Grow your own veg - Stapeley style

Grow your own veg - Stapeley Style - Part 4

2009-02-26T04:20:00.000-08:00

Its all looking good here at Stapeley veg garden, the last of the winter veg has been pulled and eaten, Aunty Rhinum troughed all the leeks mmm. The last sad carrot crop was food for Harris and his harem, they have grown so much over winter. Harris has become a real favourite with everyone, he dances which is so funny! The girls have been laying since January, the eggs have again being troughed by Aunty Rhinum, something amiss here as some do all the feeding and cleaning and some just trough the resulting fodder. The chicks have been promised a mini-break in the veg patch if Harris curbs his desire to peck the hands that feed him!

The green manure crop didn't happen, it was very cold and all the stuff had migrated to the comparative warmth of Houseplants for the winter, they have really only just reappeared, blinking in the light, to look fondly at what will no doubt be 'Aunty Rhinums source of 5 a day for the year'.

There is a competition afoot this year...between Aunty Rhinums Dad and the Stapeley virgin veg growers, this could be very bad for the Stapeley mob as 'Dad' is the only source of veg 'know how' there is. 'Dad' already has his potatoes chitted, Stapeley however is reliant on Douglas Fir who took said seed potatoes home 3 weeks ago and keeps bleating about egg boxes, why this is so vital for successful spuds is beyond everyone, so don't hold out any hope for spuds being one of the 5 a day!! 'Dad' is already mithering AR for 8 foot canes so something else must be imminent, runner beans are the suspect veg requiring these so AR will have to visit her parents on a spying mission.

Poly Anthus is back in the team after disappearing all winter when the hard work was in progress, hmmm last on the list for freebies I feel. However along with Loo Pins they made a great job of digging over weeding the plot ready for the competition. The seeds have been surreptitiously snaffled from the garden shop and we have chosen some unusual things to try, varieties to follow as we sow.

Grow your own veg - Stapeley Style - Part 3

2008-10-22T06:05:00.000-07:00

Well the veg patch is thriving, the crops have been harvested, Al gon has taken the beetroot which his wife cooked, Douglas Fir chose the broad beans, and the carrots were fab and so tasty.

The cabbage white caterpillars harvested the cabbage, sprouts and broccoli this was disappointing but we have a secret weapon for next years crop THE CHICKENS. Harris, Violet and Pearl are our three new Pekin Bantams and are just lovely, at present they reside in the new kitchen garden but will be having a regular “holiday” in the veg patch next year. Douglas Fir secretly talks to the chicks although he pretends he would rather eat them, he seems to spend lots of time with them.

Aunty Rhinum doesn’t seem to have eaten any veg apart from the onions which have now been pulled and laid to dry, all that remains apart from the lovely leeks is the Celeriac, its looking great but no-one seems to know what you do with it, and I feel another question for Aunty Rhinums Dad coming on.

The next job is to tidy the patch and sow a green manure crop, this says Aunty Rhinum will put nitrogen into the soil for next years veg, bet that came from her Dad too !!!!
We are also ready to plant garlic, onion sets and shallots Mmmm!

Grow your Own Veg - Stapeley Style - Part 2

2008-08-05T01:51:00.000-07:00

My concern over plant pilfering is escalating; yes someone has stolen the courgettes! There were 3 or so 4-5 inchers that were most promising but as pointed out to Aunty Rhinum by ‘M’ the plant is naked, sabotage is suspected, and ‘M’ is chief suspect. Whilst thinning the radish Aunty Rhinum gave one a try, before Loo Pins and Polly Anthus consumed the crop, she’s not keen on anything remotely healthy and the radish is sadly not the one to convert her, I think it’s in the compost bin.

