June 10th 2012 Growing Like Weeds

 Right, this is Fran back in the writing seat after a short break,thanks to Sarah for posting while I was away(on a jolly to the UK)  First impressions after a 3 week absence  was   bloody hell   the things have grown somewhat.  In fact we now have produce to take home with us..  the beginnings of trying to feed our families is slowly materializing  and I think although this was the obvious intention from the beginning we didn't actually visualize it happening  so  yeah  well done us

First we would like to offer huge thanks to Mr Darcey for his sterling job  in fact  so well is he keeping away  the birds (!!!) that we decided to offer him a Nobel Prize for Outstanding work in His Field.  In his acceptance speech he was moved to organic tears and heartily thanked the ladies responsible for stuffing his trousers and shirt,  as well as anyone that knows him...  and now on to cultivating matters.....


Lets start with the positives.   Herbs doing extremely well

 Dill   although it looks a bit straggly (thank you spell check  got that one so wrong), is undoubtedly  hanging on in there

 Parsley, which in my back yard I have managed to kill off many a time seems Ok

and Mr Basil in the back ground is absolutely
blooming. In fact all the varieties of Basil we planted  have really taken hold, so at some point we will be talking pesto sauce recipes.
















Other veg really coming along  particularly the tomatoes , not ready yet  but getting there

Also peppers




















Now I'm sure you don't want to see a picture of everything else that has grown  but nuf said we were especially chuffed with our first melon

So generally things are coming along nicely.  We had a small cucumber to pick and an aubergine and lots of lettuces ready, so that's our second crop if you like








Summer spinach is growing well  but the rocket seems to being eaten by something with small holes in the leaves   now we start with the issues!!  As always there  was lots of maintenance to do , A bit of fertilizing and bug spraying and loads of weeding..   Bugs  lets talk bugs.  We do seem to have a lot of white flies and we are using a mixture of water and soap, but  this is not really keeping them at bay  Does anyone have any other ideas..?????


Then there were the weeds.  OH MY GOD

anyway  everyone mucked in and did what we could




























While Lisa repaired the damage caused by the daaaaaawg    who is lovely but  really enjoys a romp around the tomatoes and has pulled up a lot of the plastic sheeting

So we cleared a bit more space  and planted some more cucumbers, spring onions, tomatoes and leeks - grown from seed by Ray-  thank you very much.  we have more tomatoes and spring onions to plant next week and a possible trip to the field may happen mid week for more weed clearing. Phone Lisa if you can make it,  Brenda and I have band practice so we cant. 


So as a general summary  things are growing well   I attempted to make a written record of what went where and when I f I can I will probably get it out on an Excel spreadsheet  distributed in duplicate....   That's  the kind of little project I like  (sad  yawn  yes I know)


Little jobs for next week are going to be more weeding,  more cane to tie up the tomatoes etc, and bug control.  I think we are all looking forward to our first crop of tomatoes  then I think we will feel real progress is being made.  and next time we all need to remember to take containers to being our lovely produce home..

and finally  a dish  made this week using a couple of our lettuces.  This is what the Greeks would call Pork Fricasse .  Pork with lettuce in an egg lemon sauce mmmm.