What's Growing, What's Not

I've had a quick trip to the veggie patch - some good news, some not so good.

The peas from Grow Your Own magazine have sprouted. All of them! Yep, a whole 14 seeds in one packet. 

Peas, free from Grow Your Own magazine

As there were so few of them, I sowed them in a 10in pot. As the mice scoffed all my peas, sweetcorn and beans last year, I covered the pot with a propagator lid to try and keep the mice out. It seems to have worked.

Using a propagator lid meant that I had to keep the pot in the greenhouse for the winter, otherwise the lid would have just blown off outdoors.





Propagator lids also worked with the broad beans. We have 31 of them and another one sprouting.

Aquadulce Claudia

I had actually sown 45 of them, so this isn't a bad result. I'll get them planted out soon.

Onion sets in seed trays

There were actually 4 seed trays of onions. They've sprouted, but gone a bit soft. I have no idea if they'll survive or not, but might as well try, nothing to lose except a bit of time.











What hasn't worked so well is the garlic - all the elephant garlic planted outside in tubs have been pulled up and the green shoots have been eaten. I had also planted 2 large tubs of ordinary garlic and left them in the greenhouse. There were probably 15-20 cloves planted. Only 3 have survived - the rest have been pulled up - there are bits of roots left that show where the cloves were. I'll plant some more. I don't know if we'll get enough cold nights for it to split, but if all we end up with is rounds, that's fine - it's still usable!

Leeks are "ok". The big ones are about half an inch thick. The small ones are still like blades of grass. This is the first time I've grown leeks beyond the "blade of grass" stage. I sowed them too thickly in pots so they were too crowded to thicken up, and planted them out far too late to grow to full size. But I'm happy to have leeks and we'll use them.

I've also learnt a good lesson about growing leeks and potatoes. This year I'll grow early spuds in the ground so that I dig them up in summer and plant the leeks out earlier. I'll also sow the leeks thinner so they have room to thicken up.

And the first rhubarb is sprouting. Won't be long till we get our first rhubarb crumble this year!

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.

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!