After an extremely wet start to the month, with serious flooding in some parts of the country, the hosepipe ban was finally lifted a couple of days ago.
We had some sunshine on Sunday, sunshine again today, more sunshine forecast for this weekend.
Hopefully the veggies will start to catch up ....
Tuesday, 17 July 2012
Tuesday, 3 July 2012
More Carrot Sowings
The fox dug up all the carrots last week. I'm not going to let the fox beat me, so I've sown some more.
From left to right:
2 troughs Autumn King
2 troughs Early Nantes
2 troughs Nantes Frubund
2 troughs Autumn King
2 troughs Early Nantes
2 troughs Nantes Frubund
We're hoping these will give us a carrots from September to November. It's almost a last chance thing, although Nantes Frubund can still be sown into autumn. We still have some Purple Haze and Rainbow seeds, but we won't sow these until next year.
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| 12 troughs of carrots |
2 troughs Autumn King
2 troughs Early Nantes
2 troughs Nantes Frubund
2 troughs Autumn King
2 troughs Early Nantes
2 troughs Nantes Frubund
We're hoping these will give us a carrots from September to November. It's almost a last chance thing, although Nantes Frubund can still be sown into autumn. We still have some Purple Haze and Rainbow seeds, but we won't sow these until next year.
Weather Update
So ... hot on the heels of the wettest April on record, we've had the wettest June on record. We've had twice as much rainfall as we normally would. Not only that, but we've had the second dullest June since records began.
And we still have a hosepipe ban.
It's raining out there again and rain is forecast right through to Saturday.
It'll probably rain right up to the day they lift the hosepipe ban .....
And we still have a hosepipe ban.
It's raining out there again and rain is forecast right through to Saturday.
It'll probably rain right up to the day they lift the hosepipe ban .....
Monday, 2 July 2012
Carrots
Over the last couple of months, we've pulled up and scoffed some of our carrots that we sowed at the beginning of October last year. They were still quite small at 6 months, but quite good at 7 months. They were Early Nantes and I didn't think they'd take that long to be a reasonable size.
Last week, the local fox raided our carrot tubs, probably looking for slugs. Carrots everywhere. Most of them were tiny, having only been sown on March and April. Many were too small to even be classed as baby carrots. Very disappointing as it will be several more months before we get any more carrots.
Anyway, there was no chance of replanting them all, so we decided we'd use them for carrot wine. We got a total of 1.5lbs (after topping) from 9 troughs, a mix of Early Nantes, Autumn King, Chantenay and Purple Haze. This wasn't enough for a gallon of wine so we had to buy more cheap carrots to have enough for a couple of gallons.
We still have a couple of troughs of carrots down in the veggie patch. One is Early Nantes, sown in mid-October last year, the other is Rainbow. Both troughs are less than half full - many seeds just didn't sprout in the poor weather we've had.
Back to more carrot sowings later.
Last week, the local fox raided our carrot tubs, probably looking for slugs. Carrots everywhere. Most of them were tiny, having only been sown on March and April. Many were too small to even be classed as baby carrots. Very disappointing as it will be several more months before we get any more carrots.
Anyway, there was no chance of replanting them all, so we decided we'd use them for carrot wine. We got a total of 1.5lbs (after topping) from 9 troughs, a mix of Early Nantes, Autumn King, Chantenay and Purple Haze. This wasn't enough for a gallon of wine so we had to buy more cheap carrots to have enough for a couple of gallons.
We still have a couple of troughs of carrots down in the veggie patch. One is Early Nantes, sown in mid-October last year, the other is Rainbow. Both troughs are less than half full - many seeds just didn't sprout in the poor weather we've had.
Back to more carrot sowings later.
Brassicas
After seemingly endless rain, we're now getting a mix of wet and dry days. As the forecast was for a dry day and we had loads to do in the veggie patch, we cancelled our day out to spend the day in the garden instead. And it rained.
Luckily it wasn't heavy rain, just short showers. And the ground had dried out enough to make it diggable. So I dug over the whole brassicas bed and planted it out. I had recently dug over about half the bed anyway, so it wasn't too bad.
After sheeting over, I planted through. I will be covering the bed with an old gazebo frame and netting to keep the pigeons and butterflies off. Brassicas are quite large plants, so I've planted away from the edges where the netting will go.
I was a bit disappointed with the variety of brassicas, especially the lack of cauliflowers. We had wanted lots of coloured cauliflowers, but have only 1 Romanesco and 1 Purple Graffiti and a few Violetta. Many other brassicas had cooked in the greenhouse on the handful of hot days we've had. We will need to sow a lot more for the winter.
The total planted out in the brassicas bed is:
5 Cauliflower All Year Round
1 Cauliflower Purple Graffiti
1 Cauliflower Romanesco
7 Cauliflower Violetta
2 Red Cabbage Kalibos
3 Broccoli Summer Purple
4 Broccoli Belstar
4 Broccoli Green Magic
Other brassicas have been potted on into 5in pots. Later on we'll move them into the large flower buckets. The list so far is:
28 Kale Dwarf Green
12 Broccoli Summer Purple
3 Broccoli Green Magic
5 Broccoli Belstar
More sowings later.
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| Brassicas bed, greenhouse is to the right. |
After sheeting over, I planted through. I will be covering the bed with an old gazebo frame and netting to keep the pigeons and butterflies off. Brassicas are quite large plants, so I've planted away from the edges where the netting will go.
I was a bit disappointed with the variety of brassicas, especially the lack of cauliflowers. We had wanted lots of coloured cauliflowers, but have only 1 Romanesco and 1 Purple Graffiti and a few Violetta. Many other brassicas had cooked in the greenhouse on the handful of hot days we've had. We will need to sow a lot more for the winter.
The total planted out in the brassicas bed is:
5 Cauliflower All Year Round
1 Cauliflower Purple Graffiti
1 Cauliflower Romanesco
7 Cauliflower Violetta
2 Red Cabbage Kalibos
3 Broccoli Summer Purple
4 Broccoli Belstar
4 Broccoli Green Magic
Other brassicas have been potted on into 5in pots. Later on we'll move them into the large flower buckets. The list so far is:
28 Kale Dwarf Green
12 Broccoli Summer Purple
3 Broccoli Green Magic
5 Broccoli Belstar
More sowings later.
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