Talking of compost, ours is coming along nicely, we are collecting all manner of uneaten food from the ‘brew room’, goodness knows who packs their lunches but there seems an awful lot to me.
It appears we have something amiss with our cabbages. A very kind gentleman pointed this out to Aunty Rhinum , who hasn’t got the vaguest idea, I can feel a visit to her dads pending as they appear to be all crinkly and yellow, the cabbages that is not Aunty Rhinum's dad.
We are off to Tatton Park this week so maybe the mysterious cabbage calamity can be averted! We can always borrow some of theirs………..
Aunty Rhinum has another plan, Douglas Fir, Loo Pins and Polly Anthus look distinctly unsettled, apparently she wants to make an apocathary Garden; no one has the faintest idea what she is banging on about, best order a book I feel. Chickens have been mentioned which gave Loo Pins a glimmer of hope, she wants a Gloucester old spot, we have pointed out this is a pig but she’s determined……

Apocathary garden coming soon………

Grow your own veg - Stapeley Style

2008-07-24T02:30:00.000-07:00

Grow your own Veg with Stapeley Water Gardens

Chapter One

Hi we would like to welcome you to the ups and downs of growing your own veggies. Here at Stapeley we have chosen a small plot to grow our own and share our experiences with you.

None of the staff participating in this project have grown veg before, so we are beginners and no doubt will make mistakes along the way. Our triumphs and disasters will be recorded here weekly for you all to share. There are four staff members ‘‘their names have been changed to protect the innocent’’.

Aunty Rhinum is in charge although she has to ask her dad or read a book on 'Veg Made Easy'. Douglas Fir is an old staff member having worked here since the Magna Carta, but he knows his Onions. Loo Pins is our newest member of staff and is particularly excited at the prospect of being fed for free! Polly Anthus is ahead of the game and has already started her own plot at home, sadly everything was eaten by the dreaded plague of pestilence commonly known as a slug, so she is going to be watched carefully for produce pilfering.

We have made two raised beds from sleepers and filled with topsoil and ‘muck’ as my dad calls it although I have another term. We found some fancy edging stones lurking in a corner and feel this has given it the classy look Aunty Rhinum requires.

The area had to be fenced from the local ‘watership down’ population, who lie in wait for any stray plant, weeds they don’t find attractive, anything else is a veritable feast. The fencing proved tiresome in the extreme as nothing appeared to be straight or level and every attempt seemed to leave gaping rabbit sized holes with ‘‘welcome to lunch’’ signposted next to them, just in case the bunnies didn’t notice.

Douglas Fir was despatched to the shop to see which seeds we could sow now and still get some food at the end of the process. He came back with enough to feed a small country, we argued about which was the best variety and consequently changed Douglas Firs choices when he wasn’t in. We sowed in careful rows, possibly way too thickly, dwarf runner beans, Douglas Fir said it was not too late to sow these. We also sowed onions, these we put next to the carrots as this according to Aunty Rhinums’s dad keeps the carrot fly away. We also sowed radish, lettuce, brussel sprouts and broccoli. In containers we sowed baby round carrots and mange tout as they do not need much compost, although dad said there will be nowhere near enough for a decent crop. The spring onions and radish will be sown in two weekly intervals to have a continuous crop.

We also have strawberries in a container but I don’t think Loo Pins will be able to leave these alone and I am thinking of an electric fence which will also sort out the ‘watership down’ issue. Chilli’s, a favourite of Aunty Rhinum have been put in containers as small plants, variety 'Scotch Bonnet'. As we were beginning this plot a very good friend of Aunty Rhinum’s who is the Veg Guru and grows all his own nosh kindly gave us some of his leftover plants to start us off. So we also planted spinach, beetroot, leeks, red onions and a new variety of shallot onions which the Guru seemed most excited about. He also gave us broad beans and peas and something called celairlac which Aunty Rhinums thinks looks like an alien and is not sure it will ever be edible.

Our maintance man who will be known as ‘M’ had some cabbages left so we put these in as well. The Guru showed us how to plant leeks as apparently you make a hole, drop the baby leek in and then just fill the holes with water. The reason for this escapes us all but no doubt in time all will become clear. Aunty Rhinums is hoping our promotions lady will take stunning pictures of the plot as it matures and will keep you all posted.

Douglas Fir has been given the task of thinning this weekend as lots of our seeds have germinated, radish, lettuce, sprouts, carrots are all looking fine and the whole team was thrilled when we saw our future food!! ‘M’ keeps asking when the harvest is, Aunty Rhinums thinks this is sarcasm and he is jealous of our success so far, mmmmm must keep an eye out for saboteurs!!

More next week . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Stapeley Carrot