It's been a mild winter, not much rain, and we've had a couple of weeks of lovely sunshine. Temperatures were up to 22C here in the week. The heatwave has ended now, temperatures down to 12C. No rain in sight just yet - the BBC website showed rain due on Monday, but that's now moved to Tuesday and could well move again.
Several water companies in the South East have announced hosepipe bans to start next week. That means we can't use the sprinkler to water the veggies.
I have 5 water butts and hoses set up to transfer water from the back of the house, downhill to the water butt in the greenhouse and the sprinkler in the veggie patch. As I can't use the sprinkler, the sprinkler is being replaced this year with soaker hoses. These will be laid on the surface, which will then be mulched and covered with weed sheeting. Hopefully this will minimise watering and water evaporation.
I am also going to "water directly to roots" for some plants. It's simple enough - cut the bottom off a small drinks bottle and bury the neck end down close to the plants, then pour water into the bottle. The water goes straight down into the ground close to the roots of the plants. I've done this for the currants, will need a lot more bottles for when I plant other fruit and veg out.
Saturday, 31 March 2012
And More Shopping, More Sowing, More Digging, More Planting
The last 2 weeks or so have been very busy. So much to do in the veggie patch - not just the normal sowing, digging and planting, but even more, partly due to not doing much last year, and partly because Her Ladyship just can't stop shopping!
She picked up loads more seeds including Iceberg lettuce, several courgettes and squashes, plus some chillies, carrots and tomatoes (which we already had, but always going to need more of), a horseradish root, some spring onions, and a few other bits.
Last weekend
We popped down the garden centre to get some more seed potatoes as most of the ones we had were rotten, and to look for nice pots for the olives. We came away with 2 bags of seed potatoes (half price), 4 herb plants (because Her Ladyship had already bought the herb planters and didn't want to wait months for herbs to grow), 5 large pots for the olives and other things, another olive (much bigger than the ones we already have) and a peach tree.
I planted the cherry tree and 63 shallots and dug over part of the salad bed. Half the salad bed still has potatoes in from last year - I'll need to dig them up soon. I then spent 2 hours putting the new fence post in and putting the fence together again. Only two more posts to do on that fence (for now).
My son and I then finished digging out the first pallet compost bin. The bottom half was full of roots, so no good to use. Half the roots are thick and woody, possibly from the tree over the back, the other half seem to be bramble roots that have spread everywhere in the compost. The contents of the bin are now bagged up and I'll take them to the council dump for the green waste bins. In return I'll pick up loads more Croypost to use as a mulch.
Her Ladyship sowed loads of broccoli as the ones in the greenhouse had died, and another 96 peas as the mice had eaten the ones in the greenhouse. She planted out the Winter Gem lettuce - they were still in the 3.5in pots they'd been in for months. The olives, lemon, orange and fig were planted in the new large pots and the herbs were planted in the herb planters.
The Last Week
It's been a very hot week and I've plodded along doing something every day.
I dug over part of the onion bed and planted out about 60 Stuttgarter Giant and 60 Red Baron. We still have 40 reds in the greenhouse ready for planting out. I started another 80 Stuttgarter Giant in the 2 inch pots. These are the last of the onions for the summer.
I cleared remaining brambles along the rhubarb / plum side where the currants will go, and dug it over, breaking my fork in the process. I have now planted the blackcurrant, whitecurrant, redcurrant and blueberry. The are all several feet apart. Next winter I'll dig up the rhubarb and split the crowns and plant the newly split crowns between the currants.
Her Ladyship has sown loads more of everything. I've lost track for now, but will catch up with what she's sown over the next week or so ....
She picked up loads more seeds including Iceberg lettuce, several courgettes and squashes, plus some chillies, carrots and tomatoes (which we already had, but always going to need more of), a horseradish root, some spring onions, and a few other bits.
Last weekend
We popped down the garden centre to get some more seed potatoes as most of the ones we had were rotten, and to look for nice pots for the olives. We came away with 2 bags of seed potatoes (half price), 4 herb plants (because Her Ladyship had already bought the herb planters and didn't want to wait months for herbs to grow), 5 large pots for the olives and other things, another olive (much bigger than the ones we already have) and a peach tree.
