Summer Distractions

I start by apologizing for the distance between my posts but Summer brings holidays, weddings and lazy days in the sunshine.

Well in the garden the weeds still pretty much have the upper hand if I'm honest but slowly I'm reclaiming the land, now the dandelions have gone to seed and planted themselves I have again dug them up, the main problem I have here is creeping buttercups which are buggers to get rid off, even with chemicals which I refuse to poison my soil with, so it's basically back ache or nothing.

I have had lots of progress in the tomato department, they have grown thick and very fast, until now I have only ever grown them in pots but they really are seeming to enjoy their free range life and the bees are doing a brilliant job of pollenizing them all. I'm now not just seeing little yellow flowers but little green tomatoes too. When I grow tomatoes I always grow too many for myself but it's great to hand out free food like this to friends and neighbors they'll love them so much more than supermarket stuff.

A week after my holiday in Wales I planted some butternut squash seeds and some more cucumbers, they grow great on windowsills with plenty of light and water. I can hardly believe the speed they grow and now just one month later I've had to separate them into bigger pots. Slugs and snails love cucumber plants as well as squashes so I'm keeping them covered for as long as possible so they'll have the best chance of winning the war with the beasties. Another problem was I planted them thinking for sure I'd know which was which but as it turns out the plants look pretty much the same at this stage.

 < Butternut Squash                                                                                     ^ Cucumber


I have also decided to plant up some flowers for my doorstep so bought some Nasturtiums from James Wong's range and some Phacelia I claimed for free from the Soil Association as they are supposed to be loved by bees. Nasturtiums as well as looking pretty go great on a salad as they have edible flowers which look lovely and colourful too. This is them not looking very colourful yet.


In other news my mum's eaten all the raspberries from my other plot outside her house and I've been handing out the herbs for free as they grow like wildfire. And I also have mini pepper plants growing on the windowsill and they are starting to flower so fingers crossed they do well this season.

Onwards & Defiantly Upwards

Right the time has come for most of the little veg plants to leave the safety of the windowsill and head out into the outside world. However plants cannot be just thrown outside into the soil and left to survive. They need hardening off first, I have recycled an old china cabinet as a little green house, it doesn't get too hot like proper greenhouses and there's still a little draft that can get in so it's good for hardening little plants.

 After a week or so the tomatoes, which are now starting to out grow the cabinet are ready to go outside. I have put in alot of hard graft preparing the soil. Backbreaking weeding and turning the soil, the dandelions really have taken over but don't worry dandelions have their uses too and the rabbit at the animal shelter loves them. The soil could do with manure adding, I'll have to steal some from Suzie at the shelter.
For the tomatoes I have chosen a sunny a spot against a wall, this gives them the best shot at ripening off but as it's between 2 hedges they have a little protection from the wind. The plants need staking because tomato plants can grow quite lanky and are easily destroyed by wind. I've planted them in half a foot apart so they've got room to grow.






As well as tomatoes, the sunflower, peppers and cucumber need hardening off too so into the cabinet they go, it won't be long till they go out for real.

<-- Sunflower plant now needs a stake to hold it up, only one seed out of 3 germinated, I have no idea why.









In other news I have brought the potted strawberries from the courtyard at my previous plot and planted them out in prepared soil. Strawberry plants are fantastic for people without much time to garden, they are perennial (they come back every year I've had mine for 3 years), they survive frost and water logging and even do well in prolonged periods without water and if you want them to they'll spread so you get more crop. They are however hard to raise from seed so buy baby plants from the garden center.

Finally I am trying to raise funds for Yorkshire Animal Shelter and have crafted cards featuring my photography, I am trying to sell them on eBay without much success so far, if you're interested head here for a look --> Emma's eBay Shop. Or just text YASG18 £3 to 70070 to donate £3. Ta.

Rhubarb + Seedling Update + New Bees.

Well Spring is well and truely under way and I'll begin this blog by letting you know I have now discovered Rhubarb, I know it's practically criminal but until the other day I had never tried rhubarb. I was put off by rumors of it being sour and strange but last week I was offered some from the onsite allotment so I picked a few stalks out of politeness more than desire to try it. When friends came to stay last week I bit the bullet and made them rhubarb crumble with a packet of oat crumble topping. It's so easy just boil rhubarb with sugar and water for 10 minutes, drain and add the topping and bake for 20 minutes. The results were surprisingly tasty but the rhubarb was not pick and attractive as the supermarket ready meals would have you believe but mainly a greeny colour with hints of pink. Just goes to show. Anyway I have now planted some rhubarb and am looking forward to my own Yorkshire Rhubarb in a years time (don't pick the first harvest the plant gets tired).

