BarleyAnn's Potager Plot

Wow Cherries!

2010-07-16T20:57:00.002+01:00

Not a long post, but I went out and picked 4lb of cherries from our tree tonight. It isn't all of them, they aren't all ripe, but the wasps are beginning to hover about, so this year I intended to make sure we got some! I also picked 500g of raspberries, so we had delicious fresh fruit for pudding, and I've got some to take to my mother for her 85th birthday on Sunday.

Can't believe it's been so long!

2010-07-12T20:53:00.002+01:00

Time has flown by, I've been so busy at work and in the garden that the computer has taken at least 3rd place, but I thought I'd update on what I've been up to.
I had a disappointing harvest of onions and garlic from the allotment, despite the fact that I know they haven't been grown their in ages, I found when I harvested that white rot had affected over half the onions, and virtually all the garlic. I never got around to planting garlic at home, so I've lost all the stock I'd acclimatised to the area over 4 years. I will need to buy fresh in for the autumn, and haven't any to use in the kitchen either. I have been picking french beans and courgettes, as well as a good potato harvest from the sprouted supermarket stock. I think the kale is at the end of it's life, tough and very strong tasting now. The chillies at the allotment garden don't look too good, and I've the biggest infestation of blackfly ever. They made the spinach unusable, and are really affecting the runner beans.
On a more posative note, the cherries at home are looking good and I picked a fair few raspberries tonight. The cranberry is finally flowering too, although cranberry jelly is a long way off, I've only got 2 blooms so far! Due to the 'spontaneous generation' of greenfly in the light cupboard the chillies are now in the greenhouse. They are looking good, I think the hover flies are keeping the population down. We have been harvesting a number of different types, but I still like the hotter ones. The dorset naga is great, used judiciously in dips and jam, but the habaneros are still my favourite for heat and flavour combined. They don't look so good at the allotment garden, very yellow, i think some foliar feed would be a good idea. Only 2 weeks to go, then I will have more time to get stuff sorted properly.

A Chilly May Weekend

2010-05-08T06:12:00.005+01:00

8th of May today and all set to get the beans out. It's so cold though. After such a nice few weeks in April it feels as if winter is back. the forecast for next week has the temperatures going down to 4C, which is the danger point for the plants. I wish I knew what the allotment garden's micro climate was like. i think it would be warmer than here, but if I lose the beans and cucurbits it will put a serious dent in the GYO plan for this year. They all have been hardening off this week in the bottom of the covered patio grow, which still has the cover on, but not zipped up, and they look fine, but out in the open?? From the forums I know a lot of people more northerly from me are taking the risk.

I put in some more basil and salad leaves today. I love rocket, I don't think the others are so keen, although Daniel likes the mitzuna. I have some really healthy plants of that going, but I must remember to keep up the supply. Unfortunately we are short on lettuce, the red ones I planted did not germinate, so there is a gap in supply.

I've picked my first ripe chilli, a purple japaneno, last Sunday, 2nd May, and I noticed there are 2 more ripe friuts on the plant to pick today. The annums are setting fine, loads of pollen and easy to pollinate. The habaneros, scotch bonnets etc do not produce so much, and I've had a lot drop off due to lack of pollination. These are all inside still. It is disappointing, but I have managed to get one of each type at least so far, so I will be able to save true seed for next year. The small plants could do with going into bigger pots, or outside, but that's not possible yet, although some of the chillies are out in the greenhouse, mainly the annum types, as they were too cramped on the kitchen windowsill. They are still fine, the lowest temperature recorded this week has been 7, so although cooler than I would have liked it's still safe. The cherry blossom is already coming to an end, but there are tiny cherries forming, as well as the peaches on the peach tree and plums setting as well. I think it looks like the blueberries are setting on Patriot, and I have loads of blacurrant flowers on Ben Connan, although the other bush isn't doing so well. Time is such a factor at the moment though, too much too do, and i don't feel anything is getting done properly!

Frost

2010-04-18T11:57:00.006+01:00

Well last night, being a family birthday, I almost didn't go out and fleece the greenhouse, or put the flower pots in. I'm glad I did, as when Vicky and I went to the boot fair this morning there was ice on the windscreen. The cucumbers are in the greenhouse, along with all the squash and courgettes, but I covered with a double layer of fleece, and they are fine. The digital max/min thermometer gave a low of 2 degrees at the glass edge, the one hanging in the centre of the greenhouse shows 5 degrees.

At the bootfair I picked up a glass fish tank for £2, which is ideal for more of my painted lady caterpillars. I have so many, I 'potted up' 13 jars yesterday, it took me well over 2 hours. The jars that had been potted a week needed new food, so I transferred all I could find into new jars with new nettle tops pressed into the damp compost. They lasted quite well in that medium, and there are no puddles of water to drown the caterpillars. I put all the wilting leaves on the nettle bed in the woods. It is probably too cold for any missed caterpillars to survive outside, but they had more chance than in the compost bin, with no new food plants.

The picture shows a mallow leaf, covered with blue pearlescent eggs and some of the hatched caterpillars. As they get older they become black, with tiny hairs. I've been potting up nettles and mallow with small bit of root attached, hoping I've got plants before I need them for the next generation. They've probably got about a month.

I couldn't resist

2010-04-14T23:56:00.003+01:00

Planting potatoes that is. I had 3 maris peer potatoes that had sprouted extremely well, and some Saxon potatoes that haven't done much yet . I've put them into the allotment garden, in the bottom of a trench, so I can earth them up. I've tried potatoes in pots other years, with disappointing results. this year if don't get anything, well it won't matter, because I don't expect much.
I popped into the allotment garden after work this morning, and besides the potatoes I put in more meteor peas and some oregon sugar pod mangetout, as well as the jubilee hysor bean plants and some radish. The soil was quite dry so I watered the seed beds, where parsnips, carrots, beetroot and turnips are all showing good growth, as well as the shallots and onions. The overwintered aquadulce claudia beans are in flower, which is good after the weather they endured. The Martock beans from HeyWaye are looking very healthy, but no signs of flowering yet.
I'm aiming to move the germinated brasiccas out of the greenhouse asap so they stay short and healthy, but the courgettes will soon take up the space, as I need to pot on into individual pots. The rest of the celeriac need pricking out, and I need to pot up the tomotoes into their final pots, they have not minded being in the greenhouse at all, though I will need to watch the temps for the cucumber plants which have been living out there for the last few days now.
I have been collecting nettles and mallow again today for my caterpillars - the next generation. Most of these will be destined for sale as a charity business fund raiser at school, with a few being kept on to go through the whole cycle again.
I hope my starawberry plants come soon, as I've been offered a strawberry planter this year. I've oft been tempted, but been put off by the price, of course if I like it, then I might get another for next year. Things are moving so fast the plum tree is covered in bloom, the peach tree is outside, and the blackcurrant ben connan is covered with bloom. I've just made the last of the blackcurrants into jelly, so that works quite well. Clearing out the freezer to get ready for new produce is almost as good as planting!

Nettles for Caterpillars

2010-04-11T20:20:00.004+01:00

Today I had to go in search of nettles. My painted lady butterflies have been so busy laying eggs that the plants I put in the enclosure looked more blue than green. Today I saw the first hatchlings, and they are VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLARS! They definitely need a lot more food than the poor plants could provide, so I have come up with a plan. I took large pasta jars, put an inch or so of wet compost in the bottom, and pushed in the nettle bits I had picked. I then cut off a leaf containing eggs and baby caterpillars, and put one in each jar. The tops have been covered with fleece secured by an elastic band. Butterfly farming could be my new occupation. At around £20 for 10 caterpillars (with food and home though), I could clean up. I only have 4 butterflies still alive, but they were still egg laying today, as a new batch appeared on the fresh nettle plant I put in this morning. I had wondered if the weather might be kind enough to release some of the caterpillars, but the wind is bitingly cold tonight, so I think it is still a bit early.

I finished off planting my climbing french beans and my runners today, checking back in my diary I was doing eaxctly the same thing a year ago. The courgettes, butternut squash and pumpkins are now through, and moved into the unheated propagator. I'm just waiting for the winter squash, Festival. None of those have come through yet, but hopefully they will appear.

I've been hardening off my containers of flowers the past couple of days, a white petunia is already out, and the plants all look good. I'm not risking them outside overnight for a while though. The kohl rabi is also hardening off, and I intend to get that planted in the allotment garden this week sometime., along with the broad beans, Jubilee Hysor, I think they were. They have been sown in the toilet roll middles, and now are strong plants ready to go out. I was going to put them in on Friday when I went, but forgot to take a trowel or small fork. The carrots, radish, beetroot and turnips are beginning to show, and the onions and shallots are sprouting; they all went in a couple of weeks ago. I've still got some onion sets to go in here, but I might use them more like spring onions, as I didn't really have space for 100.

I've been trying to sow salad leaves successionally, most take a week to show, but the lettuce have been more reluctant. The celeriac germinated well, and I transplanted 18 into modules for me today. I've got the other pot, but they seem a bit slower, so I'll give them a few more days befor moving them on. I caught up with Gardener's World on iplayer tonight, and fast forwarded through the bit I wasn't that interested in. However it's good to see that I'm on track with most things. I wasn't growing any potatoes this year, but some of the ones under the sink have started sprouting, so maybe I'll put those in and see if I get anything worthwhile, Maris Peer and Saxon are the varieties, an early and a second early I think.

Tomorrow we are intending a visit to Wisley. My camellia in the back garden is looking lovely, but the one I put out by the drive looks yellow and poorly, I don't think it likes it out there, so I'll have to see if I can find space to bring it back. I do love the camellias, and they have a lovely show of magnolias too, one on Andy's favourites.

Cucumbers in a hurry and other stuff

2010-04-06T18:21:00.003+01:00

On Friday I planted the cucumbers in the heated propagator, and yesterday they were all popping through. I have had 100% success rate, so it's a good job I like chilli and cucumber soup. The squash and courgettes aren't up yet, but they are in the heated propagator in the greenhouse, so it isn't as warm as the kitchen windowsill, whihc is filled up with my smaller chilli plants now.

I did decide to set up the greenhouse ready for the tomatoes, and monitor the temperature for a couple of days. I've hung fleece up to make a tent of half of the greenhouse, and plan to snuggle all the tomatoes in there to start with. They can be spaced out a bit later, and in any case the greenhouse is bursting already. I need to move the peach tree out, but it hasn't quite finished blossoming, so I want to leave it for a few more days. I've resisted planting beans yet, but there is still time for those anyway.

I need to start hardening off some of my flower plants, but I'll still need to keep a watch on the weather as I don't want to risk losing them to a chance frost. The petunias, fuschias and lobelia have been potted up, and the petunias are in bud, so not bad for a fiver in Wilkingson's back in February. The cuttings I took from the fuschias are coming along well, and the next lot are beginning to root too.

I spent my vouchers with T&M over the weekend as they had their free P&P. with the rate they charge, I saved quite a lot, although I was disappointed I couldn't combine my vouchers for another propagator. Instead I came up with 3 separate orders, and only paid out £2.98 altogether. I ordered 5 fuschia plants, £5 voucher, so they came completely free. Then I ordered some orchid bulbs, whihc started the weekend at 3 for £9.99, but then came in BOGOF, so I ordered the 6 with my £10 voucher. Then finally I ordered 12 strawberry plants and a casseille bush, which is a cross between blackcurrant and gooseberry. These did come out a little more than the £20 voucher, but I did resist the special offer on clematis, much to Daniel's relief, as he gets a little exasperated when I try to fit 3 times as many plants in as I have space for.

Mushroom Logs

2010-04-06T18:06:00.002+01:00

I've finally managed to get this project underway. Just by chance a couple of weeks ago I was on duty at school talking to one of the prefects, who said his family had just cut down an oak tree. He said they were trying to get rid of the wood, so I asked if I could have some logs for mushroom growing. I ordered the dowels online, 30 each of shittake, oyster and lion's mane mushrooms, £12, no P&P, a bargain compared to everywhere else. They came last weekend, and Andy and Dan picked up the logs on Saturday. I paid for them with a jar of chutney and a jar of marmalade! Today Andy drilled the holes and tapped in the dowels, I sealed them with the wax, and Daniel placed them in the shadiest parts of the garden. It does say you can wrap them in black plastic, but I really want the logs to be a bit of a feature in my more 'woodland' bit, so I decided to take the chance. After all the other logs I had originally seem to be covered with a white fungus, so these should manage with all the added care and attention. Now we wait for 18 months or so before trying to shock them into fruiting. If it works they last for 4-6 years, probably closer to the 6 as it's oak. They might not be as 'perfect' as the ones they sell, but at only £4 each they work out a lot cheaper.

April Already

2010-04-03T07:04:00.005+01:00

It doesn't seem possible the year is moving so quickly, but here we are, April already, and so many things to do in the garden. I have checked back through my diary to see what I was doing last year. I had more time of course, as I wasn't in at work, but I don't think that was the only reason things were further forward. The plum tree was in flower on the 2nd last year, this year the buds are only just beginning to burst. They said it was a cold winter, and the plants know it!

I did get very carried away yesterday though, sowing cucumbers, squashes, pumpkins and courgettes, (all in the heated propagators) so I hope the spring warms through soon.

There is no way I will have space for them all, but I'm intending to give some away, and my tutor group at school are setting up an eco-friendly business to sell free range eggs, plants and veg, so they can have any extras. We are going to canvas for donations of just about everything after the Easter break!

I would like to say a public thank you to those who have donated seeds through the Grapevine Forum. They are much appreciated, and we are intending to sell on seeds that are not practical for us to plant. Hopefully we will come by more as the time goes on. We have 7 weeks until the market day at school, so there is time to get saleable plants, although Easter has got in the way of planning.

I now have a good number of jalapeno peppers set on my plant, and there are flower buds on the habaneros, scotch bonnets and Dorset Nagas. I have 65 assorted plants in all, some of which need re-potting this weekend, space is definitely at a premium.

By this time last year I was risking the tomatoes in the greenhouse, but I don't feel so inclined this year. They are getting too tall now, they outgrew the cupboard, and are not really getting enough light in the living room, despite a couple of lamps as well as the conservatory style roof. It's going to be difficult to harden them off as they are all in their final pots, but they are too lush to go straight out, the setback may well kill them.

At the allotment garden I planted parsnips, beetroot, carrots and turnips a couple of weeks ago, and I'm itching to ge there to see what, if anything, they are doing. I have some broad beans; jubilee hysor; to plant out as well as some meteor peas. The broad beans have been grown in loo rolls, the peas just in pots. I have bought Moonlight runners, which are supposed to have been cross bred with french beans so they are self fertile, but look and taste like runners. I was also thinking of sowing some pink ones (Sunset), and some red ones (Lady Di), both from the seed swaps I've done. I was putting the loo rolls in the mushroom boxes (I do try to recycle), and found I was running out! It seemed I had millions, but it just goes to show how important it is to forward plan. I still have french beans to sow as well. I'm not sure whether to try the beans in the cold propagator in the greenhouse, or to wait until the heated ones free up.

As usual, what we do depends a lot on the weather, we are having very heavy showers interspersed with periods of sunshine, but the ground at home is still so wet.

Wow, a tomato!

2010-03-09T18:30:00.002Z

Amazing news, I have my first tomato! My Golden Sunrise tomato plant, sown on 9th January indoors, and reared under my artificial lights, has set a tomato. I noticed it this morning, it's about the size of my little finder nail, so coming on quite well. I had tapped the stems regulary to help the pollen disperse, but wasn't sure it would be succesful. There is about 5 flowers on the first truss, and another one well on its way. I had found out one of the major problems with early tomotoes was cold night temperatures, becasue it kills the pollen. The temperature in the cupboard seems pretty constant at the moment, so fingers crossed for even more fruit. However they are in quite small pots, probably 5 inch if that. They have spread their roots through the hydrolucca, so if I do need to pot them on, I think I will have to cut the small pot off very carefully, or the roots will break. I suppose it is almost hydroponic growing. I have started feeding them, as some of the other plants are also flowering now.

My purple jalapeno has also set a chilli, and I have french beans about 1cm long. I'm really excited by the possibilities, although I will be interested to find out what the electric bill comes to!

Tomatoes and Rain

2010-02-28T08:03:00.005Z

The two subjects in the title are not connected, but the rain has certainly stopped any playing outside today. It is bucketing down, the path is a river, and about 3 inches of water by the garage door. Thankfully the wind is not blowing it through the letter box.
I've decided I hate water, we have a leak (now 2!) I've been trying to fix in the airing cupboard. The water started coming through the ceiling, and in investigation we found the pipe to the heating pump was leaking. 1 tube of Plumbers Mait later, I've almost managed it, but I've got a few minor breakthroughs I'm hoping to plug today. The other option is to drain the system and get a plumber to sort it out.

Having just sat down again, I now realise the conservatory roof is leaking where the rain is so heavy. I've got a bowl under the drip, there isn't much else I can do.

Anyway, but to the matter in hand, tomatoes. The six I planted originally on 9/1 are getting their first flower buds. The burning on the leaves happens when they grow so far towards the light they are touching. It is not hot enough to burn me, but the leaves laying against it for a time does the damange. The Sunrise is going to be first flowering, it is now showing colour, but not opened. I will be keeping a close eye!

The purple jalapeno is almost in flower too, and I've moved 6 plants to take their chance on the window sill, although today that seems a bit unfar as it is so dull; they get better light in the cupboard, even if they are further away from the source than I'd like.

Electric propagator!

2010-02-21T16:42:00.005Z

Well having planted even more chilli varieties yesterday, after filling my heated propagator with 12 new varieties on Thursday, I decided to have a look for a cheapish extra one today. Amazingly I found a real bargain at Wyevale, much better than B&Q and Homebase. The ones at B&Q were their own brand with a strangely curved base and lid, which severely limited the amount of growing space. At Wyevale they had Stewart ones on offer at £10 off (sounds better than £34.49), which was cheaper than the aforementioned stores. I picked the one with the prettiest box, and realised when I got home I had the themostatic control one, for the same price as the basic model! It is quite large, so I now have room for 12 more pots, and plenty of head room too. I hadn't intended to spend so much, but it looks a real Rolls Royce compared to the other ones I saw. Seed trays and pots were included too!

I've had to make space in the cupboard though, which makes access a bit more of a problem than before. The Golden Sunrise tomato buds are growing bigger, and the purple jalapeno is also looking good. I saw tomato and chilli plants the same size as my small ones for 60p today, so felt good about that.

I did get some bargain petunias, lobelia and fuschias from Wilkingsons too. (3 for £5 for the plug plants). I just need to find frost free space for them too. The petunias look a real bargain, they obviously planted 2 seeds per plug in case of germination failures, but looks as if they were good quality seeds, so 24 plants for the price of 12.

A week in the garden.

2010-02-21T08:19:00.002Z

It's been a mixed bag with weather this week, so nice dry and dare I saw it, sunny days, mixed with storms sleet and hail. I've put my martock beans from Heywayne of the Grapevine forum into the cold greenhouse though. They are supposed to be hardy, so as soon as I saw a little shoot I popped them out. I only planted 6 to start, but I've got the other 8 under the kitchen table until the germinate, then out they can go too. I'll get them into the driveway garden opnce I can get the ground ready.

We've been eating leaves off the lettuce I grew under the lights. They can downstairs to the kitchen windowsill due to pressure of space, and it is cconvenient just to take a few leaves. They won't keep us in salad as such, but it lovely to have started eating something grown this year. I've just finished up the beetroots, and think I will try putting some seeds in modules to get them started off for this year's crop.

Besides the beans, I also put some peas to soak, and once they had shown signs of germination I put them into the rectangle plastic boxes the dishwasher tablets come in. They are not that deep, and I know peas do put their roots down, but I plan to put them into the allotment garden as soon as possible, maybe protected by fleece for a bit. The pigeons seem to be back in force, and have pecked my spring cabbage, althought the kale looks OK. The sprouts are still a bit small, but I'm going to start picking them next weekend anyway I think.

Andy severely pruned the mahonia tree on Wednesday at the allotment garden; it's now safe and I've got much more space to work. We took a whole car load of branches to the tip, but I've had a text from Chris saying it looks fantastic, so as long as he's happy I haven't wrecked his garden that's fine. I dug over half of it after the pruning session, the soil was damp but crumbly, not like mine at home which is still so wet a fork just ends up with lumps of clay attached. The broad beans look a bit the worse for wear, but I haven't lost many, and some are making new shoots from the base too, so fingers crossed for a good harvest. The garlic and onions look fine, and not that many weeds yet, mainly cleavers showing itself so far.

