Flowers out front and back

The front garden, June 2019

My front garden is currently all ornamentals, with nothing edible.  Unless you count the roses (we don't eat them).  There was a small crabapple tree which has now died--despite being there about four years, it never flowered (or even grew taller than me) and last summer's heat and drought finally killed it. 

It has a lot of weeds too...the son and I pulled up a few buckets full of goosegrass earlier this spring, and now the brambles are staking their claim.  I guess they both count as edible...we do eat a few blackberries from the front garden now and again in summer (though I do my best to pull them out every year too).

It's nice to pick some flowers for the house though.  I have flowers out back too, mostly in the perennials section, but a few self seeded in the veg beds;  there's a dozen sunfowers coming up just beyond the boundary of the chicken yard which I'm very pleased about.  And some random foxgloves which surprised me--we had some years ago, then didn't have any for ages and now we've got them again.  It's all good food for bees, and good food for the soul.

Two kinds of artichokes

New season artichokes, June 2019

My artichokes are massive this year--even bigger than last year, both height and width.  The divisions the husband replanted for me earlier this year are also growing strongly, though they'll need another year to catch up.  But the heads are still tiny.  I'm sure they variety I bought was supposed to be a regular globe artichoke, and I'm sure they're meant to be bigger than golf ball size.  Oh well.   

Newly growing Jerusalem artichokes (and lots of weeds) June 2019

I took home some Jerusalem artichokes from the communal waste at the allotment last autumn and replanted them at the back of the perennials section;  they're now growing tall and I look forward to trying them at the end of the season.  I understand this is a plant that's hard to get rid of, so I hope we like them;  I've eaten them before, but the husband and son haven't.

In the allotment, June 2019

We have been collecting boxes and paper feed sacks here for a couple months now, and the son and I decided we had enough to sheet mulch one bed at the allotment.  A friend has promised me as many strawberry runners as I can carry, as soon as they finish fruiting--probably in July.  She has a very small garden but grows a big strawberry patch;  I have terrible luck with strawberries in my garden:  the chickens have scratched up nearly every one I've put down over the years.

I figured the allotment will be altogther a safer place, plus there will be plenty more space and sun there.  After laying down the cardboard and paper, the son and I brought back boxfuls of woodchips from the communal waste area to cover it all up.  It looks much tidier than my usual sheet mulch--in fact, the potatoes, pumpkins and squashes are all growing through holes in bare cardboard from last winter's sheet mulch;  I ran out of organic material to put on top.  Yes that looks disreputable, but it's not weedy (unlike the rest of the plot).

I'm now collecting boxes from my work and will continue to add to the sheet mulch--hopefully no one else takes all the wood chips before I'm finished.

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We've been eating the yellow mange tout and the broad beans;  some of the broad beans have been affected by blackfly:  a problem I don't really have in my own garden as the sparrows take care of them.  I'll be waiting for the regular peas to fully mature on the vines before I pick them:  they're tall and lush and flowering all over.

I also picked three finger sized carrots for a salad last week, and a lovely big purple turnip for last Sunday's roast dinner;  the carrots are sparse and nearly smothered with weeds, and that was the one and only turnip--it grew in the hot bed and I think the slugs ate its compatriots.

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Everything else is in various states of growth:  climbing beans (we put up supports from an abandoned swingset), dwarf beans; cabbages, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kale; pumpkins, squashes, cucumbers, zuccini, achocha;  shallots, leeks, spring onions;  (a few) carrots and beets, lettuce. 

And of course the thistles, nettles, grass, and other weeds are very vigorous and happy.  I've been hoeing and hand weeding a little every day, but don't seem to have made much of a dent.  The three chickens in their tractor are also doing their part, but also not making much of a dent.

Free leeks

Not grass, honest!  June 2019

I've been trying to save seed from my leeks for several years but without success.  I leave the plants to flower, but the seed has never germinated for me, until this spring:  a flowerhead dropped onto a bed last autumn and I left it there to compost, only to discover a fast growing patch of leeks this April.  Way too close together, but I'm not complaining;  I'll thin them out (and retransplant the thinnings):  free leeks!

Every year the leeks start to sprout new divisions from the base, like garlic, so I never pull my leeks up fully:  they get cut off at the base with the roots left intact.  I get free leeks this way too.

Now eating peas

Snap peas soon, June 2019

We've had our first peas, picked at the allotment:  the yellow mange tout peas (not pictured) are just podding up, and we've snacked on them happily.  So crispy.  I only had about 20 seeds of these, all saved from the previous year's plants;  this just isn't enough!  While I'd love to save seed again, I don't know if we'll have the willpower to let enough pods mature!  I might have to order a new pack of seeds for next spring.  They've also been good cooked with Sunday roast dinner and raw on a salad.

