Showing posts with label onions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label onions. Show all posts

Monday, June 4, 2018

Update

4th June 2018

I seem to be having very mixed success this year. The tomato plants I bought have grown well and now have flowers on. However, the onions I planted around them a few weeks ago have not done much at all (although the Autumn planted ones are looking pretty good). I bought a small pot of basil over the weekend, so have popped that in a gap.
Tomatoes, onions and basil
Carrots and garlic chives

The carrots I sowed straight into the ground now have 3 healthy looking shoots (out of a whole row of seeds!). The second sowing I started in cardboard toilet roll tubes have germinated well, so I've planted them out next to the garlic chives (hoping that'll keep the carrot fly away). I know that carrots don't normally like being transplanted, so I've left them in the tubes. I wonder if this will encourage straighter roots too?
Mangetout



I have put in some netting for the mangetout to grow up and it seems to be doing pretty well.

Purple sprouting and mangetout
The purple sprouting broccoli that I bought on a whim is growing really well, however alot of the French beans got eaten over night last week. I have resorted to slug pellets and netting as they could have been attacked by slugs, birds and/or mice.


Poor French bean seedlings

Courgettes and Nasturtiums





The 2 courgette plants and nasturtiums are doing really well, with several courgettes already at finger size.
Sweetcorn, butternut squash and lettuce




The sweetcorn is growing well, but only 1 of the butternut squash seedlings survived. I bought another butternut squash plant because even that 1 was looking pretty delicate, but so far it's hanging in there. The cos (?) lettuces are growing quite nicely, and I've added some more. These were another impulse buy at the garden I visited recently under the NGS scheme. I think they're Romaine.

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Maintenance jobs

Boring but essential, I spent quite some time this afternoon weeding my onions - they were looking a bit neglected. I was joined by the female blackbird who is nesting in our front hedge. She seemed quite happy, just inches away from me while I worked. After removing all the weeds, I watered and mulched them with homemade compost, so now they look much better.

I planted these as sets last Autumn as that gave me a fantastic harvest last year. However, this year they don't seem to be doing quite so well and I'm not quite sure why. I think some may have been dug up by cats and some may have rotted as the winter was so wet. When I planted them I had quite a few left over. I couldn't quite bring myself to throw them away, so I very generously free-cycled them. On reflection, I should have planted them in pots to grow on and fill the holes. Maybe next year...

The other job was earthing up the potatoes. I used more of my homemade compost, combined with some of the top soil which I'm still using up.