We gave ourselves some time off gardening this week and spent one day visiting Helmsley Walled Garden in North Yorkshire. We were really impressed by the garden especially the kitchen garden areas. I’ve shared some of the photos taken and a video on my web site here but below is a taster.
The winter brassicas desperately needed weeding but there were lots of white butterflies on the look out for likely leaves on which to lay the eggs that would hatch out into an army of marauding caterpillars. An undercover operation was the only real option and so I loosened the netting in sections and stuck my head under to pull out the weeds. The sprouts in particular were covered with whitefly so weeding them wasn’t a pleasant experience - I had to be sure to keep my mouth tightly shut. (Not something that I find especially easy - there I've said it before anyone else does!)
Potatoes harvesting has now begun in earnest as tops are dying back. After the dry weather in May and June our hope of a bumper crops were not very high but so far the potatoes are delivering a decent crop and the tubers are relatively clean and slug free. We have grown several varieties and some are still to be harvested but we have especially enjoyed the International Kidney.
Today we harvested our first beetroot. We've grown four varieties which give an interesting range of colours - even the stems and leaves are different - one Chioggia only shows its true colours when sliced as it is supposed to have white and red rings - we will see!
If you are interested my full diary entry for the last week in July - can't believe that it's already August - can be read here. The weather summary for July is here.
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Glad you enjoyed your time off. I hope to get to Ryton (Garden Organic) shortly.
ReplyDeleteHow will you be storing those lovely potatoes?
We went to Ryton ages ago and can't remember much about it - the gardens get all confused - I hope you have a lovely day for it.
ReplyDeleteSorry BW forgot to answer the question. Usually we get those flat cardboard fruit boxes, that stack, from the supermarket. We pop the potatoes in and cover with paper, to keep the light off and stack them in the garage.
ReplyDeleteThanks GLA, I'm off to the shops shortly and will see if I can acquire the right sort of boxes.
ReplyDeleteI love the walled garden at Helmsley. I have a friend who lives there (and volunteers at the garden). I think those long borders are beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of giving yourself some time off gardening, and spending it looking at how someone else does it! Not quite a busman's holiday I suppose, but not entirely "time off" either!
ReplyDeleteWe often spend our "time off" visiting other nurseries, so we're just as bad!
Lovely beetroot varieties! They will look even prettier when sliced.
ReplyDeleteHi VH Well your friend does a great job the borders were fantastic - much better than out last visit 5 years ago. Everything had developed.
ReplyDeleteWelcome Gnman - Maybe not really time off but it was a lovely visit and since when did gardeners really ever get time off gardening. When we rent cottages here and abroad for holidays I have to resist doing a bit of weeding!!!
Hi Vrtlarica - the leaves would look equally at home in an ornamental border - they look good growing alongside marigiolds.
Wow loads of spuds! We're digging up as we go but I'll store the maincrops as you've said. Thanks for the tip. I think you're ahead of me on the beetroot front, need to check how mine are doing.
ReplyDeleteoh what a lovely set of photographs! You have blue skies and sunshine - we had that once, for a little while, haha. I have that ring and white ringed beetroot in my dinner tonight and we have orange ones too - it's fun to grow the usual types x
ReplyDeleteWow Damo - that must be a first for me to have something before you - we are picking fairly small though - last year we left them in the ground and had cannon ball sized roots
ReplyDeleteIt looks bluer than it was Carrie - sort of bluish thick cloud. We have green, purple and orange cauliflowers too!
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