We had another sunny spell this afternoon, so squelched down the garden to sow some seeds in the greenhouse. As usual, seeds are sown in cell modules in seed trays.
4 Tomato Gardeners Delight
4 Tomato Belle
4 Tomato Sungold
4 Tomato Alicante
8 Sweet Pepper
8 Broccoli Summer Purple
8 Cauliflower All Year Round
8 Lettuce Winter Gem
10 Leeks Autumn Mammoth in a Morrisons bucket
I only had 10 leek seeds out of that pack of 150 seeds. The missus must have sown about 140 seeds into 2 large pots last year - that would have left them very crowded and not able to thicken up. The extra spacing this year should help.
I have a long plastic tunnel cloche - it was a bargain in the garden centre clearance last autumn. I'll probably set that up for the brassicas once I've cleared a bit of ground and tidied up.
Next job on the list is to sort the rest of the seeds so that I can so more soon!
Showing posts with label tomato. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tomato. Show all posts
Wednesday, 30 January 2013
Saturday, 28 July 2012
A Sad Day
Lovely weather, so spent most of the day in the garden catching some rays in between work in the veggie patch.
The tomatoes were looking very sorry for themselves. The cold wet weather meant very few tomatoes growing and all 59 outdoor tomato plants had blight. The handful of tomatoes growing were tiny and some were rotting. Some plants had no tomatoes at all.
Meanwhile, we had 46 brassicas (broccoli and kale) in small pots, desperately needing to move into bigger pots.So we took the difficult decision to abandon all hope of outdoor tomatoes this year and use the buckets for the brassicas.
I picked all the tomatoes and they're now in trays. They're almost all green, apart from a couple of Sungold that are turning yellow. We have to leave the tomatoes in the trays for a week or so to see if they start rotting from blight. If they don't, we can make green tomato chutney.
All the tomato plants are now bagged up for the council to take in their green waste collection.
At least the buckets are going back to productive use now!
The tomatoes were looking very sorry for themselves. The cold wet weather meant very few tomatoes growing and all 59 outdoor tomato plants had blight. The handful of tomatoes growing were tiny and some were rotting. Some plants had no tomatoes at all.
Meanwhile, we had 46 brassicas (broccoli and kale) in small pots, desperately needing to move into bigger pots.So we took the difficult decision to abandon all hope of outdoor tomatoes this year and use the buckets for the brassicas.
I picked all the tomatoes and they're now in trays. They're almost all green, apart from a couple of Sungold that are turning yellow. We have to leave the tomatoes in the trays for a week or so to see if they start rotting from blight. If they don't, we can make green tomato chutney.
All the tomato plants are now bagged up for the council to take in their green waste collection.
At least the buckets are going back to productive use now!
Thursday, 26 July 2012
Tomato Blight
It looks like almost all of our tomatoes have blight, and we haven't had a single tomato yet. Very disappointing.
The one tomato plant that's safe at the moment is the Shirley, which is in the greenhouse. There are plenty of good looking tomatoes on it, so hopefully we'll have some tomatoes from it soon.
The other 59 tomato plants are all outside. We've stripped all the damaged leaves and sprayed with Bordeaux Mixture, but it's probably too late. At best, we'll slow the blight down and we might get a few tomatoes, but as there aren't many tomatoes yet, it's not looking good. There are hundreds of flowers, dozens of tomatoes, nothing anywhere near ripe - the poor weather this year meant everything is very late.
But got to think positive: this year's weather has been the worst on record - next year is unlikely to be this bad, so we should do a lot better.
The one tomato plant that's safe at the moment is the Shirley, which is in the greenhouse. There are plenty of good looking tomatoes on it, so hopefully we'll have some tomatoes from it soon.
The other 59 tomato plants are all outside. We've stripped all the damaged leaves and sprayed with Bordeaux Mixture, but it's probably too late. At best, we'll slow the blight down and we might get a few tomatoes, but as there aren't many tomatoes yet, it's not looking good. There are hundreds of flowers, dozens of tomatoes, nothing anywhere near ripe - the poor weather this year meant everything is very late.
But got to think positive: this year's weather has been the worst on record - next year is unlikely to be this bad, so we should do a lot better.