I dug up the rhubarb and found the middle of the rown was rotten, so I split it into 3 bits, and hopefully they will grow better. I am taking one piece to the allotment garden, hopefully today, but I can hear the rain beating on the windows as I type, even though the sun is out, so it might need to wait. I also tried moving the raspberry canes that were in the wrong place, but they didn't come up with much root so I don't know if they will take. It did talk about snow though, so I suppose rain is better, unless we were to get so much we get snowed in.

The snowdrops are well underway now, with 3 definite clumps established. The wild primroses are blooming away, cushions of pale yellow; a lovely sight. I need to winter wash the trees soon. It's an organic mix of oils that dissolves insect eggs, so sounds a good idea, what with the population of greenfly I had last year. I bought a sulphur candle for the greenhouse, so I feel that besides the clean(ish) glass, there shouldn't be any nasties lurking around. The peach and lemon trees are now inside; the lemon had one lemon left, in the centre where it was more protected from the cold and snow. I'm hopeful the tree will survive; I should take better care of it. The peach tree may have some flower buds on a couple of branches. I do hope so, and that I can get a peach to maturity. If I can, we can see if it's worthwhile keeping the tree. I did get some bordeaux mixture to treat it for peach leaf curl, because it is late coming undercover, and the spores of the fungus might already have attacked the unfurling leaves.

I better close this post now, the dreaded marking awaits due to some technical difficulties earlier in the week. I do want to post again later though!

Vicky's Ice Cream rose is also showing signs of the buds swelling, so that will need a quick prune. I easily gets too tall each year for the washing line anyway, so I have to take it down drastically each spring. It is a hybrid tea though, so hard pruning suits it.

What's going on with my chillies and tomatoes?

2010-02-14T21:24:00.004Z

Yesterday I potted on my 12 biggest chillies and the 6 most advanced tomato plants. They had out grown the 3in pots they were in, some with roots 3 inches out the bottom. (more to be added).
Tonight, when I was checking the plants I had to grap for my reading glasses, sure enough, the Golden Sunrise tomato, planted on 9th January, had tiny green flower buds showing. Now with decent sight, I saw my biggest chilli, a purple jalapeno, planted 26th Dec, is also showing flower buds!

Just to show I do have more going on, I decided to post some pics of the amaryllis. The large double one is now 3 years old (from buying). Last summer it stood in the bottom of the greenhouse and was treated like the tomatoes. It looks as if I've got some offshoots coming, as well as the 3 glorious flower spikes. Problem is, I can't remember the name of it. I've also had some lovely flowers on the hyacinths we bought through the Iwade Garden Club. The picture also shows a free gift, the Red Lion amaryllis.

Earth is hard as iron!

2010-01-30T20:40:00.007Z

I woke up this morning to what was obviously going to be a brilliantly sunny day. I was full of enthusiasm to get outside, but alas everything was frozen solid. There was no way I could do anything to the ground, although there is a lone snowdrop in flower. The ones further down the garden are slower. I just had a tidy around, and had a mini bonfire in the bbq; the small bits of rose and grape prunings from last weekend, and a few other twiggy bits that wouldn't go in the compost. After getting frozen feet and watering eyes from the smoke I retired into the kitchen to wash some more flower pots, and sow some chillies that arrived in the post from Mr Dinkle of the Grapevine forum. I'd got the pots of soil into the heated propagator last night, so put in 2 each of the prairie fire and dorset naga seeds he sent.

As the French Black tomato seed was so slow germinating, I removed some seeds from the last wrinkled fruit on the windowsill last Saturday and sowed 3 along with some of the tigerella seeds I'd had to buy after losing my ones from last year. They were all up within 3 days and moved up to the light cupboard. I'm amazed at how quickly the plants are growing. The chillies in the picture were only sown on Boxing day, the tomatoes a week later, and the lettuce another week on. All the seeds have been planted directly into the 3 inch pots, so I haven't had to do any transplanting yet, although the roots are showing through the bottoms of the pots already. I've got them standing in hydrolucca (expanded clay pellets), and keep that a bit moist to add a bit of humidity to the air. The temperature is still maintaining around 20-25c, although I've now got 6 lamps in there which helps.
The chillies below are the same ones I posted on 16th January. They still haven't seen any real daylight but seem to be thriving!

Chilli plant pictures

2010-01-16T22:53:00.007Z

Here are my plants so far. The first planted on boxing day, the others a week ago with the tomatoes. As with last year, the Green Tiger tomatoes were fastest through, only 3 days!

Surreal Snow

2010-01-08T22:07:00.004Z

Snow has hit Iwade again, not as bad as Medway and Canterbury, but more than we've seen since moving here 5 years ago. School has been closed for two consecutive days, but today we had to travel to Medway anyway to get Vicky's fund released for her trip to Japan. The judge agreed so we now just need to wait for the paperwork to go through and she can start planning and booking. She is really looking forward to seeing Takae again.
It seemed very surreal, I was planting tomato seeds in the kitchen, while watching people trudging past in the snow. I have set up a light room in one of my cupboards by lining it with reflective foil , and putting 4 energy saving light bulbs in there. I now have 2 Dorset Naga, 2 Naga Morich, 2 chocolate habanero, 2 hot lemons and one purple jalapeno up and living in the cupboard. They are looking good so far, one of the Dorset Nagas is beginning to grow its second leaves. The temperature in there hasn't gone below 15C, and when the lamps are on, around 16 hours a day, it is averaging 25C. This will probably be a bit lower once the winds pick up again, as it will still be a bit draughty I think.

With the success of the chillies to go on, I've planted some tomato plants in the heated propagator. One of the Green Tigers is up so far, so I will be getting it into the light room in a minute. I have another Green Tiger, 2 Black French, 2 Costalu and 2 Golden Sunrise planted as well, but I can't find the Tigerella seeds so I will need to order some of these. I don't know if there will be enough light, but I am also trying some lettuce seeds, 4 All the Year Round, and 4 Little Gem. If it doesn't work, I haven't lost much, just a few seeds.

Happy New Year

2010-01-01T22:03:00.003Z

Today was icy cold, I went to put out the bird food on the green opposite, and the path was a crazy paving of ice, so I waited until it had thawed a bit. There had been a sprinkling of snow, but it had frozen solid. I moved the lemon tree into the greenhouse, too late for the immature lemons, but hopefully the plant might survive. Really all I did was a bit of tidying up, it was so bitterly cold in the back garden, though the front was warmed by the sun.
I have 4 chilli plants up so far, 2 hot lemons, 1 Japapeno and 2 Dorset Naga (from seeds kindly sent from a Grapevine member). Oh, that makes 5 doesn't it? Counting is not my strong point tonight.

Boxing Day - What are you doing?

2009-12-26T09:30:00.006Z

Well Christmas has been and gone, now there's just all the wrapping to clear away, and all the spare food to eat. I had a brilliant day yesterday though, everyone had stuff to do, modelling, sorting, playing yugio cards, watching DVDs, while I'm not sure what I did.
My planning for Christmas Dinner was masterclass though. With the frequency of my Lyrica moments increasing ( I told them I just needed to add Yorkshire pudding mix on top of the trifle, instead of the anticipated angel delight and cream!), I wrote a detailed time plan, like I used to have to do at school. I said we would be sitting down to diner at 3pm, and it was on the table with 2 minutes to spare.
It was a shame the sprouts had not grown bigger, even with 5 minutes in the steamer they were a little overdone, and the parsnips came to nought. Still I could have served up frozen green beans, and done some roast pumpkin, if there would have been any space on the plate. Hopefully in a few weeks I'll be picking sprouts and the kale will have put a bit of a spurt on too. I did harvest 3 celeriac for me, no one else likes them.
Today the sun is shining and the sun is out, but I'm a bit stuck in as Matt is sleeping downstairs, and I can't get out of the back door. If I can step over him quietly and retrieve a pair of shoes, I could perhaps go out of the front door and round. Today I intend planting chillies and maybe some early tomaotoes, even though I said I wouldn't. I'm also intend to clear out the greenhouse now the snow put paid to to tomatoes, and investigate the damage in the garden.

Typical, now people are awake, it's pouring hard. I started cutting back the dead tomatoes in the greenhouse, and it looks like the amarylis bulb that I'd had on it's side to dry out, is fine. The lowest reading on the thermometer was 2C. Problem is, I need to keep putting the stuff in the compost heap, and it's not pleasant. Thinking of amarylis, I've got my freebie one to pot up too, courtesy of T&M, but disappointingly my cut price carnations from them have developed a bad case of mouldy water. The flowers look fine, so I need to see what I can salvage.

I had kept some new compost indoors so it wasn't icy cold, so I filled 12 washed 3 inch pots, watered them with warm water, and put them in the electric propagator. I have sown 2 seeds each of Chocolate Habenero, Red Scotch Bonnet, Hot Lemon, Naga Morich and Dorset Naga. The first 4 are from my own saved seeds, hand pollinated from plants grown inside. The latter two, which I have to admit I thought were the same until a bit of research revealed the Dorset Naga was bred from the Naga Morich, are from a member of the Grapevine forum. I have a number of other varieties, but I will see how these go.

Christmas Fete

2009-12-12T19:32:00.003Z

I haven't posted anything for ages, which is really bad of me, but just wanted to say we had a really succesful day today at the Christmas Fete organised by Amanda. The Garden Club made over £50 from homemade chutney, gingerbread tree decorations, grow you own kits and other donated items. The hyacinths planted back in October went really well, all sold! I hope the buyers enjoy their flowers when they come.
It is getting colder now, but the weather has been very mild up until now, so I have still been picking tomatoes from plants that are almost a year old, planted 27th December! I am planning on planting my chillies soon. I have been given some Naga Morich, supposedly the hottest chillies found, so I'll be letting you all know next year, if I survive!
The allotment garden is doing well, although the weeds are growing too. I have broad beans, kale, spring cabbage, garlic, Japanese onions, celeriac and Brussel sprouts there at the moment. I have also got a compost bins set up, and I hope Chris and Florence are making use of it for their vegetable waste. The Christmmas break is coming up, so I hope to get the chance to 'prune' the mahonia, down to half size, which will give me more growing room.
We have had loads of rain which has meant getting the garden tidied at home has been a bit delayed, but I did have a look to see how the parsnips had grown. Very disappointing, we won't have any for Christmas this year. Sowing in the loo rolls doesn't seem to have worked too well compared to the direct sowing last year. I have eaten a couple of the celeriac, not as big as in the shops, but very tasty. The beetroot are doing well too, I freeze the leaves to go in curries if I'm not planning one soon after harvesting the beets.

The end or the beginning?

2009-10-29T09:47:00.003Z

Having had a little bit of time to myself, literaly no one wanted to be near me in case I had swine flu, I pondered a very deep question. Were we coming to the end of the growing season, or was it really the beginning? I came to the conclusion there is no end, everything just goes round in one circle. Amazing eh?
Anyway, the reason I was thinking about this was on 18th Oct I spent a whole morning at the allotment garden, where I planted my overwintering onions, garlic, some savoy cabbage plants and some cavalo nero kale plants. I also cleared away the last of the beans and pulled up the sticks. The plants are a bit small, but in the week they have been out they have really put on a spurt. It is so wet and mild the weed seeds are growing great guns.
I was feeling very wobbly, so I didn't do much when I went up there this week so far. I did plant 24 aqua dulce claudia broad beans to overwinter, and that was enough for me! I think the garden is much more sheltered than here in Iwade, so I reckon they have a good chance of doing well.
While it is still mild I am going to move my rhubarb, and have a go at relocating some of the rogue raspberry canes. The rhubarb hasn't done well where it is, so I'll split it, one bit for the allotment, and another bit for the driveway garden.
Last night I sorted out my seed box, I think I've enough to plant the whole of Iwade! I do seem to have lost some seeds though, so I'll have to have a search and replace them if they can't be found as they are some of my favourites. of course, maybe I passed them on to someone else. I am doing some swaps for some sugar pie pumpkins and some martock broad beans, a good way of obtaining seeds of thinks you wouldn't have thought of giving a go.

Rain at last

2009-10-11T07:37:00.006+01:00

Why is rain like buses, you wait ages then get loads? I suppose it hasn't been quite like than, but life gets in the way of the gardening, so on Thursday I couldn't get to the allotment garden because I had to cover an after school session for a sick collegue, then yesterday, what was supposed to be a quick trip out turned into an all day jaunt. Today, all set to get started, and it's raining again!

I've got the small compost bin delivered to the allotment garden, now I want to clear the ground and get it ready for next year. I've decided, after a season's growing, that the original bit earmarked for the compost bin is too valuable, as it gets a lot of sun. There is a space between the massive mahonia and another shrub, that is in shade almost all the time. Not much good for growing, and not a place you would put a compost bin in a normal garden, but as I'm going for utility not aesthetically pleasing design, that won't matter.

The beans are almost finished, so I'll get these up, although the roots are left in the ground to rot and provide nitrogen for the plants next year. Bean and peas are both good at fixing nitrogen in the soil. I think the cabbage stalks can stay a bit, I've no immediate need for the ground, and the small cabbages and leaves they are still producing are useful. I want to get the onion sets in now, I'm going to put them where I had the pumpkins, it is a nice sunny spot, and they should be virtually over before I want to put chillies and peppers there next year. My own garden is too shady for these outdoors.

Hopefully over the winter months I'll be able to get more of the well rotted manure from my brother, though it doesn't help he's put a load of hay bales on top of it at the moment. (It is in a rather derilect shed, but still pretty waterproof)

In my own garden I want to dig up my flower bed in the back, add a lot of my homemade compost, and plant in the daffodil bulbs I saved from my pots, and the allotment garden. The wisteria I planted when we first moved in never did take properly, it was an expensive plant, so very dissapointing, but I'm going to remove the unsightly stump, to make way for something else. The beans will come up, and i think I'll move growing these to the allotment garden too. I didn't get as many off them as at the allotment, so it makes sense to give the space to something else. The rhubarb is going to get lifted and moved too. There isn't enough space where it is, and it is too shady. The stalks were very drawn, which I know happens artificially if you blanch it, but it isn't good for the plant under normal conditions.

The celeriac is going great guns at the allotment garden and in the recycling bin pot at home, but those in the veg patch are very small. I would put it down to watering, but as Chris turned the water off at the allotment garden just when I needed it, they didn't get as much as I would have given them. I keep removing a few leaves as they split in two around the root, as you are advised to do. I think it is too make sure the root can swell evenly and is not constricted by the leaf stalks.

Well it's 8am, I've finished my tea, so I'll go see what its doing outside. I'll report back later to say if I managed to get any of the stuff done that I wanted to.

The spinach, matzuma and pak choi seedlings are up, and I plan to leave them uncovered until next month if the weather holds a bit. then I'll put the plastic cover on. The home saved white beetroot seeds that I tested for germination have all come up, so I'll be putting in some of those for greens. I wonder if I put the plastic cold frame over them it will keep them warm enough to keep growing? I'll consider where to put these, probably at the allotment garden, although I will soon only be able to get there at weekends, it will be too dark after work.

Now 10.45. I've popped to the allotment garden, picked some beans and 4 small cabbage for dinner. I'm still picking caterpillars off the sprouts, but 2 plants seem to be growing small buttons, so hopefully we'll get some sprouts this year. I sited the compost bin, and decided the mahonia, which is about 12ft tall if not more, is a health and safety risk. One of the lower branches will need to be pruned, I almost caught my eye on it, thank goodness I wear glasses. I didn't stay long, because I had some help to move the finished compost bin in the garden. 3 barrow loads have been piled onto the driveway garden, and I've a lot to move into the flower patch, in order to put the bin back in place. I've a whole bag of blackberry prunings from last week and shredded paper to put in, as well as some fermented bokashi. It should get everything going in there. Just having a cuppa, than back to it.

7.30 in the evening. I managed to move all the compost from the bin, and set it up again, but the ground for my flower border was so hard the clods of clay were coming up in bits bigger than a grapefuit, and I couldn't break them up. I couldn't plant my bulbs, I think I need more rain! It has only penetrated the top couple of inches.

I had to tidy up then, and go to see my Mum, but Vicky came too, and we stopped off at a good place for chestnuts. In about 15 minutes we'd picked up half a carrier bag full, and they aren't all down yet, so hopefully we'll get back next week. For immediate eating we remove the tough outer skin, then put them on a skewer and roast over the gas burner for a few seconds. The thin, bitter inner skin chars and dries, so it is easy to remove.

I also tried steaming some with the potatoes for dinner. I left them to cool, then cut in half, scooped out the inside and pushed it through the sieve to remove any stray bits of skin. This seems to have worked, I have crumbly cooked chestnut, which can go in other dishes to make a vegetarian meal. I now have to find some tasty recipies, and steam a load more chestnuts!

Pumpkins and Stuff

2009-10-03T07:49:00.003+01:00

I can't believe it's so long since I posted, but things have been very hectic in life, and it's impossible to keep up sometimes. Going back to school after the summer always seems harsh, so little time left over for gardening, and marking is always lurking in the background.

Anyway, back to gardening. On Thursday, Oct 1st, I decided to harvest George, Fred and Sam. Wow, best pumpkins I've ever grown (but this is only my second time :)). George weighed in at 10.5kg, with the twins at 5.5kg and 6.5kg. I lost track of who was who out of them. They are currently decorating my kitchen windowsill, along with a marrow and eight butternut squash ranging between 400g and 1.5kg. I still have one at the allotment garden, as it was a late grower, and I'm giving it a bit more time to mature. The problem is, they look so good there, and I get a thrill everytime I see them, so it will be a wrench to eat them. I'm not going to carve one for Halloween I think, it seems such a waste.

We still haven't had any rain, although the days are often cloudy and gloomy. It is forecast for today, which is typical as it's Saturday. Last week I started sorting out my Patio Gro tubs. A lot had old ompost in, which had dried out completely. I wet it down, enriched it with dried poultry manure, and sowed some spinach, pak choi and mitzuma. I can put the cover on if the weather turns colder. I also got my hyacinth bulbs planted, and hopefully some of the others in the garden club will collect today. I did intend to deliver, but time ran away with me. I've just got them on the patio, covered with an old large plant pot to keep the light out. Hopefully this will be cold enough, I haven't anywhere else to put them.

Uni Time Again!

2009-09-12T14:58:00.004+01:00

Today I'm feeling a bit low, and getting up enthusiasm seems to be hard. Matt went back up to Hull today, and I know I'll miss him like crazy, even though I did everything I could to help him get back up there. I've just read about the problems with the student loans coming through as well. With 2 of them off, it will be hard to keep them financed for too long, so hopefully they will not be affected. Dan will probably be OK as he is a returning student, but typically he's still got money, so it wouldn't affect him so much anyway. Matt, who is flat broke except for what we can manage, has been out of the system for a year, so I'm not sure whether he comes under the LEA or Student Finance England. He will hopefully be OK if its the former, not too optimistic if it's the latter.

After a couple of warmish days at the beginning of the week, there is a definite cooler breeze about this morning again. I could really do with some rain though. It seems to have been dry for so long, and the runner beans never did get off their starting blocks. The leaves are now turning a bit crispy, and what beans there are look stunted. The climbing french beans, cobra and fasold, have both done well, and there still seems to be flowers coming, so as long as the frosts hold off for a few more weeks I should get some more of those. Having just checked the first frost dates, it's estimated to be mid-November for Chatham, which is the closest to me I could find. It will be interesting to see just when it does come.

The tomatoes in the allotment garden succumbed to blight, so I've now got several kgs of green ones in the freezer awaiting the chutney process. Such a shame, these would have been Vicky's favourite yellow ones. I don't seem to have done too well with those this year in the greenhouse. The plants don't produce as many as the Tigerella ones.

I must get the Nemasys watered into my pots to kill any vine weevil larvae. I found they worked well last year, I had very little damage to the camellias this summer and I didn't lose any fuschias. Using the biological control is better for me than the chemical one, as I don't need to worry so much about where I plant my edible stuff. The chemical is not safe for use around food crops. The only problem is, the soil needs to be moist beforehand and up to 2 weeks afterwards. I haven't got much water in the butts at the moment, and this has been reserved for the most essential plants. Having just checked, the nematodes remain viable until the 29th, so I could do it next weekend!

Nights are drawing in

2009-08-28T20:11:00.003+01:00

It was only the other day I was reading a post from a gardener in Scotland about the nights drawing in, and the weather turning chilly in the mornings. This morning the spider's webs were across the path, and a cold wind was blowing along Gillingham High Street, not to mention the fact that it's virtually dark at 8pm now. I noticed how quickly the courgettes have come to an end too. 2 weeks ago they all looked healthy and I was inundated with fruit, yesterday when I went to the allotment garden all the Cavili plants have succumbed to powdery mildew, although the green courgette (either Parthenon or Black Beauty, the label was lost) still looks quite healthy. Whether I will get more fruit I don't know, there are no more flowers. The marketmore cucumbers looked a bit the worse for wear too.

