds in the second one to one side of the patch!  We do have carrot fly in this area, but haven't suffered with it too badly this year.
• Potatoes - mixed success.  Actually, we got quite a good crop, but I wasn't very interested in cooking when the best new ones were ready, so we sort of missed the best bit.
• Parsnips - slow to germinate, we got overgrown with weeds before the plants themselves were up.  These definitely need a better prepared plot for next year.

Belladonna fruits

• Tomatoes - a range of varieties, including a vast number of volunteers.  Some were wonderful (especially the yellow centiflors):

But I lost a lot to blight:

The blight was such a problem that I plan not to grow any tomatoes next year, to give the land a rest.

• Peppers – One variety, Sweet Kaibi.  I grew these in my little poly-greenhouse, and I'm really impressed.  It's not as if I've come close to meeting our annual pepper requirements, but these have been sweet, crunchy and impressively thick-walled compared with shop bought ones.  Definitely one to repeat for next year.
• Chillis – two varieties, Rotoco and Lemon Drop.  The Rotocos haven't fruited yet, but the Lemon Drop have done pretty well.  We ate one in a stir fry last night, and it was pleasantly hot, with a distinct lemon scent (not sure about flavour, though).
• Aubergines – Two beautiful plants grew from seed, but didn't set a single fruit.  Next year, I break out the tiny paintbrushes and give them a helping hand.

Leafy stuff

• Lettuce has been a washout.  I tried red iceberg for the second year in a row, but I find it very slow growing, and a couple of heads rotted off, seemingly from the inside out, before I got to eat them this year.  I think successional sowing of 'baby' greens might work better for my work lunches, at least.
• Rocket needs to be sown more often and in window-box style pots, not in the raised beds
• Chard – Swiss chard, aka perpetual spinach, has been another real win this year.  J's favourite pizza topping has been sauteed 'spinach' with blue cheese and walnuts, with an egg on top.  This is a major coup, since a) it contains no meat, and b) he's been a lifelong greens-hater thus far.  We've had three chard plants, and they've cropped all season long; a fourth would mean we have some to freeze, too, if I was diligent about it.
• Herbs – eh.  So many herbs (basil and coriander, I'm looking at you!) seem to need diligent succesional sowing in order to give a useful crop without killing the plants.  I'm working on it, but it's another thing I either need to really, really commit to, or just don't bother.
• Amaranth – I grew some!!  I've been trying to grow this from seed for years, and the seedlings have just been dying off.  This year, I succeeded – but I've not done anything with it.  Heh.

Brassicas
All the brassicas have been impossible to grow to eating stage in previous years, due to intense predation by butterflies and snails.  This year, I got the better (mostly) of the butterflies by growing under mesh, and picking off the caterpillars that got in anyway.  Next year, I need to do something about the molluscs.

• Broccoli – for the first year, I got some that was worth eating!  We had five plants (I think), but still, most of our broccoli was bought in.  Is this one worth it in a small garden?
• Cauliflower – all lost at the seedling stage, this year
• Kohl Rabi – we love this in coleslaw, but haven't eaten much this year.
• Swede - lost the whole crop to various insects.  Bah.
• Rapa senza testa – this one cropped well, but I was having a lazy spell, and didn't actually get around to harvesting it.  Wasted effort!
• Broccoli raab – we tried this as a quick-to-crop alternative to broccoli; it 'works' just fine, but even I found it bitter.  Not a favourite with J.
• Brussels sprouts – still in the ground, and, since we've had the first frost, I could technically consider them ready!  I hope to have some at Christmas.
• Cabbages – I have a head!!  This is a major win, given my past experiences.  Now to make sure I actually harvest the thing, instead of letting it go to waste…

Squashes and curcubits

• Cucumber ('Parisian Pickling' variety, another dual-purpose plant, with fruit good for pickling and for salads) has been an oddly mixed success.  I gave up on these plants after the general squash-failure early in teh year – only to find that they'd struggled on regardless.  With absolutely zero attention from me, these little plants have straggled their way through the beds, in the shade, and have produced about as many fruit per plant as they have leaves.  I have no idea how they managed it:

I'll definitely plant these again next year – I'm really keen to find out how well they do if they're actually tended.