The rest of the peas are all flowering and making pods too, both at the allotment and back here at home.  At home they're all snap peas and mange tout, and we're just eating the mange tout;  at the allotment, except for those 20 mange tout, all are regular peas which I plan to dry for winter.  I actually am hoping to get enough peas to double my plants next year;  this spring I put down about 500 seeds, but I would love to have 1000 next spring--plus enough for mushy peas and pea soup all winter, of course.

Unexpected self seeding

Mostly tomatoes and chilis, June 2019

Everything's planted, at last!  Well, technically I have some seed trays sown with winter brassicas but not sprouting yet, to be planted out later.  But everything else is done!  It was a big push to get it all out there, both at home in the kitchen garden and at the allotment.  To be honest, I didn't do a lot of direct seeding this year, but mostly focused on raising transplants from seed.  That said, I have had quite a few self seeded plants come up in unexpected places:  a pleasant surprise.

One of them is achocha.  I mean, I knew I missed some of the fruits last year, but I never expected them to self seed.  We'd already put down some transplants at the allotment, and now I'm pulling up most of the new seedlings popping up here, as I already know how much they grow:  enough to smother everything else.  Which will be a good thing at the allotment, but I've already reserved that space here for other things, which happen to need a bit of sunlight.

I'm also drastically thinning out the Aztec broccoli seedlings (not a true broccoli, but related to the weed Fat Hen);  like the achocha I want about five plants only;  it's also a big plant, though not as vigorous as the achocha.  I knew in advance it would self seed readily, so I allowed last year's plants to remain standing, saving me the work of sowing.  It's coming up all over.

I cleared away some massive mizuna plants gone to seed, before the seed pods had matured;  I needed the space for my tomatoes and celery.  I put the whole plants in strategic positions in the perennials section, to hopefully spread the love.  I expect some of the seed will ripen enough on the uprooted plants to germinate later on.  Mizuna is under-utilized here, but I do like the flavor and its reliability.  It's all over the veg beds anyway, in various states of growth/maturity.

And of course speaking of reliable, the chard is both coming up everywhere, and going to flower everywhere.  I'm pulling up the ones that are in the way, and letting a few stay, to make fresh seed.  I'm dehydrating the leaves from all those old ones, keeping the dehydrator going every day.  And then the chickens get the leftover stems with the smallest leaves, which they love.  The ducks like chard too, but weren't impressed with what I offered:  "We only like chard that we pick ourselves."

Now there are four

Two more, June 2019

Two more ducks have joined us, adopted from a local rescue charity.  We know almost nothing about them, other than they are two years old and are female Khaki Campbells.  We can tell from their behavior that they've never been handled--for the first week they ran into their shelter quacking in a panic if we opened the garden gate.  They've acclimatized a bit now and will tolerate us in the garden, but still hide if we approach their fence.  I've managed to hang out laundry on the line, and sit down on a garden chair within about five feet of them.  We want them to be comfortable with us, though we understand it's scary and stressful to go to a new place, completely unfamiliar;  we doubt they'd ever even been outside before--they certainly aren't waterproof like our two ducklings:  hopefully they are now oiling themselves properly.

Separated by a fence, June 2019

The ducklings, meanwhile are even bigger than these two adult ducks!  Comparing them, I'm think perhaps one of them is half Campbell, but maybe neither of them are.  I do think they are half runner duck though, as they are certainly more upright than the Campbells.  We've kept the Campbells in the little chicken tractor while the ducklings have been free ranging (the chickens have been rotating over the bit of lawn and ornamental bed nearest their yard, as I don't have enough chicken wire to accomodate everyone).  When the Campbells are more confident we'll let them join the ducklings to free range and put the chickens back on their full rotation.

Food Totals May 2019

Pretty crowded! June 2019

Vegetables:

40.5 oz celery
14 oz leeks
34 oz purple sprouting broccoli
159.5 oz chard
3.5 oz radishes
35 oz spring cabbage
6 oz spring onions

Total: 292.5 oz or 18 lb 4.5 oz

Note:  I weigh all my vegetables after preparation:  peeling, trimming, etc.  Does not include some fresh herbs which were too small a quantity to weigh, i.e. less than 0.5 oz.

Fruit:

No fruit harvested this month

Eggs:

Total: 204 eggs from 12 hens
Total feed bought: 2 bag layers pellets (40 kg), 1 bag mixed seed (20 kg)

Jars of dehydrated celery and chard, June 2019

Preserves:

1 medium jar dehydrated celery (stems and leaves)
2 medium jars dehydrated chard leaves (stems frozen)

Homebrew:

Elderberry/blackberry wine still fermenting
Cider still fermenting