Despite the complete lack of sunshine in Wiltshire, things are beginning to look happier in my garden.
I’m looking forward to a lovely flowery summer, with my first sweet peas coming up two weeks ago, they’re doing well and here’s my third little vase of them. The scent is fantastic…
I’ve also got a big tub of lilies outside my front door, which come up beautifully every year. We had to pick a lot of flea beetles off them, but they’ve survived and they’re now a cheery sight when I get home from work.
Quite excited too about the spectacular artichokes, which seem to be better than ever this year. I planted them from seed three years ago, and they have spread brilliantly, and have amazing huge (7ft tall), architectural foliage. They are in a rather dodgy part of the garden by the oil tank, but the spiky towering leaves do a great job of concealing it.
Sarah has a brilliant recipe to go with artichokes in her Garden Cookbook, which I’ll do this weekend – it’s Globe Artichokes with Angelica’s Sauce. We’re lucky that Kathryn, in the Buying team at the Sarah Raven offices, brings in her own hens’ eggs to sell – to raise money for her village church roof. They are fresh and delicious with dark yellow eggs, so they’re perfect for this dish.
I love the smell in the greenhouse when the tomatoes begin to grow, but we’re not quite there yet. They really need more heat from the sun, although at least they are beginning to get going. My husband Jake is in charge of tomatoes, and he’s dug in some old plastic water bottles and chopped off the ends. This is a good system (not so beautiful to look at – must take the labels off!), you water into the bottle and that takes the water right down to the roots which the tomatoes really like. It’s supposed to help keep them hydrated, so we’ll see if they get challenged later in the year.
Something pretty dire has happened to the French beans. Hoping they will recover, but they’ve gone a funny brown colour. Anyone know what this is? I must remember to ask Steph in Customer Services, who is the fount of all horticultural knowledge. The top leaves look ok, but the lower ones are suffering from something.
So that’s it from my little patch for now…
Thanks for reading!
One of the things that could be doing this to your French Beans is rust. Though this would be a very advanced case. I don’t think this plant will recover. It could also be a case of the terrible weather we have had with humid days leading to pelting rain and then back to cold weather. This could have knocked back the plants but it may not have killed them completely. Rip up and sow salad!
I’m very envious of your sweet peas – mine were all gobbled up by slugs, along with the runner beans (twice!), I loved the way their scent filled the house, and I’m really missing it this summer. I’ll try again next year.
I totally sympathise – I love sweet peas – my grandmother’s favourite flowers. I’ve spent months drooling over the pictures in the Sarah Raven catalogue & then when I treated myself to sweet pea plants to celebrate getting a new job they’ve (nearly) all been munched. I had sand down & sharp stones to fend off the slugs & snails & gave them comfrey pellets to make them happy but still a disaster. My dahlias and lots of petunias also got eaten but I mind most about the sweet peas. Very sad.