Mushroom Logs

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

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!

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

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!

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.

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?

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.