winter vegetables

Its cold and wet and muddy and windy outside.

But its not like that in the polycrub.

I  sowed some brocolli seeds at the end of the summer, and they have been slowly doing their own thing  and we can now start  picking the heads . 

And the curly kale continues to grow and sprout new leaves 

The over-wintered cabbage has been slow to get going and is nowhere near ready to pick

And the purple sprouting brocolli grows well - this is about 5 feet tall. Lots of leaves.
but no pickable heads yet

Strawberries are  doing weel - hopefully some early fruits in a while

And we still have the leeks and carrots that we started  digging up in September are still going strong and will be harvested in due course

Almost year-round self-sufficiency ?

Polycrub in January

So it has withstood the 70mph winds - must be somthign to do with the 3.4tonne of concrete round the  posts.

And we had a fair bit of produce out of it last year , in spite of the late start.

And its January , so  there isnt much daylight at the moment , and anyway the polycrub (and house) dont get direct sunlight for another couple of weeks .

And stuff is still growing in the polycrub

Weve got purple sprouting brocolli  - this thing is almost 5' tall , but with no  purple heads yet

And a pea must have fallen from where they were growing last year .
And its sprouted, so ive put a few more alongside it and we'll see if we get some early peas.

And the artichokes are continuing to grow
















And the vine has picked up , after an initial stumble



















And i didnt think this was supposed to happen  in January .

something must be done

But what ?

There was an article in the local paper ( but there isnt an online summary on the Orcadian website) this week stating it has been the wettest year of the century.
The data comes from Keith Johnson , and there is a website - www.orkneyweather.co.uk .
On his website are a lots of graphs and tables, including the rainfall in Orkney.  And the graph here shows its the wettest year so far with rainfall in Birsay ( a few miles from here )  of 1266.8 mm ( almost 50 inches)

And its been wet and muddy for us as well. Here's the post from January .

The rainwater flows down the hill.  There are a couple of burns that over the year have got   quite full at times .

We had some snow and ice in January  . If you look closely at one of the pictures there is a little stream flowing across the drive.

As the evenings are getting lighter , ive been thinking about gardening.  So i had a look at the small garden and raised beds . All the water that has been flowing across the drive has been going somewhere  - and its been going into the vegetable garden .

across the drive

And then goes across the lawn

and is held up be the wall

and on the other side, carries on 

 


 until it gets to the vegetable garden , where it hangs round a  bit, rots the grass and converts soil to mud.
















Something must be done.


But what ?

Goose, Leek and Onion

An eaten Onion

......don't go together, at least when the goose is alive.

ive been puzzled that some of the plants I've been trying to grow keep on getting eaten.
Leeks too , have been affected

A damaged leek

Slug pellets  to no avail.  They grow back a bit and then are attacked once more.

However, I think I have found the culprit(s)

They wander round the garden , and although they stay mainly near the pond, they are seen exploring other areas.

So protection has now been put in place

Celery

But its really not much consolation to know that Goose and peas, or Goose and celery can co-habit without too much of a problem .

Peas