Vicky has named the pumpkins, George is the largest, with twins Fred and Sam almost half his size. The plants still look quite healthy, although of course, they will set no more fruit. The butternut squash plants have set several now, the largest is on the self sown one from the bokashi bin, closely followed by the unnamed seed from Wilkingsons. Both the Hunter plants look pretty sick, with no squash set so far, so I think it is a bit late for these now.

The cabbage white and hawkmoth caterpillars managed to see off the cauliflowers, we didn't get anything from these, but there are still a couple of cabbages in the fridge, which I cut before the caterpillars totally ruined them. I still keep picking them off the sprouts in the hopes I will actually manage to keep them at bay until the weather turns cold enough to stop them. Typically, now the summer holidays are virtually at an end, there is so much to do in the garden. I need to clear out the finished plants and get a compost bin set up in the allotment garden. I bought some Japanese overwintering onions today, £2 for 50 from Wilkingsons, although it is a bit early to plant them yet. I also got some Cobra climbing french beans as these have done phenominally well this year, as well as some kohl rabi and some courgettes which are supposed to show some resistance to powdery mildew, all at 75% off. I saved over £5 on seeds I would have been buying next year anyway, and no postage or packing. I was in town anyway.

I have enough jam made now to keep us going for a couple of years I think, (golden plum, scotch bonnet and plum, chocolate habanero and plum, blackberry, blackcurrant, marrow and apricot, raspberry and a blackberry and blackcurrant mixture) as well as 2 plum based chutneys and a cucumber relish. I think I spoiled the second chutney though by adding some blackberries to it, an idea I'd seen in another recipe. Unfortunately the seeds have cooked very hard, which has made it a bit unpleasant to eat, although the flavour's rather nice. I do still need to make an apple and tomato based chilli jam though, as Daniel is not so keen on the hot plum.

Plum tired out!

2009-08-15T13:17:00.003+01:00

A very hectic week, on Monday I was given loads of cherry plums, tiny black ones which were very ripe, golden ones that were ripe, and red ones that were a bit less. I've spent the week turning these into a variety of preserves, so they did not go to waste.

The over ripe black ones were used in Amanda's chutney recipe, instead of tomatoes. I think it's worked really well and I have 6 jars in the cupboard to mature, as well as half a jar for immediate eating.

The golden ones were lovely just to eat, but no way were we going to manage them all. I have 2 kg stoned and frozen on trays before bagging, so I can use whatever quantity I want during the winter. They also made a lovely golden plum jam, then, in case we got bored, I put some bruised ginger root, garlic and a chocolate habenero chilli into a bag, and stewed it in with the plums. I lifted it out before adding the sugar, and the jam has a fruity taste, with a hot garlic kick afterwards. I think besides being a good condiment to cold meat and cheese, it will be useful added to stir fries, instead of buying plum sauce.

Emboldened by this success, I used the small red plums to make chilli jam, with one scotch bonnet added to 1kg plums, and a chocolate habanero added to a second kg. Each batch made x 1lb jars of jam, so I now have a cupboard full, though it will soon empty when the boys leave at the end of the summer! A really nice fruity jam with the heat coming in later. A favourite with Matt, so I might see if I can beg a few more plums for another batch.

Last, but not least, I just picked the summer raspberries. They are definitely not such good quality as the earlier ones, but taking them together with the ones I have already frozen, I have enough to use the last of the pectin containing sugar, but this time I'll do 750g fruit, and add 250g of ordinary sugar, as the set was a bit too stiff last time.

I should go to the allotment garden this afternoon to pick stuff, but to be honest, I would just like to feel I have caught up for a while. I must go tomorrow though, as the last visit was Tuesday. Then I picked so many cucumbers that I used a kilo in cucumber relish. The problem was, the recipe called for green tomatoes, so I did sacrifice a few, but I don't want to lose too many. I like the relish, but it isn't sweet enough for the men of the family. I think after the 3 months maturing that is called for, it will have mellowed down, and maybe they will find it more to their taste.

All I had in bowls in the kitchen were tomatoes, but having just gone outside, I found a load of beans so these are now added, ready to go in the fridge. I need to pick the blackberries and blueberries, as well as giving everything a good water, because only the essentials got done yesterday becaues of jam and hospital visiting. I'm afraid to venture outside, as I will see yet another job to do, as well as all the housework that has piled up. Still the dust is very patient, it never gets fed up with sitting around waiting for me!

Marrow and Apricot Conserve

2009-08-08T11:24:00.004+01:00

Continuing from yesterday, the sugar leached out all the juices from the marrow, so there were tiny pieces of what looked like dried apple in masses of syrup. The apricot had swelled a bit though. Anyway, in the spirit of experimentation, I put the whole lot on to boil, remembering halfway through that I was going to add the lemon zest and juice, so ended up just glugging in some lemon juice from the bottle in the fridge. Once the sugar had dissolved I put it on to a rolling boil, and let it get on with it, stirring occasionally. Things seemed to be a bit thicker after a while, so I used the thermometer, and found it read 110C, so as I didn't want to make toffee, I turned it off. The marrow and apricot were still floating, so I allowed it to cool a little, until it started to get pretty thick, and the fruit stayed dispersed. Then I potted it up, probably around 1.5 lbs I would think. It's a bit sweet and thick, but Dans tried it and loved it, said he's bagging a jar for uni, and it will be great on ice cream as well as toast. The conserve is a pretty golden colour, with the orange apricots lending deeper tones. I did intend to stir some flaked almonds in, and I think some alcohol of some description would go nicely. I might try a 'posh' version when next my courgettes end up as marrows.

I've now picked a good few blackberries, so decision time on what to do with those. I'm running out of jars though, so will need to go begging soon.

Plums and making marrow jam

2009-08-07T16:24:00.004+01:00

After careful consideration, I decided to pick the plums, even though they aren't quite ripe. They will finish off indoors, so at least we will get them, not the wasps. The summer raspberries from Glen Ample are still ripening, but they do seem a bit mushy compared to earlier in the season. I've put some in the freezer for jam when I get around to it. This is a cunning link to my next plan, for those overgrown courgettes I mentioned. They will be turned into marrow and apricot conserve, rather than marrow and ginger. This is partly because I misread the recipe for the ginger one and I've started it off wrongly, and also instead of buying preserved stem ginger, Andy got me some ginger preserve, basically ginger jam. It seems a bit silly to put jam into jam, so as we've both made mistakes, I'm adapting a recipe from the Internet so as not to waste anything. The marrow is sitting in the bowl with the sugar until tomorrow, and is already marrow in syrup. I've chopped the dried apricots finely and put those in too. I also found some flaked almonds, which I think I'll add to the mix tomorrow. I'll let you all know how it turns out!

So frustrating

2009-08-03T15:38:00.007+01:00

Well, two weeks into the holiday, and I've managed 3 acidents. the first 2 were annoying, severely bruised ankle and 3 burned fingers, painful, but didn't slow me down that much. However this lastest one is a bit more limiting. I was cutting up some watermelon on Saturday night, and sliced through my thumb nail and into the flesh below. 4 hours later I came out of casualty with instructions not to get the dressing wet for 5 days, after which, if I am careful, a full recovery will follow. Vicky was a star, she came running with the first aid box, but it was soon obvious that a plaster would not be sufficient, so she offered to come with me and her dad. She even came into the treatment room while they did the dressing, so 5 stars all the way.
As far as the garden, well I can water things if I am cautious, but I can't get a glove on and any pressure is still very painful, so other jobs are out. I had spent Saturday afternoon packaging up spare seeds for the Grapevine seed parcel swap, which should be on its way to me soon, so that will be a welcome diversion.
The spring cabbage seed I planted on Saturday is already showing through, and the plums have colour. I keep checking them so I get them before the wasps. I thought it was just around us that they were bad, but at the farmer's market on Sunday they were everywhere. The cake stall left one of each cake on display, and had to keep the others under wraps, and the punch stall had similar problems. It must be a good (bad) year for them.

At the moment the chillies are having a holiday in the garden. The greenfly infestation got so bad I brought in 12 ladybirds to help out, but I didn't realise the stupid things fall off the plants so easily. I was constantly rescuing them when they got stranded on their backs. I think because they were on the smooth window sill they couldn't right themselves like they would on soil. Anyway I felt really cruel, so I gathered them up and put them back outside. Then I realised we had, among the wasps, a number of hover flies. As both eat aphids, and I didn't really want them to come inside, I took the plants to them. This was on Saturday, and now, after a good squirt with dilute Fairy liquid, and a few downpours, the plants are looking much better. I hope to move them back in today or tomorrow as strong winds are forecast. (Well I will get the others to do it for me.)

I did get my cabbage, it was so fresh and crisp, lovely, and the caterpillar damage was confined to the outside leaves. We have been doing really well, the french beans have really taken off. I think Cobra will definitely be the ones of choice next year. I'm not so sure about my white flowered runners. In the garden many of the flowers have fallen without making beans, we have only had a few so far, so disappointing. The mini cucumbers planted at the allotment garden have done so though. They were a bit expensive, from T&M, but I picked 8 from 2 plants on Saturday. Mum likes these ones taken into the home for her. She can't manage a large one at a time as she has no fridge. The other ones at the allotment, I was a bit mistaken in. the seeds were given to me, and I was told they were like Telegraph, which I thought was a longish cucumber. These are short and spiky, like gerkins, although they taste nice if peeled. I won't be growing them next year.

Jam in July

2009-07-31T22:09:00.002+01:00

Almost 2 weeks of the holidays gone, and I've still so much I want to do! Just everyday things seem to be occupying me at the moment. I intended to spend most of today in the garden, but didn't make it outside much until the afternoon. However, I did pick some blackberries from the hedgerow, so coupled with the few from the garden, I made 2 pots of blackberry jam. One will definitely be travelling to Portsmouth in September when Daniel returns to uni, although by then I will probably have a few more. Yesterday I made a similar amount of raspberry jam from the berries that had gone a bit soft in the recent rains. For both I used the sugar with added pectin. It makes life so easy!

Tomorrow I intend to go to the allotment garden to get a cabbage for dinner, as I've promised my sons beef stew with dumplings! They are asking for all sorts of favourites which they cannot be bothered to make for themselves when they are away. The caterpillars have made some inroads, but rubbing off any eggs I find, picking off any caterpillars, and the old net curtains protecting the plants have, I hope, left us with some edible hearts.

Sadly we are now convinced we only have 5 cats instead of 6. Polly hasn't been seen by anyone for a couple of months. She had taken to visiting elsewhere, but always turned up for breakfast. On happier note, Smokey has produced another lovely litter of 4 kittens. All are doing fine, and she is looking well, despite it being so soon since her last lot.

Cherry Disaster

2009-07-23T07:17:00.002+01:00

This is a very despondant post, as it deals with a total crop failure. Our fan trained cherry tree flowered really well this year, and there was a large number of green cherries. These began to turn red mid June, but as they are black cherries, Sunburst, they were not due to ripen completely until mid to late July. We waited impatiently, watching the luscious bunches of cheeries deepen in colour, and a couple of weeks ago, I decided some looked ripe enough to try. Imagine my horror when I realised those delicious deep red clusters concealed a horrific secret. They were welded together and inside a horrible caterpillar had been busy munching away.

A truly disgusting discovery, and I set too, separating the bunches, squashing caterpillars, and picking off the damaged fruit. There wasn't many left, and they were still a bit tart, so we decided to leave them for another week.

Well, the wasps then moved in, during the last weeek of school, they had an end of term feast, and ate most of the remaining cherries down to the stones! I took 3 perfect ones to my Mum for her birthday, and we had 5 each. Even then, my 5 were not perfect, I had to cut bits out of them!

I am not sure on the policy for next year, I found an article that said Kent growers did not produce organic cherries because of the need to spray in spring against caterpillars, but the article did not give any details. I do try to be organic, but to be honest, as Vicky said, she would prefer to have the cherries with a little bit of poison, than no cherries at all. If I could find out what is used, and if it is available to home growers, I could do some research and make an informed decision.

As far as the wasps are concerned, I am determined they will not get the plums. There is not many, and I don't want to lose them too!

What I picked this week

2009-07-02T19:17:00.002+01:00

Things have been very hectic in my life recently, so I'm afraid this blog has been a bit neglected, but I thought it more important to keep the plants alive!

This week I've been picking the Meteor peas that Amanda gave me. The ones at the allotment garden aren't doing too well, but those in the garden are lovely. I've also been picking dwarf beans from the plants Peter gave me, as well as the first ones from the climbers. The ones in the greenhouse have been cropping for a while now, so the bean season is underway.

I'm not sure about the benefit of the early tomato sowing. Although I picked the first one on the 1st June, I've not had many since, and they have been small as well. However, the kohl rabi in the patio gro trays has been doing well, and we've been self sufficient in lettuce and salad leaves for a couple of months now. The garlic is safely pulled, and drying off in the garage.

I pulled the first white beetrooot today. It does look strange, but I've been impressed with the leaves. I don't like the red ones, but these are much more like spinach, so a dual crop.

The fruit has been doing well too. I've picked several bowls of raspberries, and the blackcurrants have been picked and frozen, ready to make into jam when I get time. The cherries are lovely tasting, but still red, so I'm risking leaving them fro a few more days. If we do get rain it might cause them to split though. Apparently it's the rain on the skins, that causes the problems.

Flowers!

2009-06-13T20:37:00.002+01:00

Believe it or not, I do manage to fit in a few flowers, and this year I've already enjoyed some beauties. It started with the bulbs, then my alpine clematis, the camellias and the rhododendron in its pot. My Gertrude Jekyll rose was flowering its heart out, then down came the rain, and spoilt a lot of the flowers. However the recent dry spell has spare the later ones, and the scent is amazing. Vicky's Ice Cream rose, a white hybrid tea, is now in full flower and despite a few aphids, looks lovely.

The hardy carnations are a bit tardy, covered with buds, but we are still waiting for the blooms to open. Not so with the sweet peas. Air warden looks great, although it's companion was supposed to be blue, not pink. The packet definitely show blue flowers, but every one is pink. Luckily the red does not clash, as I planted them to climb together. Although the beans are technically veg, I am looking forward to their contribution to the colour in the garden having chosen varieties with white and mauve flowers. I've also put snapdragons between the celeriac, so brighten up the view.

Home Veg Garden Update

2009-06-13T20:11:00.003+01:00

Where to start? The fruit is looking promising this year, I've raspberrries, blackcurrants, blueberries, cherries and plums, although I might lose some to the June drop yet. The blackcurrants are beginning to colour though, and I swear they were darker tonight than this morning after the sunshine we had. The cobnut trees have a good number of nut clusters, considering they are still only about 4 ft tall, and the apple tree that was broken in the post managed to set 4 apples so far, although again, they might not all make it.I never did get a replacement, but perhaps they meant next season! I won't get so many grapes this year though, as one of the main rods died back, and the fruiting shoots are less. I have got 10 cuttings taken from last year's prunings, so I'm taking them to the Strawberry Fayre next week, where the Garden Club is having a table.

On June 1st I picked my first tomato, Tigerella, from the Dec 27th sowing. I've had 2 more since then, and another colouring up, but I haven't tasted one yet as the girls have had them. The other varieties are nowhere near ready yet. I have been picking chillies for a couple of weeks. The purple jalapenos are much hotter ripe, but the hot lemon are pretty tastless so far, so I'm hoping they develop. As far as the peppers go, I've a ripe Canape, and the 2 orange bell are showing streaks of colour. All are still living in 6 inch pots on the kitchen window sill!

Lettuce and salad leaves abound at the moment, but I've had to resort to washing them with my reading glasses on. I remember Mum serving up greenfly with the salad, and I'm in danger of doing the same.

The cucumbers in the greenhouse are looking good, and I've some fruit set on the cape gooseberries, Little Lanterns. Takae said they are lovely when ripe, so I'm looking forward to later in the year. Vicky is really pleased we didn't lose a single kohl rabi to the slugs, and she's now enjoying them raw, munching on them when chatting away on MSN. The carrots have been really slow considering I planted them in January. We've had a few, and they are lovely, but I don't know they are worth the effort of such an early sowing.

However the broad beans are another story. I've finished picking the first crop planted in November, with some frozen for later, as Takae and I are the only ones who liked them. I've some more coming on, and the earlier sowings escape the blackfly. The globe artichokes have been attacked though, that is one thing Takae didn't take to.

I sowed some of the white beetroot seed I got from a Grape when we visited Wisley, and the roots look around an inch across, so they are on their way, but the radish have been poor, probably because I didn't keep them watered enough in the dry spell. My garlic leaves are looking a bit tired now, but I think it will still be a few weeks before its time to get them up, and the shallots will of course be later, although it looks as if most sets have split into 4 or 5 at least.

It looks as if I will get a few successes this year, but I think a lot will depend on how the weather behaves over the summer!

Update on the Allotment Garden

2009-06-13T19:47:00.003+01:00

Well it's been a while again, but as I'm now back at work full time it's hard to find time to do everything I need to do, let alone the things I want to do!

Anyway, where are we with the new garden? Having resorted to weedkiller, my sister dug a lot of it for me, and cleared the thistles and the nettles. Vicky and Takae planted the vegetables I've grown at home, and Daniel mulched the whole lot with well rotted manure. Thanks to all those people, the garden now looks like a veg plot.

The tomatoes do not look well, I'm not sure why, they have been watered well and mulched, but the leaves are small and purple. I've got flowers and a couple of tomatoes set, but I'll be surprised if we get anything much from them.

I bought in some cabbage and cauliflowers, and they are looking well, even though something, maybe the pigeons that live in the conifer, have had a bit of a nibble. The butterflies have not found them yet!

I've climbing French and runner beans. planted in a couple of weeks ago by Takae, but they look a bit yellow, despite the bokashi put under them, and the mulch around them. However, today when I went to check, some are beginning to find the canes, and the soil is still nice and damp underneath the mulch. The weeds are making it through though, so it isn't quite thick enough!

The Cavili courgettes are romping away, and I've planted in another 3 today, as it would be good to freeze enough to see us through the winter. The Black Beauty and Parthenon are not so good. Takae did not put the labels to them, so I can't say which is which, but I've lost one, and another looks decidedly iffy. The peas are not as green as when I planted them out, but there are the first flowers appearing, so that is the main thing. However the 2 pumpkins look very well. I don't know what they are, the label didn't give a name when I bought them, but they are green, and showing the promise of flower buds.

Today, besides the courgettes, I put in 2 Wilkos butternut squash, and 3 Hunter ones from the Digg It campaign, all grown from seed. It will be interesting to see what I get, if anything. I also planted 2 Green fingers cucumber plants, to grow up the 2 bean canes who have lost their tenants, and 4 marketmore cucumbers, up a wigwam of canes. The marketmore cucumbers were from ancient seeds, which I did not expect to grow, but they germinated well in the heated propagator a few weeks ago. The cucumbers did not get much soil prep, as the well rotted compost from home was too heavy for me to lift, and I just dug the bit I needed. They are looking good at the moment, so fingers crossed for a good harvest.

I was still hoping to get beetroot, sprouts and more cabbage plants in, besides sowing some seeds, but with all the cucurbits, space is again running out! Pictures will be added soon!

Oh, and I forgot the celeriac, it's looking good, smaller of course than the ones I planted out at home, but I'm hopeful we will get a crop, especially if I leave it to last for harvesting.

Sorry It's been so long

2009-05-28T22:02:00.003+01:00

What with one thing and another, keeping my blog up to date seems to have fallen by the way, and yet I have been as busy as ever in the garden. Today I picked my first broad beans from and autumn sowing of aquadulce claudia in the greenhouse and planted out in Feb I believe. The pods are long, containing up to six beans each or so, and tasting delicious. I also cut my globe artichoke, determined not to leave it too long this time. Takae wasn't certain, despite me telling her it was a delicacy, but it means I get the next one to myself!
Having spent 3 days in Portsmouth courtesy of Daniel, it was surprising what a little bit of rain will achieve. The Romaine lettuce are hearting up, so I picked one to see how it was. The outer leaves were enormous, and still edible. Slugs had managed to broach the copper defences, through bridges made by other leaves, but generally well grown. The water cress is trying desperately to flower, but I just keep cutting it, and the rate the church salad boxes are growing, we might need to eat them before 20th!
With a bit of help, I've cleared enough of our allotmet to plant tomatoes, celeriac, cabbages and cauli. I have pumpkins, squash, courgettes, peas and beans waiting the wings, so tomorow Vicky, Takae and I will try to get most of the stuff in. It's odd we've not even had it a month yet, and there have been a few surprises,.

New Garden

2009-05-06T15:28:00.009+01:00

I am totally amazed. A while ago I registered on the Channel 4 landshare scheme, and last weekend I had a contact passed to me. To cut a long story short, I now have a new garden to plant more fruit and veg in.

