I now have 4 trays of seed potatoes chitting in the spare room.
Last year I chose numerous varieties, just a few of each. They all grew fine, but I couldn't remember what I'd planted where. First earlies were left in the ground longer than necessary, some lates and earlies are still in the ground right now.
This year I've decided to stick to 4 varieties and be more organised with planting and digging up. They were bought ready bagged, each bag having about 40 seed potatoes in it.
The varieties I've chosen are:
Charlotte - a salad potato - fairly waxy, suitable for salads, boiling and roasting
Duke of York - first early - very waxy, suitable for roasting
Maris Peer - second early - fairly waxy, suitable for salads / boiling
King Edward - a maincrop - fairly floury, suitable for roasting and mashing
The info about waxy / floury etc was from the Potato Council website at http://www.lovepotatoes.co.uk
By being more organised with the planting, I'll be able to dig up a whole bed of spuds and plant leeks straight away (providing the leeks grow this year!)
I haven't yet worked out how much room I have for spuds and whether I'll need to buy any more. I'll check that up next week.
Wednesday, 24 February 2010
February Sowings
I sowed loads of seeds on 15th Feb. The spare room is filling up!
I'm going to try better at successional sowing this year, so have sown some of each now. I will sow more of each every few weeks in the hope that later sowing mature later, so that I can pick and use throughout the year instead of having huge gluts at various times and needing to freeze everything.
I've sown 4 trays of Twinkle Peas - these are a very early variety. I have other varieties that I can sow later in the year to extend the growing and picking season. There should be enough for an 8 foot row. Last year I tried sowing peas directly in the ground, but a row of about 96 peas produced about 5 pea plants and the weeds just took over. Previous year's sowings were started in cells, and that worked fine, so back to the cells again this year. So far, these peas are about 2-3 inches tall - taller than I was expecting, but that's probably because they've been started indoors.
I have a tray of 24 Green Magic broccoli. Again, this is an early variety and I have other varieties for sowing and harvesting later in the year. They're all looking healthy so far.
The list sown indoors in cells in January:
24 lettuce Winter Gem (all failing)
4 cauliflower Thompson (failing)
7 cauliflower All Year Round (failing)
13 broad bean Aquadulce Claudia (looking ok)
The full list sown indoors in cells in February:
96 pea Twinkle
12 celery Lathom Galaxy
8 cauliflower All Year Round
4 Aubergine
24 broccoli Green Magic
8 tomato Moneymaker
4 tomato Tamina
4 tomato Alicante
4 tomato Black Cherry
4 tomato Italian (plum)
4 spinach Picasso
4 spinach Hector
16 sprouts Brilliant
10 sweet pepper WorldBeater
10 sweet pepper from saved seeds (originally from supermarket sweet pepper)
10 pepper Hot Caribbean Blend
5 chilli Twighlight
5 chilli Cayenne
I'll explain choice of varieties in another post.
I'm going to try better at successional sowing this year, so have sown some of each now. I will sow more of each every few weeks in the hope that later sowing mature later, so that I can pick and use throughout the year instead of having huge gluts at various times and needing to freeze everything.
I've sown 4 trays of Twinkle Peas - these are a very early variety. I have other varieties that I can sow later in the year to extend the growing and picking season. There should be enough for an 8 foot row. Last year I tried sowing peas directly in the ground, but a row of about 96 peas produced about 5 pea plants and the weeds just took over. Previous year's sowings were started in cells, and that worked fine, so back to the cells again this year. So far, these peas are about 2-3 inches tall - taller than I was expecting, but that's probably because they've been started indoors.
I have a tray of 24 Green Magic broccoli. Again, this is an early variety and I have other varieties for sowing and harvesting later in the year. They're all looking healthy so far.
