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 ....

More Sowings

Another sunny day, so another long afternoon in the veggie patch.

We emptied the greenhouse, washed the glass down, swept the floor and put everything back in neat and tidy.

All along one fence is just one very large rhubarb crown and the plum tree. The rest of the ground is just a few weeds. I did plant more rhubarb in this bed a few years ago, but the crowns all died. So we're going to plant the currants and blueberries along here.

I dug over about 10ft of the bed, ripping out loads of bramble roots. The ground is as free from weeds and roots as it's going to get for now. I added a sack of Croypost (the free council compost) and dug it in, then covered the whole patch with weed sheeting. I'll plant out the first two currants later this week.

Also sowed more seeds:
Parsnips Albion - sowed these in a trough, same as I do for carrots
Radish French Breakfast - filled a seed tray, sprinkled seeds over the top, covered with compost
Mint - sowed in the short trough
Peas Twinkle - these are an early variety. The ground isn't ready for peas, so sowing direct isn't an option. I didn't have any luck with sowing peas directly in the ground last time, so have gone back to starting them in the cell trays. 96 peas done, doesn't take long.
Melon Bardot - 2 x 3.5in pots, each with 2 seeds
Melon Sweetheart - 2 x 3.5in pots, each with 2 seeds
Tomato Beefsteak - 6 x 3.5in pots

Also sowed some more herbs:
Rosemary
Rocket
Oregano
As yesterday, 2 of each, one in the greenhouse, the other in the kitchen.

We're crossing jobs off the list, but adding more ...... hoping for a bumper crop this year!

Herbs Again

I've never had much luck with herbs, but will keep trying.

This time we've followed the guidance on this website:
http://www.recipes4us.co.uk/Growing%20Herbs.htm

So today we sowed:
Parsley Moss Curled
Parsley Plain Leaf
Russian Tarragon
Thyme Orange Scented
Sweet Basil

They're all in pots, in freezer bags. We have one pot of each in the greenhouse and one pot of each on the kitchen windowsill.

The New Year Update

A little bit overdue ..... been very busy with sorting the house out and decorating, not had much time for any updates on here .... will try and do regular updates all year now!

Onions
Last October we started a whole load of winter onions in 2in pots. They started off well, and about 110 were planted out in the veggie patch around the end of November. The rest stayed in the greenhouse in the 2in pots.
I'm a bit disappointed because a lot of those that were planted out have just "disappeared". It looks like they have been pulled out by birds or trampled or kicked around by the foxes. On the plus side, I'll still have plenty of the early summer and I'm ready with the summer onion sets (see the next post).

Herbs
The whole lot failed to sprout. Guessing the greenhouse over winter (even a mild winter) is not a good way to start them.

Carrots
The carrots sown at the beginning of October seem to be doing well in the greenhouse. They are in large troughs. The second sowings of carrots sown mid-October were quite poor - one trough had just the one seedling, so given up with that - emptied it to start again.

Garlic & Elephant Garlic
The normal garlic (from supermarket bulbs), planted early October, is looking really good - big strong thick stems growing straight up. The elephant garlic planted mid-November has sprouted, only a couple of inches tall, but looks good and healthy.

Cabbage & Cauliflower
All sprouted but died. They were sown early October - guessing that's a bit late to sow them - they probably didn't have enough time to grow big enough and strong enough to survive the winter in the greenhouse.

Winter Gem Lettuce
Doing well - clumps of leaves about 4-6 inches tall. We've had some leaves for salad. I'm going to set up a cloche next weekend and hopefully plant a few under that soon after, and plant others outside to see what happens.

Pickles, Chutneys and Jams
We made some jams late last year - they've gone down a treat! We made some pickles and chutneys too - I'll get round to posting the recipes on here soon. My favourite was tomato and chilli chutney - tastes amazing with cheese and crackers! We'll be making loads more this year!

Life in General
Life is good! After 11 years as a single parent, I now have a partner living with me and everything just seems so easy. I'm a lot more motivated with work, the house, garden etc - it's all good! I have cleared and decorated the box room, so I now have a home office. I have cleared half the loft and lagged it. We have been out in the garden clearing brambles. We must have taken 10 car loads of crap to the dump! The house is looking much nicer now - although it was "mostly clean, mostly tidy", it was lacking that woman's touch that makes it look better - the pictures on the walls, the ornaments, the things that make a house look homely.

And best of all, she loves growing fruit and veg and cooking it too! It's going to be a really good year!!

Herbs

We have started some herbs for indoor growing over the winter. We are starting some in the greenhouse too, to see how they cope over the winter. It doesn't matter if they fail as we have plenty more seeds to sow more in the spring.

Sowings so far:
2 Chives
2 Coriander Cilantro
2 Red Basil
2 Russian Tarragon
4 Thyme Old English
4 Sage

We've also sown a cell tray of:
8 Mint
8 Red Basil
8 Sweet Basil

We'll need to sow a lot more herbs sometime soon. We're planning to have lots of sage plants in tubs in between all the brassicas next year - apparently these help keep the cabbage white's off the brassicas - we don't want the veggies ruined by caterpillars!

Reminder - we must look up "companion planting" - the art of planting one thing with something else to ward off pests!