Where did those come from?

The last couple of days we've had absolutely horrible weather in Southampton but today I managed to catch a break in the rain and dash out to check on the plants!

I was a little dissappointed when I looked at my broadbeans because they've lost all of their pretty white flowers

But then I looked a bit closer and saw these absolutely massive beans that have sprung in to being over the last few days - the scale is a bit hard to tell from the piccy but the largest are almost the length of my hand!  I don't think I have ever eaten a broad bean intentionally before so I may have to go find some recipes.  At the moment this looks pretty good:

Penne with ricotta, broad beans and mint
250g of pasta (anything short and vaguely tubular will do)
200g broad beans
125g ricotta
1 large bundle of fresh mint
Fresh lemon (juice and zest)
2 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

Cook the pasta in boiling water - you can even add the beans at the end to save on washing up. Put in a bowl and stir in the ricotta, lemon juice and zest, and crushed raw garlic. Drizzle the oil on top, sprinkle over the mint and eat.

Recipe by Kate Carter from an article at guardian.co.uk

An Update

I spent most of the afternoon out in the garden today tidying up various plants and settling in a new one. 

This was an impulse purchase from Thompson & Morgan with Tesco Clubcard vouchers; the vouchers were due to expire and needed using up so I purchased a new blueberry bush (and some winter potatoes but they're due later) to use them up.  This little fellow turned up in the mail and is now settling in beside its big brother

I also have some 'new' strawberries - the existing plants have started putting out runners which I have been trapping in little pots around the big one and these fellows have finally grown big enough to strike out on their own (and make way for even more new runners!)  Jake unfortunately seems to consider 'strawberry runners' close enough to 'string' to be worth chasing round the garden.... I may have to keep an eye on my little ones!

The agapanthus is doing very nicely in it's pot by the stairs and looks like it's thinking about flowering soon

The rhubarb is also continuing to grow well, occasionally one of the smaller leaves seems to wilt and die but they always get replaced by new ones so i'm not too concerned about it!

This raspberry plant has got me totally confused!  I had read that the type of raspberry I had would fruit on last years canes.... but it's fruiting on new growth so I think I need to do a bit more reading!  Still... it looks like I might get 4 whole raspberries to eat this year so there's an unexpected treat!

The strawberry plants seem to either be doing very well or very badly; some of them (like this one!) are putting out beautiful crops of tasty strawberries whilst others have broken their stems and the fruit has rotted :(  I think I will need to modify these bags if I use them again next year or maybe look for a better pot with more rounded edges to give the fruiting stems a little support.

 All the tomatoes are fruiting now but the hanging baskets are definately leading the way - I can't believe that such a small plant can be so liberally covered in fruit - salads are going to awesome this summer.

And finally  my beautiful beans are thriving - this one is now going so well that i've given it a 'trellis' onto the roof of the shed!  I should probably have cut it down but its got flowers on the 'overflow' now so it seemed a shame to take them off.  I did think about tying on another cane but realised that there was no way I would be able to support it so left it at 2

I know what it is!

The mystery is solved!  I am growing Broad Beans which means that I appear to have a Spring GroBox and should thus also eventually see Onions, Peas, Spinach, Carrots, Ruby Chard, Tomatoes, Radish and Lettuce springing up!

The Mystery Plant....

It's getting more mysterious by the day!  The mystery plants have started flowering and I still have no idea what they are... but they're very pretty :D

I wanna know what it is already!

The green beans are also starting to bloom and putting out some gorgeous red buds

The strawberries are being cursed by their own success; unfortunately as the strawberries get plumper they weigh down the stems supporting them and several have bent over the edge of the plastic pockets damaging the plant so that nutrients aren't getting through and the stem (and strawberries :o) die.  I think I need to rig some curved protectors so they don't damage themselves but for now this cunning arrangement of canes will have to do!

On the plus side they're putting out runners like crazy and as long as I can keep them healthy I should have a truly ridiculous number of strawberry plants next year!

All grown up

My little plants are getting all grown up now and showing signs of fruiting. I imagine I'll get used to it over time but at the moment I still get a lovely sense of wonder when I look out of the back door and see my drab stone patio covered in lovely vibrant growing things!

Just a quick post today but here are some photos of the growing that's been going on:

No sign of fruit yet but it's definately getting 'bushier'

These little guys are growing so well I had to tie on extra canes to keep them going... if they get much taller I'm going to need a ladder to harvest them tho ;p

Apparently Rhubarb does just fine in pots - that leaf at the bottom is easily 3 dinner plates in size!

Even the latecomers are getting on well - this is the Raspberry cane that used to just be a stick!

It's growing well... and I still have no idea what it is!

I think 'Yummmmm' about covers this one

The tomatoes seem to have recovered from their brush with the frost but I think I need to seperate them out a bit more; at the moment they look rather like one mega-plant!

Oh Dear.... My poor indoor tomato had a nasty run in with the wind - it was a lot more spindly that the outside tomatoes and got knocked over :(  It's now tied to the fence and shortly after this picture I removed all the broken limbs... poor thing looks a little bare now but I'm hopeful it might make it through as the top is still growing nicely.

It seems I forgot to take a photo of the potatoes but they too are thriving - bushy greens are now springing out of the top of the grow bag and i've banked it up with compost to the top. Tasty taties are anticipated!

Potatoes

I also managed to plant the potatoes yesterday - they have taken up residence in a nice big grow bag where they will have plenty of room to grow; I planted 1 of each variety so I should get some nice choice of potatoes in a couple of months time. They look a little bit boring now but if Angela's are anything to go by I should have some lovely leafy plants soon - just need to keep topping them up with compost so that they have plenty of room to grow.

Raspberries!

We nipped into B&Q yesterday to get some more compost for the garden and sitting out there on the end of an aisle were some lovely looking Raspberry canes for only £5. I couldn't resist them. The only problem was I had nowhere to put them, fortunately I was saved from my dilemma by a 4 for 3 pot offer! Okay, so in the end my £5 Raspberries led to a £40 bill but hey... I saved a tenner overall, and I have Raspberries!

They are of the Glen Ample variety which means that they are summer fruiting so I won't get any Raspberries until next year but I shall look forward to delicious fruits next year.