The Vegetable Patch

I have been asked – what does the vegetable patch look like? So, here are some photos. This first one is of the orchard. It’s only 5 years old so the trees are still babies.

Okay from here you take the right hand path – you can just see it worn away a little.

On the way you pass the gooseberry bushes. They were given to us already mature but this is the first year they have fruited. And they are loaded… Gooseberry pie…. mmmm!

And this is the first view of the patch. It is set onto the banks of an ancient river bank, which is why the soil is so good. The little tunnels all contain brassicas (we have a pheasant that comes with his two ladies to take the leaves otherwise). The bathtubs all contain different breeds of strawberries….

The broadbean bed with the onions in the background. We are growing all the alliums in raised beds this year – it fumigates the soil and kills any unwanted bugs.

What you doing?

“Taking photos for the blog. Now, get out the tree Pi!”

Tell them about the onion thief – says Meg.

“Okay! Just get the cat out the tree…”

Do I look like I can climb?

Okay, so the onion thief… One year we grew over a hundred onions. I mean they were big and juicy and really good. We left them as long as we could before pulling them. Finally the day had arrived. We each got a wheelbarrow and went into the patch. And…

They were gone.

All but three left in the middle of the bed.

They had been stolen! I mean who steals 100 onions? So we now have an electric fence and Meg, who has 24 hour run of the patch. No more onion thieves. At least we hope not.

Back to the patch…

This is the solar tunnel. It isn’t a polytunnel – it sits above the ground and is attached via large foot long screws that secure it to the ground. Here you can see cabbages, lettuce, parsnips and early potatoes. If you look though the door you can see the uprights which will take the runner beans once they are up. We are always later in our planting here. I’ve known a frost on June the first!

The salad greenhouse. This is the lettuce, radish and spring onion house. My treat of the morning is a handful of Breakfast radishes as I water. Really good.

And one last thing that I’m really proud of. This unsuspecting bush is actually a five year old blueberry. And this year it is full of them. I might actually get enough to bake a tray of muffins! 🙂

So there you are – the patch. It is early days yet with the weather just starting to feel more like summer, but fingers crossed we will get a good harvest.