Rhubarb

We picked another 5 stalks on Sunday - it's been chopped and frozen. The missus wants to make rhubarb wine.

We had another break in the rain yesterday so I popped down the garden to try and do something with some weedy, unhealthy looking rhubarb behind the greenhouse. I can't remember where I got that rhubarb from, but I've had it a few years now.

It was in pots for a year or two, but was drying out quickly, so I stuck it in some unused ground behind the greenhouse. It hasn't done well there, and looked pretty unhealthy.

We picked a couple of stalks - the biggest one was tough and woody, the smaller one was whitish and floppy. The normal rhubarb is several time thicker and much longer, as shown in the photos.

Yesterday I dug the crowns up. I had originally planted 7 crowns, but there were now just 4. The roots looked quite strong and healthy, but a couple seemed "overcrowded" and clumpy, so I have split the crowns.

I had a whole sack of "spent" compost - ordinary multi-purpose compost that I had started seeds in in the greenhouse, but no longer used after seeds had failed or seedlings had been potted on and some of the compost had dropped off during the potting on. I dug this into the small rhubarb bed behind the greenhouse. I expect there are still some active seeds in that compost, and I might well find a tomato or cabbage sprouting up eventually, but should be easily removed.

I also dug in a sack of Croypost - it's a bit rough and heavy, "marketed" as a "soil improver" rather than a compost. Hopefully the combination will help the rhubarb recover and thrive, but it could equally kill it all off.

The 7 crowns were then replanted. Each one is in a slight mound. I can add more compost / manure or something around all the crowns later without burying them. I'll try and get hold of some well rotted manure this summer.

Potting On & Sowings

The rain has barely stopped this month, but we took advantage of a couple of hours sunshine on Sunday to get down the veggie patch and sort out the greenhouse. The greenhouse is now tidy and organised again.

Mice & Sweetcorn / Peas / Beans
The mice have scoffed more sweetcorn and some of the beans - we have sown 15 more beans into cells. Peas have been very disappointing. We originally sowed 96, but the mice scoffed them. We sowed more, still only a total of 12 have come up so far. We now have new peas (Early Onward and another) and have sown another 24 of each. All of these are now covered to keep the mice out.

I remember reading about an old trick to stop the mice eating seeds - soak the seeds in parafin before sowing. This is the first time I've had problems with mice eating seeds so never tried it before. I don't have any parafin so can't try it yet, but if I ever get round to getting a greenhouse heater, I'll have the parafin so will try the soaking trick.

Tomatoes

The greenhouse is looking very full

The missus managed to sow about 126 tomato plants (lots of varieties). She got a bit carried away! We potted on and now have 60 tomato plants in 3.5in pots. I pulled the rest of them up and put them in the compost. The missus was very sad :( She would love to have kept them, but there are a couple of issues like finding space for them all and I don't think she realises just how much watering and pinching out she'll be doing this summer!

Chillies & Peppers
Not looking great at the moment. We have a small handful of seedlings from several trays of sowings. It might just take more time for more to come through.

Lettuce, Spinach & Salads
The new Iceberg lettuce is doing well in the greenhouse. We have a handful of other salad seedlings like pak choi and spinach - we simply haven't sown enough, so we now have another tray sown. We will need to do some more pretty soon. The pak choi seems to take a lot longer to grow than spinach and lettuce, so best sowing them separately.

The lettuce and spinach we planted out into the patio tubs isn't looking very healthy. It's probably been too cold and wet. But never mind, we've sown a lot more so can replant the tubs later if we need to.

Radish
French Breakfast radish was sown in seed trays of compost and both trays are doing well, but drying out very quickly now. They are starting to swell. Aim is to do one tray every 3 or 4 weeks so we have a constant supply of radish. The long rooted Hilds Roter radish is looking very healthy in the trough in the greenhouse. We have more to sow next month.

Carrots, Parsnip & Beetroot

Our first carrot this year!

We have a few Boltardy beetroot seedlings showing in the outdoor trough. The parsnip trough was looking good with 2 rows of healthy looking seedlings. However, it was waterlogged with the recent rain, so is now back in the greenhouse. All troughs of carrots are looking good.

I pulled up a single carrot from the first October sowing - it's looking good, but we'll probably leave them longer.

