This weekend I have been busy picking the last of the Winter vegetables from the garden as the weather has been good and I can get on with digging the vegetable patch.

I collected the last brussel sprouts, most of which have been nibbled by hungry wild rabbits. In my raised bed I also harvested the last carrots and parsnips, which were actually quite small but very tasty in my beef and ale stew.

My coldframe protected the Winter Lettuce from the worst of the Winter weather including the snow and I was delighted to be able to pick some Lambs Lettuce and Rocket as you can see in the picture below. A few croutons and some fried pancetta accompanied my mixed salad nicely at lunchtime.

I am still enjoying the garlic and shallots which I grew last year but supplies are running out rapidly. And in fact this morning I planted my new shallots (called Red Sun) in the area where I grew potatoes last year. The sun was shining and the crocuses near my greenhouse had opened up their purple petals as a sure sign that we are now coming out of Winter.
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A keen gardener like myself just wants to make the most of the last summer days of August; and there are so many things to do that I won’t be packing my gardening tools in the shed for a little while yet.

Here is my list of gardening activities for the next few weeks.

Laying turf
Since we have had a fair bit or rain recently it should be easier to pull up any old lawn to replace it by a new one. And Autumn is one of the best seasons to start a new lawn with turf or seed: the weather is still warm enough for the grass to grow and it will also get plenty or rain which should help the lawn establish itself. In fact I have noticed that my local garden centers have stocked up on turf recently. It’s always best to lay the turf as soon as possible on a level, weed and stone free soil in order to achieve best results.

Harvesting and feeding
The tomatoes which I have grown outdoors will continue to ripen into September, and therefore it’s important to continue to water and feed them regularly.

It’s important to harvest beans regularly to make the most of the young tasty vegetable and also to encourage further growth and crops.

The harvest of potatoes harvest is continuing especially for the maincrop varieties. And I am keeping an eye on the sweetcorn which should soon be ready for harvest.
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Last week I started to harvest some of the potatoes which I planted back in March. This first harvest is of an early variety called Rocket, and I guess I should have been able to harvest them earlier, particulary since these potatoes are first earlies.

However it looks like the hot weather which we have had early on in the year was not so beneficial my tubers which did grow as quickly as expected or produce many potatoes. Or could it be that my clay soil is to be blamed for this shortfall?

In fact I am a bit disappointed with the amount of potatoes for the first line which I have dug up. You can see the amount in the picture here.

On the good news front this type of potato seems resistant to worms and looks prestine (with a nice yellow soft skin and white flesh). I will need a bit more time to make up my mind as to its taste, so far I would describe it as smooth (ie. not floury).

The next variety which I have yet to dig up is called Ratte. I will enjoy doing a comparison between the two varieties when I have got round to picking the next line of Ratte variety potatoes.

So there’s a lot more digging to be done with the reward of a constant supply of freshly cooked organic new potatoes.

I have been growing peppers in my garden for a couple of years now and I find that the sweet pepper variety is very satisfactory to grow even in the colder British climate.

Usually grown from seeds, most of my peppers end up growing in the greenhouse because I can never guarantee that the summer will be a hot one and they do need enough heat to ripen well.

I did have a head start with my peppers which I starting to sow back in April of a variety called F1 tasty grill. They have an elongated form and tasted great last year.

You can see in the picture below that right now the peppers in my greenhouse are quite big and growing well in the grow bags.

I recommend feeding the plant regularly; personally I use a potash-rich tomato liquid feed (the organic type as a personal preference).

As the plants grow bigger and heavier with fruits, I need to start staking them with some bamboo canes which I will push in the ground. more…

I am currently growing garlic in my garden and since I found out last year that it was not so easy to grow in my heavy clay soil I decided to do a garlic trial.

Following from my last post on my garlic trial I am having mixed results at present. I guess the weather and the type of soil have had a lot to do with the results.

So far I can report that the garlic in my English garden is struggling as you can see in the picture on the right hand side with the tiny cloves and some onions in the background; in fact some of them seem to have died out.

