Spring 2016

Hmmm, I didn't post much last year did I? We did alot of DIY in the house last Spring so the garden was a bit neglected. Having said that, the potatoes and parsnips did well. In fact I'm still digging up the parsnips - here's today's crop:

Don't think I'll win any prizes, except maybe for rude unusual shapes

I'm not sure parsnips are worth growing again? We all love eating them, but they take up so much space and for such a long time. They also don't seem to taste that different to shop bought ones (unlike home-grown carrots). Maybe I just need to be better at inter-planting?

Last Spring, in the end of season sale, I bought 4 tomato plants and a yellow courgette plant from a local nursery. The tomatoes grew really well, but then succumbed to blight before they had a chance ripen - it was a cold, wet summer. However, the courgettes were great and I'd grow them again.

I planted onions, shallots and garlic last Autumn which are doing well. I had too many sets to fit in the raised beds, so put the spares in individual cells. My plan is to use these to fill the gaps in the next couple of weeks.

Today I have dug over 3 of the beds, and sown lots of seeds which are now sitting on the kitchen windowsill:

I made a batch of newspaper pots for the sweetcorn (they have long roots) and the rest have gone in cells in my (new) windowsill propagator. I've not grown tomatoes from seed before, so fingers crossed for them. The 2 types of squash came free with Kitchen Garden magazine, so they're new too. The chillies I have tried before, with mixed success due to weather conditions (I think).

Here's hoping for a more productive year than 2015!

Sowing

Had a free hour today, so took the opportunity to empty out and tidy my little greenhouses - and "re-home" the snails I found in there. I can never bring myself to destroy them, but throwing them in the border makes me feel as if I'm giving them a fair chance at least. So, once I'd sorted the contents (somewhat muddled after a couple of falls during the Winter storms) I set about sowing some seeds - Dwarf French beans. I'd intended to plant sweetcorn as well, but it turns out I'd run out of seeds. Now there's an excuse for a trip to the nursery if ever I there was one!

Ready to get sowing

I spotted a half price, double size growhouse in the garden centre the other day, so it would have been rude not to buy it really! I've been waiting for the weather to warm up a bit but there's no sign of that yet, so I figured it was time to construct it anyway. I've taken the bottom section out of my old, smaller one and it now fits neatly under the kitchen window. Plenty of room for lots of seed trays, no need for all the shuffling around and balancing I did last year - all I need now is some sun!

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?

Planting time!

I finally got to do some planting this week! I have bought/acquired various seeds and seeing how I'm a novice at most of these veg I'm going by the recommendations on the packets.

Straight into one raised bed, I've put a row of carrots, parsnips (on a tape) and beetroot.

 It rained (and snowed) alot on Sunday so when I did this on Monday, the ground was still wet and I didn't bother watering before I put the seeds in. All these packets said to make a drill approx 1" deep and cover with a thin layer of compost, so that's what I did. Having the excess topsoil came in handy, along with the garden sieve I inherited from my grandfather, Joe.


Joe was a very keen gardener and always had masses of fruit and veg growing - I hope he'd be proud of my attempts.