I planted the cherry tree and 63 shallots and dug over part of the salad bed. Half the salad bed still has potatoes in from last year - I'll need to dig them up soon. I then spent 2 hours putting the new fence post in and putting the fence together again. Only two more posts to do on that fence (for now).
My son and I then finished digging out the first pallet compost bin. The bottom half was full of roots, so no good to use. Half the roots are thick and woody, possibly from the tree over the back, the other half seem to be bramble roots that have spread everywhere in the compost. The contents of the bin are now bagged up and I'll take them to the council dump for the green waste bins. In return I'll pick up loads more Croypost to use as a mulch.
Her Ladyship sowed loads of broccoli as the ones in the greenhouse had died, and another 96 peas as the mice had eaten the ones in the greenhouse. She planted out the Winter Gem lettuce - they were still in the 3.5in pots they'd been in for months. The olives, lemon, orange and fig were planted in the new large pots and the herbs were planted in the herb planters.
The Last Week
It's been a very hot week and I've plodded along doing something every day.
I dug over part of the onion bed and planted out about 60 Stuttgarter Giant and 60 Red Baron. We still have 40 reds in the greenhouse ready for planting out. I started another 80 Stuttgarter Giant in the 2 inch pots. These are the last of the onions for the summer.
I cleared remaining brambles along the rhubarb / plum side where the currants will go, and dug it over, breaking my fork in the process. I have now planted the blackcurrant, whitecurrant, redcurrant and blueberry. The are all several feet apart. Next winter I'll dig up the rhubarb and split the crowns and plant the newly split crowns between the currants.
Her Ladyship has sown loads more of everything. I've lost track for now, but will catch up with what she's sown over the next week or so ....
Sunday, 11 March 2012
More Sowings
I love this time of year: the sun starts shining, seeds start sprouting, I try to keep up with digging, the sowings and potting on and planting out ....
Lots of seeds are sprouting in the greenhouse - all the cauliflowers have started, some spinach, a couple of cucumbers etc.
This weekend we've sown:
8 Tomato Golden Sunrise
8 Tomato White Cherry
8 Tomato Roma
8 Tomato Harbinger
8 Tomato Pomodoro
8 Tomato Tigrella
19 Sweetcorn Sweet Bounty
8 Pak Choi Rubi
8 Lettuce Mixed Salad Leaves
4 Aubergine Black Beauty
4 Pepper Hot Caribbean Blend
4 Pepper Heatwave
4 Pepper Inferno
4 Chilli Cayenne
4 Chilli Hot Stuff
4 Chilli Twightlight
Large pot Leek Bandit
2 large pots Leek Musselburgh
1 half size seed tray Lambs Lettuce
Small trough Beetroot Boltardy
Large trough Carrot Chantenay Red
Small trough Carrot Purple Haze
Small trough Carrot Charlemagne
2 small troughs Carrot Autumn King 2
24 Red Cabbage Kalibos
8 Cauliflower Violetta
16 Cauliflower All Year Round
24 Kale Dwarf Green Curled
4 Sweet Pepper Jumbo
20 Sweet Pepper WorldBeater
1 Ginger root into an 8inch pot
Phew!
Lots of seeds are sprouting in the greenhouse - all the cauliflowers have started, some spinach, a couple of cucumbers etc.
This weekend we've sown:
8 Tomato Golden Sunrise
8 Tomato White Cherry
8 Tomato Roma
8 Tomato Harbinger
8 Tomato Pomodoro
8 Tomato Tigrella
19 Sweetcorn Sweet Bounty
8 Pak Choi Rubi
8 Lettuce Mixed Salad Leaves
4 Aubergine Black Beauty
4 Pepper Hot Caribbean Blend
4 Pepper Heatwave
4 Pepper Inferno
4 Chilli Cayenne
4 Chilli Hot Stuff
4 Chilli Twightlight
Large pot Leek Bandit
2 large pots Leek Musselburgh
1 half size seed tray Lambs Lettuce
Small trough Beetroot Boltardy
Large trough Carrot Chantenay Red
Small trough Carrot Purple Haze
Small trough Carrot Charlemagne
2 small troughs Carrot Autumn King 2
24 Red Cabbage Kalibos
8 Cauliflower Violetta
16 Cauliflower All Year Round
24 Kale Dwarf Green Curled
4 Sweet Pepper Jumbo
20 Sweet Pepper WorldBeater
1 Ginger root into an 8inch pot
Phew!