• Melons and summer squash – all my seedlings died after I planted them out just before the last cold snap of spring.  I re-sowed seed, but the second crop of seedlings failed to thrive, and I didn't have a single plant.  Not to worry, though – Geodyne has provided us with more courgettes, patty pans and other summer squas than I can count!
• Winter squash - one vine (a Thelma Sanders Sweet Potato) survived the tragedy that took all the summer squash and melon plants.  It has multiple fruit, and I must pick them.

 Fruit

• Strawberries - I planted 10 plants from my parents' place this year.  We got some fruit, though it was a race between us, the snails and the birds; not bad, for year 1.
• Raspberries - Again, this was their first year in the ground, so I didn't expect any – and I wasn't disappointed.  Maybe a scant handful of fruit; a very promising 'watch this space'.
• Blueberries – enough to keep me in breakfasts for a month or so!  I only bought these bushes last year, so I was very pleasantly surprised here.

If you're still with me, you deserve a prize!  But sorry not today – come back later in the week. 

54) Not more sustainability, surely?

Though really, can you ever have too much?  I will admit, a catchup on the rest of my life is definitely in order, but it's been one of those months.  And the backlog has reached the point where it is, frankly daunting.  These posts are at least structured, and scheduled (even if I *am* late again).

Anyway:

 
1.
Plant Something -

• Bush beans, peas.
• Started a new batch of beer (not really 'planting', but definitely 'starting')
  

 

2. Harvest something -

• Broad beans
• French beans
  
• Mustard greens
  
• Spinach beet
• Beetroot leaves
• Beetroots!
  
• The very last garlic scapes
• New potatoes
• Mint
• Broccoli
• The first blueberry! It wasn't 100% ripe…
  

3.
Preserve something
    Nothing this week

4.
Waste Not (reducing wastage in all areas)

• Saved peas from the last of the mange tout crop for next year's seed
• Racked 'dormant' wine from demijohn into storage

5. Want Not (preparing for shortage situations)

    
Nothing this week!

6.
Build/support Community Food Systems –

• Shared seeds
• Educated folks on making yoghurt (it's easy! It's good!)
• 
  

7. Eat the Food

• Spinach beet on pizza
• Beetroot leaves in chicken soup and in stir fry
• Garlic scape butter on garlic bread
• Last year's summer squash, roasted with sage and olive oil
• Pizza bases made with sourdough
• Yoghurt and yoghurt cheesecake (coffee flavour was good, but runny)
• Beetroots, roasted with rosemary and salt
• New potatoes
• Bush and pole beans (our go-to veg this week)
• Wine and beer. 

8.What I bought

• Bread
• Onions
• Wine

9. Looking forwards

• Aubergines still flowering! No fruit set yet…
• The tomatoes are setting really well; some are nearly ripe, and lots more are visibly ripening.
• All my onions are lying down.  Why?  Are they failing??
• Blueberries are actually starting to ripen.  Ye gods, but they're slow!
• The last of the broad beans will be ready very soon now; need to save some for seed
• The various squash plants have finally started to grow properly, and might even set some fruit one day soon!
• One of my chilli plants has baby chillis!
• Garlic needs harvesting, but I'd rather it was dry.  Oh, the irony…

53) Sustainability Sundays: The Neglected Blog edition

Good grief; this is my third Sustainability Sunday post in a row, which clearly means I'm not posting anything else.  Must rectify.  Anyway:

 
1.
Plant Something -
    Nada, despite my fit of organisational activity last weekend.  Should probably check the seed box and see what's due…

 

2. Harvest something -

• Broad beans
• French beans (both pole and bush.  I think I'm a bush convert, though I love the way poles look.)
  