As you can see, there are a far few weeds, dandelions, thistles, bindweed and cleavers are the main ones. We got a whole bucket of bindweed roots out of a very small space. Although I will be putting in a compost bin, the present weeds will need to got to the tip, as I do not want the the seeds and perenial roots.

The trees need to stay, otherwise I have a free hand. At the bottom the owner is putting in a new shed for himself, and once that is donw he is going to let me have space in the old one.

Drought Conditions!

2009-04-26T21:04:00.004+01:00

It has been glorious weather, sunny and warm during the days, although the wind can be a bit chilly still. Rain was forecast for this weekend, but we haven't had any, so the water butts are completely dry. No significant rain is due for some days, so I think I will need to use the hosepipe to fill them up.
The nights haven't been bad either, with no frosts, a good job as my runners and potted up celeriac, which had been enjoying the sunshine, were left outside overnight. The greenhouse has been reaching temperatures into the 30s, but got down to 6C when I left the door open. A lucky escape for all involved, although the forecast for frost next week has now changed, so perhaps the beans will go out soon anyway. Their roots are already penetrating the cardboard tubes, and I don't want them growing into each other.
I've started passing out my celeriac seedlings, as they need potting on now. I've put 16 into 5 inch pots to grow on a bit, with the idea that I won't plant them out for another few weeks, although they will be residing outside during the day as long as the weather holds.
I desperately need to sort the greenhouse out, as the tomato plants need better staking, and I will need to reposition some. I have started feeding those that have set fruit, and they are looking pretty healthy now. I am a bit later than I intended with the courgettes and cucumbers, they are still in their packets I'm ashamed to say, although it isn't too late to get them in. Things have been a bit disorganised here what with illness in the family and all that, but I will endeavour to have them planted soon. They will not take long to germinate, although I think I will try for a more even temperature than would be available in the greenhouse at the moment.
I have lots of numex and jalapeno chillies, and a couple of peppers forming on the canape variety, but the others are proving slower to flower still. The habeneros have much larger leaves than the others, and the plants are much shorter too, something to bear in mind for overwintering. The kitchen window sill suits them fine, and I have started feeding them with tomato food too, especially as they are in relatively small pots. I transplanted the Speedy dwarf beans into a large pot in the greenhouse, they were too big for the windowsill.
In the flower garden I noticed my tree peony has 3 buds on, so I hope I will get some flowers this year. The original plant was purchased 15 years ago, and I bought bits with me when I moved, but never have had flowers since. The alpine clematis is a true picture, covered with nodding blue flowers, and the early summer flowering one, which was not pruned this year, has sent much more growth up, with buds showing already.
Unfortunately the Queen of the Night tulips have proved to be later flowering and taller than I hoped, so although they look spectacular in the pots, the white ones have virtually finished, and were much shorter too. Just goes to show you can't always go by the descriptions.

Potting shed

2009-04-15T20:30:00.006+01:00

After years of wanting a place specially to sow seeds, pot on, and keep all my gardening stuff in order, it's finally happening. A few weeks ago my husband set up an old table for me at the far end of the garage, but it was too dark, even with the light on. Over the weekend I was saying that I was sure I had loads of pots, but they had been 'buried' under all the stuff put in front of them, so we began the big clear out. I have to say, with my neck playing up again big time at the moment, my physical input was minimal, but 3 trips to the tip later, we now have a corner by the garden door end set up with my table, and shelf units for me to arrange all my stuff on and I've even got a set of 4 electric sockets. It's great, I found the water retaining crystals I was sure I hadn't finished last year, a pair of secateurs which I knew I haven't thrown out with the prunings, as well as many other valued treasures. Unfortunately I replaced the secateurs last autumn, and bought more granules this spring, but spares are always useful.

About 10 days ago I received a surprise package from the postman, I had won a Coronet Family Apple Tree in an online competition. Unhappily it hadn't travelled well, the trunk was completely broken through, an ugly splintered break, leaving only the 2 lowest branches intact. These were Elstar, the James Grieve part, and a good proportion of Elstar were lost. Anyway I contacted the producer, and they have very kindly said they will send me out a new one of their next batch. In the meantime I have pruned the trunk to as neat a cut as possible, with the branches opposite each other it might make a reasonable looking plant. I went looking for pots today, and ended up with 3 for 2 from Wilkinsons. They are only 50cm square, but should be OK for this year. I'm going to use them for my peach tree, my broken tree, and my new one when it comes. I was told I should pot trees into John Innes No3, so I looked at B&Q, but they only had 25l bags. We ended up at Homebase looking for something else, and theirs was 50p cheaper per bag, but although there was no sign up, they went through at 3 for £10, so a good deal today.

A quick update on the chillies, I now have about 3 numex twilight set, and at least one purple jalapeno. They have got a few greenfly, which I am trying to control with washing and hand picking. Interestingly the hot lemon are worst affected, with few on the others. I wonder if they are not to the greenfly's taste?

I have been having problems with someone running through the bit of garden by the drive, and despite advice from Daniel, I haven't resorted to prickly bushes. However I did see the culprits, a couple of young boys playing with their water pistols. I politely asked them not to run over my garden as they were trampling on the plants. They did apologise, so hopefully they will remember next time they are playing there, although I don't think they are from the houses nearby.

Happy Easter

2009-04-11T09:23:00.016+01:00

Happy Easter to everyone who reads this. Hopefully although it's raining today, the weather will come good for Easter Sunday and Monday. I really hope so, as I have a wet and bedraggled tent haning over my rotary washing line, excluding the light for all the plants below it! Typically in the way of teenagers, they left it until an hour before the rain started yesterday to sort it out. If it had been done first thing in the morning, the tent could have been put away by now. Never mind, rant over, now to gardening.

Well another rant this time really. On Monday my broad beans were looking good, with flower buds showing on the earlier ones. Yesterday I noticed the edges of all the leaves are notched. Looking closely, there are small weevils munching away on them. A bit of reseach revealed they are bean weevils, which eat the leaves as adults, and lay their eggs around the roots. The larvae feed on the roots, in a similar way to vine weevils. Apparently they do not attack the beans directly, phew, but can reduce the crop, depending on the amount of root damage. I was trying to shake the plants to get them to drop into a pot, and got a few, but got way more ants. Although I could not see aphids, I washed the plants down with very dilute washing up liquid solution in the hopes it might stop trouble before it starts. I must get some sticky papers and put them below the plant. Perhaps they will stick when I shake them off.

My dwarf french beans, Speedy, are doing well in the kitchen, the second set of true leaves are beginning to form, and I realised the last frost date is supposed to be the end of April here, so although there is always risk in gardening, I put 8 runner bean seeds to soak last night. I drained them this morning, and I've put them in my seed sprouter. As soon as the radical shows, I will put them in loo roll middles in the greenhouse. I am going to start some french beans too, I still have Fasold from last year, and some Cobra I bought this year, both climbers, so I will compare which does best, for taste as well as yield.

I have my first tomato set on a Tigerella plant. It is about the size of a pea, but definitely 'there'. I still haven't decided exactly how I am going to manage the tomato plants, the problem is they are too big for adoption really. There's one which has developed strangely, so I have planted that one out into a sheltered part of the garden to 'test the waters'.

The Numex Twilight in the kitchen has now had 3 flowers open, which I pollinated with a paintbrush, so hopefully these will develop into chillies.

One purple jalepeno has flowered as well, a very pretty flower in its own right, although i hope it makes a chilli. I am making sure I do not cross pollinate the plants, as I hope to save my own seeds from the chillies in the kitchen.
The flowers in the garden are looking spectacular now. The pots of daffs are beginning to finish, but the pansies around them are still going strong, and the white tulips are in full flower, although the Queen of Night are a bit slower than I would have liked.

My kitchen windowsill!

2009-04-02T07:24:00.007+01:00

Just a short post this morning, to say that yesterday I took pity on my chilli plants I had in 3" pots on the kitchen widowsill, and upgraded them to 5" or 6" ones.
The Numex Twilight, both the inside and the one slumming it in the greenhouse, have flower buds coming. These were the 2 that grew out of the 5 planted on 27th Dec. I also have buds in the purple jalapeno (20th Jan), and my orange bell and canape peppers (22nd Jan). The ones outside are further behind.
Thanks to Irie Jan from the Grapevine, I also have hot lemon, chocolate habenero, and a scotch bonnet, also on the kitchen windowsill. Hopefully they will be able to stay there for a bit, as I've carefully rearranged everything to fit the pots in.
This morning I've noticed the 'Speedy' dwarf french beans are just beginning to show in their pots. I don't know how quickly they will outgrow their space, but I feel a potential move to the bedroom coming on.

This afternoon, while standing admiring the garden I realised the plum tree, Jubilee, had 2 flowers actually opened. I nipped inside and got a paint brush, in case the bees hadn't realised. I then went round the tomato flowers in the greenhouse. It looks as if there might be a tiny tomato set, and loads of the others have flower buds coming, so fingers crossed for the success of the early trial.

Busy Weekend

2009-03-30T09:22:00.010+01:00

Well Saturday was a disappointment in the weather stakes. The icy wind cut through despite the sun, and when the showers came some were hail. I'd planted out 8 kohl rabi seedlings on Friday, so I hope they were sufficiently hardened off to cope, They look OK, and so far have not been attacked by slugs. We had a frost last night, the car needed scraping this morning.

Takae and I spent some time in the warmth cutting up 2l plastic drinks bottles, and circling them with copper tape. Vicky came up with the idea, so we had a trip to the garden centre to buy some, and I was also persuaded into some organic slug pellets. Based on iron, they stop the slugs feeding, and then they go underground to die. Sounds great, and Vicky is desperate to protect the kohl rabi. Anyway each plant is enclosed in a circle of copper, I just hope we haven't trapped any slugs inside!

The tops and bottoms were left a reasonable size, and we have used those as mini-cloches over 8 lettuce plants. I am going to put some of them in pots too, but I have quite a few seedlings so I decided to give some a go in the garden.

The Hurst Green Shaft peas are not showing yet, but some of the Meteors were just poking their heads through, so they have gone into the garden, against the fence. They are planted quite thickly, so I hope that will help them support each other, though I will put in some sticks to help them. I've put the rose cuttings over to try to disuade the cats, as the soil is lovely and soft, just as they like it. I also sprinkle some over the Stay Off granules around. They do help, but you need to keep applying them.

I noticed tiny red seedlings coming through between the raspberry canes, so the beetroot seeds I planted a while ago have germinated. Hopefully they will grow before the raspberries take over. Also I wish I could persuade the raspberries to grow their canes in the right place. I have little ones coming up in the rhubarb (which was delicious stewed and mixed with yogurt), and between the wooden deck squares I've used as stepping stones.

The count of parsnip seedlings is growing, I plant out each one as it pokes its head through. Hopefully the tap root will then grow straight, and I won't get forked parsnips, which are such a pain to prepare for dinner.

I am really trying to make a difference to the food bill this year, so I planted 10 french beans in pots on the kitchen windowsill. They are 'Speedy', so should produce quickly. My plan is to keep them indoors as long as I can manage, then put them out into the greenhouse (which is already bulging at the seems). French beans do not need bees to pollinate them, so they should do well as long as they do not get too cold.

My onions I planted in January do not look too promising, later on today I hope to transplant the best ones, so I might get a few. The plan was to use some as spring onions, and let the rest grow on, but at the rate they are dying off I won't have any left. I don't know if it's damping off disease, but they are the only seedlings with a problem, everything else is looking really healthy.

Inside I have been sprouting a lot of seeds for use in salads. My favourite are sunflowers. I buy the hulled ones now, I might have mentioned it before. It saves removing them from the husks once they have sprouted, a fiddly and horrible job. I am trying out a new idea I saw on the internet though, sunflower greens. After the seeds have spouted, you plant them in trays and harvest the seedlings at the first real leave stage, so they are not too tough. Apparently it takes about 7 days, but it might be longer for me, because they are outside in the PatioGro, so are colder. I'm not sure where people get these growing times from, it would be useful if they would publish the growing conditions to achieve salad leaves in 2 weeks, radish in 4 etc.

One of the camellias is coming out, and with the miniture daffodils in pots and the various primroses the garden is looking so colourful at the moment. As a follow on I have tulips, the alpine clematis and the fruit trees, they are all waiting in the wings , and I don't think it will be long until the show starts. The only thing is, I think I will then have a colour gap, because the hardy carnations in the back garden are not in bud, the ones in the garage garden look better.

In the garage garden I have put in some poppies and cornflowers. I am trying to disguise the veg a bit, so people do not give into temptation. The sweet peas I have planted around the nut bushes seem to have taken, but I need to decide where the others are going. I have pots in the greenhouse that really need to go out soon. So much to do still, I think I will close now, and go and get on with it.

Edit - I've put in some pics, but they won't stay where I want them too, so sorry for the mess!

Icy winds today

2009-03-24T21:20:00.004Z

After a lovely few days of bright sun and warm (ish) days, today was a real reminder not to get too ahead of ourselves. The sun was shining, but the north wind was cold enough to cut you (and any tender seedlings) in half. I remember seeing runner beans last year in a diy store, but on SUnday there were some in a well known garden centre close to us. Madness!
However, talking of madness, the Dec 27th tomatoes have been out in the greenhouse for over a week now, and are doing fine. Even with a frost the other night, the fleece (and I have to admit, the fan heater on the frost free setting) seems to have done the job. There are flowers on 3 of them, so hopefully they will set. Acccording to info I found, it depends if the night time temperature is high enough for the pollen to remain viable, so fingers crossed. I counted up, I've 32 tomatoes, with room for about 8 inside permently.
The chillies are doing well too, I've 11 of those I think, and 6 peppers. (Yes I know I said last year I wasn't bothering, but well..) I did have 10 peppers, but when Amanda came round last week I gave her a couple of the orange bell, and a couple of canape (red). Hopefully she'll be able to get some fruit from them. She bought me a jar of her tomato chutney, absolutely delicious, and thats just from a spoon. I'm sure it's even better with cheese. Mine wasn't half as nice, so I need to get the recipie, ready for this autumn. She also gave me some Hurst Green Shaft peas and some Meteor. I soaked some of each overnight, then left them in my seed sprouter until the roots were just emerging. Some of the Meteor were sown in loo rolls, but the rest have had to make do with pots. The Hursts have gone into a deep trough (actually a recycling bin given back to us in mistake by the bin men, we left it out for a week, but the owner did not come and collect it so its been 'recycled'.
Contrary to what I'd been told, celeriac seed does last several years. I sowed the rest of the pack I had left over, and I reckon most grew! Takae pricked a load out for me, we now have 132 seedlings. The greenhouse is beginning to burst at the seams, what with the tomatoes, celeriac, sowings of lettuce, flowers, and parsnips in loo roll tubes (we just don't use enough). I haven't even got started with the more tender stuff like beans, courgettes and cucumbers yet.
In the garden things are moving on apace as well. In Takae I have a willing worker, she has dug over the beds for me, and we now have the bean sticks in position ready for sowing next month. It also lets me see what space we have available for other stuff.
In the garage garden the broad beans from last autumn have taken well, and even the new sowings, started off in the greenhouse, are looking good. The first 5 parsnips planted out seem to have grown bigger already, but there are no green shoots on the shallots yet. However the radish I sprinkled between them are coming through nicely. Those in the Patio Gro covered with the plastic cover are beginning to swell, so hopefully I'll be pulling some in the next couple of weeks.

Wisley and what I've been up to in the week.

2009-03-15T06:58:00.006Z

Last Saturday the meeting of the Grapes from the GYO Grapevine forum went really well. Most of us met around 11am, my daughter had made a lovely sign to tell people who we were. The weather was pretty good, in the sun it was really warm, but it blew up a bit cold in the afternoon. It was really busy, so others were a little later as they got stuck in the traffic jams, and had to park miles away. After a bit of a chat we went to see one of the first talks, but it was so busy we struck off in small groups to have a look around and meet up for lunch later. We needed 3 picnic tables moved together to fit us all in. Loads of people brought seeds to swap, giving us all a chance to try varieties we hadn't thought to buy, and swapping those we had too many of. It was lovely to meet people we had been talking to for months on the Internet, and we hope to go again later in the year, when the veg beds have something in, and the fruit trees have some leaves, and hopefully, fruit.

Despite being a bit out of it this week, with the medication making me very tired and confused, (several burned dinners didn't persuade anyone to take over for me), I have managed to get some stuff done in the garden. My 'test' tomato was alive and thriving after a week in the greenhouse, so yesterday I potted up all the others planted on 27th December. One even has a flower open, but it depends if the temperature is high enough for pollination to be successful.

I've planted the flower seeds I got from the seed swap. I noticed the aqualegia were supposed to be planted by 2000, so it will be interesting to see if I get any grow! I've also put in some french marigolds as they are good comapion plants to repel whitefly and aphids on tomatoes. There's also something called 'Flower of Peru', which lookes lovely on the seed packet, so fingers crossed.

The original parsnips were showing the tip of their roots out of the bottom of their loo rolls, so I've planted them outside. There's only 5 so far, but they're a month earlier than I put them in last year! I've planted more in the greenhouse, but they're not up yet. I also planted out the broad beans that finally showed themselves. The Claudia were more successful that the Express at germinating, so it will be interesting to see how they go on.

Amanda came to call yesterday, and generously gave me some pea seeds, as well as a jar of her homemade tomato chutney, yum! I've got hold of an interesting booklet with loads of recipies, if any ever make it to the kitchen; they usually get eaten straight from the plant.

She was going to give me a packet of celeriac, but as I planted the seeds from last year to see if they would grow, and I've now ended up with at least 120, we decided to save those for next year! I should have enough for any garden club members who are interested. As I had decided not to grow peppers this year, but ended up with 5 each of Orange bell and Canape (red), I passed 2 of each on to her, as well as a jar of chilli jam, as we still have loads left.

Takae pricked out a lot of the celeriac for me, as well as digging my side border, and putting compost in place for the beans yet to come. She said she really wants to learn about gardening, as she lives in an apartment in Tokyo with nowhere to grow things.

Into March Already

2009-03-05T13:29:00.004Z

We've been enjoying a mild spell, but it's come to an end now. The night temperatures are supposed be down to freezing again, and some parts of the country, not us fortunately, are suffering snow again. One of my blueberries is already showing flower buds, althought the other one is not so far advanced, and one of my plum trees is beginning to burst its buds.

In the greenhouse the peach tree hasn't flowered, but it's not surprising as it was only a pip this time last year. The leaves are beginning to show, but it's still dodgy for peach leaf curl, so it will stay in until the end of March I would think. Apparently the danger time is when the leaves begin to expand. The lemon tree has come through the winter with all its leaves intact, last year I forgot to bring it in, and it lost the lot. Hopefully the small lemon will grow on, and the flower buds set fruit eventually. Home made lemon curd from this bush tastes nothing like that you buy from the shops.

I've got some celeriac seedlings (40!) pricked out and in an unheated propagator, as well as some more in the heated one. The auriculas which overwintered in the greenhouse are showing buds, so I think they will look good to replace the ornamental cabbages, which have finished now, in the outside pots. My second sowing of broad beans are not showing yet, which I'm a bit surprised about, but the parsnips that I germinated to test the seed are growing away in their loo roll tubes. I've found that the trays I grew my watercress in are a mass of new seedlings, despite being outside in all the weather over the winter. I've pricked out some into a seed tray and put them in the greenhouse to hopefully grow on a bit quicker.

The Patio Gro set has been built, and the troughs put into it. I think it's quite a bit warmer behind the greenhouse than in it, the seedlings have certainly moved faster since they were put into position. I think I will need to buy some more troughs though, it will take more than are supplied with it, so it seems a waste not to have it filled up. Sadly, even though Notcutts have some of the stuff for it on sale, it did not include spare troughs, so I will have to pay postage from the Internet.

In the 'Garage Garden', I've planted the shallots, although I wasn't best pleased to find one of the 10 rotten. In the process I found 2 more decent size parsnips. I've also been still eating my mooli, definitely worth growing, although some have got cabbage root fly. I make sure these bits are put in the bin, not the compost, as I don't want to give them the chance to mature in my garden. I also got rid of the old sage plant, taking some bits as cuttings in the meantime, and I've also got one in a pot in the back garden. However, the more the merrier, as it makes a delicious homemade sage and onion stuffing.

Finally indoors is being taken over with chilli, pepper and tomato seedlings. Well, the early sowings aren't really seedlings any more, as they have flower buds showing. I really need them to go into larger pots, which if I didn't have the cats wouldn't be such a problem. However I can see anything of any size would be thought of as a loo, and they are likely to just knock the smaller pots off any window sills. They don't stop going on them just because I put stuff there!