The Big Clearup
The last couple of weeks haven't just been about sowing seeds, we've done loads more too, but haven't had time to post on here.
Brambles & Bushes
A week or so back, we had 3 lovely sunny days, 2 of which were spent in the garden doing a major tidy up. Most of this was clearing brambles. We'd started this a couple of weeks earlier and now we've mostly finished. We even cleared the brambles from the stepped beds down to the lawn - these beds haven't been cleared for years.
The stump of an old tree or bush has been throwing up shoots for some years now. These had reached about 6ft tall and some were 2 inches thick. We chopped this down and bagged it up too.
We took about 30 bags of brambles and "tree" cuttings to the dump.
Pots & Seed Trays
We also finished sorting the pots and seed trays etc. There are hundreds of pots of all shapes and size, dozens of trays, loads of troughs, and considering how many seeds we're sowing, I'm still not convinced we'll have enough pots!
Greenhouse
We emptied the greenhouse and washed it down inside and out. We used Jeyes fluid, diluted - I read on a forum somewhere that Jeyes fluid kills off nasty bugs etc. A quick hosing down after and it was nice and clean! Everything was put back neat and tidy.
Weed Control Sheeting
Today we put some new weed sheeting down on part of the veggie patch. A friend of mine is an upholsterer. He got me a 100m x 1.35m roll of the black fabric that upholsterers use on the underside of settees - it's exactly the same stuff as normal, decent weed control sheeting that you get from the garden centres, but much much cheaper to buy the 100m roll from a fabric supplier.
We also put weed sheeting on the 3 stepped beds one side of the steps down to the lawn. We put planks of wood across the length of the sheeting to stop it blowing away, and then put several carrot troughs on it to hold it all down. The stepped beds will be full of pots and troughs this summer, especially tomatoes.
A slight warning about weed control sheeting - we picked up some weed control sheeting from the pound shop, but it was so thin it was see through, so we took that back. Weed control sheeting needs to be dark so that it blocks out the light, which stops the weeds growing through. See through sheeting is just useless.
Compost Bins
We reorganised the dalek compost bins last week. The first large black one was almost filled last weekend. The smaller green dalek was half filled during the week - we compost all our veggie peelings, tea bags, banana skins etc, so the bins do fill up quite quickly.
All the veggie peelings etc are wrapped in newspaper and taken down to the compost bins when we go down there. I've been told we need a mix of green (veggie peelings / veggie leaves, grass cuttings etc) and brown (newspaper, cardboard, loo roll tubes etc) to make decent compost. I now rip up normal cardboard, old egg boxes etc and add that to the compost bins. I don't bother with the glossy cardboard though.
Today I cut the lawn for the first time this year, and the cuttings have filled both bins to the top. Everything will start rotting down and compressing, so there should be enough room for more peelings etc over the next couple of weeks. I'll need to find the front cover for the 3rd dalek before the grass is cut next time, probably in about 10 days time.
I want to get the first pallet compost bin dug out over the next 3-4 weeks, and then turn everything from the 2nd bin into the first. There must be some half decent compost in the bottom of both and we're really going to need the pallet compost bins soon.
Fence
The long fence I had replaced a few years ago has been wobbling. 3 posts have rotted through. I'm disgusted - fence posts are pressure treated and should be guaranteed for 10 years. My son and I spent an hour or so digging down to get the remains of the bottom part of the post out of the ground. It turned out it was only concreted halfway round, so the workmanship was poor anyway.
As we need trellis for the grapes and kiwi, I've ordered that plus 3 replacement posts for the long fence. And as we're putting the new trellis up and removing the old fence that divided the plot from the lawn, we've decided to site the trellis a few feet further up the garden to extend the veggie patch. We don't really use the lawn much so makes sense to me!
