In the Garden

[eggyg]

Our onions are all drying off in the summerhouse/shed. (it’s not as posh as @eggyg's inside!) I got caught out yesterday, though, I needed an onion to cook with, and had to go down the garden in the pouring rain to retrieve one.
As for courgettes, I’ve managed to hide courgette in every meal I’ve cooked this week, including cake, and they’re still coming out of our ears. I tried to offload some on daughter, but her boss had got in before me and given her some spare from his allotment.They didn’t do well at all last year, so I made the mistake of putting more plants in this year, and there’s a local glut!

We had three plants last year and so decided the one would be enough! I’ve given them to my eldest daughter who gives them to her colleagues! Other two aren’t interested. I made Greek type courgette fritters, sliced and dipped in egg and breadcrumbs and cooked in oven. A bit bland, more salt next time. I have two portions of ratatouille in the freezer and roast them at every opportunity. There’s another three almost ready! Oh dear!

 

[Ditto]

Wow, y'all are proper gardeners, I'm dead impressed. 🙂 I must make more effort next year, not be so slapdash. Do things properly.

I bought a Sedum, going to try Sedums in the herbwheel and put the herbs in clay pots because the Oregano went bonkers and the bees luv it. The empty space is where the critters chomped the Thyme.

The Lillies were nice, not bad for a couple quid from Wilkos. 🙂

 

[eggyg]

Wow, y'all are proper gardeners, I'm dead impressed. 🙂 I must make more effort next year, not be so slapdash. Do things properly.

I bought a Sedum, going to try Sedums in the herbwheel and put the herbs in clay pots because the Oregano went bonkers and the bees luv it. The empty space is where the critters chomped the Thyme.
View attachment 15088
The Lillies were nice, not bad for a couple quid from Wilkos. 🙂
View attachment 15089

I’m not really a gardener, Mr Eggy is the brains, I’m just the brawn! Although TBF I grew the tomatoes, pure luck I think. I do water and feed them. We have loads of sedum, it spreads like mad, it’s just starting to colour now. It’s good to dry too.

 

[eggyg]

Back in June @Contused posted an amazing photo of an agapanthus and I remarked that mine had about 5/6 buds. Fast forward two months and they are eventually flowering. They’ve taken longer to come out than Philip Schofield! It’s taken about six weeks to get to this stage. I’ve just been reading about them and it seems I should have been feeding it! Oops! Watch this space this time next year to see if I can get one like @Contused.

 

[Contused]

Back in June @Contused posted an amazing photo of an agapanthus and I remarked that mine had about 5/6 buds. Fast forward two months and they are eventually flowering. They’ve taken longer to come out than Philip Schofield! It’s taken about six weeks to get to this stage. I’ve just been reading about them and it seems I should have been feeding it! Oops! Watch this space this time next year to see if I can get one like @Contused.

Congratulations on a lovely display. I regret ours is over for the year. My wife remarked that the flowers had died by the end of July and she trimmed off the dead growth a few weeks ago. The first two flowers arrived early to mid March, so we've perhaps not got too long to wait for a display early next year.

 

[Ditto]

... taken longer to come out than Philip Schofield! ...

LOL

Lovely. I'm gonna give one of those a whirl next year.

I've started using garden bags for my trees, you can get more compost in them than tubs. Up to now it's working. I've bunged bulbs in the top.

 

[Robin]

I’m jealous of your Agapanthus, @eggyg , mine haven’t flowered at all. A friend brought some back from the Scillies last year, and kindly potted them up for me, but she put them in an enormous pot, and I’ve been reading that they like to be a bit pot-bound to flower well. I’ll have to get to grips with them next year.
Meanwhile, my Japanese Anemones are thriving on neglect, that is a 2 metre fence behind them!

 

[eggyg]

I’m jealous of your Agapanthus, @eggyg , mine haven’t flowered at all. A friend brought some back from the Scillies last year, and kindly potted them up for me, but she put them in an enormous pot, and I’ve been reading that they like to be a bit pot-bound to flower well. I’ll have to get to grips with them next year.
Meanwhile, my Japanese Anemones are thriving on neglect, that is a 2 metre fence behind them!View attachment 15152

Wow! They look amazing. I only know agapanthus likes to be pot bound because of @Contused post. I was ready for repotting mine! Glad I never.

 

[Ditto]

Monty keeps his really pot bound. 🙂

Wow at the JapAnems, mine are only a foot high! They really like it there obviously.

 

[eggyg]

Oh I’m so excited! Well over a year after planting water lilies in our new ponds, we’ve at last got a flower! We noticed a tiny bud had appeared yesterday ( which coincidentally was exactly a year since we visited Monet’s Gardens and saw the famous ones) and today it’s flowered! Think this is as much as it’ll come out as the sun is moving away now.