I am not sure if the cause of this failure was the wet winter followed by a really dry spring.

It also looks like the dreaded rust affected some of the garlic bulbs.
Even the cloves which I planted in modules a while ago and were given a head start in spring suffered badly. And it looks like the garlic variety Thermidrome was mostly affected.

In the meantime the garlic in my French garden was doing fine last month but I have now left it to its own devices and I know that it is getting really hot down there. The harvest time shouldn’t be too far away now and only time will tell.

Following a comment on this website regarding removing side shoots from tomatoes plants, here is an update post on how I look after my tomato plants in order to get a good crop.

By now your tomato plants are likely to be of an average height of 9 inches (depending on when you sowed or planted them and where they are growing and care for). The tomatoes grown in my greenhouse are actually taller than the other outdoor specimen which I planted not that long ago and both are bearing flowers. The size of the plant is not a concern since it will all come in good time with the warm summer which we shall hopefully continue to enjoy (although it is cold and raining heavily today!).

So what do I need to do now to make sure that I get a delicious crop of tomatoes? For me just a bit of maintenance is enough as follows :

1. Removing side shoots:

Early on I try to make sure that I remember to remove the side shoots as they appear on cordon tomatoes only. I tend to focus on the shoots that start from the bottom part of the tomato plant stem. I often forget some side shoots but in my personal experience it doesn’t do any harm and I still get a good crop.
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So far this year has been quite good for gardening. I have been harvesting regularly some of the lettuce which I sowed in my cold frame back in February. It has been growing really well (the wild rabbits haven’t spotted my crop yet) and I am starting to have a bit of a lettuce glut actually.

Cabbage at last is a success and this is a first for me since previously my cabbages had been badly attacked by the white fly which lays its eggs on the leaves and then the caterpillars devastated all my vegetables.

The only thing is: I am not so keen on that type of winter cabbage (Durham Early). Funnily enough no other pest has had a go at them either! Although I noticed that this variety of cabbage is available from major supermarkets (at a cost of £0.85 each and the seed packet cost me £1.70 for hundreds of seeds).
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Before the rain returns I have managed to plant the rest of my potato tubers which I had chitted last month. These are for a maincrop variety called Desiree, which is one of my favourite potatoes. And as you can see on the picture below I usually tend to include my grass cuttings as well as newspaper sheets when I plant my tubers. I personally find that it helps keep the moisture in and it’s a good way of recycling some of my organic matter.

My early variety potatoes are already in and they have started to sprout shoots so I will need soon to start earthing up the shoots in order to get a bigger crop of potatoes. This also allows me to do some weeding along the way.

I should have a continuous supply of my home grown potatoes for at least 7 months of the year by planting early and maincrop varieties of potatoes. The two varieties allow me to have early new potatoes in July and then a later maincrop in September.

So it’s not bad going for all my digging efforts!

If you haven’t sown any chilli plants yet, there’s still time to do so for FREE! This evening I was watching the One Show on BBC1 and you can actually get some free chili pepper seeds from the One Show website.

This free chilli offer is part of the Dig-in campaign which the BBC are currently promoting.

I cannot stress enough about how easy and rewarding it is to grow chillies – that is if you like it spicy!

Many flowers and vegetables can be sown safely outdoors in May as the risk of frost is diminishing. Last month I made a lot of indoor sowings of plants which I currently have sheltered in my greenhouse and should be going out gradually by mid May. This includes tomatoes, chilies as well as a wide range of flowers such as cleomes and geraniums.

Below is a list of plants which are easy-to-grow and I shall start sowing most of them outdoors in May if the weather allows it.

Sowing flowers:

- Outdoor sunflowers: bring a bit of sunshine in your garden with tall sunflowers. May is a better month to grow them outdoors. I did sow some sunflowers seeds in my greenhouse in April but they did not germinate and it looks like a slug ate the tender shoots.
- Love-in-a-mist: easy to grow annuals usually available in shades of blue and pink.
- Sweet peas can be planted outside and trained to climb on a bamboo wigwam for example. Mine are already out.
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