Where did the sun go?

Over the Easter weekend I got quite the tan working on the plot, this weekend not so much...

The great weather gave me the opportunity to plant out the summer cabbages and kohl robi seedlings in the brassica cages,  the marigolds in the borders and the beetroot seedlings in the pea cage where the pesky pigeons can't get their beaks on them!

The carrots are up and the rows look good with no big gaps, the parsnips I'm not so sure about, something is coming up in places but I haven't been able to 100% identify them as parsnips yet. This makes the weeding a rather perilous affair.

I put in a half row of radishes, turnips, Tom Thumb lettuces, red spring onions, beetroot and a row each of the pea varieties in the new pea cage. The radishes took a record 4 days to appear!

At home I've planted tomatoes, sweetcorn and chard in pots and had a good germination rate. The tomatoes are on the windowsill where they can get a couple of extra hours of light under the grow lamps, no leggy specimens for me this year I hope! The sweetcorn and chard are outside in the green house.

This weekend I wanted to get the broccoli, winter cabbages, sprouts and kale out too but it's still windy here in Essex and we are due a couple of cold nights this week so I'll leave it for a few days yet.

The red/white onions are now getting a bit big for their cells I don't think leaving them in there until the start of June is a good idea. I have been holding off planting them out until then to avoid the first wave of allium leaf miner but as I don't think they can wait I have invested in a fleece tunnel to cover them instead. I was going to buy one anyway to cover the leaks in Sept/Oct when the second wave arrives. I just need to wait for the wind to drop  a bit more so the tunnel doesn't end up next door.

I've finally made a start on clearing the fruit bed as well. There is a lot of weed clearing to do but hopefully it won't take long to do.  

The first veg crop from this season is not the usual radish, but the asparagus which has just started to produce. I'll waiting to see if the new crowns I put in last year do anything, I suspect they won't and that's the case I'll try growing some from seed next year.

The spuds are starting to poke through now, not exactly where I think I planted them but I'll take it. I've been earthing them up as the overnight temps can still be a bit low.

Happy gardening folks!

Still frosty

First of all, apologies for the lack of pics on this one, I forgot to take them before I wrote this in a hurry before leaving for the airport...

In previous years there have been things sprouting under cloches on the farm at this time of year, but this year so far... nothing.

There are 2 reasons for this, firstly we are still getting some pretty impressive frosts and secondly I go away for 2 weeks shortly meaning popping in to water on the way home is a no no. Once I'm back hopefully it will have warmed up a little and we can get cracking. This doesn't mean we have been doing nothing, at home the sowing and potting has continued.

Every broad bean came up and they seem to like it out in the mini greenhouse. They will be planted out when I get back at the end of March, hopefully after the winds have abated.

The cabbages and Kohl Robi have been pricked out and are growing on nicely. They may go under cloches soon, I haven't decided yet.

The chillies are slowly germinating but taking their time. Once up they spend the day under the grow lamps to stop them getting leggy.

The Marigolds, unusually had a poor germination rate and had to have a second sowing, again with mixed results. I'm not sure quite what is going on here, they usually germinate under almost all conditions.

Onions germinated well, now thinned to one per cell they are getting their first proper leaves. I've been trimming them back to about 3-4 inches in height to stop them falling over. They seem to like the mini green house as well.

This weekend I planted some beetroot in cells. I've never done this before but as you can buy plug plants of beetroot I figured I'd give it a go. Also some Convululus and sunflowers, leeks, pumpkin on a stick and a couple of Apero tomato plants to see if the grow lights stop an early sowing going leggy.

I almost forgot these, under the bed the spuds and Oca tubers are chitting nicely.

When I get back things will start to ramp up with the main sowings of peas, parsnips, early carrots, and early spuds. I look forward to finally getting things moving on the plot.

Happy gardening folks!!

July Update

Today was like Wimbledon on the farm, a few strawberries, started with sun and finished with us being rained off.  To be honest social engagements and rain have meant it has been pretty much picking visits only off late, just trying to keep on top the crops. Luckily the weed prevention measures are keeping those largely at bay. The harvest is in full swing so here is July's update.

Bed 1

Also known as the Amazon squash forest. 

The courgettes as you can see are showing no signs of slowing down, anyone who gives the slightest hint that they like courgette gets one! Along with courgette brownies, fritters and stir fries we are just about keeping on top of them.

The marrows are slow but steady, only 1 has reached full size so far but with the recent rain I don't think it will be long before we see some more.

