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!

It's Coming Home!!

Hopefully football is coming home as I have England in the pub sweepstake, but whether it does or doesn't the veg finally is.. Looking back on previous years it seems to be a long time coming!

As you can see the courgette silly season is upon us. These plants were labelled as Long Green Bush 2 marrows, but after a heated argument with Heather and a quick Google I have to admit, they look more like courgettes, I'm assuming Zucchini, although I didn't plant any this year. Mental note to self, don't throw out seed packets just because they are empty!

The spuds are Charlottes, I haven't tried them yet but the report from people I gave them to is that they were very nice. We also have Foremost, I've had some of those and they are lovely. 

The radishes have stopped growing in this heat but a few turnips have come through so I'm using those in salads instead, they taste pretty similar. I've also been putting in matchstick cut golden beetroot which works very nicely. The salad bowl lettuces are still growing, one has bolted now but they should keep in salad despite the heat. 

I've tried sowing half a row of lettuce and radish in the little bit of shade offered by the asparagus bed, they still get in the evening but are protected from the worse of the midday sun. They are coming up so we'll see if it helps.

The other courgettes will be ready for harvesting soon, we won't let them get too big this year.

These are Black Beauty, a slight exaggeration as they are really dark green, this is the first one so I'll be trying it at the weekend.

The long yellow and green varieties are nearly there but so far none of the yellow scallops have fruited, only male flowers.  

This little beauty is the first of hopefully many cucumbers, a Marketmore. I also have Burpless Tasty Green but they were slightly behind, hopefully this means a staggered crop though. Love a home  grown cucumber.

Tomatoes are slowly producing trusses and starting to set. I replaced the canes with something stronger in readiness for a huge crop, fingers crossed.

The dwarf beans are just starting to set. The purple flowers are very pretty, these are Amethyst and were really good last so we're looking forward to these.

I've been planning ahead. I don't think we are heading for any kind of watering ban at the moment but just in case the council cuts us off I've filled up a 100 litre water butt which could last a week if used carefully on young plants only. There is no rain due for the next for the next couple of weeks still.  

Happy gardening folks

Rad'nips and Tur'ishes

Turnips were my favourite discovery last year, I like them raw in a salad or roasted. Mashed with honey is nice too. I have seeds for 3 varieties this year and the first sowing, the Snowball, are ready now.

They've come out pretty clean and untouched by bugs, probably because I thinned them out properly this year. Delicious!!

These are radishes were a freebie with the Mr F's order, Candela di fuoco. A long, slightly pinkish little number that pack quite a peppery punch when small, it seems to get milder as they get bigger. Gives a salad quite a kick.

Happy gardening folks!!

The (Late) May Update

The middle of May is never a good time to take a holiday, there's just too much to do and Jack Frost would love to pop in and check on your plot when you can't be there to stop him.

The farm, and all the plants at home had to be left in my dads care as we headed off to Euro Disney for a few days. Withdraw symptoms after 5 days of no allotmenting are common so I tacked an extra days holiday onto the break and spent 6 very peaceful, sunny hours pottering on Monday.

So here's the late May update

Bed 1

The garlic looks good, the bulbs look big and to have split nicely. The onions and shallots, not so good. Most seem small, the tops seem to be dying off a bit early and some have fallen over and come out of the ground, it looks like the dreaded white rot. Hopefully we will still get some for immediate use and the garlic will escape. Not sure putting the leeks in this bed is a good idea now, although now the temperatures are up it should help. Keep you posted. 

Parsnips and carrots are proving to be a pain this year, 2 plantings so far and we've still not got a full row of anything! I've put in another row of Royal Chantenay 3, directly into the soil not into compost this time, we'll see what happens. The cloche is off the parsnips now as well.

A row of Fennel (DiFirenze) went in directly, we've never tried this before. The final crop for this bed is the celery, which is at home at the moment, like the fennel it needs to kept moist so I must do the irrigation system soon.

 

Bed 2

The spuds are going well, no flowers yet but it's early days. All that was needed was a quick weeding and to earth up some more to stop any spuds getting a taste for daylight.

The asparagus is cropping nicely, although occasionally at odd angles, a few weeks to go yet. On its own this pretty much pays the £29.00 a year the farm costs.

