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I broke the new strimmer. In retrospect I realise that I made one or two fundamental errrors but honestly,
it could have happened to anyone. It just wouldn’t start. There I was, messing around with chokes and various buttons
and levers and pulling like crazy on the starter cord, and nothing was happening, not even a hint of life. The answer, as
all blokes know, is to pull the cord harder and harder. This I duly did and then of course the inevitable happened and the
cord got stuck. It just wouldn’t go back into the housing and just dangled there like a limp lettuce.
I should have stopped at that point and thought about it a bit but oh
no, not me, it would be easy to take the housing off and rewind the cord wouldn’t it? Out came the screw diver and off
came the housing and I diagnosed, quite correctly that the problem was with the tensioning spring that retracted the cord after you pull it. One end of the spring had slipped out of it’s location lug.
Well I tried to force it back in with the screwdriver but it just wouldn’t go.
I should have stopped at that point and thought about it a bit but oh
no, not me, I reckoned that if I just loosened the screw that holds in the starter cord pulley …….It’s amazing
how much spring you can fit into such a tiny space.
I have of course, invalidated the warrantee and now await both the strimmer
and a bill from the local repair shop. The only consolation is that when Sue dropped it off for repair (well I just couldn’t
face the shame and humiliation) the guy in the shop said “That’s the fourth one this week”. I am not alone.
The beginning of the month
has been one of mixed fortunes. We planted out our squashes, cucumbers and sweetcorn only to be hit that night with horrendous
wind (the plot that is) and torrential rain. Unfortunately we lost some of the squashes and cucumber plants. Although they
had been properly hardened off the conditions were just too much for them and they were simply ripped apart. Some survived
however and are doing well and we’ve planted some more seeds which will hopefully catch up. It’s amazing how often
late sown seeds prosper in the warmer conditions and do just as well in the end.
The bean canes were also flattened along with the Asparagus but no real damage was done and after putting
the supports back in place they are progressing nicely.
The Strawberries have been fantastic. They started cropping earlier than usual
due to the very warm April that we had. They have produced pounds of fruit and there's no sign of them slowing up
yet. We’ve been eating them almost every day and I made some really lovely Strawberry ice cream. Sue is very happy.
It's been a very, very wet end to the month with little chance to do much on the plot except try to keep
the weeds down during the brief dry spells. We've been picking Broad Beans however and have just pulled our first Garlic, variety
Early Purple, which is best eaten in the green as it doesn't keep well. It's drying out a bit in the potting shed at the moment
as it's far to wet to leave it out.
Here's hoping for some better weather in July but in the meantime, check out my recipe for Broad Bean
and Tomato Pasta in the Plot to Plate Cookbook. It's a simple little dish but really tasty and only takes about 30 minutes
to prepare so is a great meal for a quick dinner after you get home from work.
We are planting this month:
We have planted out the Squashes and Sweetcorn along with some dwarf Borlotti beans in
the "Three sisters" style made popular by Carol Klein following her grow your own veg TV series. You plant the sweetcron in
a block with a bean alongside, and underplant with the squashes. This trinity of plants are supposed to compliment each
other with the beans fixing nitrogen into the soil to the benefit of the other plants. I've not tried it before but it will
be interesting to see how it works.
A while back we bought a Blueberry bush with some garden vouchers we'd been given. It's doing
really well and has started to produce more fruit than I ever imagined it might. Blueberries are said to be one of the modern
"superfoods" which are packed with good stuff and will make you live forever. Well I don't know about that but they taste
delicious and that's enough for me. If you're thinking about getting one make sure it's a variety which is self fertalising
or you won't get any fruit.
To the right of the berries is my Lemon Verbena. This has
to be the most intensly citrus scented herb in the world; just smelling it is enough of a reason to grow it. It
fills me with joy. It's quite hard to find in the usual garden centres but if I were you I'd move heaven and earth to get
some. It makes fantastic ice cream.
We're going to be planting swedes, parsnips, peas and salsify this month. It's a little
late to be doing so but that's the story this year, mainly due to us both being ill in the spring. We'll give them a go anyway
and I'm pretty convinced that they'll do ok. The great thing about growing your own veg is that you can bend the rules
as much as you want and it doesn't hurt a soul though, if things work out, it can be very good for your own.
Varieties:
Parsnip: Excalibur from the RHS award of merit collection. Parsnips can take up to 28 days
to germinate so it's a case of keeping the faith and not getting too impatient for results.
Swede: Magre. I wanted to grow this one last year but never got around to sowing it in time.
I've just planted one row to see how it goes this year.
I'm also sowing some Florence Fennel, variety Chiarino. I love that aniseed flavour and with
this variety you can use both the bulb and the ferny foliage.
We've sown a row of radishes and will be planting more cut and come again salad leaves, more
beetroot and another couple of rows of Borlotti beans to try and get a steady supply for as long as possible. We're also sowing several pots of Basil and Coriander although these we'll grow at home outside the kitchen
door rather than down at the plot.
We were given some Gerkin seedlings and will also be growing them on in a pot in the garden.
I don't think I've ever actually seen a Gerkin that wasn't pickled - I can identify with that.
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