Sunday, 27 May 2012
Toms-a-tumbling
This weekend we've dealt with all the tomatoes. 60 of them.
I've put the hanging basket brackets up for the Tumbling Toms. Lack of space means one is above the other.
All the other tomatoes have been potted on into the final large pots. They had all been potted on from 3.5in pots to 5in pots and kept in the greenhouse due to the cold weather. Some were only in the 5in pots for a week or so.
All the tomatoes are outside now, apart from the one Shirley, which is best grown in the greenhouse. We'll put a few of the others back in the greenhouse when we've planted out some other seedlings and made some room in the greenhouse.
Most of the rest will be moved to the stepped beds outside the back of the house in 2 or 3 weeks time. At the moment, the stepped beds are still in shade part of the daytime - in a few weeks they'll get full sun all day.
The list is:
1 Shirley (greenhouse)
3 Tumbling Toms (in hanging baskets)
Moneymaker
Belle
Plum
Beefsteak
Gardeners Delight (Cherry)
White Cherry (Cherry)
Sungold (Cherry)
Mr Stripey (Tigrella)
Pomodoro (Beef?)
Harbinger
1 unknown (probably Moneymaker or Belle - we lost the tag so weren't sure)
Most of the big pots are Morrisons flower buckets, 8 for 99p. They don't have holes in them, so I drilled holes around the outside, about an inch from the bottom. The idea is that the holes will still provide drainage, but the bottom inch of the pot will work as a bit of a reservoir to help keep the compost moist. I'm hoping that saves us a lot of watering, especially which is quite important as we have a hosepipe ban.
 |
| 3 tumbling toms in hanging baskets |
I've put the hanging basket brackets up for the Tumbling Toms. Lack of space means one is above the other.
All the other tomatoes have been potted on into the final large pots. They had all been potted on from 3.5in pots to 5in pots and kept in the greenhouse due to the cold weather. Some were only in the 5in pots for a week or so.
 |
| Some of the tomatoes in pots outside |
Most of the rest will be moved to the stepped beds outside the back of the house in 2 or 3 weeks time. At the moment, the stepped beds are still in shade part of the daytime - in a few weeks they'll get full sun all day.
The list is:
1 Shirley (greenhouse)
3 Tumbling Toms (in hanging baskets)
Moneymaker
Belle
Plum
Beefsteak
Gardeners Delight (Cherry)
White Cherry (Cherry)
Sungold (Cherry)
Mr Stripey (Tigrella)
Pomodoro (Beef?)
Harbinger
1 unknown (probably Moneymaker or Belle - we lost the tag so weren't sure)
Most of the big pots are Morrisons flower buckets, 8 for 99p. They don't have holes in them, so I drilled holes around the outside, about an inch from the bottom. The idea is that the holes will still provide drainage, but the bottom inch of the pot will work as a bit of a reservoir to help keep the compost moist. I'm hoping that saves us a lot of watering, especially which is quite important as we have a hosepipe ban.
Wednesday, 25 April 2012
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 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
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
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.
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.
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 |
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! |
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 |
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 |
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.
Sunday, 11 March 2012
More Sowings
I love this time of year: the sun starts shining, seeds start sprouting, I try to keep up with digging, the sowings and potting on and planting out ....
Lots of seeds are sprouting in the greenhouse - all the cauliflowers have started, some spinach, a couple of cucumbers etc.
This weekend we've sown:
8 Tomato Golden Sunrise
8 Tomato White Cherry
8 Tomato Roma
8 Tomato Harbinger
8 Tomato Pomodoro
8 Tomato Tigrella
19 Sweetcorn Sweet Bounty
8 Pak Choi Rubi
8 Lettuce Mixed Salad Leaves
4 Aubergine Black Beauty
4 Pepper Hot Caribbean Blend
4 Pepper Heatwave
4 Pepper Inferno
4 Chilli Cayenne
4 Chilli Hot Stuff
4 Chilli Twightlight
Large pot Leek Bandit
2 large pots Leek Musselburgh
1 half size seed tray Lambs Lettuce
Small trough Beetroot Boltardy
Large trough Carrot Chantenay Red
Small trough Carrot Purple Haze
Small trough Carrot Charlemagne
2 small troughs Carrot Autumn King 2
24 Red Cabbage Kalibos
8 Cauliflower Violetta
16 Cauliflower All Year Round
24 Kale Dwarf Green Curled
4 Sweet Pepper Jumbo
20 Sweet Pepper WorldBeater
1 Ginger root into an 8inch pot
Phew!
