Self-Sufficiency in Style
april 2004 diary
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Self-Sufficiency in Style april 2004 diary |
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| The quickthorn by the front gate tells us spring is really here. | |
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There is not an inch to spare in either of the greenhouses. Vegetable plants in plastic trays waiting to go out into the walled garden. |
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The heated greenhouse is full to capacity. We watch the weather forecast each night, hoping that we can ease the congestion and move some of the tender plants to their permanent position in the plastic tunnels. Two crops are grown in succession. The first - early. If it gets wiped out by frost, the second takes its place. If we are lucky, the second crop is not needed and goes to the church fete. Tomatoes, aubergines, peppers, melons...all get this treatment. |
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We are eating well from the garden, even though this is the traditional "hungry gap." |
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The spring cabbages are excellent.
Some have been grown outside under nets to protect them from pigeons and some in a tunnel. Surprising just what you can do with a humble cabbage in the kitchen. |
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We have rhubarb planted in every corner. It is at its best this time of
year. Now their should be a picture of the very productive asparagus bed, picked every day from about April 10 to May 20, but the writer got excited and forgot. We start picking our crop a full two weeks earlier than the commercial growers locally - showing how much warmer the walled garden is than an open field. |
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This represents an unexpected crop. We have found, by bitter experience, that we don't grow good celery here. Last year's because of the drought was so bad it was abandoned, but the bed didn't get cleared. Instead, we ate celeriac all winter. But when we came to clear the celery bed this spring, we took some of the smaller shoots - and braised them - magnificent. We know what to do this year. Celery is being planted now for eating next spring. |
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As the month progresses, spring really gets into its stride. |
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The bougainvilleas in the conservatory, don't seem to miss their citrus
companions, killed by disease. We are taking a break from citrus to give a chance for the alien "scale insect" invaders to die out. |
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Not to be outdone, outside most of the fruit is in blossom, including the
morello cherries on the cow shed wall. We say "cow shed" which is correct for half of England as against "byre" which is correct for the other half. Etymologists get terribly excited about the distinction. But actually we are in a very tiny part that has its own unique word spoken in a miniscule area on the Norfolk/Suffolk boundary, close to the sea. Here its a "netus" ...probably once "neet house." The writer heard his grandson use the local term in conversation recently, so a little of Olde England, probably imported from Denmark a thousand years ago, survives into the twenty-first century. |
A colourful netus wall |
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Broad beans and several kinds of peas, started in the greenhouse, are now
well away outside.
Around the middle of the month we eat the first mangetout from the tunnel. |
| A colourful selection of salad leaves will be ready soon for the warmer weather and lighter meals. |
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...and the brew-house in the garage is brought back into production. Walled gardens and tunnels are warm work, and a little beer at regular intervals eases the job along nicely. |
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Beering up at Hangman's Cottage, just to the south of Misery Corner. |