And now I'm going to settle down for steak and chips .... well deserved I think!
Brambles & Bushes
A week or so back, we had 3 lovely sunny days, 2 of which were spent in the garden doing a major tidy up. Most of this was clearing brambles. We'd started this a couple of weeks earlier and now we've mostly finished. We even cleared the brambles from the stepped beds down to the lawn - these beds haven't been cleared for years.
The stump of an old tree or bush has been throwing up shoots for some years now. These had reached about 6ft tall and some were 2 inches thick. We chopped this down and bagged it up too.
We took about 30 bags of brambles and "tree" cuttings to the dump.
Pots & Seed Trays
We also finished sorting the pots and seed trays etc. There are hundreds of pots of all shapes and size, dozens of trays, loads of troughs, and considering how many seeds we're sowing, I'm still not convinced we'll have enough pots!
Greenhouse
We emptied the greenhouse and washed it down inside and out. We used Jeyes fluid, diluted - I read on a forum somewhere that Jeyes fluid kills off nasty bugs etc. A quick hosing down after and it was nice and clean! Everything was put back neat and tidy.
Weed Control Sheeting
Today we put some new weed sheeting down on part of the veggie patch. A friend of mine is an upholsterer. He got me a 100m x 1.35m roll of the black fabric that upholsterers use on the underside of settees - it's exactly the same stuff as normal, decent weed control sheeting that you get from the garden centres, but much much cheaper to buy the 100m roll from a fabric supplier.
We also put weed sheeting on the 3 stepped beds one side of the steps down to the lawn. We put planks of wood across the length of the sheeting to stop it blowing away, and then put several carrot troughs on it to hold it all down. The stepped beds will be full of pots and troughs this summer, especially tomatoes.
A slight warning about weed control sheeting - we picked up some weed control sheeting from the pound shop, but it was so thin it was see through, so we took that back. Weed control sheeting needs to be dark so that it blocks out the light, which stops the weeds growing through. See through sheeting is just useless.
Compost Bins
We reorganised the dalek compost bins last week. The first large black one was almost filled last weekend. The smaller green dalek was half filled during the week - we compost all our veggie peelings, tea bags, banana skins etc, so the bins do fill up quite quickly.
All the veggie peelings etc are wrapped in newspaper and taken down to the compost bins when we go down there. I've been told we need a mix of green (veggie peelings / veggie leaves, grass cuttings etc) and brown (newspaper, cardboard, loo roll tubes etc) to make decent compost. I now rip up normal cardboard, old egg boxes etc and add that to the compost bins. I don't bother with the glossy cardboard though.
Today I cut the lawn for the first time this year, and the cuttings have filled both bins to the top. Everything will start rotting down and compressing, so there should be enough room for more peelings etc over the next couple of weeks. I'll need to find the front cover for the 3rd dalek before the grass is cut next time, probably in about 10 days time.
I want to get the first pallet compost bin dug out over the next 3-4 weeks, and then turn everything from the 2nd bin into the first. There must be some half decent compost in the bottom of both and we're really going to need the pallet compost bins soon.
Fence
The long fence I had replaced a few years ago has been wobbling. 3 posts have rotted through. I'm disgusted - fence posts are pressure treated and should be guaranteed for 10 years. My son and I spent an hour or so digging down to get the remains of the bottom part of the post out of the ground. It turned out it was only concreted halfway round, so the workmanship was poor anyway.
As we need trellis for the grapes and kiwi, I've ordered that plus 3 replacement posts for the long fence. And as we're putting the new trellis up and removing the old fence that divided the plot from the lawn, we've decided to site the trellis a few feet further up the garden to extend the veggie patch. We don't really use the lawn much so makes sense to me!
And now I'm going to settle down for steak and chips .... well deserved I think!
Saturday, 3 March 2012
More Plants and Trees
Someone said that giving a woman a credit card is a bit like putting a shark in charge of a swimming pool. And now I see why .....