Lots of seeds are sprouting in the greenhouse - all the cauliflowers have started, some spinach, a couple of cucumbers etc.
This weekend we've sown:
8 Tomato Golden Sunrise
8 Tomato White Cherry
8 Tomato Roma
8 Tomato Harbinger
8 Tomato Pomodoro
8 Tomato Tigrella
19 Sweetcorn Sweet Bounty
8 Pak Choi Rubi
8 Lettuce Mixed Salad Leaves
4 Aubergine Black Beauty
4 Pepper Hot Caribbean Blend
4 Pepper Heatwave
4 Pepper Inferno
4 Chilli Cayenne
4 Chilli Hot Stuff
4 Chilli Twightlight
Large pot Leek Bandit
2 large pots Leek Musselburgh
1 half size seed tray Lambs Lettuce
Small trough Beetroot Boltardy
Large trough Carrot Chantenay Red
Small trough Carrot Purple Haze
Small trough Carrot Charlemagne
2 small troughs Carrot Autumn King 2
24 Red Cabbage Kalibos
8 Cauliflower Violetta
16 Cauliflower All Year Round
24 Kale Dwarf Green Curled
4 Sweet Pepper Jumbo
20 Sweet Pepper WorldBeater
1 Ginger root into an 8inch pot
Phew!
Sunday, 26 February 2012
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!
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!
Sunday, 19 February 2012
February Sowings
I've always heard about how women love to shop and how they love a bargain. Well true to form, my partner has been out bargain hunting! I should really have known what was going to happen when she moved in with 400 pairs of shoes and 80 handbags. Yes, really, she does have that many pairs of shoes and handbags!
She pops in all sorts of shops when she's at work and found some seed potatoes, onion sets and shallots in the pound shop. She bought some. They were a bargain at only �1. Apparently! I'm not complaining though, I think it's great!! There weren't many seed potatoes in each bag - only 8 in the first and 10 in the second - but about 50 onions in each bag. That means the onions are half the price they are in the normal garden centres.
Anyway, today was the day we finally got round to sowing loads of stuff - not just the cheapy stuff she found in the pound shop, but other seeds we had and other seed potatoes and onion sets we'd bought. We've had a couple of cold weeks, snow that lasted a week or so, and now it's quite mild again and the weather forecast is looking good for the next few days.
Potatoes - Swift - 1st Early
These were the pound shop seed potatoes. There were only 8 in the pack and all were sprouting, so we put them in buckets for the patio. 4 inches of compost in the bottom of the bucket, spud on top (sprouts pointing upwards), then cover with more compost. Keep topping up as the leaves grow and come through until the buckets are full.
We have loads more seed potatoes - 2nd Earlies from the pound shop, and King Edward and ?? from the garden centre. We'll probably plant the 2nd Earlies in sacks of compost, and the King Edwards will go in the potato bed in the veggie patch.
Elephant Garlic
Hands up if you've been given an elephant garlic bulb as a Christmas present! We did!! We used a couple of cloves in cooking and decided to plant the rest. So 6 cloves into 6 inch pots of compost.
Garlic needs frost / cold weather to encourage it to split into cloves, so this might be the wrong time to plant it. It might need to stay in pots until summer next year. We'll have to wait and see.
Carrots
Another 3 troughs. 1 each of Nantes Frubund, Early Nantes and Rainbow. The rainbow carrots said to sow from March, but it's quite mild weather and we'll be keeping the troughs in the greenhouse for a few weeks, so decided to take a chance on sowing them now.
Cauliflower
Back in the autumn we found Romanesco cauliflower in Surrey Street Market in Croydon. And then we found the seeds in the garden centre, so we just had to have some! It kind of looks like something from another planet - it's green and spikey, but it's definitely cauliflower and tastes like normal cauliflower. And while we were in the garden centre, we found Purple Grafitti Cauliflower seeds - this looks the same as normal cauliflower, but it's purple.
We sowed 4 Romanesco, 4 Purple Grafitti, 16 All Year Round. We love cauliflower, so we'll be sowing more in a couple of months.
