The month of chard (and other leaves)

 

 

Over the last week or so my garden has changed shape… the broad beans and onions – and the potatoes which had grown by chance in the same patch of ground – came out and last weekend the garden seemed quite bare:

However, upon our return from a trip to the Midlands, the garden looked quite full again:

For a start, the pumpkins had put on a very good spurt. Below are the before and after shots:

It looks like they are going to overshadow one of the patches of rainbow chard soon. At the moment, though, the latter seems to be doing very well:

I think I will have to thin the chard under this cloche out soon. The beetroot I thinned out before going away has certainly benefited from being thinned out, although the roots are still disappointingly small, so I think we will be enjoying the leaves more than anything. And the spinach I sowed a week ago has also started to show through.

Another leaf I have just planted is corn salad, in place of the coriander which was running to seed. I have collected these seeds, with a little help of my neighbours’ grandson, and I will enjoy them in curries over the next year or so. In any case, the coriander on the kitchen windowsill is getting to the point where I can pick it (and fingers crossed this does not bolt like the lot I had outside).

The leaves on my purple sprouting broccoli have been badly eaten by caterpillars as I didn’t have enough netting to keep them covered. Still, I have learned from experience that this doesn’t inhibit the growth of the flowers later in the year/next spring. Besides, upon inspecting these leaves I could find only a couple of caterpillars, which have been duly picked off. Hopefully, they won’t come back!

Lastly, the parsley is a pleasing sight. Whatever I try to grow in the second half of the bag fails, so I will have to look into why, but at least I have more than enough parsley to keep us going – and I will store some to use over the winter months:

 

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