Cucumber Harvest and Glut

Its the first time I’ve grown cucumbers (marketmore) this year outdoors and I am very impressed with the results. I do love cucumber but I am the only one in my house that does so apart from having cucumber salad every day I was hoping to find other ways of using cucumber.

When there’s a glut I usually eagerly wait for another veggy blog on my google reader to post some recipe ideas and hey presto Greenfolks came in on target – thanks for that. Here is the recipe for Cucumber, Pepper and Onion Relish.

Below are a few other recipes to use up your cucumber gluts:-

• Val’s Recipe for Cucumber and Pepper Relish,
• Cucumber and Green Tomato Relish Recipe,
• Joanna’s Cucumber and Mint Salad,
• Jo’s award winning Cucumber Pickle Recipe at the Cottage Smallholder,
• Cooking with Cucumbers Recipes by the Cucumber Growers Association,
• BBC Good Food – Cucumber Recipes,
• Preserving Equipment and Jars – UK.

Also Harvesting on my plot this week:-

• New potatoes – charlotte and lady christl,
• Gardener’s Delight tomatoes,
• Lettuce Balmoral.

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• Cucumber Harvest and Glut

Sowing, Harvesting & Big Plot Update 18.07.08

Today I Will Mostly Be Sowing:

• Dwarf Beans – ‘borlotto’,
• Broad Beans – ‘the sutton’,
• Peas – ‘ambassador’,
• Pak Choi – ‘riko white’.

Today I Will Mostly Be Harvesting:

• New Potato’s – ‘lady christl’ and ‘charlotte’,
• Cabbage – ’spring hero’ and ‘advantage’,
• Dwarf Beans – ‘borlotto’,
• Dwarf Beans – ‘ferrari’,
• Lettuce – ‘balmoral’ leaves,

Vegetables in Progress

• Tomato’s – ‘Green Zebra’,



• Cucumber’s – ‘Marketmore’,



• Broccoli ‘tenderstem’,

Plot Progress – Week 23

Plot 1
Carrots, red spring onion and beetroot are growing stronger from sowings made on 1st June 2008. Runner beans are slowly wrapping themselves around the canes. Parsnip foliage is going wild. Sowed Pak Choi into the gaps.

Plot 2
Tenderstem Broccoli nearly ready to pick, cabbage resolution savoy and golden acre are growing well after transplanting, still a few sacrificial cabbages of ‘advantage’ variety to attract the cabbage white butterflies to lay their eggs on (and not on my newly transplanted ones – seems to be working so far).

Plot 3
Broad Beans and Mange tout removed after harvesting. New sowings of peas, broad beans and dwarf beans under cloche (mainly due to cats digging bare soil). 2 x butternut squash plants doing well after transplant. Brussels sprout plants wedged in between dwarf beans but are growing steady.

Tomato and Cucumbers (outdoors)
Tomato’s have been tied to the canes and pots placed into upside down propagator lids. This has helped as this fence is a sun trap and dries the plants out daily, I pour water into the lids so the plant takes the water from its roots when necessary and doesn’t dry out. All tomato plants are flowering and some are fruiting. Cucumbers are rambling over the decking and are producing flowers and fruit.

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• Sowing, Harvesting & Big Plot Update 18.07.08

Tomato’s, Cucumbers, Peppers and Sunflowers on the Deck

I potted on my Tomato’s (golden sunrise or green zebra) and Cucumbers (marketmore) last week and wanted to place them on the decking to get the most amount of sun possible. However under the decking in the dark only coming out at night or in heavy rainfall lurk the slimy ones. Those creatures who shall remain nameless are becoming almost celebrity status with all the press coverage recently (Daily Mail article 18.06.08).

I did a bit of recycling with my old 3 tier mini greenhouse. I broke apart the unit so that the 3 shelves and racks were separate. I laid down some old fleece onto the decking to stop the blighters from coming up in between the decking. Then I placed the racking down onto the fleece and the tomatos and cucumbers onto the racking.

Of course I’m thinking theres no way a slug can climb that racking (all that slime and no grip on thin metal squares), so prey tell me how the bloomin hell do they manage to get in the pots? mind you I think it has fooled some of the less energetic ones as I’ve only found a few evil knievel slugs so far.

And lets check on the sweet peppers:

And finally the household Sunflower competition.

My dad gave us some sunflower seeds he received free in his local newspaper a year ago. I’ve only just got round to sowing them so I made a bit of a competition out of it between me and my other half. We sowed 2 seeds each and they will be going into the flower border soon so here are the results so far:

Tracey’s on the left and Colin’s on the right. At the moment and rightly so being the gardener of the house, I definitely have a slight lead by a few centimeters.
(I’m ignoring the cries of its a fix from the workshop!)

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• Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Peppers and Sunflowers on the Deck

Mini Greenhouse – Update on Seedling Progress

I’m still having some organisation issues with the lack of space in my mini greenhouse. I know its my own fault I have 13 cucumber seedlings potted on and I’m the only one who eats cucumber in my household however I can’t bear to give up any seedlings. Also I have let a few flower seedling trays creep into the greenhouse this year as our garden borders are in desperate need of brightening up. (they have had a distinct lack of attention due to my vegetable plot). So I have a bit of a juggling act on my hands!

This weekend I have planted out the 3 calabrese plants into plot 3.

Potted on 1st batch of february Tomato ‘unknown’ seedlings into larger pots.

Potted on Broccoli (tenderstem) seedlings

Somehow I think I have planted too many Broccoli and Calabrese seeds (this might be adding to my storage issues!):

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• Mini Greenhouse – Update on Seedling Progress

Week 8 – 5th April 2008 – Veggy Plot Progress Report

The weather was lovely and warm last week with temperatures higher than normal with the thermometers hitting 17 degrees on Friday 4th April 2008, I was happy thinking my seeds will finally get underway with their growing, until today Sunday 6th April where the temperatures dropped off the scale at a frustrating minus 2 degrees centigrade.

Heres a picture of my snowy vegetable plot:

Week 6 – 22.03.08 The Wind, Rain and Snow of Spring

Last week we endured the gale force winds and heavy rains, of which my mini greenhouse door snapped under the force of the wind and is currently being propped up. The heavy rain however did seem to help my peas, broad beans and cabbages put on a spurt of growth. I did manage to transplant a few of the tomato and calabrese seedlings that survived the onslaught of the weather and my clumsy handling.

I also couldn’t wait and sowed the rest of my tomato seeds last week and bought some more cucumber seeds (variety: marketmore) and sowed them as well.
Somehow in the wind I managed to tip up my tray of pepper seedlings, however I have saved most of them and sowed some more just in case the current ones don’t survive!

This weekend the wintery weather has continued with heavy snow showers here in Essex, it did settle briefly on my broad beans and then turned to slush.

Update on Raised Beds on Week 6