Broccoli
We love broccoli too. There are enough varieties (broccoli and calabrese) to ensure we can pick broccoli all year round, and we have several varieties of seeds here. We already have 15 Summer Purple growing in the greenhouse, so today we sowed:
16 Green Magic
8 Summer Purple
We'll be sowing more in a couple of months.
Tomatoes
We want literally as many tomatoes as we can grow. If we don't eat them in salads and sandwiches, we can cook them or freeze them for later. We are going to need LOADS of big pots! So the list of todays sowings is:
24 Moneymaker
4 Belle (Beef tomato)
1 Shirley (as it was the only one left in the packet)
19 Pomodoro
4 Tumbling Tom (Cherry) for growing from hanging baskets
4 Sungold (Cherry)
16 Gardeners Delight (Cherry)
Chillies & Peppers
We love chillies and peppers too, so need to grow loads of these. The sweet pepper seeds we sowed last month did nothing, and I don't normally have much luck with chillies, so hoping for better results with these. Today we sowed:
Chilli (Cayenne)
Chilli (Hot Stuff)
Chilli (Twilight)
Pepper (Caribbean Blend)
Sweet Pepper (Worldbeater)
Cucumber
Had trouble finding greenhouse cucumbers this year. Only found one variety called Bangkok. The packet says 5 seeds per pack - we got lucky, we got 6! OK, so we're not going to need loads and loads of seeds, but it still seems a bit tight of the seed companies to only put 5 (or 6) seeds in a pack. Anyway, we sowed 4 today, wait and see what happens ....
Celery
Never had much luck with celery before, but love it, so trying again this year. 4 Lathoms Galaxy sown. Will do more later. Must find out the best ways to grow it.
Spinach
Baby spinach leaves are always good in salads, and bigger leaves are good in a curry etc. I've always managed to grow spinach just fine, so sowed:
8 Hector
8 Picasso
I'll sow some spinach beet this year too and hopefully find a permanent home for it.
Onions
The other half found Stetton and Stuttgarter onions in the pound shop - approx 50 per bag. We picked up 100 Red Baron and 100 Stuttgarter Giant from the garden centre too.
Packs often have a few more than they say, but some are dried up or rotten, so it's always just approximate. We planted:
100 Red Baron
50 Stuttgarter (from pound shop)
10 Stuttgarter (from garden centre)
all in 2in pots to give them a head start against the weeds in the onion bed. We'll start the other onions in a couple of weeks time.
And Then ....
.... it was time for a well earned cuppa. We've got loads more sowing and planting to do, and loads of other garden jobs to do. It's going to be a very busy year!
She pops in all sorts of shops when she's at work and found some seed potatoes, onion sets and shallots in the pound shop. She bought some. They were a bargain at only �1. Apparently! I'm not complaining though, I think it's great!! There weren't many seed potatoes in each bag - only 8 in the first and 10 in the second - but about 50 onions in each bag. That means the onions are half the price they are in the normal garden centres.
Anyway, today was the day we finally got round to sowing loads of stuff - not just the cheapy stuff she found in the pound shop, but other seeds we had and other seed potatoes and onion sets we'd bought. We've had a couple of cold weeks, snow that lasted a week or so, and now it's quite mild again and the weather forecast is looking good for the next few days.
Potatoes - Swift - 1st Early
These were the pound shop seed potatoes. There were only 8 in the pack and all were sprouting, so we put them in buckets for the patio. 4 inches of compost in the bottom of the bucket, spud on top (sprouts pointing upwards), then cover with more compost. Keep topping up as the leaves grow and come through until the buckets are full.
We have loads more seed potatoes - 2nd Earlies from the pound shop, and King Edward and ?? from the garden centre. We'll probably plant the 2nd Earlies in sacks of compost, and the King Edwards will go in the potato bed in the veggie patch.
Elephant Garlic
Hands up if you've been given an elephant garlic bulb as a Christmas present! We did!! We used a couple of cloves in cooking and decided to plant the rest. So 6 cloves into 6 inch pots of compost.
Garlic needs frost / cold weather to encourage it to split into cloves, so this might be the wrong time to plant it. It might need to stay in pots until summer next year. We'll have to wait and see.