 

Bed 3

We are having a bean issue at the moment, some of the runners I planted out have lost their growing tips and aren't looking good. At the weekend I'll work out which ones have had it and take them out, I'll replace them with a seed to fill the gaps, they'll be a bit behind but a staggered crop may help prevent the usual bean glut. A row of dwarf beans went in direct into the ground so will also help to keep cropping levels up.

The peas are starting to explore the top of their protective netting so the supports will go in soon with some CD bird scarers. A second row has been planted to extend the pea season.

The broad beans have a good number of pods now, the beans are small but they are already tasty. The black fly have moved in today, we haven't had a chance to nip out the tips yet, they are pretty early this year. I haven't got any bug spray at the moment so I gave them a good squirt with the castille soap, it works on white fly so hopefully it will work on these little buggers before they do too much damage. 

 

Bed 4

Spinach and chard are coming on nicely, hopefully we get some spinach before it bolts, I had no luck with it last year. The rest of the bed is pretty quiet, the last leeks to come out. I've built my brassica frame and ordered the netting. The sweetcorn and some squashes and brassicas will go in at the weekend. The danger of frost should now be over.

 

Bed 5

The salad bowl lettuce, radish and turnips are all cropping nicely. The replacement beetroot are coming up and the Sierra and Little Gem lettuces are finally putting in a growth spurt now its warmed up.

I put in the strawberry plants Heather wrote about earlier the other day. They had spent winter in small pots with poor soil which wasn't ideal but a good blast with a balanced fertiliser and seaweed extract has really perked them up. There are flowers so if we beat the slugs to them there will hopefully be fruit!  It was the first time planting through the weed control fabric, it was a pain but hopefully worth it with less weeding.

 

At home I have the most leggy tomato plants ever. My house isn't ideal light wise and I don't have a greenhouse apart from one of those mini things. Those of you that have are very lucky. Worst case scenario I'll plant them deeper and get a longer cane :O)

Happy gardening folks!

     

Mid April Update

So now things are really starting to kick off. While activity on the plot remains at a fairly sedate pace thanks to the careful close down at the end of last year, at home the sowing frenzy is upon us.

The problem, is where to put it all. We don't have a greenhouse/poly tunnel so window sills and mini greenhouses it is. I'm going to build a cold frame for Heathers balcony from any spare decking I collected for the borders, I just need time to do it.

At Home

Getting through the back door to the garden is a bit of an obstacle course at the moment and in the spirit of recycling/repurposing I have commandeered the shoe rack as a tray holder. A genius idea I thought, it can hold up to 9 trays, points the plants at the light and has carrying handles, will be checking the dump and charity shops for more!! Closing the Kitchen blind has also become a bit of an issue.

 

In the greenhouse Toms, which are due to be pricked out this week, Aubergines and Cape Gooseberry on the top shelf, Cucumbers, Broccoli, cabbages and sprouts beneath.

On the shoe rack  Marigolds, Beetroot, celery and various just sown squashes. Also the leeks transplanted to the long tub, progressing very slowly.
On the window sill (no pic) sweetcorn in pots, runner and climbing beans in tubes. The dwarf beans will go directly into the soil to save space. The first of the sweetcorn are up after only 6 days which is pretty impressive.

On the plot:
The asparagus is starting to crop , love the stuff, very tasty. Max 4 mins in salted, simmering water.

The radishes are half eaten (by me I should add) and we should shortly be less dependant on the Spanish for lettuce. Beetroot, spring onions and turnips are all starting to poke through. I planted out more home started lettuce today and yet another row of radishes. I'm determined to crack the continuous supply. They are sheltering in the cloche village I seem to have constructed, there is still  risk of an air frost or two where we are.

The carrots and parsnips are in. Parsnips under the cloche, I'm not taking any risk of them getting washed away this year as I plant them into compost and the carrots are protected by sticks, (thank you Sue), so hopefully whatever it is will stop having a bath in them .

The first of the early spuds is just begging to be earthed up to. It might be frosty here Tuesday so I'll get to that shortly. There is also a more advanced one poking out of the compost bin, might be more fun to earth up that one!

  

Elsewhere, the first row of Kelvedon Wonder Peas went in and I've started half a row each of spinach (Amazon) and Chard (Bright Lights)

The broads have also been mulched with grass cuttings and while there are lots of flowers there are no beans yet.