The Uchik Kuri pumpkins have runners about 18 feet long and half a dozen fruits per plant, they are making a break for the plot next door so the growing tips will have to bee nipped soon which will also allow the plant to concentrate on making the fruits bigger. Heather stores these for winter consumption.

The Butternut squash we bought don't seem to have produced anything yet, a few flowers, nice long runners on one, but no sign of fruit which is a little disappointing, maybe a big shot of feed will help.

The carrots are about 4/5 inches long so just getting to be a useful size. No sign of carrot fly damage so far which is great. I roasted some whole Sat night with a little white wine, butter, sugar, salt, a splash of water and a shake if cumin. Cover and roast for about 45 mins at 200 degrees. We seem to have some daisies growing in there too.

The fennel is doing its thing and I've no idea if the celery is going to be ready anytime soon as its the first year.  

Bed 2

The Rocket early spuds have been ready for a few weeks now and I was worried if we left them in the ground much longer they might start to fall apart when boiled, but no signs of this yet. We have about a row and a half left so I'll keep on an eye on them. You don't get many to a plant but they can be huge, jacket spud sized.

I haven't investigated the King Edwards yet but curiosity will get the better of me soon.

I've started the new frame around the asparagus, rain stopped play on that one. Once finished I'll top it up with top soil. We might grown some more from the seeds the ferns are producing to fill the gaps left by this frame being bigger.     

Bed 3

I give up on peas...... we weeded, replanted, watered and feed, so far we have about 10... I give up..

The runner and french beans are getting going now. They don't seem to be as prolific as last year but they are different varieties. The Bluelake French variety are stringless and not bad, but not as good as the Cobra from previous years. The Amethyst purple dwarf are nearly ready, looking forward to those! 

The leeks have taken nicely, all looking healthy.  There are courgettes and lettuces in here too that are happily doing their thing.

Bed 4

This one is rammed, not a bit of soil to be seen. 

The brassica cage is doing its job, the fine netting is keeping the butterflies out and there is no sign of whitefly. All the plants look healthy and the weed control fabric means no weeding so far. Which is good because its crowded in there and a clumsy person like me could do some damage with the size 12's! 

We are loving the Burpless Tasty Green cucumbers, even when they get to a foot long they don't get bitter and don't need peeling. They are pretty heavy croppers too. I used to grow Marketmore but I think I'll stick to these. 

It looks like we are getting a good crop of spaghetti squash this year they are winding in and out of the sweetcorn and there is another one every time we look.

Talking of sweetcorn, they are 8 foot high and have 3-4 cobs each. The tassles are just starting to brown so another couple of weeks and we might be lucky.

We have 2 large pumpkins hiding in the corn too, I'm quite pleased with these as they came from seeds in my Asda bought pumpkin last year.

Bed 5

The beetroot are all coming good now, they seem to have taken an age this year but at last there is more than one at a time. The turnips are getting large, I haven't used many for some reason. the big news here is that finally the spring onions are big enough to harvest.... finally, these things have defeated me for years!! Wahoo.

With the recent sunny weather the tomatoes are just starting ripen, all 4 varieties are on the turn. The choc cherry are nice and sweet so I'm looking forward a nice tomato salad soon. 

We also have a few chillis and quite a few cape gooseberries, how these will ripen as the days shorten we shall have to see but for a first attempt at the CG's I'm pretty happy. They somewhat more bushy than I expected so could have done with a little more room.

 

And finally... the reason I grow so much more than we need is because I enjoy giving it away. I actually think its important. We are so much a supermarket culture and used to the small number of varieties and types of veg available that people know so little about their food. Handing over something different and seeing peoples faces is something I like a lot.

This was Fridays picking being divided up for distribution.

Happy Gardening Folks!!

Beet'en to the Beetroot

The great cloche experiment was looking like it would yield an early crop of beetroot, and as they were nicely established I removed the cloche when the sun started to show its face a bit.

Two days later when I arrived on the farm I was greeted by nothing but purple and yellow stalks, something had eaten all the leaves. Not surprisingly the rest of the plant promptly turned up its toes and exited stage left! This sad picture shows the aftermath.

I've never had this issue before, I haven't seen any slugs and nothing nearby has been damaged. I'm guessing its pigeons or other birds that couldn't get to them when the cloche was on.

Anyone else had this before?

I hate seeing this at any time of the year but especially during the quite period between the end last years crops and the start of this years / overwintered crops producing something edible. At the moment all we have it salad bowl lettuce asparagus and a few leeks.