Carrots
Another 3 troughs. 1 each of Nantes Frubund, Early Nantes and Rainbow. The rainbow carrots said to sow from March, but it's quite mild weather and we'll be keeping the troughs in the greenhouse for a few weeks, so decided to take a chance on sowing them now.
Cauliflower
Back in the autumn we found Romanesco cauliflower in Surrey Street Market in Croydon. And then we found the seeds in the garden centre, so we just had to have some! It kind of looks like something from another planet - it's green and spikey, but it's definitely cauliflower and tastes like normal cauliflower. And while we were in the garden centre, we found Purple Grafitti Cauliflower seeds - this looks the same as normal cauliflower, but it's purple.
We sowed 4 Romanesco, 4 Purple Grafitti, 16 All Year Round. We love cauliflower, so we'll be sowing more in a couple of months.
Broccoli
We love broccoli too. There are enough varieties (broccoli and calabrese) to ensure we can pick broccoli all year round, and we have several varieties of seeds here. We already have 15 Summer Purple growing in the greenhouse, so today we sowed:
16 Green Magic
8 Summer Purple
We'll be sowing more in a couple of months.
Tomatoes
We want literally as many tomatoes as we can grow. If we don't eat them in salads and sandwiches, we can cook them or freeze them for later. We are going to need LOADS of big pots! So the list of todays sowings is:
24 Moneymaker
4 Belle (Beef tomato)
1 Shirley (as it was the only one left in the packet)
19 Pomodoro
4 Tumbling Tom (Cherry) for growing from hanging baskets
4 Sungold (Cherry)
16 Gardeners Delight (Cherry)
Chillies & Peppers
We love chillies and peppers too, so need to grow loads of these. The sweet pepper seeds we sowed last month did nothing, and I don't normally have much luck with chillies, so hoping for better results with these. Today we sowed:
Chilli (Cayenne)
Chilli (Hot Stuff)
Chilli (Twilight)
Pepper (Caribbean Blend)
Sweet Pepper (Worldbeater)
Cucumber
Had trouble finding greenhouse cucumbers this year. Only found one variety called Bangkok. The packet says 5 seeds per pack - we got lucky, we got 6! OK, so we're not going to need loads and loads of seeds, but it still seems a bit tight of the seed companies to only put 5 (or 6) seeds in a pack. Anyway, we sowed 4 today, wait and see what happens ....
Celery
Never had much luck with celery before, but love it, so trying again this year. 4 Lathoms Galaxy sown. Will do more later. Must find out the best ways to grow it.
Spinach
Baby spinach leaves are always good in salads, and bigger leaves are good in a curry etc. I've always managed to grow spinach just fine, so sowed:
8 Hector
8 Picasso
I'll sow some spinach beet this year too and hopefully find a permanent home for it.
Onions
The other half found Stetton and Stuttgarter onions in the pound shop - approx 50 per bag. We picked up 100 Red Baron and 100 Stuttgarter Giant from the garden centre too.
Packs often have a few more than they say, but some are dried up or rotten, so it's always just approximate. We planted:
100 Red Baron
50 Stuttgarter (from pound shop)
10 Stuttgarter (from garden centre)
all in 2in pots to give them a head start against the weeds in the onion bed. We'll start the other onions in a couple of weeks time.
And Then ....
.... it was time for a well earned cuppa. We've got loads more sowing and planting to do, and loads of other garden jobs to do. It's going to be a very busy year!
Saturday, 18 February 2012
January Sowings
With the start of the new year and feeling really positive, we decided to sow a few trays of seeds early in January. Not much success though. All seeds were sown in cells and kept in the greenhouse, unheated.
15 Broccoli (Summer Purple) - all have sprouted, looking good
24 Cauliflower (All Year Round) - a few sprouted, but died
24 Tomatoes (Moneymaker and other varieties) - a few sprouted, but all died
24 Cabbage (can't remember but was a winter variety) - no sproutings
Not to worry - it's almost spring!
15 Broccoli (Summer Purple) - all have sprouted, looking good
24 Cauliflower (All Year Round) - a few sprouted, but died
24 Tomatoes (Moneymaker and other varieties) - a few sprouted, but all died
24 Cabbage (can't remember but was a winter variety) - no sproutings
Not to worry - it's almost spring!
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