The seedlings are now moving along well and we have multiple money maker tomato plants, a sunflower, cucumber, lettuce, peas, mini peppers and very surprisingly a butternut squash seedling. The butternut squash was a experiment I planted 6 in all but squash prefer planting in Autumn and have a long growing period. After 2 months and out of 6 seeds just 1 has shot straight up so fast it must have took less than a week for it to touch the top of the propagator. In not very long many of the seedlings will be big enough to be grown on outside in the ground I an currently preparing for them.

Also after missing my little tree bee friends at my parents place I today discovered new neighbors on my patch. These critters were paying particular interest in the little holes made by old screws in my wall. My friend has suggested these are masonry bees, a solitary bee which lives in brick mortar. I believe they were carrying little clumps of mud to their new homes and arranging it, however I have sent this photo to the Bumble Bee Conservation Trust to confirm it for me, more info when I found out. If you want to do something to help bees in the UK sign the Soil Association's Petition to make the government listen to bee's plight and don't use un-natural pesticides and herbicides in your garden. Bees love fruit and veg plants but if you prefer lawns keep a unkempt corner of your garden where wildflowers can grow for bees. Bees are important to ALL life on Earth look after them.

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Spring Getting More Springy

It's now late March and things are beginning to happen, my roof is being done currently so little can be done outside as a huge pile of slate and timber sits in the middle of what was a lawn. However indoors there's a little action.
My mushrooms are sprouting away and I've had a few but probably not as many as I could, mushroom are easy to forget about I must admit but the soil NEEDS to be kept moist. Another problem is with their love for warmish moist conditions they do attract some tiny little flies, I can't think of a way to remedy this unfortunately so I just keep them as far away from us as possible while still being indoors. This is one of my chestnut mushrooms, I left it a little too long before picking, it's still good to eat but you should pick them before the gills underneath show.

Second the tomato seedlings have really took off and I've transplanted the strongest of the plants into a pot so I can sow more seeds in the propagator. The pepper seedlings have just started to show too, they take longer than tomatoes. No sign of butternut squash seedlings yet =(. We've also got microgreen herbs and Chinese chives from the James Wong selection on their way.

Now I'm very scatty and there are plants I plant and forget about. About 18 months ago I bought small fig tree only half a foot tall at The Range thinking oh well that'll be different. I re-potted it and it grew. It loses it's leaves in Winter and has to be brought indoors to avoid frost. When I moved house last Autumn I left the fig tree, lovingly named Phileas Fig with my mum. She looked after him over Winter and the other week tells me "that tree shot up and it's got new leaves." I took a look, now mum's hallway is very small and a bit gloomy so as well as getting in the way poor Phileas wasn't getting the nourishing light he needs so he's a little pale. But to my surprise there were 2 little green nodules growing from the tree. Figs! Wow unexpected he's still only small. He's gonna need some multi-purpose feed and when he's moved outdoors after any frost risk has gone I'll grab some manure from the animal sanctuary. Tomato feed once every 3 weeks helps too according to RHS. He's now in my hallway, alot more room and light till he can go outside.

It's Been a While.......Sorry.

Hi Veggers, sorry it's been a while since my last post alot has been happening I've been on a couple of holidays and I've moved house. Don't worry the Urban Veg is still there and growing in my mum and dad's front garden. I now have a bigger and more challenging plot (photos later).

So for an update on the existing veg we've had many many many cherry tomatoes off our 6 plants, more than me and mum can eat. I've got some juicy looking peppers nearly ready for picking. The leeks are doing well as are the little turnip I'm hoping they along with parsnips will be good for Christmas. Parsnips taste sweetest after the frost has got to them.

Also we have electric daisies which I tried the other day and must say are a acquired taste, nasturtium which the caterpillars took a fancy to are now in bloom and the cucamelons are fattening up and should be ready soon.

On a downer the sweetcorn just didn't do well, it went to seed and on the plus side is now feeding the birds, lucky birds.

Apologies also for the image quality my big camera wasn't to hand.

Our many neighbours

The resent rain after the hot 2 weeks of sun have sent our wildlife into overdrive, we're now getting bees by the dozen, peacock butterflies and cabbage whites. Our Budlia or butterfly bush is in flower which help attract so much life. This is a Buff-Tailed Bumble Bee enjoying the Budlia plant ------------>

Our resident Tree Bumble Bees are also very busy with males hanging round constantly waiting for the busy passing females. We are now unfortunately starting to see the ill and dying members of the colony, this is only natural as bees like to keep their home clean and free of disease so the kick out the sick members. We are seeing the odd one on our garden path now.  They are however very happy with our flowering herbs especially the thyme.
This appears to be a big male on the thyme.