Busy week socially, Garden Club tonight, and then the Grapes Meet (online forum) at Wisley on Saturday. I'm aiming to take along some seeds in case anyone is interested. I still have quite a lot going spare. If the allotment initiative would move, I wouldn't need to get rid of so much!

Spring is sprung!

2009-02-20T22:00:00.002Z

Looking around the garden today the signs that the temperatures have been rising this week are obvious. I finally have a daffodil out, and the crocus are looking lovely, along with the snowdrops. The native primroses have been in flower for a while, but the coloured ones are coming into their own as well now, if only whatever is eating them would stop. The nut bushes are in flower. Being small I can see the tiny red flowers and the pollen on the catkins. Now we just need the wind to spread it about! (Not usually a problem around here.)

Having decided I could only fit 8 tomato plants in the greenhouse, I have 24 growing already, but the early Internet trial ones, planted on 27th Dec are decidedly leggy. I think the temperature in the bedroom has been too hot for the light levels. I have 2 Green tiger, 2 French black, 3 Sunburst and 5 unnamed; because I forgot to label them, but they might be Tigerella; from that early sowing. Then I planted some beefsteak ones, and some more Tigerella later.

My kitchen windowsill is home to my peppers, chillies and the later tomatoes, and they seem to be doing fine, although they will be a bit crowded once they are all potted on.

In the greenhouse the carrots and onions are looking fine, together with the spinach, turnips, and now lettuce and radish too. Today I put in some kohl rabi, purple and white ones so we can decide which we prefer.

I started hardening off my broad beans from the greenhouse, but forgot them some nights, so they were left out in hail and snow. As they survived that I thought they might as well go in the proper garden. I found 2 parsnips I'd missed so they were a welcome bonus. It is very wet still, but hopefully I will be able to get the shallots in this weekend as it's supposed to be pretty mild for the next few days.

I thought I'd try out some of last years parsnip seeds in the propagator to see if they would germinate, as they are notoriously short lived. It looks as if some are coming through, so I rooted through the recycling for loo roll middles. I'm going to fill these with potting compost and put the seeds in them, planting the whole thing directly into the garden when the plants have got a bit bigger. Mind you I think it was April I planted last year, and they grew well, so I'll still sow some later on too.

I also put some celeriac seeds in to see if they would grow, and I've got some up, so I'll need to ask the garden club who needs seedlings for later on, and how many. The ones I planted out earlier last year ran to seed, but the later ones grew fine, so I think it's worth keeping them snug in the greenhouse for longer this year. I will probably need more than I've got up so far.

The compost bin where I've been emptying the bokashi is ready to put on the garden, but I'm going to need help doing that at the moment. However hopefully I can persuade someone into it this weekend. It would be good to get it on now, before I want to plant out anything more.

I also noticed Vicky's white rose is beginning to sprout, so pruning that will be a priority this weekend during the mild weather.

From Russia with Love (Snow)

2009-02-01T13:14:00.007Z

We have had warnings all week that we would get snow today and tomorrow. It started around 11am, as we were going to the new Farmer's Market in Iwade. A very good turnout by the way, I bought some preserves as well as some fruit and veg. By the time we got back, and I'd made a cuppa the garden was already looking a little white.

The girls are hoping we get enough this time to make a snowman. It would be lovely for them to have a photo of them together in the snow.

The mushroom kit I got for Christmas is finally showing pinhead mushrooms. I don't know how long it will take for them to get big enough to pick!

Hyacinths

2009-01-31T14:45:00.008Z

I bought 5 blue hyacinth bulbs back in the autumn. They were treated for early flowering and I was hoping they would be out by Christmas. Unfortunately they weren't, but we have had a colder winter. I now have them in full bloom on the kitchen window sill. The perfume is heavenly, although can be a bit strong. Not bad for £2.50.

I am also pleased that one of my amaryllis is growing away nicely and there is a bud appearing. It is a bulb I bought last year whicc I grew on in the greenhouse in the summer before drying it off. I potted it up just before Christmas.

When I was out in the garden on Wednesday I notice the pesky cats had used my fan-trained cherry tree as a scratching post! They have shredded the bark at the front, about a 6 inch stretch, and some sap has oozed out. I have put a guard up now, and I'm looking into the need to treat it to stop infection.

Growing so far!

2009-01-27T11:28:00.007Z

My carrots and onions started poking through after about a week, so I put the trays out into the greenhouse. The seedlings are looking good, but whether there will be enough light - I don't know. Since then I've put in some turnips and some spinach, again germinated under the kitchen table and put out once they began to show.

I'm trying hard to get some strawberries this year, so I also dug up 6 plants from the garden and planted them 3 to a trough. I cut off all the old leaves, and killed the slugs congregated in the hearts. Strawberries need a period of cold as a trigger before they will flower, so hopefully the very cold snap at the beginning of the month will have done the trick. I'm now considering what to try next, radishes and lettuce maybe, although at the Garden Club I got some pak choi from Nicola, which is supposed to grow all year round so maybe I'll sow that as well.

It is surprising how things are moving in the garden already. My snowdrops, some a present from a very dear friend who sadly decided she couldn't cope anymore a year ago yesterday, are flowering again. I brought them with me when I moved from Buckinghamshire over 10 years ago, and they have stayed with me though 3 more moves. All the other bulbs are poking their heads through too, and buds on the cherry, clematis, and blackcurrants, to name but a few are showing signs of swelling.

My tomatoes, the ones which were planted on 27th Dec, are growing well, even if it is hard to give them enough light. I think making a lightbox from the blue LED Christmas lights did help, but it is not big enough now I have transplanted them to 3 inch pots. The chilles are looking good too, and I have planted a lot of other varieties given to me by an Internet friend, Irie Jan.

Chilli and Tomato update

2009-01-04T22:20:00.003Z

There's still no sign of the tigerella seeds germinating, so I think I'll have to sow these again. I have a fresh packet of seed, so I'll try those. The Numex Twilight have finally put in an appearance, but there are no more of the older seeds showing.
I transplanted the older chilli seedlings and some of the tomato seedlings as they had got a bit drawn. I think the bottom heat was not helping. I've planted them a bit deeper and will see how they go. It is still very early days for these seedlings.

Chllies and Tomatoes

2009-01-03T07:00:00.003Z

Afer sowing these on the 27th Dec, the first seedlings were poking through by New Years Day. It will be a challenge to keep them going, especially as we are in the grip of a really cold spell. I have the propagator on the bedroom window sill, with tin foil to reflect the light back to the seedlings. It is supposed to stop them growing towards the light source, but I'm still having to turn them a couple of times a day.

Amazingly, the chillies that have germinated are the old seed that should have been sown by Sept 2007. The fresh seed is not through yet. I have 5 chilli plants, but I seemed to have mixed the labels again, so although I know they are all the old seeds, I won't know until they fruit (if they make it!), which is which.

The only tomato seeds still to show are Tigerella, which surprises me as they have always been very prompt in the past. Still I have plenty of time to make more sowings as most people don't get started until March.

For Christmas I was given a Patio Gro set, basically a frame which holds 12 troughs, 20x50x12 cm. Yesterday, when boredom set in because everyone was still asleep, I planted some Paris Market carrots in one, and some onion seeds in another. They are in the kitchen at the moment, until they germinate, then I plan to put them in the unheated greenhouse, covered with fleece. It is very early, so I might not be successful, but if I don't try I won't know.

In the greenhouse I have set up a tent like structure, with bubble polythene on the glass side, and fleece on the inside. I am hoping it will be enough to protect the plants that are overwintering.

The Yacon tubers I was saving to grow on had started to rot in the garage, so I trimmed them up, and plan to send them on to another who wants to give them a go. Hopefully they will have more luck than me.

Moon Planting

2008-12-27T23:15:00.004Z

Some people believe plants grow best if they are planted according to the phase of the moon. There are some books and charts that explain why this might be so. Anyway, I decided to take part in a trial for the early planting of tomatoes, which according to the charts are best planted today or tomorrow as they are fruiting plants. I have planted 3 seeds each of Tigrella, Sunburst, Green Tiger and French Black. They are currently sitting in the heated propagator on the windowsill.

More Chilli Jam (Recipe included)

2008-12-20T11:05:00.006Z

The weather is pretty mild today, and dry too, but I can't get outside so instead I decided as I didn't have any home grown tomatoes I would try the jam recipe with tomato juice. To save work I just cut the stalks off the chillies, put them into the tomato juice, quartered the apples and stewed the lot together. It means the jam hasn't got individual bits of chilli in, but it still tastes good. I think this lot is hotter still, but the chillies might have been dried a bit, so 100g may have been more fruits than last time. The jam itself is darker red, but this is because the tomato juice is darker than the home grown, probably from plum tomatoes. Buying the juice worked out cheaper than buying tomatoes this time of year, so it cuts the cost of the pressies. I decided to give my brother and his wife a selection of cheeses and a jar of the jam. She likes cheese, he likes the jam, so they will both be happy.

Recipe for Chilli Jam

1.5kg tomatoes stewed, sieved and the juice made up to 3 pints, or 3 pints bought tomato juice
100g chillies (stalks removed, easiest done with scissors)
1kg bramley apples (cut into pieces, with skin and core included)
500g (1lb) of sugar to 500ml (1 pint) juice, do not mix the measures!

For jam with bits of chilli, using gloves, remove the pith and seeds and chop the flesh. The pith and seeds or the whole chillies should be stewed with the apples and tomato juice until the chillies are soft and the apple breaks down. Then sieve to remove apple cores, skins and seeds. If you want to make a clearer jelly, put the juice into a jelly bag and allow it to drip through without pressing. This will look good, but gives less yield.

Measure the juice and add the required amount of sugar, sorry for the mix of imperial and metric measures. Add the chilli bits if you saved some. Boil rapidly until setting point is reached, and put into jars.

Takae was fascinated yesterday when I was putting the soaked mung beans in the sprouter. I explained I was planning on chow mein on Monday, so by then they should have grown enough to use. It will be interesting to see her reaction today when she sees they have already got tiny roots showing.

Christmas is coming!

2008-12-19T02:02:00.004Z

Another week and it will all be over. I trimmed the chillies off the stems today, and found I have just 100g, so I feel another chilli jam batch in the making. I'll have to buy the tomatoes for this lot, but I still reckon some jars will make good Christmas pressies.

Talking of Christmas pressies, our gardening club had a wonderful seasonal get together at Nicola's. She went to a lot of trouble to give us a wonderful time. We all took along a secret santa pressie, then lucky dipped from the bag. I was lucky enough to get a card book, with address and date organiser.

We were pleased to be eating some of our own produce. Nicolas roasted some celeriac chips, grown by Amanda from plants provided by me. We also had my chilli jam, Amanda's chutney and Nicola's beetroot relish. Everything was delicious, and we felt a real sense of pride. Next year, onwards and upwards!

We will be digging up the parsnips in the next couple of days, hopefully we will achieve Dans' wish of home grown roast parsnip for Christmas Day. I will also serve some of the frozen beans, and use the last of the beetroot for salad later in the day.

Once we get to this time of year my fingers get itchy and I feel as if I have to plant. This year I've already got some broad beens in to overwinter in the greenhouse. I bought some Aquadulce Claudia, the hardiest one which can be planted directly out side in Novemeber, but due to a spell of ill health they stayed in the packet. Not to be deterred, I soaked 12 beans in water overnight and sprouted them in the seed sprouter, They took around 5 days to show root, then I potted them up, 3 to a 6 inch pot, and stood them in the cold greenhouse. Yesterday I noticed 4 are showing above ground. I will grow them on ondercover and plant out when they are a good size and conditions are reasonable.

There is a trial going on by some of the members of the Grapevine Forum, planting tomatoes on 27th Dec, a good day if you plant by the moon. Obviously a challenge to keep the plants stocky and healthy, athough as I usually plant 2 weeks into Jan, hopefully I will manage the extra couple of weeks.

I noticed today when I got out the car that my garlic is finally shooting. It has taken it's time, but hopefully has been busy underground producing a strong root system. The are a number of self sown calendual (pot marigolds) growing in the same place, so I think I will thin these, but leave enough to provide colour in the spring. I really want to grow enough to make Sarah Raven's Calendula Hand Ceam!

I am dying to prune the grapevine and have a tidy up, but I need to take things easy as a recent fall at work serious jolted my neck and aggravated my osteo-arthritis. I am following the physiotherapists advice in the hope I am fit enough for a good growing year next year.

In case I do not post again before the day, Merry Christmas and a Happy and Successful New Year.

First Snow

2008-11-24T15:55:00.002Z

The first snow fell on my garden yesterday. At 8am there were a few wispy flakes, but within 30 minutes the roofs of the houses were showing white. Disappointingly for the children next door, whose father had them outside by 8.45, the snow stopped shortly after and the rain washed it all away. Later the sun tried valiantly to show through, but gave way to the heavy rains.

There had been lots of notice of the falling temperatures, so I had grouped all the plants together in the greenhouse and covered them with several layers of fleece. Hopefully this was enough to protect them. I noticed the unprotected pepper plants were severely wilted today, but I haven't had a chance to check out the covered plants. In the veg garden I pulled all the beetroot of any size and dug up my last 2 yacon plants. The yacon had only made one decent size storage root, and 2 small ones, although there were a number of new growing tubers. These I packed away protected by polystyrene and bubble wrap in the garage for planting next year. I was rather disappointed in the taste of the yacon tuber. We tried the smallest one, it was crisp and juicy, but had very little flavour. Perhaps the larger one will taste better. If not I might be selling tubers on ebay next spring :)

Review of the fruit year.

2008-11-15T12:11:00.003Z

Some of the fruit did very well this year, but the frosts at blossom time, followed by so much cold wet weather didn't do any favours. However, saying that, I am pleased with the harvest I managed out of my small space this year, and I've been thinking of how I can improve on it in the coming year.

Cherries - The tree is still relatively young, so it is not giving us a full crop yet. We picked around 25 ripe cherries, but unfortunately due to a period of heavy rain just before harvest, many of these were split. They tasted delicious, and gave us an idea of what to look forward to.

Grapes- I was very pleased with these this year. Despite seeing bunches of mouldy grapes hanging in the local vineyards, mine ripened perfectly. I must curb the tendency to pick too quickly, they didn't really develop a good level of sugar until the 1st week in October. With the forecast of high winds we finally decide to pick the whole lot about 12th Oct, washed and picked them over, before storing on a tray in the fridge. We ate them over the next 3 weeks, with few going off.

Blackcurrants - Ben Sarek and Ben something else! I didn't expect to get many this year, as they were only planted in spring. We should really have pruned them right back, but Dans was desperate for jam. In another post I mention the jam, blackcurrant and blackberry, very nice. I'm looking forward to increased yields this coming year.

Plums - Neither tree produced any fruit this year, the frosts were against us. Fingers crossed for next year. the trees are going much more vigorously than I expected, pruning gets away from me!

Blackberries - Very pleased with the size and taste this year, especially as we only had one fruiting cane. There are more canes this year, so the crop should be a more useful size, although blackberry ice cream featured heavily on the menu.

Strawberries - A dead loss this year, the slugs got most of them despite nematode treatment. The plants look healthy and produced flowers and runners galore. I'm trying containers next year in the hope of getting a crop. The pink flowered ones are still going strong, but I've yet to taste one of those!

Raspberries - The autumn ones are still producing the occasional berry, lovely flavour, we just need more canes. As it was the only one that survived, hopefully I'll be able to propagate more for next year.

The summer flowering ones, Glen Ample, did not live up to their name this year, and were not as sweet as autumn bliss, but we have a lot more canes for next year, so hopefully we will get a worthwhile crop.

Blueberries - Two different varieties are supposed to cross pollinate, so I am hoping that the two bushes in containers will really get going next year. They are in ericaceous compost, watered with rain water and fed with bokashi juice. We got a small crop this year, lovely with Greek yogurt.

Cranberries - I live in hope with these. They were bought on impulse from Woolies, and still haven't flowered in the 3 years I've had them. They are planted at the based of one of the blueberries, and look very healthy, perhaps next year I will be lucky.

Rhubarb - veg or fruit, I treat it as fruit, so here it stays. I feel it's beginning to establish now, after a disastrous 1st year, when it flowered. I think it is important to keep it well fed, and give it enough space. This year it was crowded at peak time with potato pots, so I am going to treat it with proper respect next year.

Cobnuts - I was really surprised to harvest 5 nuts this year, as they had only been in one season. Interestingly they were falling, ripe, to the ground, in the second week in September, earlier than I would have thought. Plenty of catkins showing now, so hopefully a good lot of flowers will develop. The bushes did not put on much top growth, so no need to prune yet.

Lemons - I really mistreated my lemon tree last winter, it stayed outside the whole time, and lost most of it's leaves. I already have it undercover now, so hopefully it will do better next year.

Peach - This is an experiment, as it is a self grown seedling from this year, which is already 4ft tall. Pruned, confined to a pot, and undercover, I am hopeful it will do well, although it may not fruit at all.

Review of the vegetable year

2008-11-03T19:47:00.003Z

Well now that the garden is beginning to sleep I decided it's time to take stock of the successes and failures of this season.

Tomatoes - I only grew 2 types, Tigrella and Sunburst. They did well in the greenhouse, and I did not have any outdoor ones, after severe blight hit last year. I think I tried to get too many plants into the space, because those on the shadier side did not do so well. Next year I think 8 plants are all I can fit in, but I've been given some seeds of a French Black tomato, and probably some green tiger ones too, so I may have to think carefully where I could manage some outside.

Cucumbers - I grew 4 plants, and these did very well. I gave a number away, and we had trouble keeping up with them, even though Vicky will happily munch away on a whole one while watching her favourite TV programmes.

Chillies - These took a while to get going, but finally came into their own, and I have a lot still to ripen. I'm hoping to successfully overwinter a couple of plants inside to get a head start next year.

Peppers - Once again these were a dead loss. I thought when I got them into flower early that I was going to get a decent crop, but what with slugs, small caterpillars, and generally bad weather, I have only picked one decent sized ripe orange pepper. I am seriously considering giving these a miss next year and using the space for a more productive crop.

Courgettes - The parthenocarpic variety was very successful from an early sowing, although they did succumb to powdery mildew quite early, probably due to the weather. The second sowing was a bit too late to do anything. I did find we were a bit overwhelmed for a while, and I have frozen quite a few for winter use.

Potatoes - These were not so successful considering the amount of space and compost they took up. The few potatoes I got were very tasty, but I think I could use the space more productively.

Broad Beans - Considering these went in quite late, and then they had to contend with the grape vine for light, these were reasonably successful. I will be trying these again, giving them better conditions next year.

Peas - For the first time I grew dwarf peas rather than the climbing variety I usually go for. I won't be growing these again, they cropped very poorly, and tasted 'harvested' even when quite small. Vicky and I usually eat any peas we get raw from the pods, but she didn't like these ones at all.

Climbing French Beans - I grew these mixed with the runners on a wigwam of canes. I got a reasonable crop, but they did get overwhelmed by the more vigorous runners. Next year I will separate the 2, and hopefully get more beans. I did manage to freeze a few packs for the winter.

Runner Beans - These enjoyed the wetter summer, we were not overwhelmed, but had sufficient for every dinner we wanted them for, and I managed to freeze some too. Next year I am trying a white flowered variety to fit in better with the colour schemes in the flower borders. Hopefully they will do as well.

Beetroot - The only problem here was not planting enough. I got a good crop of reasonable size beets. Next year I will start planting earlier, and make sure I have a succession.

Radish - The first planting did well, and I was hard pushed to eat them all before they went to seed. However the second planting was affected by cabbage root fly, which made most of them inedible. A low 'wall', or covering with fleece would prevent this, but may be a problem in the potager, as it will not look particularly pleasing the the eye.

Parsnip - These were sown direct, in April. Not that many germinated, and I've only pulled one so far, but that one was a good size. I should be able to do home grown parsnip for Christmas dinner, which what Daniel was hoping for.

Celeriac - I planted these quite early this year, so they were good size plants when they went out. Unfortunately several plants ran to seed. the others are around tennis ball size, but I haven't pulled any yet.

Yacon - After getting squashed in the post, only 3 plants grew, and these were very slow. So far they are only about 18 inches high instead of the 5 foot described. The one I've dug up so far hadn't made any growth for eating or replanting, so it is in the greenhouse. The jury is still out on this one. As they cost £5 a plant I won't buy again, but I will replant outside next year if I can get any tubers from this years plants.

Kohl Rabi - Much to Vicky's disappointment, this did not do well this year. The purple ones which did grow were not such a good flavour as the white I have grown before, and they seemed particularly popular with the slugs. Back to white next year I think.

Lettuce - We were pretty self sufficient with this for a good period of time. the red cos type, Pandero, was less attractive to the slugs, so I will go with this again next year. The space I save not growing potatoes can be utilised for lettuce maybe.