• Mustard greens
  
• Spinach beet
• Beetroot leaves
• Garlic scapes, and…
  
• The first garlics.  Sadly, they had an intruder-cat-meets-defensive-dog incident over the weekend, and I decided to pull them rather than leave them in the ground – which was rather wet at that point.  This may affect their keeping qualities – we'll have to see.
  

3.
Preserve something

• Two batches of yoghurt (one will become cheesecake very soon now).
• Mashed and froze overripe bananas
• Blanched and froze broad beans
• Cooked spinach beet for pizza toppings (J will eat it!  In fact, likes it!  Indeed, requests it!! Yay!)

4.
Waste Not (reducing wastage in all areas)

     As well as the usual, I've been trying to establish better habits in the shower (minds out of the grimy gutter, you lot).  I have a bad habit of leaving the shower running whilst I'm shampooing my hair, shaving my legs – you name it.  And there's no need to.  It keeps the shower area warmer in the winter, but that's it; and it's not winter.  So I've been reducing water wastage by shutting off the shower unless I'm really, seriously using it, right that second.

5. Want Not (preparing for shortage situations)

    
Nothing this week!

6.
Build/support Community Food Systems –

    
Nothing this week!

7. Eat the Food

• Broad beans in various incarnations.  This has been the week of the broad bean (I think that's fava beans to American readers, btw).
• Beetroot greens on pizza
• Spinach beet in risotto (nom!!)
• Garlic scape butter used to make risotto (definitely nom!)

8.What I bought

• Bread
• Onions

9. Looking forwards

• Harvest seed peas and pull up the old plants
• I think the raspberries are just about done.  It's their first year, and the very hot conditions have not been too kind.  I think our neighbour has also treated her garden with something noxious, right on the other side of the fence that the rasps live against.
• Aubergines are flowering!
• Must remember to feed the tomatoes…
• Peppers are doing really well in my mini greenhouse.  Lots and lots of fruit have set and are growing well!
• Some of the broccoli needs harvesting before it actually flowers
• I think the dwarf peas I planted out last weekend died.  They're so ridiculously quick to crop, it'd be good to get some more in the ground ASAP.
• Must investigate what's actually inside those funky little chick-pea pods.  Are they ready to harvest, or not?  I have no idea…
• Blueberries are actually starting to ripen.  Ye gods, but they're slow!

52) Sustainability Sundays: the very quick edition

OK, so it's only a few days since my last post on this topic, but let's get back on track with the days, hmm?

 
1.
Plant Something -
    No new seeds have hit soil, but I have planted out dwarf peas, bush beans and soya bean plants this weekend, along with beetroot and other brassica seedlings.  I don't like planting out when it's so hot and dry, but it's long overdue for these plants anyway, so they're going to have to live with it!  – or not. 

   I've also had another quick scan through the seed box and arranged it for the next few weeks, so the after-midsummer planting can commence next week…

 

2. Harvest something -

• Raspberries

• The last few mange tout.  I might get a few more pods off these plants, but they're basically Done, baby.  I expect to be pulling them out next week…
  
• The first of the broad beans!
  

3.
Preserve something

     Nothing this week.

4.
Waste Not (reducing wastage in all areas)

     Just the usual -
composting etc.

5. Want Not (preparing for shortage situations)~

    
Nothing this week!

6.
Build/support Community Food Systems –

• Blogging about it

7. Eat the Food

• Raspberries and yoghurt on my breakfast
• Broad beans, straight from teh pod.  Nom!

8.What I bought

• Bread.

9. Looking forwards

• Beetroots are looking very healthy and getting to a good size; start
  eating the greens!
• Broad beans harvest
  will ramp up during the week;
• Harvest seed peas and pull up the old plants
• Raspberries will be harvestable over the next week or so
• Aubergines are flowering!
• Tomatoes are abundant, but still green.  Must remember to feed them, and keep an eye out.
• Peppers are starting to set fruit!