I've also seen my first Peacock Butterfly of the year in the garden, they are totally stunning. I snapped this one as it basked on the potatoes. ------->








And then we have a problem, I am a organic gardener with a love of wildlife and nature but unfortunately sometimes the wildlife just doesn't respect the veg and just goes munching straight through it. This is a cabbage white caterpillar, I found him munching massive wholes in the sweetcorn leaves. But don't worry I just picked him off and relocated him however I don't think the food will be as tasty. It's best with caterpillars and snails etc to just relocate them don't kill them as they're a tasty meal for the birds.

Summer Fruits

While on holiday my neighbor was more than happy to water my veg for me but never the less I was worried. The mid July temperatures soared while I was away enjoying the cooler coast. As it turned out on my return I had no casualties Yey!

                                                              Peas Beautiful Peas.

In fact what I had was sweetcorn plants nearly as tall as me, pea pods dangling like gems, strawberries and LOTS of raspberries. I'm actually stunned at how the plant took off when I took it from the pot it had been in for 2 years and put it in the ground, within a couple of months it must have doubled in size.

I'm now getting fruits daily with the first harvest giving me a punnet with fruits nearly double the size of tasteless supermarket fruits. Yummy! I'm now waiting on blackberries to follow for a summer fruit salad.

             Tip for tasty Strawbs:- Water them a couple of times with sugar water for super sweetness.

Being arty with the produce + giving them a wash.

Growing my own drugs part 1.

In my first post I mentioned I'd put a herb garden into the back. My reason for this is that herbs are quite hardy and don't need the attention other crops do.

When I started it was with the smallest patch of the garden I was inspired by James Wong from Grow Your Own Drugs, thinking hey I could make my own teas etc and cure everyone of everything.

I bought some cheap edging from B&M (always a winner) and some bark chippings, while I was shopping I saw they were also selling pots of herbs at 3 for £5 so I was in there £10 and I had the makings of a herb garden. Rosemary, thyme, lavender and oregano were my first plants to go in after weeding and turning the soil, I'd then laid a weed membrane over the soil and cut holes in where I wanted the herbs to go.

I planted in these herbs but the patch still looked a bit bald when I remembered the parsley that I'd grown the previous year was still struggling in the green house, out that came, split into 2 plants and put in too. Mum then presented me with another lavender which was too big for it's pot and that went in too.
Lavender as well as smelling beautiful is a bee favorite and will help insects flourish. I finish off the patch by spreading the bark over the top. to make it look tidy and also little beetles and other insects will be at home hiding in the bark.

We did have one problem though with a starling thinking my thyme would make good bedding material so I've had to cover it with net curtain until it grows big and strong enough to handle the attention.

One month on and these are my herbs now after plenty of Spring rain.......

Lavender, thyme and parsley with oregano hiding in the background.









Parsley is now flourishing after being given a home.

My Kingdom

Welcome to the blog of the Urban Veg Queen, this is the blog of a small garden in the middle of Leeds. I have been trying different things for a few years now working on the best plants for small urban spaces.

First is looking at the space I have to work with. One small South facing garden at the front of my house which is completely paved over but the amount of sun it receives makes it ace for growing crops like tomatoes, strawberries & chilies. An urban environment also makes good for these crops as cities are usually warmer. This is my space as it was a bit earlier this year. The plastic coldframe from Morrisons has been replaced by a proper eBay model below. Basically every plant in this garden just about has to be potted.



This however is a great space for starting off
seedlings and hardening them off. I plant crops that need deep roots in green sacks from the Pound Shop. They're fab for potatoes and carrots.








My second space is at the rear of the house and is therefore North facing, most veg gardeners know a North facing garden is hard work as not much grows in shade. So the challenge is finding what will thrive I also intend on using this space to help local wildlife. The pigeons and sparrows already seem to love it and we get Blue Tits nesting most years but I want to make it a wildlife paradise for everything, after all every creature has a role to play in the garden.

This is the space as it is at the mo (ending at the gate just across that council field is Leeds town center). I have put in a herb garden to the right which I'll tell you all about in my next post.
But yeah pretty barren we had to combat a creeping buttercup problem hence the black weed fabric and rug. Now it's gone it's time to start work and keep on top of it.