Onions - I grew some red onions from seed. The ones in the pots did better than those In the garden, although they were not huge. I think I will try some of these again as they look pretty in salads. If I had more space I would probably use onion sets for cooking onions.

Garlic - This has done very well again this year. I have been saving the largest cloves for replanting ever since we moved here, 4 years ago, and I think it does pay off, as the plants become acclimatised to local conditions. I have already replanted my garlic for next year.

Although I haven't enough space to be self sufficient in veg, I have found it worthwhile to grow what I can. However when space is a premium I think it best to concentrate on the more expensive or successful varieties. there is no point in growing anything that is not liked or does not produce well. I have already decided the larger brassicas such as sprouts, broccoli and cauliflowers are not practical for me at the moment, although it would be a different story if I managed to get an allotment!

November Already

2008-11-02T07:29:00.004Z

It's amazing that a month has gone by since I last posted. The garden is now winding down with a vengance, the grapes all picked and eaten, the runner beans cleared and the greenhouse now housing plants that need a bit more protection. This year I moved the lemon and peach trees inside before there was any frost forecast. The poor lemon overwintered outside last year, and although it survived, it lost most of its leaves and we had no lemons. My previous peach tree got peach leaf curl very badly, and never recovered. As this disease is spread by rain in winter, I have moved the tree inside to protect it. Hopefully it will flower around February and produce some peaches, although how reliable it will be, as it is a home grown seedling, I don't know.
The chillies are still covered with fruit, I made another batch of jam, which seems hotter than the last lot. It's difficult to judge what it will be like, as the chillies vary so much in heat. Hopefully the rest will ripen off in the greenhouse, I'm hoping to bring a couple of plants inside, as apparently they can be overwintered and grow on much quicker next year, rather than starting from scratch with seeds in January.
I was disappointed with my yacon. I dug one plant up yesterday, but there was very little growth. There should be small tubers for replanting and a large storage root, neither evident on my plant. I have potted it up and put it in the greenhouse, in the hope it will continue to grow and at least provide me with planting material for next year. I am now wondering whether to dig up the other two, rather than waiting for the tops to catch the frost. If they have done nothing either it would be better to move them inside while they still have leaves!
I still have celeriac, beetroot and parsnips in the ground. I am waiting for the parsnips to catch the frost as it is suppose to turn the starch to sugar so they taste sweeter. The celeriac should stand the winter well too, and hopefully keep growing. Interestingly I have found a number of dead slugs recently, although it is ages since I last treated with nematodes. Still any slug is better dead than alive, especially as they will eat into any veg still in the ground.
I do not know how they are getting in, but I found 3 slugs in my downstairs bathroom, chowing down on the cat biscuits. I couldn't see any trails from back or front doors, but can't see how else they got in, unless they hitched a lift on one of the cats! Mice seem to have been an issue for most of my neighbours too, one caught 30! I'm being vigilant, as the cats (6 of them) are not allowed in the bedrooms or kitchen, so would not be able to deal with any visitors in the time honored fashion.
I decided to brighten up the garden with some pots of colour last weekend. I planted tulips down deep in some of the old compost used for courgettes, after adding some chicken manure pellets. Then I have topped these with ornamental kale, pansies and cyclamen. Hopefully these will look good right into April next year. I had just finished and came in to watch Gardeners World online, where they were doing exactly the same thing!

Hot Chilli Jam

2008-10-04T03:54:00.003+01:00

The chilli jam is delicious. I took the seeds and pith out of a good number of ripe, red chillies, and stewed that up with some homegrown ripe tomatoes to give a pint and a half of juice once I'd sieved out the skins and seeds. I added another pint of water, together with 1kg of bramley apples (shop bought), chopped with skins and cores. Once these had stewed well I sieved again and added the chopped chilli flesh to the juice. Sugar was added at a rate of a pound to a pint, and the jam boiled to setting point. It is a lovely red colour from the tomato juice, and has a good hot, sweet taste with fruity overtones. Ideal with cheese or cold meat, although Dans loves it in a jam sandwich. He's taken 3 jars to uni with him! Considering we paid around £4 for a jar of this last year when we were on holiday, this was a snip at 50p a jar to produce.

Anyone thinking to try this, do get some thin gloves before you start. I was very careful to keep my hands away from eyes and nose, but my hands felt as if they had been dipped in boiling water after a couple of hours, and I couldn't sleep because of the pain. It wore off during the next day, but they were still tender.

The weather has changed with a vengance, cold, windy and rain forecast for this weekend. Last weekend was beautiful, and I spent the whole of it gardening, bliss.

Sadly though, a lot of time was taken up with clearing out plants that had finished producing. I took down my runner beans, all they were doing was providing homes for the spiders. I've used up the last few this week, but there are a few frozen packs for the winter. I'm not so keen on them frozen, but it will provide a change in the cold months. The blackberries are also over, so I cut out the fruiting cane, and tied up the new ones. Hopefully they will provide more lovely berries next year.

I've also cleared out most of my tomato plants. It looks as if the fruit will finish ripening, so I won't need to make chutney. I've decided the greenhouse will only hold 8 plants comfortably, if I want to put in anything else. The only thing is, I've now been given some black french tomato seeds, soI will need to decide carefully how many plants of each variety I go for.

I also intend to plant out my garlic. After emptying one compost bin and spreading the contents on the garage garden, the garlic will go out there.

I have loads of ripening grapes. They are delicious, but I don't know if we will manage to eat them all. Wine springs to mind, but I've just freecycled the demi-johns, so would need to get some more!

I also intend to plant my sweet pea seeds, some broad beans to overwinter, and split up the self sown watercress in the hope of getting enough for a salad or two. Speaking of salads, I have just put in another load of seeds in the sprouters, as these will give some good additions as the other ingerdients become scarcer. There's still loads to do in the garden, but the weather makes it less attractive when it's cold and wet.

Autumn spiders!

2008-09-13T22:05:00.003+01:00

I can definitely tell that autumn is here, the spiders are weaving webs all over the garden! Not that I have anything against them personally, but I HATE walking into a spider's web, and always worry about where the owner has ended up! There are so many, and they aren't small either.

Picking the runner beans is a fraught business, have I missed a web, and the spider has got onto me, or even worse, into my hair? The beans are coming to an end now, there are a few flowers still, but not many. What beans are still developing are really good, longer than most I picked in the summer. I think it is the amount of rain we've had recently.

However the sun did shine on the bride, my brother's wedding was well timed between showers last week, and everything went off really well. I'll post some pics once I've got them off the camera.

I was watching a programme which showed a local vineyard where most of the grapes had rotted on the vines because of the weather. Mine are looking lovely at the moment, although a few have split, probably due to the weather. They are eatable, but still a little sour. I'm hoping they will sweeten a bit more, but some sun would help. I've picked most of the blackberries, they have been very large, juicy and sweet. Next year, with two canes, I should hopefully have twice as many.

I have been cutting the leaves back on the tomatoes to help the air to circulate. The vines are stubbornly trying to produce more shoots and flowers, but it is too late for any new tomatoes to grow and ripen now. The cucumbers have finished, and I removed the old plants from the greenhouse today, bringing in the chillies from around the garden. I appear to have 3 types, the numex twilight that I grew, a long thin one that ripens red, and another long one ripening yellow. This makes sense, as I had plants from Nicola of the gardening club, and Noel from school, but I don't know who gave me what. As Daniel has now found a place to live at uni I need to get the chilli jam made so he can take some with him when he goes in 2 weeks time!

I planted up some prepared hyacinths today, they should flower by Christmas, but I need somewhere cool and dark to put the pot. I'm not sure where that will be so far. I have also got some tulips to plant, Queen of the Night and some white ones. I intend to mix the two in pots for the patio. I've got some tete a tete to plant as well, but didn't feel too good today, so they are still in their packets.

The weeds seem to have taken the opportunity to germinate so the garden could do with a good tidy so they don't over winter. I've also noticed a number of slug eggs around which I've tried to gather up and dispose of, besides applying more nematodes to slow the population explosion. Fortunately the snails haven't moved in yet! In the greenhouse I found some caterpillars on the tomatoes. I don't know the variety, but I disposed of them anyway as they were managing to eat into the ripe fruit.

The cobnuts have lost most of their leaves now, the nuts were ripe a week or so ago. We only had 5, but the bushes are showing a good number of catkins for spring, so I'll keep my fingers crossed for next year. It also looks as if the parsnips have done well, but I won't know if they are OK until I pull some. The celariac is still small, but I have taken off the outer leaves, as they had at Wisley. Hopefully they still have some growing time left. Finally the yacon seems to be growing too, but again, it seems a bit late, and I won't know if I have anything to harvest until I lift after the first frosts cut down the stems. I do know the beetroot have done well though, those can been seen easily as they grow proud of the soil.

I had some plants come from T&M finally, auriculas, which were ordered way back, but their stock failed. I need to get them planted up tomorrow, as I'm finding I'm very tired once we get back from school in the evenings. They look very healthy, so I'm hoping I have a good show of colour next year. The carnations should flower next year too. I have had very few flowers in the back garden, and none on the ones I planted in the garage garden. If it isn't raining tomorrow I intend to plant the rest of the lavender hedge, and consider where to plant replacement sage and rosemary bushes, as the orginals have got rather overgrown.

Flowers of a different type!

2008-09-05T08:14:00.004+01:00

It's been a long time since I've posted, but with holidays etc, I just haven't got around to it. I've also been producing flowers of a different type - sugar ones.

My brother is getting married tomorrow, 6th, and I offered to make the wedding cake as their present. It's only the second wedding cake I've made, but I have done quite a few christening and anniversary cakes for friends over the years.

In the actual garden autumn is making its presence felt. The spiders are spinning webs across any space they can find, a face full of sticky web is most unpleasant. The new courgette plants have started producing, the old ones are no more, and the grapes have filled out, but still need a little more time to ripen properly.

I am back at work now, and the nights are drawing in, so the gardening will need to take place at weekends soon!

Baby Hedgehog

2008-08-19T20:13:00.002+01:00

Although I've been off school for the whole month, I just haven't got around to posting as there's been so much going on. However today, around 7pm, there was a small hedgehog in our garden, trotting down the path. The cats were a bit perturbed, but didn't try to attack, He/she left quite quickly, but I'm hoping we might be on the food trail now, especially with the number of slugs around at the moment.

A week or so ago we went up to Yorkshire to take Matt to his student house, and took the opportunity to stay over and look around a bit. Unfortunately it was very wet, but we did manage to go to Harlow Carr, the RHS garden. It was interesting to see what they had done in their veg bed, there was a lot of companion planting, although slug damage was plentiful. Due to the weather we could not make the most of the opportunity!

We also visited Wisley in Surrey yesterday. Being a member I have been to this garden a number of times, but it is always interesting to see what they are improving and replanting. I bought some bulbs, and a number of house leeks to plant along the gravel edge near the garage. The glasshouse is looking very established now, and despite the negative comments I heard about the artificial rock, I think now the plants are growing, that it looks very good. There were some amazing plantings of red begonias to mark the shape of chinese dragons to commemorate the Olympics, and the formal pond contained a number of lovely water lilies in bloom. I always think it a shame to see the veg unpicked in the veg plts there. Some I am sure, is used, but there always seems to be stuff past it's best left in the plots.

In my garden, the courgettes are suffering from powdery mildew, and have stopped producing at the moment. The 2 new plants are coming on, and should be fruiting in a couple of weeks. The runner beans are still going strong, I have frozen more packs for the winter. Tomatoes and cucumbers are still plentiful, and I still have beetroot to pull. I have also been picking the homegrown blackberries and a few last straggling blueberries. The grapes are doing well, but won't be ready for at least another month. I am now thinking about what needs to be done for next year. Lack of space is so frustrating!

August Already!

2008-08-01T08:23:00.003+01:00

Time has flown by since my last post. I have been off for a week now, it's been very hot and we've had a couple of thunderstorms. These have filled up the water butts, but I do need quite a lot now that everything is producing.
The runner beans have been doing very well, but the climbing french ones have tailed off over the last week. Next year I will have them on seperate wigwams, as I think the french have been overwhelmed by the runners. Still, I've frozen several packs of each one, so hopefully these will be a nice change in the winter. I blanched them, as this kills bacteria and lengthens the freezer life.
The courgettes are still prolific, but some of the older leaves have powdery mildew. I've been cutting these off, which doesn't seem to have affected the plants. I am keeping them fed and watered, especially as they are in pots. Today I have just potted up my follow on plants. Only 2 made it, due to slug attack. There seems to be quite a few in the greenhouse!
In the greenhouse the cucumbers are going mad, I picked 8 the other day, and another 6 yesterday. I do pick them when they are still quite slim as this keeps the plants producing, and the flavour is better. I am picking tomatoes from both the Tigrella and the Sunburst plants, but the Tigrella are definitely more advanced. I am feeding at least weekly, and have removed some of the lower leaves to let the air circulate.
The blackberries on the garden are ripening well, I'm going to pick some to eat fresh tomorrow. I have been out and picked some wild ones, they make ice cream to die for! I obtained an ice cream maker from Freecycle last year, it's small, but I don't use it often enough to warrent getting a new one. I stew the blackberries without water or sugar, and pass them through a sieve to get rid of the pips. The fruit pulp is then sweetened to taste, well a bit more than that , because the cold dulls the flavour, so it needs to be quite sweet really. Then I just add cream, chill and make into ice cream. One batch did us 5 small servings, but it's a luxury product, so you don't need (get) much!
The grape vine is going mad, I seem to be out there every day cutting back the shoots, but the grapes are doing well. I wondered if I'd left too many, but they are a small variety, so I think they are on track. They won't be ripe enough to eat until the end of September.
I've now harvested my red onions, some are very small, but I have a few decent sized bulbs. As I wanted them for use in salads, the size is not so crucial, I can just use a couple at a time. I have some more coming on from a later sowing. I think I will leave these in the seed trays to form small sets, and then plant next year to see if I get bigger bulbs. I did that one year and it worked, so fingers crossed.
On the flower front, some of the carnations are now in flower, I did wonder if I'd get any this year! They are quite small, not much bigger than pinks, but very pretty. I let the pot marigolds get ahead of me, I didn't dead head them enough, so most of them have stopped flowering and set seed. I should get a number of self sown ones next year though, perhaps enough to try out the hand cream recipe!
The roses keep sending out new blooms, I have been keeping them deadheaded, and the summer flowering clematis is looking good. One of my 'large double' fuschias appears to be Mrs Popple, or a simaliar variety, a single, red and purple flower. It is covered with blooms, and looks very good, but what with white instead of purple petunias, and some plants dying off on me anyway, I am going to stick to my resolve not to buy plants by mail order next year, as these were from a reputable mail order company!
I have a pot containing a dahlia, a sweet pea and a fushia, all are doing well, I've had loads of flowers on the sweet pea, again essential to deadhead to keep it going. There is a little mildew on the leaves, but I'll leave it unless the flowers stop. They have a lovely scent.
Every time I go to sit in the garden, I see something else to do!

Harvest

2008-07-21T21:39:00.001+01:00

Courgettes galore and other stuff

2008-07-16T04:11:00.005+01:00

It's that wonderful time of year when anyone who grows their own veg begins to really reap the benefit. My courgettes are producing, on average, one fruit every 2 days. With 4 plants on the go, the harvest is mounting up. I made a lovely vegatable curry the other day, with virtually all my own produce, courgettes, runner, french and broad beans, vietnamese coriander and garlic. To add make it more of a main dish, I added a tin of red kidney beans. Dan loves curry, but the number of veg in this one was too much for him and he wouldn't even try it! A shame because I'm sure he would have loved the taste. The new courgette seedlings are through, but one has got eaten by a slug!

The garlic tops were beginning to yellow, a sure sign it was time to dig them up. If they are left in the ground too long the bulbs split into individual cloves and begin to re-grow. The first autumn we moved in, 4 years ago, I bought some cloves from the garden centre. Each year I have selected the biggest to re-plant for the following year. I am really pleased with the results this year, the bulbs are generally bigger and looking good. At the moment they are drying off, and I will plait them to hang in the garage. Hopefully they will last us most of the year.

I picked the rest of the cherries last weekend. Unfortunately a lot were split due to the high rainfall, but after sorting and stoning them, the 4 of us that like cherries had enough for Sunday dessert. Hopefully next year will bring a better crop as the tree matures. I also picked the blueberries that were ripe, and in an effort to give everyone a taste, decided to make some blueberry muffins. The recipe I picked was not the best, we were a bit disappointed with the results, but they got eaten anyway. The grapes are beginning to swell, and dropping out some of the graplets that didn't pollinate. It looks as if we should get a reasonable amount, but the lone plum has dropped off, so we wait until next year for our first one.

The runner and climbing french beans are doing well, I need to pick them every day or two so they do not get too large. I'm particularly pleased with the climbing french ones as I've never grown these before. They are lovely. It's a shame I lost one of my sowings of lettuce as we have a bit of a gap now. We haven't resorted to buying yet as I left the stubbs in from the last lot and we are picking the smaller leaves that have grown, but I don't think we will have enough to keep going much longer.

The second sowing of radish was a bit of a disaster, as they got cabbage root fly and were inedible. I have pulled them all up, and will try again when we get the next wet patch of weather, which according to the forecast could be today. I do wish I didn't have to waste time going to work, but only another week to the holidays! It won't be long until I pull some beetroot. Matt will get to eat some fresh before he goes back to Hull.

I find it takes about 30 minutes to water all the pots in the garden and greenhouse now, but it's worth it. I have been picking delicious cucumbers, and I have a few tomatoes showing orange. A few more days should ripen them off nicely. The peppers are not doing so well, I have some fruit, but tiny green caterpillars have eaten a lot of the leaves, and there have been holes in some of the fruit, so I cut them off to divert energy into growing new ones. In the garden I had several celeriac bolt (begin to flower). Once they do that there is no point in keeping them, so I used them to make some soup. With plenty of thyme and marjoram the flavour was lovely, and at least I felt I'd got something from them.

I must find some insect repellant though. I sat out in the garden with Dan the other evening and collected bites all around my ankles. It's a bad year for mosquitoes (or good, depending whether you are a human or mosquito). We are using the plug in mosquito killers you buy to take on holiday inside the house, which work quite well, but as I was only outside for a relatively short time, I didn't bother to light the citronella lamps in the garden. Regrets now!

The sky is beginning to lighten, its 4.45am, so I'm going to close now, get dressed and go out to water my pots and perhaps enjoy a cup of tea, looking at the results of my labours. It's the best time, so quiet and peaceful!

Cherries!

2008-07-10T20:59:00.002+01:00

This won't be a long post tonight, but just wanted to post the fact that I picked 4 cherries today. Lovely! Sweet, juicy, almost black, I'll see whether all the others are ripe over the weekend. The beans are doing well (runners, french and broad), and I'm picking courgettes almost every day. Picked 2 cucumbers today, but still waiting for the tomatoes to ripen. The courgette seeds I planted over the weekend are not up yet, but it hasn't been long yet, maybe by the weekend!

Garden Visit and Jam.

2008-07-06T16:16:00.004+01:00

Several people from the Garden Club visited me on Thursday evening to look at my tiny garden. Everyone was very kind and complimentary and I look forward to seeing what other people have done in their gardens in the next couple of months. Sasha didn't manage to find my house, but brought along a whole bag of lettuce to the pub, which was gleefully shared out among us.
Today is Vicky's birthday, so as she decided on an Indian Takeaway for her birthday meal, we had a roast dinner last night. I had the first picking of runner and french beans to go with it, as well as some broad beans and courgettes. I also harvested another pot of spuds, Lady Crystl again. The yield was around 500g, but only 4 potatoes, 3 pretty big ones. They tasted good, but I was hoping for more, smaller ones. Still as they were planted in recycled compost, and the tubers were those I'd saved last year, I hadn't spent much on growing them. Next time I'll try a pot of the Vales Emerald and see how they are doing.
As the courgettes are doing so well, and aren't bothered by lack of pollinating insects, I put in a couple of seeds to grow on in the greenhouse in the autumn. The main plants will have exhausted themselves by then, so hopefully this will extend the season and there will be room once the tomatoes and cucumbers are out.
Yesterday I also noticed the blackcurrants on the Ben Conan bush were begining to drop, so I picked all of them, even the slightly unripe ones from Ben Sarek. Altogether, once I'd prepared them, there were 400g. I also had 400g of blackberries I'd picked from the hedgerow last autumn in the freezer, so I combined the 2, cooked them up with 400ml of water and sieved out the seeds. I ended up with 900ml of juice/pulp, so I added 1kg of sugar to make a lovely jam. There is a definite blackberry flavour, but a tang from the blackcurrants, and it has set well. I had some small ceramic pots from some desserts we'd bought a while ago, around 200ml I suppose. I got 5 of these, plus one conventional 1lb jam jar. My mum was very pleased to get a small jar today, as she doesn't bother to make jam anymore, but does appreciate home made varieties.
I love it when all the work that has been put in earlier in the year begins to pay off. The satisfaction of feeding home grown produce to the family is enormous, even though I haven't room to be self sufficient. Looking forward to the cherries soon!

