Monday, June 24, 2013

First of the Harvest!

Today I ate my first homegrown pea of the season.  It was a mangetout, Shiraz.


It's been flowering for a while, then the first tiny pods appeared and today one was ready to pick, ready to eat - so I did!  And it was quite delicious too.


I don't have a large veg plot but I manage to grow quite a lot. This year, as well as planting by the moon (more about that another time), I also tried the 'square foot' gardening method for planting.  It sort of works in that it made me more ordered, but I don't like trying to weed between veg planted very closely together.

However everything is looking very healthy, the courgettes have flowers and baby courgettes,


the tomato jungle is growing rapidly (and does actually have flowers although I can't see them in the photo!)

and the beans (runner, borlotti and climbing french - fosse violetta) are all growing cheek by jowl with a red climbing rose and foxgloves,


the runner beans even have flowers.


The frogs are doing a good job of keeping the slugs down, although I have just spied a snail amongst the beetroot.

I've been cropping salad leaves for several weeks and have discovered that self sown rocket is incredibly fiery.


Now that I've had my first tastes of salad and pea I'm looking forward to many, many more harvests this year. 

5 comments:

Celia Hart said...

Your veg is way ahead of ours! I'll have to have a word with you about the planting by the moon method (but maybe it just makes you more organised).

Did you eat the Shiraz mangtout raw? Ours will be ready soon, probably by this weekend.

C x

crafty cat corner said...

When we had our allotment, we planted by the moon, we bought the book and followed it. I'm sure it made a difference but then I may have just imagined it. lol
Your plants look very healthy. I would love to go back to growing food but our garden at home is very small and we just don't have the energy that we need now to do the allotment.
Briony
x

Anna said...

Yeeeah! Nothing quite like the first harvest of the year Su. I grew 'Shiraz' last year and was disappointed with the taste but it could have been down to the weather. Will have to give it a second chance :)

Mystic Quilter said...

The sight of your home grown vegetables is making me long for summer already - winter here in NZ

flowerlady said...

It is so lovely when you start picking your crops, they taste so much better than the shop bought-enjoy