Onions & Garlic
The garlic and elephant garlic are looking good - the elephant garlic is looking very strong and healthy. I poked around in one of the garlic troughs yesterday, not much in the way of swelling of the bulbs yet. I'll be very surprised if it's ready in 2 months time, but no problem if it takes longer.

The winter onions are not doing too well. Even more have "disappeared" and some of those remaining are looking a bit squishy, like they're starting to rot in the wet. The summer onions are looking fine and healthy. I still have 160 in 2" pots. 120 of these are in a cold frame - there simply isn't room in the greenhouse and I want to protect them from the heavy rain which could simply wash the compost out of the pots.

Cabbage, Cauliflower, Broccoli & Kale

Trays of everything in the greenhouse

Lots of seedlings have come up, most are looking good, but some are a bit stringy. Some of the red cabbage got eaten by slugs or snails, but the tray is now covered and the remainder seem to be doing well. Brassicas tend to take up a lot of space, so most will end up in pots after the tomatoes and potatoes have finished.

Potatoes
Everything seems ok so far. I took a quick look at the bags under the weed sheeting - the sheeting seems to be helping - the compost is moist, not soaked, and despite the cold weather, the compost is quite warm. The leaves are coming up nicely - not enough to earth up just yet. 

6in pot of leeks outside

Leeks
Several pots of leeks are doing well, some in the greenhouse, some outside. It looks like we'll have a lot of leeks over the winter!

We found more seeds at the weekend for a larger variety of leeks, so have sown some of them too.

Update

It's been a very cold and wet month so far. We've had some warm sunny spells, but only for a few hours on the odd day here and there. It's not been the best weather for gardening, so we've been decorating and sorting the house instead.

I've popped down the greenhouse to make sure everything is ok and water as required. One night of frost seems to have killed off our 3 grape vines - I'm not sure why Wilkinson's would sell grape vines that couldn't survive the local weather, so will be contacting them about it.

Not much action with the sweetcorn - only 2 out of 30 have come up so far. A root around in a couple of sweetcorn pots showed no seed left, so have re-sown them. Have also sown another 12, this time Swift.

Not much action with the peas either. Out of 48 each of Oasis and Jaguar, only about 10 have sprouted so far. Guess that's the end of my hopes of early peas - time to replace with normal peas, probably Kelvedon Wonder again. Ho hum.

We've made up 3 salad tubs for the patio. They have a mix of various loose leaf lettuces, spinach and a couple of pak choi. I'd prefer to have more variety including rocket and mizuna, but it seems that lettuce grows much faster than the rocket, and I don't have any mizuna this year. Not to worry though, we have plenty more salad tubs so we should plenty of variety.

I've also sown runner beans and french beans in pots in the greenhouse. We have green and purple French beans and 2 varieties of runner beans.

More Potatoes

Been very busy, loads more potatoes planted.

The potato bed has been dug over and planted with potatoes and covered the bed with weed sheeting. This can stay in place for a few weeks until the frosts have passed. More potatoes are in sacks. The planting list is now:

8 Swift (1st Earlies) in black flower pots 25/02/12
10 unknown (2nd Earlies) in large dog food sacks 25/02/12
30 Charlottes (salad) in white compost sacks, 2 per sack 01/04/12
29 King Edward (Maincrop) in the potato bed 01/04/12
11 Desiree (Maincrop) in the potato bed 06/04/12
5 Desiree (Maincrop) in red compost sacks 06/04/12

Potatoes all lined up so they can be easily covered

We had a severe frost a couple of days ago. To protect the spuds, I folded over the tops of all the potato sacks and covered the potato pots with old weed sheeting. Unfortunately the sheeting blew off some of the stems so they got frost damaged - this may have killed some of the potatoes.

I have now moved all the sacks and pots together into a double line and covered the whole lot with weed sheeting which is being held down with bricks at the sides and garden tools on top. They can be covered or uncovered very easily. I just need to watch out for frost and remember to cover them!

Potatoes covered to protect them from frost

When the weather warms up, the sacks and pots will be moved to the top of the garden - we don't get much sun at the top of the garden at this time of year, but the whole lot is nice and sunny in the summer.

The second photo shows all the potatoes covered up. In the background at the top is the potato bed, still sheeted over. This will be uncovered when the risk of frost has passed.

First Rhubarb This Year

Our first rhubarb this year, picked on 2nd April. Had it with custard. Nom nom nom!