I've had a fantastic day in the garden today. It's been one of those days where I've got loads of things done.
I weeded the garden this morning, so now all my beds look neat and tidy. Then I pulled up some turnips, beetroots and spring onions and had a bumper crop.
The turnips are "Purple Top Milan", the beetroots are "Detroit" and the spring onions are "White Lisbon"
I've become completely turnip obsessed this year. They're such an easy crop, and there are so many different varieties. I've also grown "Snowball" which is really tasty.
The beetroots will become Beetroot Relish, which is cooked with balsamic vinegar, red wine vinegar, port and orange zest. It's very tasty and very popular. I've also picked some small beetroots, which I'll pickle. When I planted my beetroot, I sowed 4 lines about 3m long. I didn't thin the plants, but let them grow into a beetroot jungle. Every few days I'll pull up the larger ones, and clustered around the larger ones will be 4 or 5 baby ones. So these will come up too, which then leaves space for a few beetroot to grow into giants, while the surrounding beets will stay little and pickle friendly. There is method in my laziness.
The spring onions will be devoured in a salad, or eaten raw with a boiled egg.
That was my morning.
This year I am saving my own seeds to use for next year's crop. I began with my nasturtiums seeds, which had semi-dried on the plants which were situated in my bean/peas bed. I separated them all and let them finish drying in the sun in a draw. The varieties of nasturtiums I had were; Empress of India, Tooty Fruity, Peach Melba and another one whose name escapes me. Empress of India was my favourite, its bright red leaves made my bean/pea garden look beautiful.
In the afternoon, I went down to my grandparents' house. They have an astonishingly beautiful garden full of colour and life and food and flowers and everything I want in my own. We swapped some turnips and spring onions for asparagus peas. I think they got the better deal... However, I spotted their giant sunflower heads which had wilted and dried, so I chopped about 5 or 6 heads off, and my grandparents and I (and a few earwigs) had a great time pulling all the seeds out. I put those out on a tray and left them to dry in the sun.
I've also allotted some vegetables to go to flower so I can collect their seeds too, but I'll tell you all about that when it happens.
Ciao
