Gardening highlight of the week: I was greeted by this little artichoke yesterday:
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| Green Globe artichoke |
Since this is year 1 and I'm going by the book, I removed all the little flower heads that had appeared. I was very tempted to let them develop and eat them, but apparently the plant needs all its energy to make roots in the first year and, after all, it should crop for four years. Anyway, looks like we're on track with the artichokes!
Other than that, I planted the spring cabbages into their final positions: Durham Early, which I'd bought, and some old seeds of Pixie and Wintergreen from a friend. Despite their age, they came up in full force.
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| Lemongrass |
I had the first of the lemongrass this week in a delicious tea. This was one of those things I'd tried growing because you can (and with a vague ambition of making tom yum soup). It's supposed to be perennial, which is always a good thing, and the cats like it too - bizarrely since they don't normally like citrussy foods, but it looks like cat grass.
The paltry outdoor tomato collection from last week didn't even make it into a chutney; they started to rot pretty much immediately. So don't bother picking fruit from a blight-affected tomato plant. I did make a courgette chutney though and this used up 1kg of courgettes! This chutney, another courgette cake and a courgette tomato pasta and we are down to quite small numbers of courgettes. I think 10 plants may not be too many for two people, after all.
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| Little watermelon and male flower |
The watermelons have put out lots of fruitlets with female flowers, which I all painstakingly pollinate with male flowers in the hope that one of them will grow large and juicy. I might have left this one too late in the season, but let's wait and see.
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| The chillies are turning red |
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| Pepper harvest coming up |
The pepper family is doing very well. The Long Slim chillies are nice and hot now and there's a good crop of California Wonder bell peppers coming up. The aubergine is still flowering away, but I can't spot any fruits yet.
Since the house painting will have to wait another year, we decided to put up the roses this afternoon. Not only does it cover the bad paint job on the wall, it really makes the little patio triangle look cute:
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| Climbing roses |
Now I only wish the weather would stay like this and I could sit on this bench with my book!
That is certainly an exciting combination of plants you have listed on your blog. The artichokes I have tended to stay clear off but having seen what you have done gives me some encouragement. Like you we have also been lucky with our lemon grass
ReplyDeleteThe artichokes have been straightforward so far. Fingers crossed they survive through the winter to give a good crop next year. You shouldn't have any problems growing them in Portugal! Have you got any good lemongrass recipes?
ReplyDeleteYes I have, my husband loves cooking so I let him get on with it. In a few weeks time we are going to have a bumper harvest of pumpkins, squash and the like. He will make a curry using lemon grass, squash, coconut milk as the three main ingredients served on a bed of rice. I will post the recipe in full on my next blog which comes out next week. It is very yummy. We also freeze the lemon grass for winter use
ReplyDeleteYou're another one of these lucky women whose husbands like to cook! Looking forward to the recipe. I like making a coconut squash curry South Indian style. Coconut milk and squash are just a great combination. Good to know lemongrass freezes well since it's not something I can get at the supermarket here.
ReplyDeleteIt all looks lovely, it's exciting to grow some 'different' things and really rewarding when they do well. As for the painting . . . next year is soon enough, the roses look beautiful and time spent without a paintbrush in your hand can be time spent in the garden! :-)
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