She's been to Wilkinsons. We now have:
2 Olives
2 Grapes Pinot Noir
1 Grape Chardonnay
1 Lemon
1 Calamondin (an orange)
1 Fig
1 Kiwi
She's also been to B&Q and bought:
1 Cherry Tree
1 Ginger Root
She then went online and bought:
Cauliflower Violetta
Lemongrass
Tomato White Cherry
The olives, calamondin and lemon will be grown in pots all year round. The calamondin and lemon will need to come indoors in the winter - not sure, but maybe the olives will too. We will need to buy some nice ceramic pots for them sometime soon, but for the time being, I've planted them into 8 inch pots.
I've seen grapes and kiwis growing over pergolas and trellis, but we don't have any of that here. We've decided to replace the DIY pallet fence dividing the lawn from the veggie patch with a new trellis fence. The downside is that the vines growing over the trellis will partially shade the veggie patch, although I don't think it'll be too much of a problem if we keep the vines under control.
We won't have time to take the old fence down and put the new trellis fence up for a couple of weeks at best, so for the time being, I've planted the grapes into 10 inch pots and the kiwi into an 8 inch pot.
When I had the allotment, the plot next to mine had a 10ft fig tree. Our fig tree is only 10inches tall at the moment, so that's gone in an 8 inch pot too. Later on I'll plant it somewhere on the lawn - probably along the fence.
The cherry tree is 6ft tall. It's been grafted onto dwarf rooting stock and after 10 years should be about 10ft tall. I'll plant this somewhere on the lawn area too, again, most likely along the fence.
Cherries need another cherry tree nearby for pollination. Most people round here seem to have apple trees, but no cherry trees. I did actually discover that one of the 'council' trees in the street is a cherry tree, but it's quite a way down the street, so no idea if that's close enough for pollination.
In any case, the cherry tree we have will give us pink / yellow cherries and it would be nice to have a red or black cherry tree too, so that's on the shopping list now.
Also on the shopping list is an apricot tree. I think that's where we'll have to draw the line for this year - so much to do, so little time!
She's been to Wilkinsons. We now have:
2 Olives
2 Grapes Pinot Noir
1 Grape Chardonnay
1 Lemon
1 Calamondin (an orange)
1 Fig
1 Kiwi
She's also been to B&Q and bought:
1 Cherry Tree
1 Ginger Root
She then went online and bought:
Cauliflower Violetta
Lemongrass
Tomato White Cherry
The olives, calamondin and lemon will be grown in pots all year round. The calamondin and lemon will need to come indoors in the winter - not sure, but maybe the olives will too. We will need to buy some nice ceramic pots for them sometime soon, but for the time being, I've planted them into 8 inch pots.
I've seen grapes and kiwis growing over pergolas and trellis, but we don't have any of that here. We've decided to replace the DIY pallet fence dividing the lawn from the veggie patch with a new trellis fence. The downside is that the vines growing over the trellis will partially shade the veggie patch, although I don't think it'll be too much of a problem if we keep the vines under control.
We won't have time to take the old fence down and put the new trellis fence up for a couple of weeks at best, so for the time being, I've planted the grapes into 10 inch pots and the kiwi into an 8 inch pot.
When I had the allotment, the plot next to mine had a 10ft fig tree. Our fig tree is only 10inches tall at the moment, so that's gone in an 8 inch pot too. Later on I'll plant it somewhere on the lawn - probably along the fence.
The cherry tree is 6ft tall. It's been grafted onto dwarf rooting stock and after 10 years should be about 10ft tall. I'll plant this somewhere on the lawn area too, again, most likely along the fence.
Cherries need another cherry tree nearby for pollination. Most people round here seem to have apple trees, but no cherry trees. I did actually discover that one of the 'council' trees in the street is a cherry tree, but it's quite a way down the street, so no idea if that's close enough for pollination.
In any case, the cherry tree we have will give us pink / yellow cherries and it would be nice to have a red or black cherry tree too, so that's on the shopping list now.
Also on the shopping list is an apricot tree. I think that's where we'll have to draw the line for this year - so much to do, so little time!
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