The list sown indoors in cells in January:
24 lettuce Winter Gem (all failing)
4 cauliflower Thompson (failing)
7 cauliflower All Year Round (failing)
13 broad bean Aquadulce Claudia (looking ok)
The full list sown indoors in cells in February:
96 pea Twinkle
12 celery Lathom Galaxy
8 cauliflower All Year Round
4 Aubergine
24 broccoli Green Magic
8 tomato Moneymaker
4 tomato Tamina
4 tomato Alicante
4 tomato Black Cherry
4 tomato Italian (plum)
4 spinach Picasso
4 spinach Hector
16 sprouts Brilliant
10 sweet pepper WorldBeater
10 sweet pepper from saved seeds (originally from supermarket sweet pepper)
10 pepper Hot Caribbean Blend
5 chilli Twighlight
5 chilli Cayenne
I'll explain choice of varieties in another post.
January Sowings
I'm making an early start this year. Most seeds need sowing around March/April, which is around the same time as the veggie patch and allotment need digging over. As those months will be very busy, I've sown some of the early seeds already.
I started with Winter Gem lettuce, which can be sown in a cold greenhouse in January, plus Thompson and All Year Round cauliflower and Aquadulce Claudia broad beans. I sowed them in cells indoors - they are in the spare room.
The seem to have got very stringy (lack of light) despite being on a desk in front of the bay window. It's been grim outside, often cloudy and grey. It looks like I didn't water them enough as some of them have fallen over. However, they don't appear to be dead, so will keep them going a bit longer.
I also sowed a tray each of Gardeners Delight cherry tomatoes, Moneymaker tomatoes, and sweet peppers. These will be potted on for sale at the Scout Group Easter Fair at the end of March - all money will be for the Scout Group. Obviously I'd like these to look big, strong and healthy, and they're doing ok so far. I've been a bit more careful with the watering.
Indoor sowing isn't brilliant - the cells dry out very quickly and they need to be watered carefully so as not to make a mess.
I started with Winter Gem lettuce, which can be sown in a cold greenhouse in January, plus Thompson and All Year Round cauliflower and Aquadulce Claudia broad beans. I sowed them in cells indoors - they are in the spare room.
The seem to have got very stringy (lack of light) despite being on a desk in front of the bay window. It's been grim outside, often cloudy and grey. It looks like I didn't water them enough as some of them have fallen over. However, they don't appear to be dead, so will keep them going a bit longer.
I also sowed a tray each of Gardeners Delight cherry tomatoes, Moneymaker tomatoes, and sweet peppers. These will be potted on for sale at the Scout Group Easter Fair at the end of March - all money will be for the Scout Group. Obviously I'd like these to look big, strong and healthy, and they're doing ok so far. I've been a bit more careful with the watering.
Indoor sowing isn't brilliant - the cells dry out very quickly and they need to be watered carefully so as not to make a mess.
Getting Ready
It's been a very busy few weeks. We've had a lot of snow and even when it's not been snowing, it's been pretty cold and wet outside.
We did have a fairly mild day a couple of weeks back, so went down the greenhouse and tidied it up. It's been too cold and wet to do anything to the veggie patch or the allotment, but it'll get done.
I did empty out a couple of window boxes of carrots - we had them with dinners, very nice!
I took a trip to the garden centre with a friend and bought my seed potatoes and onions, plus red cabbage and other bits like labels. Also bought horseradish so I'll give that a go.
I've sorted out all my seed trays and cell inserts ready for sowing. It's all looking good so far ......
We did have a fairly mild day a couple of weeks back, so went down the greenhouse and tidied it up. It's been too cold and wet to do anything to the veggie patch or the allotment, but it'll get done.
I did empty out a couple of window boxes of carrots - we had them with dinners, very nice!
I took a trip to the garden centre with a friend and bought my seed potatoes and onions, plus red cabbage and other bits like labels. Also bought horseradish so I'll give that a go.
I've sorted out all my seed trays and cell inserts ready for sowing. It's all looking good so far ......
Tuesday, 5 January 2010
A New Year
So it's 2010 now, a new year, a new start.
My health has improved and I'm feeling a lot more positive about things. Still suffering financially from the recession, but hoping for a good growing year and to make the most of the veggie patch and allotment.