 

[Robin]

Oh I’m so excited! Well over a year after planting water lilies in our new ponds, we’ve at last got a flower! We noticed a tiny bud had appeared yesterday ( which coincidentally was exactly a year since we visited Monet’s Gardens and saw the famous ones) and today it’s flowered! Think this is as much as it’ll come out as the sun is moving away now.

Ooh, gorgeous! We haven’t got any water lilies. (Probably because we haven’t got a pond).
Having had a respite for a couple of weeks, we are now on a second wave of courgettes. Picked four today, four yesterday, and there are eight more coming! Knew five plants was three too many, but they did so badly last year, I went for safety in numbers this time.

 

[grovesy]

We filled our pond in many years ago , it was not quite in the right place and difficult to get clear water.

 

[eggyg]

Ooh, gorgeous! We haven’t got any water lilies. (Probably because we haven’t got a pond).
Having had a respite for a couple of weeks, we are now on a second wave of courgettes. Picked four today, four yesterday, and there are eight more coming! Knew five plants was three too many, but they did so badly last year, I went for safety in numbers this time.

Don’t talk to me about courgettes! Just picked another three today. Left one which is now a marrow, don’t know how I missed it, and there’s another 3/4 on the way! One plant! 😱

 

[eggyg]

We filled our pond in many years ago , it was not quite in the right place and difficult to get clear water.

They are hard to maintain but it’s only our second summer and desperate for frogs! Hopefully next spring.

 

[rebrascora]

@Robin and @eggyg... You are just putting me to shame. I have just 2 plants and they have done abysmally. Other years I have had 3 -5 plants and had huge gluts like you as well as giving them away to any friend or stranger who would take them. I was kidding myself that it must just be a bad year for them. I actually toyed with buying some last week which really galls me when I have them in the poly tunnel. Maybe they are just contrary plants and do best in a larger social group. Cucumber didn't do very well either. Just 4 fruits off it but better than none I suppose and they had good flavour.

I am busy shredding hedge, fruit tree and rose cuttings to compost. Mostly hawthorn from a hedge which got away a few years ago and only just got around to cutting it back this year. Boy are those thorns wicked!

 

[eggyg]

@Robin and @eggyg... You are just putting me to shame. I have just 2 plants and they have done abysmally. Other years I have had 3 -5 plants and had huge gluts like you as well as giving them away to any friend or stranger who would take them. I was kidding myself that it must just be a bad year for them. I actually toyed with buying some last week which really galls me when I have them in the poly tunnel. Maybe they are just contrary plants and do best in a larger social group. Cucumber didn't do very well either. Just 4 fruits off it but better than none I suppose and they had good flavour.

I am busy shredding hedge, fruit tree and rose cuttings to compost. Mostly hawthorn from a hedge which got away a few years ago and only just got around to cutting it back this year. Boy are those thorns wicked!

Last year seemed to be a bad year for courgettes for everyone but us! We had three plants and had a huge glut hence just having the one plant this year. My friend and next door neighbour had 8 plants and has only had 4 courgettes from them! We’ve had ratatouille for tea tonight and having a stir fry tomorrow so will use another one. I’ve not tried baking with them, not sure I fancy it.

 

[rebrascora]

I have made courgette cake in the past when I had a glut. It is similar to carrot cake in that it is moist with a slightly chunkier texture and a slightly nutty flavour. It's a shame how you get sick of them when you have a glut and crave them when you don't have enough.... no happy medium. I love ratatouille and at least it freezes. Tried courgette soup once but not impressed with that.
Can't understand why they are so expensive in the shops unless commercial growers are having a bad year with them too.

 

[Robin]

I have made courgette cake in the past when I had a glut. It is similar to carrot cake in that it is moist with a slightly chunkier texture and a slightly nutty flavour. It's a shame how you get sick of them when you have a glut and crave them when you don't have enough.... no happy medium. I love ratatouille and at least it freezes. Tried courgette soup once but not impressed with that.
Can't understand why they are so expensive in the shops unless commercial growers are having a bad year with them too.

I have two courgette cakes and numerous pots of ratatouille in the freezer! My local farm shop was selling them for 10p a kilo earlier in the season, and copious numbers were donated to the village produce exchange. I was amazed to see them in the local supermarket at a hefty price!

 

[grovesy]

They are hard to maintain but it’s only our second summer and desperate for frogs! Hopefully next spring.

I had frogs in mine, but I got frog spawn from a work colleague to get in mine. I still got them visiting for a few years after we filled the pond in.

 

[Ditto]

Lovely water lily. I managed to get one to flower once, a lovely yellow, in a discarded bath! I do have one here at Mum's but the pond is tiddy so I get huge shiny leaves but never a flower. I do have a huge frog, dunno if it's the same one but it's there every year. Never see any frog spawn however. I did put some in once but not seen it since.

Next year I shall try a courgette. 🙂 I'm going to try as many new things as possible. Has anybody heard anything about Monty Don? My brother says he's poorly again?