I'm happy with the progress so far but the to do list now still has plenty on it.

Hope you had a productive Easter, happy gardening folks!!

First Past the Post

We have the first 2017 sown crop ready to eat, and it is of course................. Radishes, French Breakfast 3 to be exact.

Planted under a cloche in Feb they are now ready. They are delicious, not woody at all, nice and clean and due to it being too early for slugs we'll be the first things to eat them!!

I planted the next crop a week ago and will put in another half row when they germinate.

The lettuce under the cloche is really starting to get going do hopefully we'll be eating that soon.

Happy Gardening Folks

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!!

Mid March Update.....

Looking at our seed tin I can that see this weekend is the lull before the storm, on the tomato front at least, and that very soon the potting tray is going to start looking rather full. I've been itching to plant the toms but I've been holding off so they don't get leggy before they go outside.  So before  things kick off here's a run down of the latest status.

The Cloche Experiment - Following the timings on the seed packets I put some radish, turnip and lettuce seeds under a cloche at the end of Feb, just to see if they would grow so early in the year.

Well the radishes and turnips are up and the germination rate has been good, they are growing slowly but seem quite happy under there. I may remove the cloche to stop the dampness getting to them if it gets warmer.

The lettuces haven't germinated quite so well. Once up they are fine, but germination is not great. I suspect that the temperature is too high, lettuces need a lower temperature to start growing and it gets pretty warm under there. I have put some more seeds in and will start some on the windowsill at home as well to plant out.

Alliums - The garlic, shallots and onions are looking good. They've been top dressed and now need a good weeding. The ground is a bit soft for hand weeding but it's on the to do list. They are just doing their thing.

Aubergines - In a word STRANGE!!. I planted 10 seeds in 5 pots and only 2 came up, in separate pots, 4 weeks later another 2 have just started to join the party. I tried to chit another dozen on blue roll but none came up. This could be that stored aubergine seed is not very viable, it was last years, but no amount of encouragement seems to get it going then it suddenly just decides to pop up. The two we have are doing nicely in the mini greenhouse just inside the back door and are getting their second set of true leaves now.

 

Brassicas

Sprouts - Last years Brussels are nearly done, quite a lot blew and they are still a bit small but there are a couple more pickings yet. This years have come up, got their first true leaves and I've potted them up into their own pots. We'll need 3 plants.

Summer PSB - Has come up, got its first set of true leaves and been potted on. It's living in the mini greenhouse until it goes out. We'll need 2 plants.

Winter PSB - Of the 3 plants I put out last year, 1 was ready in November, 1 is ready now and one 1 only a big leafy bush...hmmm. I suspect lack of ground prep last year is the issue. I'll need that ground soon so it had better step up. This years are up and I'll pot them on when they get the true leaves. We'll need 3 again.

Broad Beans - These have been over wintered this year, we lost quite a few when it snowed a few weeks back but the rest have bounced back after a good top dressing. There are some spaces now so this weekend I put a few seeds in the ground direct. I've not done much with broads before as I grow them for other people, this mixed time crop may or not be a good idea but we'll see. I remain unconvinced by over wintering them.

Chillies - Heather has started potting these on now as they are doing nicely with true leaves on them. They have produced a few of each variety as planned   

Leeks - There are a few left from last year still . This years are doing nicely in their tray, it looks like turf! I've got another deeper tray to pot them on into to get a bit bigger before going outside. I'm not sure if a double replanting is a good idea but we'll see. Last year they never got very big before going out and suffered in the rains, so hopefully this year will be better.

Marigolds - The first sowing got planted out into individual cells and I put in another sowing as I have about a 50% germination rate. Once potted on this should be enough.

Parsnips - A few left from last year, but they have new top growth so will be getting woody. 

Potatoes - These have been chitting under the bed. They seem to be doing fine, few needed turning, I hadn't checked them for a while.

Strawberries - The runners from last year are ready to go outside. This year we'll plant them through weed control fabric to make management and weed control easier. Hopefully we can control the slugs as well. Some of the alpines planted from seed have come up, but nothing to write home about yet.

General -  We left the plot tidy and covered last season so there isn't much to do yet. We have a bit of weeding and mulching planned for next weekend on the asparagus and  raspberry beds but can't do too much until the paths and ground dry out a bit.

Lets get this season going!!!