Wildly. Freely. Abundantly. Rather similarly to Cat‘s I see this morning! Sadly my courgettes are nowhere near as far on as Penny‘s or Cat’s (I’m hoping they’re late developers 
).
Some very early pics from before the sun was properly up this morning:
raised bed with kale, onions, radish and some small tomatoes
the small toms are ones I took out of an organic tomato and just stuck in the ground as an experiment – they are doing amazingly well though were started off a bit late. In there are also the four surviving cabbages that I overwintered. They gave us green leaves for smoothies right through to the end of January when most of them died (very low temp was hit one night). I should have put plastic over them… gardening is a constant learning experience.
This is a long post with MANY pics so click below if you want the rest of it
raised bed of broad beans, peas, sunflowers, leeks and the odd potato
odd potatoes are everywhere in the garden grown up from layers of kitchen compost – I let most of them grow and they’re already very delicious cooked with mint and then served with marg and parsely
broad beans - pods growing about 1cm a day just now with the heat and rain
peas, best straight from the pod into your mouth
amazing kale - harvested everyday, it just continually grows back
French beans in the tyre garden (no actual beans as yet)
growbag on patio - with last years lettuce and more of the experimental toms
Leaving things in as opposed to tidying everything up for winter, while disorganisation/laziness was the reason, has proved very fruitful. We use most lettuce as cut and come again – these are similar to iceberg and leaves are frequently nabbed for sandwiches, juice and salads. Some more winter surviving lettuce:
in the cold frame, a more likely place to live through winter
the jungle of the allotment bit at bottom of garden
Lots of potatoes in there (officially this time), purple sprouting broccoli, leeks, lettuce, chickweed, some late peas, beetroot, carrots, kale, leaf beet, rhubarb, parsley and garlic.
keenly awaiting broccoli
I planted rows of leeks between most things down here and in one of the raised beds – good for biodiversity and avoidance of pests (and another wonderful winter survivor/grower). I didn’t grow these from seed but bought a pot of about 300 from a small local hardware and garden shop for £1.75. This was a rather fabulous price – when visiting a popular big garden centre I saw a set of 12 leeks there for £2.99, only very slightly larger then the potted ones I bought!
beautiful leek
If you have any tips for good food gardening please do comment! I’m re-reading Robert Hart’s Forest Gardening again, now we have a bigger garden, hoping to glean some more wisdom I remember feeling a little frustrated in our last very small garden when reading it last, though I did encorporate many of the ideas into that smaller space such as fruit bushes, perennial herbs and trees. Hart’s philosophy resonates strongly with me.
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Glad to see someone has the same approach to gardening as me…everything thrown in together! I have to say that the approach seems to have worked and so far confused most insects other than caterpillars. Yours looks the same. It is a beautiful wild garden.
Also, Penny, what is your secret regarding your courgettes? It is a constant source of amazement that even within Scotland there is such variety in the growing seasons…although I suspect Penny’s local climate might be a bit more conducive to courgette growth than mine!
Well, Cat, my secret is that John grows them!
I asked him and he says he brings them on first in the conservatory/dining room and then the greenhouse. After they’re big and strong enough, he plants them out, but cloches them when it’s cold. We’re harvesting enormous courgettes at the moment, from four plants, and leaving some to grow into marrows so I can stuff them with nut roast and pour a tomato sauce over the top. (I wish I hadn’t written that. It’s made me hungry!) John planted four, on the basis that two would probably survive…
Lucy, your garden looks wonderful. We’re so envious of the space you have! MUCH better than having to head over to the allotment! And your produce looks so good!
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yes, all mixed up, the plants like it like that
oh but it’s so good to have an allotment too – much sought after places
I think all home grown stuff is wonderful, so fresh and real isn’t it? and I’m envious of the marrow sized courgettes – stuffing them with nut roast… mmm… love marrow in curry too…
Thanks Penny (and thanks John!). Next year I’ll start them off earlier but I think I’ll need some sort of heated propogator as my house is colder inside than outside. I noticed yesterday that some of my tiny courgettes that were growing nicely have now rotted and on two other plants some of the flowers have just dropped off.
Not sure what is happening.
I have to say I will be picking mine when they are still small as I can not abide marrow sized courgettes. ick! and marrow in curry???!! Lucy! What are you thinking! eww
it’s lovely lovely lovely!!!!
I cant wait for my allotment to look like this one day, i have just got it and have just strimmed the wild flowers one it. So a bit of work to do, but so worth it!1
Any advice??
trial and error really – asking local gardners what does well in your area/soil type? kale does well almost everywhere and overwinters too. you should still have time to grow nice salads/lettuces/herbs beofre winter. I see suttons have late season seed potatoes too. We got our tatties from there this year and they are amazing -the ground is full of them, very satisfying to pull up and rummage in the earth for