Tomatoes and courgettes

I didn't get around to sowing any seeds for tomatoes or courgettes this year, so I bought a few little plants last week. It was really cold at the beginning of the week, so I kept them under cover until the weather warmed up. As the has been shining this weekend, I planted them out. I only have 3 collars (originally bought for a grow-bag) so the 4th plant has gone straight into the ground. The tomato varieties are: Alicante, Sungold, Swwet Aperitif and Super sweet 100.


I filled in the gaps around them with a few onion sets. There wasn't enough room for these in the raised bed when I planted the rest in the Autumn, so they went into pots over the Winter.

The courgettes are F1 Parador, a yellow variety. I've only got 2 plants, but they will hopefully produce plenty of fruit. In the background are the strawberries in full flower.

Busy weekend of (over-due!) sunshine

Wow! What a lovely week-end we've had! It's been such a long time since the sun shone for more than a few minutes...

I decided to take the fleece covers off the raised beds yesterday, hoping that the veg wouldn't get eaten. I was initially a bit dismayed to see a load of birds arrive. On closer inspection, they were house sparrows and goldfinches and seemed to be eating between the greenery, so I left them to it. When I went out later, I couldn't see any obvious damage, so I think they may have been eating the ants. House sparrows are supposed to be in decline (have a read here), but they seem to be thriving around here, and we even have a nest in the eaves!

Jobs I've done this weekend include:

• thinned out the red onions
• earthed up the potatoes again
• weeded
• potted on the sweetcorn and courgettes
• planted out the brussel sprouts
• lawn mowing
• clearing a very overgrown flower bed

Well I did say it was a busy weekend!

First harvest!

 My salad leaves are coming on really well. I sowed a wide row outside on the 26th March and have kept the bed covered with horticultural fleece quite a lot of the time. They are doing almost as well as the ones I planted in my mini greenhouse 3 weeks earlier. I decided to pick a few (!) to have with our lunch today - mostly decorative, but they tasted great!













You can also see how well the spinach, onions and peas are coming on:

Running out of space

Before...

I pricked out the cell grown salad leaves and some of the onions yesterday. I even remembered to pre-warm the compost by putting it in the sun for the morning!


I've run out of space in my mini-greenhouse, so have brought the more tender seeds (which still haven't germinated) inside the house. It has been pretty cold since I planted them and my greenhouse doesn't get the sun until the afternoon. Maybe I should move it to a sunnier position? Hopefully the seeds haven't rotted, but are just laying dormant - only time will tell...

After...

PS I took these photos yesterday and the seedlings looked a bit bedraggled - I'm glad to say they look suitably perky again today!

More sowing

Having spent the morning tidying, I spent the afternoon sowing more seeds yesterday in the glorious sunshine.

Bed 5

In raised bed 5 I planted a row each of Spring onions, Red onions and Spinach, and a wide row (approx 10cm) of Mixed salad leaves.

Bed 2

Lupin seed

In bed 2, I planted Cabbage, Lupins and Brussel sprouts. The cabbage managed a whole row, but the Lupin packet turned out to only have 6 seeds in and the sprouts only had enough for half a row! The lupins were a freeby, given away as a soil improver, so I can't really complain, however, the sprouts I'd bought myself. Not having bought many seeds in the past, this year I've got them from all over the place. The sprouts came from Wilkinson and so far I'm not impressed - not many seeds and poor germination of the ones sown 3 weeks ago. I may have learned the hard way to spend a bit more on better seeds...

Greenhouse growing

In my mini-greenhouse, I planted Aubergine, Peppers, Courgette and Chillies (Joel's favourite!). I had intended to do half a tray of each, but there weren't that many courgette seeds so I ended up planting them all, which meant fewer chillies (I'll plant more later). The courgettes were 1 per cell, but the others are much smaller seeds to doubled up.

Sweet peas

I found some old peat pots in the shed, so filled these with sweet peas (mostly 1 per pot, but a few ended up with 2 to use them up). Sweet peas are one of my favourite flowers and can't be bad for companion planting - can they?