Hopefully we are going to see some more produce soon, turnips are starting to bulk up and have been thinned properly and the overwintered broads are now getting a few decent pods.

I've been doing a few little jobs on the way to work this week and there are a few hours set aside this weekend to get us back on schedule. May update due next week!  

Happy gardening folks :O)

A bit of gardening time

The last few weeks have been very busy and to get a couple of hours of allotment time has taken a lot of effort and determination. Despite several attempts by outside forces to steal my plot time I made it down to the lottie on Friday for a few hours.

The first thing I encountered was Malcolm, a seasoned and successful plot holder, much envied by others, sitting outside his shed, brew in hand, surveying his extremely tidy, organised and well kept plot, oh to be retired. On the plus side he came over and gave me a good review of my broads, sprouting broccoli and onions so not all bad.

I had gone down with a 2 specific tasks in mind, weed and mulch the asparagus, weed and mulch the permanent bed.

If it was green, not asparagus and in that bed out it came. Once the bed was clear it was covered in a good layer of manure for the worms to work in. In the process I discovered our first spear of asparagus for this season, about 3/4 of an inch so far but hopefully a sign of things to come. The bed had a good seaweed feed at the end of last season, a top dressing in Jan plus this manure so fingers crossed.

  

The permanent bed is the raspberries which I think I may have accidently over pruned last year following a mis-communication with my dad, rhubarb which is going rather mental and a few stray plants (lavender, curry and dill) that we couldn't bear to throw out and made a home for, if  for nothing else than to attract bees . This area has been rather neglected so got weeded and manured to top dress and mulch it. The spare spots in this area will get filled with something this year I'm sure.

Apart from that I hoe'd and weeded to old parsnip and leek area. I earthed up the remaining leeks, not sure what that will do and cleared the spot for this years peas where our overwintering attempt failed.

All the weeds are taken home for bin disposal. We never put weeds, even annuals into compost to try and keep it weed free for next year. Two big buckets headed home.

 

Under the cloche the lettuces are slowly growing and I've thinned the radishes and turnips which are doing well. The ends are off the cloche now to prevent dampening off and temps getting too high in the day. I plan to start another couple of rows of radishes, turnips, spring onions and beetroot under another cloche next week.

At home I planted our tomatoes, 20 pots, 4 varieties, 2 seeds per pot. If they all come up I'll prick some out. I am growing extras for my dad and sister, Heather's balcony and a couple in my back garden, just in case blight strikes.  

I also potted on my winter PSB for next year and pricked out marigolds into cells. 48 plants for next year should do it. All plants are now getting some outside time in the mini greenhouse to start hardening them off.

My lettuces in pots on the kitchen window sill were a disappointment. The Sierra only managed 4 seeds germinated, the Little Gem and big fat zero. The Little Gem seeds were old so maybe I planted them in both pots accident?? They have been replaced and planted again, and another sowing of Sierra seeds started. The compost is also a slightly different Jon Innes variety so hopefully the usual faithful window sill will succeed this time.

I got some sugarsnap pea seeds from a garden magazine, the average pack contents was 13 seeds (we got 16, yeahhhhhhh baby), so I decided to start them off in cells as we have no spares for gaps otherwise.

I've seen seed catalogues advertise baby beetroot plants. Beetroot I thought were tap rooted and should not be transplanted so I've always been suspicious how well these would transplant. I had 8 cells left in the pea tray so I've put 4 x Golden Burpee and 4 x Bolthardy in to see what happens when I transplant them if they come up.  Hopefully they provide a small early crop.

A few pots with Minicole cabbages, Green Sleeves celery and Golden Berry cape Gooseberries completed a fun filled Saturday evening.

So a productive weekend given the time available.

Finally... as you may have noticed my plant labels are printed... I'm a geek, I have access to  a labelling machine so why not. Also my hand writing is appalling so it makes life easier. 

I recently had a gardening supplies catalogue come through the door advertising a garden labeller, for the princely sum of £43.95 (a Brother PT_GL_H105). The one I use is a slightly different model, but essentially the same machine (a Brother H101), by the same manufacturer, using the same tape, for £13.24 on eBay...And labels last for more than a season.  I don't like this over charging, its folks like my dad who will stump up the £43.95 without thinking to check the internet for a cheaper options. What they are charging it clearly taking advantage of those who don't know/trust/have access to the internet to find cheaper options. it pays to shop around for such equipment.

 

Next week I must get the spuds, peas, parsnips and carrots in...........

Happy Gardening Folks!!