Gooseberry sawfly

2008-07-02T06:57:00.003+01:00

I was horrified when I went into the garden yesterday to find my gooseberry bush looked just like a skeleton! I had heard gooseberrry sawfly were voracious, but there had been no evidence of nibbling before the weekend, and being a bit preoocupied with Dan's 18th party, I hadn't checked up again. There weren't any gooseberries anyway, it's a young bush, but I doubt I'll get any next year either now!

On a more positive note, the blueberries are showing colour, the mix of blue, blue/green and green berries look very pretty. I think it will be a while before we pick them though. The cherries are showing red, again a bit longer needed, as they should be black ones, but we have had a couple of raspberries each. Not a lot, I grant, but perhaps next year! This grow your own does take a bit of patience, especially with fruit. The lone plum is still with us, and the blackcurrants are pretty much....black, so I'll try one of those soon, and pick if they are ripe enough. Amazingly, I realised we even have a couple of nuts on the cobnut bushes, that's so exciting.

As for the veg, we've had enough courgettes to more than pay for the seeds, and they survived their little holiday with the neighbours for the party. They left a few presents behind, in the form of courgettes! It was a good idea to clear the garden of the more movable pots as one of my camellias lost a largish branch when James fell on it!

I tried some of the broad beans last night, cooked up with garlic, tomato, courgette, sage and thyme. It was a lovely veg combination, and in a few weeks I should be able to do it completely from the garden. We might even have some runner beans to pick by the weekend too.

The thought of having more space if the Iwade allotment project is successful is wonderful. At the moment I can only grow enough for occasional meals, or just enough for one, but with more space it would be possible to grow so many more varieties of veg that are too large for my tiny pottager plot. I went to look at the proposed site yesterday evening, very rural, which hopefully would deter vandals of the 2 legged kind, but I bet there's plenty of bunnies and birds just waiting for a delicious feed. It does have definite possibilities though so fingers crossed.

Grow Your Own - Inside

2008-06-23T21:21:00.003+01:00

One way to grow your own veg, whether you have a garden or not, is to sprout seeds. Everyone has grown mustard and cress when they were small, using cotton wool or kitchen roll, but there are a lot of other varieties that can be grown.
One of my favourite is alfalfa, tiny seeds that grow to lovely crisp sprouts; ideal in sandwiches or a mixed salad. Beans, when they are sprouted, are no longer poisonous raw, aduki, mung (the beansprouts used in chinese cookery), lentils, chick peas and loads more. These can all be bought from seed merchants, but you can grow untreated peas and beans from health food shops and supermarkets. This probably works out cheaper, but they might not be as fresh, so germination might not be as good, and obviously heat treated or husked seeds do not grow. If you try mung beans they are unlikely to reach the size of commercal ones, although if you grow them in the dark they will be longer than those kept in the light.
How to do it? Well you can buy special seeds sprouters, but before going out and spending, try out a homemade sprouter to see if you like the flavours. Find a large glass jar with either a screw top lid which you can pierce holes in, or use an elastic band to hold a fine piece of cloth over the neck. Muslin is recommended, but anything that allows the water to drain away can be used.

Soak the seeds overnight in cold water, then drain away all the excess. Rinse the sprouts at least 2 or 3 times a day, more if it's hot. This keeps them fresh; make sure they are well drained in between rinses, if they sit in water, they will rot. Depending on the variety, they can be ready in as little as 2-3 days, the longest is probably 6. As they germinate starches turn to sugars, (the nutrient content is very high at this stage) but do not leave them too long or the sweetness will be lost, and they will get tough. They will keep, well drained, in the fridge for at least 3 days.

Do check for seeds that have not germinated. Some stay very hard, so be careful. Most husks do soften and you just eat them alonside the sprouts, good roughage, but sunflowers stay quite hard, I usually try to remove those ones. It's quite fiddly, but they have a lovely flavour, so worth it. Besides using in salads, they are good added to stir frys and many other dishes. I am not trying to advertise T&M, but they do have an enormous choice.

If you get hooked, then this the time to buy a sprouter. It does make life easier, and usually consists of a drip tray and 3 others. I usually use the top one, which would be more prone to drying out, for growing cress, radish, broccoli etc. that I put on moist kitchen roll. The lower trays retain humidity, which is better for the sprouting seeds. Fresh veg that literally anyone can grow.!

Half price seeds and freebies

2008-06-22T21:36:00.005+01:00

Just thought I'd add to my post earlier, as I've been sorting through my seed box. It's a good idea to sign up for the seed catalogues email news letters, because they often have clearance offers that can save a lot of money. I've recently got most of my seeds for next year half price, and as one type was out of stock, they refunded the money, and sent a £1 gift voucher to compensate. There's often free gifts as well. This year I've had 40 summer bulbs from Parkers, as well as 4 fuchsia plants, and 10 Vales Emerald seed potatoes for Browns, as well as 4 scented begonias from T&M. I suppose the problem is being strong and not ordering loads of other stuff as well! I resisted getting anything from Parkers, but did get some seeds from Browns, and some fuchsia plants from T&M.

Gales forecast.

2008-06-22T16:57:00.003+01:00

The weather today is lovely, sunny and warm, but these's one flaw, the wind is blowing everything to pieces. The runner bean leaves are looking wilted, and some bits of the grape vine have been blown off the trellis, so they need tying back in.
Harvesting in the garden has been picking up slightly, I've had around 12 courgettes in the past week, and I picked my first cucumber, besides the lettuce and watercress. Mind you I need to renovate the watercress drastically now, it is determined to set seed. In the greenhouse the tomaoes are growing well, and have reached the roof, so the tops need pinching out. The green fruit are about an inch across, and I have some small peppers that are growing well. However, something is eating the pepper plants, and I can't find out what!
I've picked a few ripe strawberries, but we haven't enough to have a bowl full. The blackcurrants are beginning to turn colour, although they have some way to go until they are ripe. There are some cherries on the tree, but they aren't filled out yet, and we still have one plum! Oh, and one raspberry is showing colour.
I turned out a pot of potatoes during the week, fooled by finding one large one, but there were only 3 other decent sized ones, the rest were pea size, so I'll leave the other pots for a couple more weeks. I have runner beans an inch long, and the scarlet flowers are a real splash of colour. Next year I will plant white ones though, as the climbing french beans are mauve, and look strange with the red.
I have got some colour in the garden as well, although the different greens of the veg do look good. The climbing rose is a picture but it is hard to get up to dead head it, and there have been a few late flowers on the spring clematis. The summer flowering one is showing a lot of buds, but none are out so far. My american wisteria has small flower bunches shwoing this year, Vicky is dissapointed as she was hoping for the long grape like bunches of the sinesis variety. If I had one of those, it would take over the whole garden! Ice Cream, the rose I mean, is opening well and smells divine, just a shame it is quite tall, so catches the washing if I am not careful!
I am still waiting for the carnations to show signs of buds, but hopefully the fuschia buds wiil open soon. I will have to use some vine weavil treatment I think, the notches in the camellia leaves look suspicious, and I found TWO beetles in m hall way yesterday.
I've planted some more lettuce, but I think I will have a gap, because I lost the last sowing to the slugs. I think the nematodes have been successful in some parts of the garden, the strawberries were untouched, but I have still found some lurking in among other plants. I will order some moer in a couple of week though, as cutting down the population must help, and I hate them!
Happy gardening to all, and I hope the gardening club will be able to visit in July.

Should be 12th June

2008-06-22T16:49:00.002+01:00

I wrote the following on 12th June, but for some reason the post wasn't successful. Please read on.

Well it’s quite a while since I my last entry, but that’s not because there’s been nothing going on, rather that I seem to have been rushed off my feet recently. The planting and sowing has slowed down now, most of the plants are organised, and they now ‘just’ need caring for. We had a bit of a dry patch, where I did need to resort to the hosepipe, but my device for emptying bath water arrived from Lakeland last week, so now I’ll be able to recycle that if necessary. Overnight it was tipping down, so the water butts filled up nicely. I was out in the garden at 6am emptying the water into the spare butts, so if it carries on raining, it’ll fill up again. It takes about an hour to water the garden and all the pots using the watering can, and about the same with the hosepipe by the time I set it all up.
Sadly the two small yacon succumbed to slug attack before the nematodes had a chance to make a difference. I still have the 3 strongest, so I am hoping they will produce the tubers for ongoing planting next year. Now at £5 per plant they weren’t cheap. The celeriac is growing well, and hopefully those members of the gardening club who are giving some a go will be successful and get t enjoy eating it. I’ve a few parsnips from the sowing earlier in the year, but not many. Still there should be enough for Daniel to have some for Christmas dinner.
The courgettes, Cavilli, have flowered this week, only female flowers. I don’t know if this is a feature of the variety as they don’t need pollinating, or if it’s just because it’s early in the season. It will be interesting to see how they go. By next week I might be using home grown courgettes! The patty pans are later, nowhere near flowering yet.
The blackberry is flowering well, and there are two new shoots coming up for next year. If all this year’s flowers set we should get a good crop, twice as many next year? There is one plum on the tree, all the others dropped again. This is the same as last year, I wonder if this one will mature or fall off? We also have some blackcurrants, strawberries, raspberries, grapes, cherries and of course, the blueberries. There won’t be an enormous quantity of each, but with the prices in the shops, these are definitely worth growing.
I had a root around in the potato pots last weekend and found a couple of spuds, about 4cm diameter. I’m leaving them for another couple of weeks to let the crop bulk up. The Vales Emerald pots are flowering, but the 3 Lady Crystl, although planted earlier, are not. This might be a peculiarity of the variety, but I’ll see which ones give the highest yield/taste nicest.
In the greenhouse things are going great guns, small peppers and tomatoes are showing on most of the plants now, but although the chillies are in bloom, there is no fruit yet. The cucumbers are behaving themselves so far, keeping themselves upright by twining their tendrils around their own canes. Mind you, take your eye off them for a moment, and they will try to spread into someone else’s space! The cucumber Noel gave me, despite being a bit lanky at the time, has now grown into a lovely strong plant, in flower and with small cucumbers coming on. Mine are a bit later, but they were only just breaking through when I got the other one, so it isn’t surprising. This should make sure we have cucumber throughout the summer, which will be great as Vicky can munch through a whole one quite happily.
Better close now as work beckons imperatively!

Nematodes go, go go....

2008-05-30T11:12:00.003+01:00

I only ordered the Nemaslug 2 days ago, and it arrived today. The neighbours must have thought me mad if they saw me out watering the garden after all the rain we've had. I don't know if they re-formulated the carrier, but I found it didn't clump together so much as last year, although I still mixed it to a smooth paste before adding it to the large quantity of water. I also made a coarse rose for my watering can by enlarging the holes in my plastic rose with a corkscrew. I've still got my fine metal one, so I can use that for watering seeds etc.

After watering on the nematodes, I then watered again to make sure that any left on the leaves were washed into the soil. I just hope it isn't too wet for them. The radish I planted on Sunday are already poking through, so it will be interesting to see the amount of slug damage I get on them. It should be much less by the time they start to swell. I do think my red lettuce has been attacked less by the slugs than the green though, so that is something to take on board in the war against the horrible slimy things.

I also decided to site a black dustbin on the drive, and I've filled it with water from the water butts in the garden. This will be useful for watering the garage garden, and also makes more room in the water butts if it rains again, which, looking at the sky, seems quite likely. I will find it quite strange to be back at work next week, after being able to potter in the garden for the past 3 weeks (when I felt well enough!)

Slugs, no snails!

2008-05-29T06:44:00.008+01:00

Since the torrential rain of the past few days, the slugs have declared war, and have been feasting on any small tasty plant they can find. My radishes are a favourite with all the enemy, from the tiny black ones to the large creamy white ones. I have some nemaslug on order, nematodes that are watered into the ground, and then they attack the slugs. As most slugs live below ground these little critters are pretty efficient at seek and destroy missions, although there are a few things that can cause problems. They find it difficult to move through clay soil, and the ground has to be kept moist. We will probably get a drought now, just as they arrive!

If you decide to give them a go you can order packs online, but check not only the price, but the delivery costs too. Some places deliver free, others charge as much as £4. I usually get mine from Greengardener. They have always been reliable, will happily discuss any problems you have, and even sent out replacement packs when my sister and I felt the nematodes hadn't killed many slugs. When they arrive they must be kept in the fridge and as they are living creatures, they have to be applied within 2 weeks. You do need a coarse rose for the watering can though, as it can easily get blocked with the carrier substance they use. If you do have snails as well as slugs the website says customers have reported less snails too, but there are no official claims that they are effective against them.

I spent quite a while yesterday sorting plants from the greenhouse into their final pots. All the courgettes and patty pans are now planted up; it will be interesting to see how Cavil do. This is a quote from the Thompson and Morgan Website "Unique parthenocarpic habit (ability to set fruit without pollination), therefore adverse weather, poor light levels and a lack of pollinating insects does not affect cropping performance!" By the way, they appear to still have their half price seed sale on at the moment, if anyone out there is interested.

The potatoes bines are trying to take over the world, and many are coming into flower, which is supposed to be a sign the tubers are forming underground. I have found in the past it is best to give them a bit longer if you want a decent crop, but as usual I am dying of curiosity to see how we have done this year. Homegrown new potatoes, yum!!

I am really pleased with the home grown watercress so far. It keeps trying to flower, but I'm picking off the shoots so regularily that it doesn't really get a chance, except for the pot I am growing for seed production. I suppose I could also plant up some of the shoots as they root really easily at the leaf joint, but I don't know if it will be possible to keep it going through the winter, so seeds are an insurance policy. Salads at the moment rely heavily on radish, watercress and lettuce; it will be lovely when the tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers join the line up.

Flowers wise, the climbing rose took a battering from the storms, but is still covered with lovely scented blooms. I need to get the secateurs out and deadhead for repeat flowers. Vicky's Ice Cream rose is a bit later this year, as a lot of the early growth died off for some reason, but is finally showing small buds. I've planted up the fuchsias and geraniums, together with the free scented begonias sent from Thompson and Morgan. I am pleased I didn't pay for them though, only 4 out of 6 grew! I've pushed the boat out and ordered some half price double petunias, which I adore, and some patio growing bags, which have handles so they are easy to move around. I was wondering if they would be big enough to put some of the dwarf peas into.

In the 'garage garden', the currants are looking good, it will be interesting to see if they are left alone, or if anyone has the nerve to steal them. I've put the yacon out now, it seems to me there is a lot of growing to be done before it reaches the 5ft mark, but hopefully it will do well. There are a few parsnips and beetroot coming in between the marker radishes, and the carnations I put in at the front look well. The follow on broad beans seem to have established as well, the rain certainly helped there. My globe artichokes have put on a lot of leaf, but although all the books talk about them producing offsets, mine seem reluctant to do so, there's still only one growing point to each plant. My sage bush, which I intended to get rid of this year because it was looking a bit tired, is now coming into flower, so it can have a reprieve for now. I've got a couple of replacement cutting rooted, so I might take the opportunity to resite it.

I'm dithering over whether to plant out the surviving lavender seedlings in their hedge positions, or to leave them in the pots a bit longer. After the success of germinating so many, and giving most away, disaster struck in the form of Daniel a few weeks ago. I had put some of them under the BBQ for a bit of protection, and he didn't think to move them when he lit it. Anyone want some lavender with their burger?

Water, water

2008-05-25T09:10:00.012+01:00

If you ignore the mess in the garden, you can see the amount of rain we've had overnight, I now have a river instead of a path!
Yesterday the ground was so dry, but I had used up all the water in the butts again, and as I was keeping my cat it, carrying water through the house, or setting up the hosepipe, was not really an option. As you can see, I think all the plants are now getting a good drink.
I had planted my courgettes into their final pots, and had them dotted around the garden, but the wind blew up so strongly last night that one snapped right through. Dan moved the others back into the greenhouse for me overnight.

Amazingly, my radishes have been successful this year, I wonder if it was because I have planted them in a more open space, my 'garage garden', as I call it. Some people have questioned the wisdom of using the space for edible crops, but if anyone helps themsleves, well they do, and at least it's given me more space and opportunities. The slugs have got in a few nibbles of the radishes, but as you can see, they are still reasonable. I've also been harvesting lettuce and watercress regularly.

The rhododendron, which I have in a large pot, is looking a bit bedraggled today, but I took this picture last week. Considering it was a rescue plant, found by my sons dumped at the roadside around 6 years ago and carried home to me, because they were sure I wouldn't want it to die, I am very pleased with the show.

Grapes Galore

2008-05-15T07:18:00.007+01:00

My grapevine, planted as a cutting 3 years ago, has loads of tiny grape flower bunches on it. Some laterals have 3 bunches! Last week I tied all the laterals in to the trellis, but I'll now need to go out and prune each one back. It seems a bit harsh, but Hessayon says with a young vine to limit bunches to 1 per lateral, so I'll have to bite the bullet. The vine has 2 main rods growing horizontally about 9 inches from the ground. Last year I retained some of the vertical grow, and its from these that the fruiting shoots are growing. It covers a 6ft square heavy duty trellis placed in front of my greenhouse, the idea being natural shade in the summer when it's needed, and in the winter the light gets in because there are no leaves on the vine. The only problem is that I have trouble reaching the top, as I'm only 4ft 11! The wooden step stool from Ikea comes into use in the garden as well as the kitchen :) The grape is Himrod, a seedless white, which ripens outside about the end of Sept. I bought the parent around 18 years ago, and it has moved with me, in the guise of cuttings, ever since. The original was planted in a 12 by 8 greenhouse, and we used to get loads of grapes. Hopefully we will be more settled now, and this one can get really established.

Its cloudy today, so hopefully we might get a useful amount of rain to fill the water butts. The yacon could also do with going into the garden, Dans might do that for me later when he gets back from school. I'm feeling much frailer than I thought I would, but I suppose if the standard time off for the procedure I underwent is a week, and lots of people need more time, I can't complain yet. I haven't even felt like going out and doing anything in the garden, which is a measure of how yucky I feel!

Back at last

2008-05-10T22:00:00.004+01:00

After wishing for a wet and windy Bank Holiday last week, so I wasn't depressed by having to spend the weekend marking, I was pleased to find the weather was good. So many of my pupils missed their final deadline that I had little to mark. It did make for a very stressful week this week though, with work being submitted right up t0 5pm on Thursday, and I had to have everything marked, with a sample for moderation ready by Friday lunch time!
Anyway, back in time to last weekend. Fed up with the persistent puddle in the corner of the greenhouse, and unable to place the tomatoes properly without them sitting in it, I invested in a gravel flooring. I have made it about 4 inches deep, to the top of the greenhouse base. Hopefully it will retain the moisture in summer to help with humidity, and warm things up in winter. I still have the flagstone up the middle, so there is a stable path.
I planted out some of my runner beans, and the French climbers. Miraculously they have all survived, no slug damage at all. I also potted up the cucumbers and courgette plants. Why is it when you plant extras they all grow, but if you plant just what you need, they don't? I now have 8 strong courgettes and 4 healthy looking cucumbers, as well as my peppers and chillies to find space for. I counted up that I really need at least an extra 6 large pots, although if we eat the lettuce quicker some of those will be vacant. But wait, what about the small ones coming along? Sigh!
I was trying to work out where my later sowing of broad beans should go, there's no space at all! I thought of putting them up the fence, under the fan trained cherry, but then realised the feathery foliage was the free anemonies I had planted last month! I've still got 30 celeriac plants to find homes for too. Daniel told me it was hopeless when I asked him how I could re-arrange the pots so I could get my comfy chair outside next week while I am recovering from a minor (I hope) operation!
You won't believe, after all the rain we've had, how quickly the garden is drying out. With so many pots I have already emptied both water butts, so now it will be back to tap or recycled water. With the outside tap at the front of the house, and being in the middle of a terrace, watering is not easy. I won't be able to fill up cans and carry them next week, so I had to buy a new hose pipe today. It is on a reel, and the idea is to connect it to the front tap, run the hose through the kitchen window, and out of the back door. That way we shouldn't get any drips of water in the house itself. I always seem to slop it out of the watering can when I carry it through anyway. The other idea is to save all the shower water in the bath, then siphon it out to the water butts. We did that the year before last, when we had the drought. The only problem is that the bathroom is actually in the middle of the house, so the pipe has to go through the back bedroom window and down the conservatory roof to get to the patio! Still everything did well that year, even the camellias, so well worth it.
I'm really pleased that we've finally had useful amounts of salad stuff from the garden. Barbeques 2 days running have been supplemented by home grown lettuce (red and green), as well as watercress. I also sacrificed a couple of the weedier looking garlic plants to make some garlic bread. They looked rather like spring onions, but chopped and blended with the butter in the food processor they made a green speckled paste that worked well with the french bread.
Tomorrow I hope to get most stuff planted into the bigger pots so they are easier to care for and earth up the potatoes for the last time. They need plenty of water in the heat we've been having.

