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 ....

Currants & Berries

When I had the allotment, I had a redcurrant bush and picked loads of redcurrants. Plans were for raspberry and redcurrant jam and redcurrant jelly, butI just didn't get round to doing anything with them. They're still in the freezer waiting for me to use them.

At some point over the last couple of months, there was a TV program on with chefs talking about "saving" great British foods. One episode included the whitecurrant. I'd never heard of whitecurrants before.

So I looked on a couple seed websites and found that T&M had an offer on a triple pack of currants including redcurrant, whitecurrant and blackcurrant. I grabbed my credit card and about 2 weeks later they arrived!

The missus found a blueberry bush in the pound shop so we've got that too.

I remember getting blueberry bushes a few years ago, but didn't get round to preparing the ground for them. I think I put them into pots, but think they'd been in the packet too long and had dried out and died.

This time round I'm not taking chances. The bed I'm planting them all in needs a fair bit of work to prepare it and I've got a zillion other jobs to do, so for the time being, I've planted them into large pots. I gave them a good soaking in a bucket of water for a couple of hours beforehand.

The redcurrant bush I had on the allotment was about 3ft high, 3ft wide. Hopefully these bushes will do the same. My gooseberries on the allotment were like that too, but my gooseberries at home are nowhere near that big, even though they are several years old. I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the pruning, so not sure if I should prune them or just let them grow wild. Research needed!

Rain at last!

We've just had a week of badly needed rain. As I really only have potatoes, onions and sweetcorn on the allotment, and they only need watering, I haven't been up there for a week. However, I will go up there this week and pick all the redcurrants and gooseberries.

Fruit at home is doing well. I've picked about a pound of raspberries or loganberries per day from the garden - I have several pounds of each in the freezer, ready for making jam. The gooseberry jam at home has gone. I'll be making some more this week, along with either raspberry jam or loganberry jam.

The rhubarb crowns I split seem to be doing well. 3 of the crowns in the ground have new shoots, along with the one in the bucket. The other 3 are showing no signs of life at the moment. The big old crown in the old rhubarb bed is still doing well - it looks like that needs splitting into 3 crowns this winter.

I've picked some of the small Iceberg lettuces at home. Not sure if they were Mini Green or Little Gem, but they were good.

The seeds I sowed just over a week ago are doing fine - loads of seedlings showing, especially PSB. Hopefully will have time to build a frame and set up some netting for them this time. I'd rather feed me than the pigeons!