Did hardly anything over the winter - took a long break from it all. I did pull up the onions and they're strung up in the kitchen in a pair of tights. I did have 3 pumpkins on the allotment, but when I went to get them for my friend at Halloween, the big one was gone - looks like someone pinched it.
I didn't dig up the rest of the spuds though - a whole 8x8 bed full of spuds - will get them dug up sometime soon and find out if any are still usable. I still have 8 cabbages at home and there were a few swedes on the allotment too.
This week I've sorted through my seeds and good to know got most of what I need for this year. I will need to pop down the garden centre to pick up a couple of packets, plus of course, seed potatoes and onion sets. I'm also going to pick up loads of canes and netting to keep the pigeons and butterflies off the brassicas this year.
A friend has about 90 paving slabs to be lifted from her back garden, so that will do brilliantly for the pathways on my allotment. I'll have to help level her garden and seed it or turf it.
I'm also hoping to scrounge a good sized chest freezer this year. Whenever I mention something I want, there's always someone who says "I've just got rid of one", so fingers crossed that this year I'll actually get one before everyone gets rid of them. I've also been saving up the jam jars and wine bottles, so should be making lots of pickles, chutneys and wines this year (need more wine racks too, so before you chuck them away, offer them to me!).
I'll need to build some decent shelving in the garage for the wine racks / jars etc, and hopefully more so that I can grow mushrooms in the garage too. Still need to pick up pallets for compost bins at home and on the allotment. Will build a wood store so I can collect and store firewood for next winter. Also need to build some frames to support peas. I've probably got a zillion other things to make, but one thing at a time .....
So it's time to make a start .....
It's below freezing outside, snow forecast, not likely to go above freezing this week, so not much I can do outside. However, I have a spare room and can sow indoors.
I have Winter Gem lettuce - can be grown in a cold greenhouse throughout the winter. Also have Thompson cauliflower and Early Nantes carrots that can all be sown now, so I'll make a start on them all today.
My health has improved and I'm feeling a lot more positive about things. Still suffering financially from the recession, but hoping for a good growing year and to make the most of the veggie patch and allotment.
Did hardly anything over the winter - took a long break from it all. I did pull up the onions and they're strung up in the kitchen in a pair of tights. I did have 3 pumpkins on the allotment, but when I went to get them for my friend at Halloween, the big one was gone - looks like someone pinched it.
I didn't dig up the rest of the spuds though - a whole 8x8 bed full of spuds - will get them dug up sometime soon and find out if any are still usable. I still have 8 cabbages at home and there were a few swedes on the allotment too.
This week I've sorted through my seeds and good to know got most of what I need for this year. I will need to pop down the garden centre to pick up a couple of packets, plus of course, seed potatoes and onion sets. I'm also going to pick up loads of canes and netting to keep the pigeons and butterflies off the brassicas this year.
A friend has about 90 paving slabs to be lifted from her back garden, so that will do brilliantly for the pathways on my allotment. I'll have to help level her garden and seed it or turf it.
I'm also hoping to scrounge a good sized chest freezer this year. Whenever I mention something I want, there's always someone who says "I've just got rid of one", so fingers crossed that this year I'll actually get one before everyone gets rid of them. I've also been saving up the jam jars and wine bottles, so should be making lots of pickles, chutneys and wines this year (need more wine racks too, so before you chuck them away, offer them to me!).
I'll need to build some decent shelving in the garage for the wine racks / jars etc, and hopefully more so that I can grow mushrooms in the garage too. Still need to pick up pallets for compost bins at home and on the allotment. Will build a wood store so I can collect and store firewood for next winter. Also need to build some frames to support peas. I've probably got a zillion other things to make, but one thing at a time .....
So it's time to make a start .....
It's below freezing outside, snow forecast, not likely to go above freezing this week, so not much I can do outside. However, I have a spare room and can sow indoors.
I have Winter Gem lettuce - can be grown in a cold greenhouse throughout the winter. Also have Thompson cauliflower and Early Nantes carrots that can all be sown now, so I'll make a start on them all today.
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