Welcome to Amanda

2008-04-28T19:27:00.004+01:00

I will start by congratulating Amanda on her new projects, both in the garden and in the blog. Amanda has started her veg plot, and is keeping track of her progress at Amanda's EightBySix. Do stop by to see what she's been up to, the link's on the side.

Last week I was given a number of plum tomato plants, some more chillies, and a greenhouse cucumber. I swapped them for some of my 'insurance policy' tomatoes and peppers, as well as some watercress plants and a Vietnamese coriander. My original tomatoes have quite large buds now, but I need to sort the base of the greenhouse to avoid all the flooding before putting in the canes for them. I think I will invest in some gravel for the floor, held in place by boards. The watercress is growing really well using the capillary matting (perhaps I should plant in the base of the greenhouse), and the celeriac will be ready to plant out in a week or so.

I have used all the spinach tops, and cut down the stems to a couple of side shoots. The stems were used in spinach and tomato soup, using frozen tomatoes from last year. I also added fresh chives, and some of last years garlic cloves. Althought they are getting a bit dry, the flavour is still there.

I've stopped putting the propagator cover over the cucumber and courgette plants at night as they are growing well and I will need to plant them into bigger pots soon. This will give them a chance to harden off a bit. The french beans and runners are coming through in the peat pots, and I've got the supports in place ready for planting out. In the garden the radish markers are showing through, although the slower germinating seeds are still languishing underground. Since moving here I just can't get my radishes to 'radish', usually plenty of top, but no decent size roots. If I get the chance I will post some more photos soon, so you can see how things are progressing.

I've found the best way so far to keep the cats off is to place canes over the ground, because they can't scratch so easily. The netting didn't work well, as they scratched it out of the way, and probably caused more problems than if nothing was put down. The carnations are all still there, but they dug up a pot of onions covered with the netting.

Life is really burgeoning in the garden now, every time I go out it seems everything is bigger, but the weeds are growing too. I must do the 'front garden', a tiny strip that, because we don't use the front door much, I keep forgetting. The thistledown, or 'fairies' as we used to call them, that floated around late last summer are now getting established anywhere they can! Some glyphosphate will kill right down the roots, but I need to know it will be dry!

With not a ladybird in sight, I thought I'd try an organic solution to the greenfly that were infesting the lettuce. It is supposed to be a solution of rape seed oil that disrupts their systems, but I found that it burned the leaves, leaving small brown spots all over. The inside leaves look OK, so we'll still be able to use those. I have to say I never had this problem with the chemical sprays I used to use.

I hope the bank holiday weekend is wet and windy! What? Is she mad? No, but I will have the final A level marking to do, and I will be much less distracted if I can't get outside to the garden!

A very busy week

2008-04-20T11:45:00.002+01:00

It seems to have been ages since I was here last, so there's lots to tell you about. If I start with the greenhouse, I finally decided to take the plunge and potted up my tomatoes. The tigrellas already have minute buds showing, and although the sunburst are as big, they haven't any flower buds yet. I mixed fresh compost with water retaining granules and pepped it up with some poultry manure pellets. I also potted up the orange peppers that are showing flower buds, but they are in 5 inch pots (approx) so I can still bring them in. I stood a couple of pots of lettuce outside to make more room together with the hardy carnations and lavender seedlings, so they can harden off. I'll still bring them in for the nights for a week or so. The watercress that I planted into a seed tray and stood on capillary matting is definitely looking better than the ones just in pots. I have found everything has been fine just covered with fleece so far. The thermometer went down to 6, which isn't too bad.
I put in just 6 runner beans, my indoor cucumbers, some patty pan courgettes and some ordinary courgettes in the heated propagator a week ago, and all but the ordinary courgettes are now up. Today I planted some more peas in pots, the climbing french beans and some cut and come again salad. A cautionary tale, if you buy peat pots nested inside each other, make sure they don't get damp. It took me longer to separate them, with a few casualties, than it did to plant the seeds! I've finally planted some more kohl rabi in modules too.
The broad beans and onions are doing well in the garden, but I've lost a couple of the kohl rabi plants since they went out. Before the rain started in earnest on Friday I put in a few beetroot, parsnip and carrot seeds, with radishes to mark the rows as these germinate fast. The cherry blossom has come on a treat this week, and one of the blackcurrants is showing flower buds.
Some good news, Smokey my son's cat, produced 4 kittens with no fuss whatsoever on Wednesday. They are all a creamy colour at the moment, but their points are beginning to darken already. Mum and Dad are short coated, chocolate pointed and blued eyed, similar in colour to a siamese, but with much chunkier bodies. I don't really know what breed they are, similar to burmese, but have the blue, not gold eyes
On a different note, we went to Wisley on Thursday, the RHS garden. The camellias and magnolias were past their best, and we were too early for the rhododendrons, but still had a lovely time. We decided to find somewhere outside the gardens to eat, and ended up at the pub at Wisley Lock. It was very busy, but lovely surroundings and food.
I am back to work tomorrow, having got all my marking finished, and planned some lessons too. Some of the students have a very busy two weeks ahead of them if they want a grade in the unit they gave in! I email each one with their mark grid as soon as it's done, but I don't supposed many, if any will have started to act on the feedback!

April showers?

2008-04-13T09:14:00.005+01:00

This morning I have finally potted the potatoes into their large pots. I used the old compost I grew the tomatoes and peppers in last year, which I'd stored in a 'spare' compost bin. I added poultry manure pellets to replace the nutrients, and will probably feed later on as well. Up until now I had just put the chitted spuds into 5 inch pots so they could get going. This was quite successful, as each one had begun to produce roots. As I haven't got room in the greenhouse I have put them behind it, where I can easily cover them with fleece if need be.
Dan dug over the garden by the garage and found someone had dumped some rubbish there. It was easy to work out who, and I'm not very happy. Now I wonder if the same person put the load of concrete bits there during the winter too.
We were going to rake it down, but the handle on the rake broke; it was pretty ancient; leaving it too short to use. Now I need to get that fixed! I think I might have a spare broom handle in the garage, from when the children used to play Harry Potter.
Before we could do much more the rain started again, so we came back in. I really wanted to move the tree peony which is planted too near to the minarette plum tree. Well, actually I had forgot it was there when I planted the plum tree, but the tree needs to stay put. Hopefully the rain won't last long, and we'll be able to get it sorted today.

Taking Chances!

2008-04-11T06:56:00.006+01:00

Yesterday I spent most of the day pottering in the potager. I decided to take the chance on planting out a few of the hardier plants, to make more room in the greenhouse, so I now have a row of red onions in front of the grapevine trellis, and 2 pots containing the remaining 14. The seeds I bought are suitable for spring onions or letting them bulb up, so I'll be leaving them to grow on. The variety is Lilia, and they were planted on 12th January in a heated propagator to get them going. As soon as they were up they were moved out from the heat and have been in the cold greenhouse. They have not been fleeced against the frost, and during the day they have spent time outside, so hopefully they are well hardened off and able to cope, as long as the cats do not dig them up! The kohl rabi plants went out as well, and I still cannot find the seeds for the next sowing, so I think I feel a shopping trip coming on.
I put up a wigwam of canes for the runner and climbing French beans, just to get a feel for how much space they would take up. Unfortunately one of the connector thingies broke when I took them down last year, so something else to buy. Mind you, it was over 10 years old, so I can't complain. I can't decided yet whether to alternate the beans around the same wigwam, or have one of just runners and another of just French. I think alternating would look good, as I'd get red and white flowers together, but I don't know about the growth habits, and don't want one to be swamped by the other.
I also decided to take a chance on planting some courgettes in the heated propagator. This year I am trying a new variety (to me), Cavili. It is suppposed to set fruit even if they don't get pollinated, which is often a problem if the weather is less than perfect. I will also be growing Sunburst again. They are tiny, yellow, patty pans which look good on the plate. I also got a lot off each plant when I grew them before. I followed this up with cucumbers and some runner beans. I should have put some French in too, in case I want to alternate! I'll do some later ones of both sorts in any case to extend the cropping period, although last year the late ones caught the early ones up!
AccuWeather is not forecasting a really cold night until Tues 15th April, so I'll need to keep the fleece to hand for then. I am thinking I need to get the potato pots out, and the behind the greenhouse seems the warmest place in the garden, so as most people will have sown their earlies in the ground by now around here, mine should be OK as long as I cover any shoots that come through.
So far this has all been about veg, but I have also planted up some flowers. I put out 12 hardy carnations interspersed with ixia and sparaxis bulbs (they were dried up freebies that might grow), with cat repellant and rose prunings scattered across the bed. Having 6 cats is a challenge to a gardener, they have access to the indoor litter, but do use the garden as well. Fortunately they concentrate their efforts in our garden, although the appeal of astro turf one way, and 3 large dogs with paving the other doesn't offer much option anyway. I try to keep them to using areas that are not planted up, and put a tray of compost for them to use at the back of the garden once space becomes a premium.

The lavender seedlings seemed popular at the Garden Pub Club meet, with all six pots being taken. I hope everyone is successful at growing them on. I still have loads in the greenhouse, enough to do my hedge, and some for my brother too. We were also talking about raised beds, here is the link to the African Keyhole gardens.
http://www.sendacow.org.uk/schools.asp?active_page_id=272

Well after some showers overnight by the looks of it, the sun is shining again this morning, but I will have to do some food shopping today, or the teenagers will be complaining. I will try to 'divert' via a garden center to pick up the seeds and cane holder for the second wigwam, but must guard against impluse buys. It's so easy to pick up something, and then when you get home you realise that the 2 foot square you intended to put it in is actually more like 6 inches, and it just won't fit!

Comparison time

2008-04-09T06:38:00.005+01:00

For the past 2 days in Iwade we have had lovely sunshine, with the daytime temperature comfortable enough to work in the garden without a coat, although a jumper was needed. In the Medway towns, just 10 miles away, they were experiencing the same sunshine, but still interspersed with sleet and snow showers. I was looking at my gardening diary from last year, and realised how much colder this spring is. By now I had planted up my tomatoes into their final pots, planted some runner beans in pots, and got cucumbers started off too. This year the tomatoes, peppers and chillies have still been coming in at night, the beans and cucumbers are still in their packets. It looked quite a hard frost last night and the night before. The greenhouse roof is still iced over, but the more hardy plants, tucked up under their fleecy blanket, seem to have faired OK. The thermometer was down to -1, but during the day yesteray it was 19-20, with the door and vents open!

The tigrella tomatoes are showing the first signs of flower buds, on par with last year, so hopefully I'll be able to get them planted up soon. The problem is space, I don't want to move things like the potatoes out too soon, but the tomato pots need a lot of room. There are a few things I am more advanced with. The celeriac is earlier, and I have the lettuce and spinach growing well. I need to put in a new sowing of kohl rabi as Vicky loves it raw, but goodness know what I have done with the seed! The first plants are ready to put out now they have been hardened off, but I know I will lose some to slugs.

The forecast is sunny for the next few days, so I am hoping to twist Daniel's arm and get him to do some digging and rearrange some of the pots on the patio. I was going to spring clean the house, but the gardening is much more enjoyable! I must get on with the 6th form marking though, as I've almost 50 A level units to give feedback on before we return. The wonders of ICT means that they are all stored electronically, so I haven't got loads of folders cluttering up the space. However piles of folders are a tacit reminder of the amount of work to do, a file on the computer is more easily ignored!

Yesterday I sorted out the fan trained cherry, Sunburst, removing the twine I had used to tie it in, and replacing it with rubber coated wire. It should be easier to loosen off as the branches grow. I hope the cranberry flowers have weathered the frost. The two bushes are well in flower now, so we were hoping for a good crop.

Last year I decided that raspberries would be a good investment as they charge a fortune for them in the shops. I bought 5 summer fruiting canes, and 5 autumn fruiting ones. We prepared the ground with plenty of compost, and got them in quickly after purchase, but only one of each type made it. This year the summer fruiting one, Glen Ample, is growing well and has put up 4 new shoots, which I am going to move into a row, but the autumn one is moving much more slowly.

Getting colder

2008-04-05T15:41:00.013+01:00

The weather is getting colder, just in time for our 2 week Spring Break holiday. However, although there was more of a bite to the wind today, the sun was shining, and it was still reasonably mild, which was lucky as Dan forgot to close the greenhouse door for me last night!

I was working in the greenhouse again today, finishing pricking out lavender seedlings and the latest sowing of Pandero lettuces, a small red cos type. I have 3 stages of these now, as well as an early sowing of a romaine type.

The spinach and romaine lettuce are doing well, I'll be able to pick some leaves soon. Last year we kept going with lettuce through the whole year. I pick leaves from some plants, and let some of the lettuce heart up to cut for a larger salad.

With the temperature going down to freezing tonight, I made sure the potato pots are in the greenhouse, and I will be putting fleece over everything as well.

Sizzled Seedlings

2008-04-04T23:00:00.004+01:00

Well the weather has been very mild this week, and each day I've had the roof vent open on the greenhouse, but left the door closed. Everything was looking great, until today. I came home and went out to check the greenhouse. The thermometer had gone up to 40 degrees C! I hadn't thought to take the lid off the propagator where the clematis and busy lizzies WERE growing. I lifted the lid, the clematis was a crisp, and most of the busy lizzies too. Everything else was OK, although the watercress was a bit dry!
My bokashi bin had fermented for the two weeks so I decided to empty it into the 'bean trench' in the garden. The waste still looked very much as before, although it smelled very acid. The instructions say layer the food scraps with the bran, white mould should grow, a straw coloured liquid should be produced, and the waste is pickled. It is then buried in the garden or compost bin, where it is supposed to break down very quickly. I am still a bit unsure, but anyone who wants to give it a go, shop around for the bins. They are usually sold in pairs, and vary from £25 to £55. You get 2 months supply of bokashi bran with your order.
Over the weekend the weather is forecast to change dramatically. Accu weather, which seems a bit more accurate than the national TV forecasts, says Saturday night will feel like -8, although it will probably be more like 2 degrees. I think my tomato plants will stay in their small pots for a bit longer so I can bring them in again.

Lizzie got busy

2008-03-30T04:58:00.005+01:00

It's 5 o'clock in the morning, and I've just said goodbye to my son, off back to Hull after his Easter break from uni. His dad drives him up, and then comes straight back, a 9 hour round trip if the traffic is OK. I was hoping to get in the garden today, but the rain is beating against the window, so unless it gets better....
Back to the title of this post, the busy lizzie seeds are coming through, little dots of green. Too small to handle yet, but a few more weeks should see them bursting with colour. The electric heated propagator is great. The pre-germination of parsnips worked, just in the kitchen, but a bit too quickly in one way. They began sprouting on Wednesday, but with OFSTED coming into school for Thursday and Friday, I haven't got anything done with them. Still there are plenty more seeds in the packet, and if they sprout that quickly it won't take long to do some more, timed to be ready in the school Spring Break. It seems strange not to be calling it the Easter holiday.
The lettuce in the greenhouse are really looking good now, and the dwarf peas I planted in the same pots, to take over once the lettuce are cut, are opening their first leaves. I wish I had more space! If it would only stop raining and let the ground dry enough I could perhaps get some stuff in to the ground. The next planting of lettuce seeds are through and will need pricking out next week.
Talking of pricking out, I did 45 lavender plants yesterday, 9 to a pot, and there must be as many again still in the seed tray. Hopefully some of the gardening club will want some! The clocks changed last night, and as I went to bed at 1.30 (last minute packing), and was up again at 4, (new times), I think I will close this and try to get some more sleep.

After a bit of a snooze, and a much needed tidy around the house, I finally made it back outside around 3 this afternoon. The sun had come out and I felt spring might be back. In the greenhouse an enormous bumble bee was battling against the glass. I opened the vent and she flew to freedom. On the way back to the house I realised there were at least 5 bumble bees busy in the spring flowering clematis. I made a cup of tea and intended to go back out and sit on the bench to watch them work, but by the time the kettle had boiled it was raining again!

Wet, windy and SNOW!

2008-03-22T15:34:00.006Z

Well it's been a time since the last post. My first cold of the year decided to catch up with me, and I've felt pretty lousy for over a week. It's now Easter weekend, I'm still feeling grotty and it keeps hailing outside! I know Easter is very early this year, but it would have been lovely to get out into the garden for some fresh air.
Typically one plum tree has decided to bloom just as the weather turns bad again, the other one still has its buds snuggled up against the cold. The blueberry flowers are almost open now, and the camellias in the pots look lovely. Everything seems to be sprouting out, I just hope they don't catch a cold like me!
In the greenhouse I did prick out the rest of the celeriac seedlings. I've got 36 plants now, and I'm not sure if they will fit in around everything else. The leaves are a lovely shape and they looked good among the flowers last year but I did not have enough colour, so I need to put more flowers in. I think almost all the self saved lavender seeds are up, I haven't pricked them out yet, but the clumps of tiny thyme plants look good after their move last week. I'm still waiting for the busy lizzie seeds to sprout, and the dwarf clematis, a free packet of seeds, haven't shown yet either.
I was going to plant my seed potatoes, Vales Emerald, in pots last week, but I couldn't locate the pelleted chicken manure. After trawling the garden centres I found boxes at one of the cheaper odds and ends shops on Thursday, when I was looking for something else, so hopefully I'll get them in this weekend.
However I did notice the poor, shivering tomato plants at the garden centre. They had them in the unheated greenhouse part, and they definitely looked the worse for wear. I've still got mine tucked up in the warm, together with the chillies and peppers. They have had a couple of trips out to the greenhouse on better days, but looking out at the snow falling now, the best place is indoors!
I decided to try pre-germinating parsnip seeds as they are supposed to be very slow to get going. I've put them on damp kitchen roll in the kitchen, the forums reckon about 2 weeks in these conditions should do it, then plant into pots before putting outside. Daniel is very keen on parsnips, but space is at such a premium! Still he doesn't like much of the other stuff I grow so it seems a bit mean not to give them a go.
Yesterday I saw a gardening programme talking about a root veg called yacon, which is grown like a dahlia. The plants produce 2 types of tuber, ones for growing on next year, and storage ones to eat. Apparently you can eat them raw and they taste like pears, or put in stir fries like water chestnuts. There are some specialist suppliers of yacon syrup, sweet but we can't digest the sugar, so it's good for low carb diets. I found a supplier doing 5 plants for £12.50, and as long as you keep the growing tubers frost free, there should be no need to buy again! I'll keep you posted as to how it goes!

All Change!

2008-03-11T20:16:00.003Z

After the appalling weather yeaterday, we woke up to a cold, sunny morning. I was just relieved it wasn't raining as I was on duty outside at school!
When I got home tonight it was windy, but very mild. I checked out the greenhouse, and was pleased to see how well the celeriac and thyme seedlings looked after pricking out over the weekend. The lettuces and spinach in pots are doing well, and hopefully I'll pot up my chitted first early potatoes over next weekend. There are still puddles in the bottom of the greenhouse, but the path is dry!
The heated propagator has helped on a second sowing of tomatoes and peppers, which I'll pot on at the weekend too, but I did take the time to pot on the chillies from Nicola from the Garden Pub Club. Once I've got the space in the propagator I'll plant the busy lizzie seeds from Rachel.
In the garden the potted blueberries are showing flower buds and the buds are swelling on the cherry and plum trees too. There's no sign of life from the grape vine yet, but the prunings I stuck in a pot over the winter are showing little furry buds, so hopefully the roots are growing under the soil! Except for the daffodils there was no damage from the weather yesterday.

Windy and Wet

2008-03-10T20:36:00.004Z

Today was not the best day for the garden. Torrential rain fell almost all day, and down by the garage the path was under 2 inches of water. Even the slate path up to the patio was flooded. Either side of the greenhouse path was awash with water, if the water cress seeds were up, they would have loved it!
Out of my kitchen window I could see the puddles of water around the trunk of the silver birch, and the daffodils were bruised and broken by the winds which whipped across the school fields. My tomato, chilli and pepper plants trembled on my bedroom window sill despite the double glazed windows, and the wind howled incessantly outside.
Looking on the bright side, the water butts will be full, the camellias and rhododendrons in their pots love rain water and the blackcurrants I planted over the weekend do not need watering!