Clearing Tomatoes and harvesting Onions, Garlic, Shallots and Parsnips

So I finally got outside to do some weeding, and tidy up the wreckage of the inside tomato plants (which had been blown to all corners since I moved them outside, and hadn't recovered at all, sadly).

This morning, in a fit of energy, I got out of bed and went straight into the garden. I have recovered the bamboo stakes and the little green plastic bits from the tomato plants, and then separated the soil from the plants.

 Soil from the inside tomato plants

The dead inside-tomato plants

Anyone got any ideas what I can do with the soil? I was just going to spread it onto waste ground... I presume that with all the roots in it there is a chance that next year some random tomato plants may appear?

Anyway, that done, I headed for my Parsnip Patch to weed, and pull a couple of plants to see how well they are doing.  The weeds were pretty bad, but it didn't take long to pull them back. No gloves, pulling stinging nettles out, and very very few stings... I think it is true that if you grasp a nettle hard, you don't get stung - it is when you brush past them that it hurts the most.

My weeded Parsnip Patch

A single Parnsip, looking very healthy.

While I was walking across the grass one time I spotted this little fella hopping away from me.

 This tomato plant was a runt which I just pushed into the ground and didn't even think about. It has a really good crop of tomatoes and is hugely healthy. So there you are :)

The most ripe tomatoes are still getting redder, which is nice.

This is the fruit of my harvest today. The (tiny) parsnips are to the left, next are all the garlic that I saved, then a mix of onions and shallots.

I think I left my onions and shallots in the ground too long because a good half were soft and rotted. This despite the above ground growth not having died down yet. I think this is because of the wetness of the year, which is a shame, but it is all a learning experience.

I actually harvested all the root crops completely by hand, without using any digging implements. I just dug my bare hands into the soil and filtered out the crop. This was a very satisfying (if dirty) method. I recommend it highly.

This evening I am planning on a lamb roast with cabbage from the garden, and I may fry those parsnips up too. I will blog about it.

Cheers

The ducks are back (and my herbs are rampant)

Two blogs in two days!!

Am I going MAD, I hear your cry...

Well no. I had no plans to write another blog post but last night, as I was heading to bed, I glanced up and saw the two ducks, which I thought had disappeared for the duration, were happily swimming around our pond.

Out the camera came and I managed to capture the following photographs.

This was the sight I saw out the window; the pond needs clearing (a task for a non-windy day) but the ducks were happily swimming around.

They then hopped out and started eating weeds and paddling in the little pools around the wild area (where my blackberries will be growing later in the year)

I then went upstairs to get a better picture but they had left however, as you can see from this photograph of the pond, they had happily swum around the whole thing a couple of times. I'm now tempted to leave the weed and check every day to see if they come back (the landlord may not like that as he's asked if I'll scrape it off for him).

In a hopeful mood I went round to the back, thinking they may have gone to grub there (I have been seeing duck shit in the garden a couple of times) but while they weren't there, the sun was glinting on the lovely pink blossom on my tree. It is a good thing I took the picture because today the storm has come in again and a lot of that blossom is currently spread over the grass.

Finally for the pictures, I have been SO impressed by how the herbs are coming on, particularly the Parsley. It is like a mini tree right now:

Onto other, more technical, matters. I have brought the chillis inside again as the weather really isn't right for them and they were looking a little sad when I got back from work; these are now in the window next to my multiple tomato seedlings :)

I am also going to do a couple of more technical blogs in the next couple of days, describing how I have gone about this so far, and highlighting any mistakes I have made (and there are a few).

Thanks for reading, and please do get involved with any questions, or advice. All gratefully received.