Too blue to be true

The blueberries are looking great in the front garden and these luckily haven't been attacked by the local birdies. The poor fruit bushes in the back garden have been literally stripped bare.

We've been so busy lately. New house, new garden. Lots and lots to do. We have a few things growing and a greenhouse came with our new garden so this year is all new to us. Tomatoes, cucumbers, chillies and peppers coming along nicely.

Update coming soon! I promise.

Goodbye Little Garden!

Well, it's time to say goodbye to the little garden. We've had three very happy years here. Some more fruitful than others. It's time for the little gardeners to scale up and move to some bigger and (hopefully) better. In three weeks we'll be the proud owners of a slightly larger patch than what we have now – a whopping 100ft x 65ft garden! We are very excited :-)

Last weekend we harvested the remainder of our crops. The highlight of which was our parsnips. Look at these beauties! This was the first time we'd grown them and they were a breeze! I think we got about 10 all in all and they were all a really good size. We roasted them up with some of the beets and carrots for a delicious last meal from our patch.

Talking of beetroot – we had a bumper crop this year. I almost don't know what to do with it all! Beetroot chutney – check. Roasted beetroot – check. Pickled beetroot – check. Beetroot soup – check. Not sure what to do with the rest!

We got a huge batch of toms this year too. We went for Gardener's Delight which have well and truly lived up to their name. We have hundreds and hundreds! As we've only got three weeks left here we picked most of them including the green ones.

And of course there's only one thing to do with green tomatoes and that's chutney. I found a great recipe by Nigel Slater.

Green Tomato Chutney

• 900g tomatoes, mixed green and red
• 350g onions
• 90g raisins
• 250g light muscovado sugar
• 1 medium sized, hot red chilli
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp yellow mustard seeds
• 300ml white wine vinegar

Halve or quarter the tomatoes – depending on how big they are. Put the green tomaotes in with all the other ingredients. Bring to the boil and then simmer for around half an hour. Then add in the red tomatoes and simmer for another half hour. Simples. Pop into sterlised jars and I let it mature for a few weeks at least. If you make it now it'll make great Christmas presents – what more could you want than some home-made chutney to spice up that left over turkey on boxing day.

Jammy-tastic!

I think there is almost nothing better than having a glut of something in your garden and deciding what to do with it. Chutney? Jam? Piccalilli? It's a joy.

At the time I almost have a little twang of guilt – taking all this wonderfully fresh produce and adding the likes of vinegar, sugar and boiling it to within an inch of it's life. But, come December, when the garden is cold, wet (and in the past couple of years covered in snow) there is such joy in opening a little pot of gold that was lovingly put together almost 6 months previous.

So it's the middle of June. And June = strawberries. And strawberries = jam. Now I'll be truthful, we don't actually eat a lot of jam but hey, what the heck, the great thing about preserves is well, as the name suggests they last for ages so we'll have plenty of time to work our way through the yumminess.

So first things first, go pick some strawberries. I started with a kilo and ended up with 2 big and 3 small pots of jam. You'll also need 500g of granulated sugar, 450g of sugar with added pectin. Strawberries are pretty low in pectin and that's the stuff that makes the jam set so you definitely need the added pectin sugar. It's pretty easy to find so shouldn't be too much trouble. Then lastly 150ml of lemon juice which you should be able to get from 3 good sized lemons. Prep your strawberries by washing and hulling them – any big ones halve or quarter.Start by putting 200g of the granulated sugar and 200g of the strawberries into a large pan. Mush up with a potato masher and then heat up the pulp slowly. Simmer very gently for around 5 minutes. Then add in the remainder of the strawberries and sugar. Once all the sugar has dissolved add the lemon juice. Turn the heat up and bring to the boil. You'll need to boil them for around 10 minutes, maybe longer – depending on how thick you want your jam.
This is the stage where you need to test the setting point. The best way I've found to do this is by using a cold tea saucer. Take a little of the jam and place on the saucer – let it cool for a few minutes and then push it with your finger. If the mixture ripples then you're there. If not, boil for a few more minutes and try again. Bear in mind that as your mixture cools down it will become thicker so take this into account.Let the mixture cool and pop into some sterilised jars.
It's as simple as that!

Squirmy Wormies

It's spring time, and for your garden birdies that means one thing – chicks, and lots of them! Your garden birds will be super busy at the moment, and with the wonderful warm spring we've had most will be starting to think about their second brood. In the garden this weekend we've already had Greenfich, Goldfinch and Sparrow fledglings hopping around.

Live food at this time of year is a very welcome addition for those busy parents, Robins, Blackbirds and Sparrows are particularly partial to a mealworm or two. They're high in protein so make a great food source for those growing chicks. We get ours from CJ Wildlife – who not only stock live foods but a large range of seed mixes and nuts.

It can work out pretty expensive so we only really put them out at this time of year to give our feathered friends a helping hand. We'll then revert back to our normal feed which is a combination of kibbled sunflower hearts, peanuts and nyjer seed.

Basil Blunder

We're going for three different types of Basil this year. A Basil Bush, some Mini Basil and then the traditional Sweet Basil we all know and love.

Look at the image on the packaging of the Sweet Basil. I find this a very odd choice! It's a shot of some fully bolting Basil. Why would I want my Basil to bolt?! Packaging is all about luring the customer in - mmmmm look at this wonderful sweet juicy herb. I can't imagine there are many gardeners out there who would want their Basil to bolt - it goes very bitter and peppery at that stage and isn't very nice at all. Oh well - let's hope for once the packaging doesn't hold true!

Repotting tomatoes

We repotted the tomatoes today. They've been quite happy on the windowsill for about six weeks and were starting to outgrow their pots.

Repotting is pretty simple but a good tip for tomatoes is plant them deep so the soil almost comes up to the first set of leaves – it makes for a good sturdy plant as it encourages them to send out lots more roots.

Tumbling Toms have been our pick for two years running, so we thought it's time for a change – this year we're growing two varieties – 'Gardeners Delight' which is a bit of a classic apparently and also 'Sweet and Neat' – a mini yellow variety.

Hopefully they'll give us a good harvest.

Yet ANOTHER pest to worry about...

Check out this fella. I thought he was very attractive at first - metallic, almost jewel like. So I did a little Google and it turns out him and his crew have taken a liking to our Rosemary bush and are working their way through its juicy leaves.

Chrysolina Americana or the Rosemary Beetle is actually from Southern Europe and has been found in the UK since around 1994, mainly in London but slowly spreading. The RHS are monitoring the spread of this pest so if you want to record your sighting submit your record here.

It seems there are no natural predators for this pest so currently the RHS are recommending either hand picking the adults and larvae off or using a suitable insecticide. I think I'll try the hand picking first to see if I can reduce the population enough for the plant to bounce back.