Just into June



Laxton's Superb Apple



Just into June and the fruit and veg are starting to show what crops I might get from them.

The apple tree has got about 30 mini apples on it. I thinned the fruit cluster on each branch down to 3 because I thought the weight of the 5-7 fruits that had set on each branch would be too much for the thin branches. Now I think I might have to thin them down again to 2 per branch. The branches are already bending with the weight of these small ones. I bought this apple tree thinking I could keep it small enough to keep it in a pot, but looking into it a bit more, I think it's going to outgrow the pot pretty quickly. It's a bit of an experiment for me now. The websites tell you to prune apples a certain way, etc. I will be pruning mine to keep it small, and in bounds. We will see if it survives.



Raspberries in pots

The raspberries in pots are ripening now. I've picked off about 8 raspberries per day for about a week now. Because I've only got 2 pots worth of canes, and this crop is from where I didn't prune the canes down purposefully to give me a small crop now as they are really Autumn fruiting raspberries, we are just eating this crop as a small fruity snack, and I am freezing some to build up the numbers. We'll probably bung the frozen ones into a raspberry ripple made our new ice cream maker. I got it in the sales in February. I also got one for my dad for his birthday at the same time, so that took me into free delivery. And with a discount code voucher I found for the shop I got it from, I got 2 ice cream makers delivered for £14 each. Pleased with that.





A truss of blueberries

The blueberries in pots are ripening a small crop too. (The pic only shows one truss, that isn't the whole crop. That would be a small crop.) These were plants I got from a DIY store for £1 each when I was trying to top up a purchase with a voucher because they didn't give change on it. So I ended up with 2 very small blueberry bushes. That was a couple of years ago. They have come on a bit now, but they aren't exactly the most prolific fruiters ever. Suits me though. I don't like blueberries. I only grow them for the other half and he's happy with the odd handful on a yoghurt through the summer.

Broad bean pods forming

In the veg bed, the broad beans that I thought I was going to get tons of beans from, then when I looked a few weeks later I couldn't see any of the flowers setting, are now forming a crop on each plant. There's about 2-3 pods forming per cluster of flowers, so that'll give me a fair crop. I've only got 9 plants so I wasn't expecting bag fulls. From what you see on the news, because of the dry weather, this is a terrible broad bean year. I think the farmer they interviewed said his crop was half, so the price of broadies will be going through the roof. They are very expensive anyway. About £2 a bag in most supermarkets. Surprisingly, though, we found a bag for £1.32 in Waitrose. No, we don't shop in there ordinarily. We were in there to get a leaving present for one of the other half's colleagues, and we happened to see the beans. Fancy that, a bargain in Waitrose. Two words you don't usually find together in a sentence. The Crimson Flowered broad beans are something I'll be growing again. They are still flowering well, and attracting the bees. They are a great ornamental edible.



Golden Sweet mangetout

The Golden Sweet mangetout has started cropping. They are lovely and sweet, and golden, as the name suggests. I'm very impressed with this plant as an ornamental edible too. The flowers closeups are in the 'What Looks Good In May' blog, but I didn't mention that they turn a kind of pastel blue when they are pollinated, then you get the pale yellow pods. It's very interesting plant to look at. The bees love it too. Not sure the crop will be as big as my shorter mangetout variety, but I will put up with that to have this colour in the veg area.



Climbing French beans

My climbing French Beans 'Blue Lake' have started climbing. They are great plants. Unlike the mangetout, which I am having to tie in with twine every once in a while (my fault, I didn't put up a good enough structure for them to grow up, I thought canes with the odd horizontal twine would be enough, but it needs netting really), the french beans just spiral up their canes all by themselves. And I know from my 8 plants, if I keep picking regularly, I'll get a good bag worth for the freezer as well as fresh when I want them.

Tumbler tomato hanging basket

The hanging basket tomatoes are starting to show mini tomatoes on them. This variety is 'Tumbler', which is supposed to be good for baskets. Not much sign of mine 'tumbling' at the moment, they are still pretty upright plants. But, courtesy of one of the gardening forums, I've found out that they don't start tumbling until they start fruiting. I imagine it's the weight of the toms that makes them tumble. We'll see. I've got two of my plants in 10" hanging baskets. I was going to get 12" ones, but I saw the 10" ones in a pound shop (gotta love pound shops haven't you) and I got two baskets and two brackets for £4. One 12" basket was going to cost me that, so I decided to try the toms in the slightly smaller basket. All ok so far. Need to keep on top of the watering though. They are thirsty plants.



Calendula 'Art Shades'

I've got two pots of Calendula (marigolds) next to the veg bed. The idea was to draw in the beneficial insects with them. But, honestly, I don't think I needed to bother. The flowers on the broad beans, mangetout, maincrop peas, and tomatoes were doing that before the marigolds even came into flower. They look nice though, sort of traditional. It looks like I know what I'm doing having marigolds in my veg bed. I had loads of hoverflies on the marigolds last year. I haven't seen any this year. I wonder if it's a bad hoverfly year? Or they've just left my garden for some reason.

The garden in June

I have finally sorted out the heavy clay clumps in the area that I am going to put the new lawn on. I've basically raked up the worst of the clods and chucked them into the area that will become the bee border for the moment. They are impossible to break up now. I've also dug in a bag of soil improver (£1.99 from Aldi, another good place to pick up cheap garden stuff from), and that seems to have helped loosen it all up. I was planning on turfing the area, but I think I'm too late now. I couldn't find any turf on sale in the DIY stores, or the garden centres. I know you should really lay turf in late spring, and early autumn, but not summer. I think I am just a couple of weeks too late. So I picked up a box of 'value' grass seed instead. The reason it doesn't bother me that it's 'value' is that the rest of the turf in the garden isn't the greatest. It's full of weed and the grass mix in it is a bit strange. But, when I've had a really good go at it with a soft prong rake to get all the thatch out it's come up fairly good. I don't mind some of the lawn weeds. I like the daisies and the buttercups, They are good for the bees too. I will get in with a trowel and dig up the dandelions as I see them though, they get a bit too much, and they seed all over the show if you let them. They bloomin' love the clay soil we've got up here. There's loads of them in all the gardens round here. I might be fighting a losing battle trying to keep them out because I'll just end up with seed floating in from elsewhere, but I'll give it a go. So, as soon as it stops raining I'll start sowing. (Can you believe it? Just as I was planning to start sowing seed, we get the first decent rain since about February.) 



Bee border plants ready to go in

The plants for the bee border are all in place. Funnily enough, when I picked up the grass seed in B&Q I had a little nose around the plants. They had the exact Veronica (Royal Candles) that I picked up in Beverley market on our walk over there in May. It was the same size as my plant has grown into now. My market purchase cost - £1.50. Their one - £12.99!! Pays to shop around. To be precise, pays to shop in Saturday markets. So, anyway, the bee border is looking good in it's temporary spot on the manhole cover. But their border is the next job after the lawn is sown.

And as I've been writing this, the sun has come out again, so I am off to create my new lawn.