Basil

I made the most of the weather when I got home from work this afternoon and potted up my basil. The "Red Rubin" seeds came free with Kitchen Garden magazine and their advice is to sow thinly and grow them on as a clump rather than individually - apparently this prevents stem rot. So, rather than splitting up each cell, I potted them on as a clump. Fingers crossed!

Basil "Red Rubin" seedlings before potting on

Basil "Genovese" seedlings before potting on

The "after" shot!

Potting on

My sweetcorn and courgettes were looking a bit overgrown in their seed trays, so I spent some time potting them on today. Good job too - their roots (especially the sweetcorn) were really long already. To give the sweetcorn some extra depth, I put them in toilet roll tubes on top of the pot (unfortunately I was 1 short!)

Sprouting seeds

A week ago, I sowed a whole load of seeds and they are already sprouting well. The only exception being the peppers - no sign of them yet. The courgettes and basil are doing really well as you you can see:

Courgette seedlings

2 types of basil seedlings

The sweetcorn in the propagator

are growing well:

and the sweetcorn that were chitting in the airing cupboard have also done well, with all but 2 having lovely long roots. I've potted these up into 3" pots now, and put them in my growhouse outside.

Busy weekend

Well, finally the sun has decided to shine, and the wind is somewhat less fierce, so maybe Spring has finally sprung! I've made the most of it and been busy planting.

Home Guard potatoes before being covered
(with garlic and onions in the corner of the bed)

Yesterday morning I planted out 12 of my "Home Guard" early potatoes. I think I probably could have risked putting them in earlier, but hopefully the extra chitting time will allow them to catch up quickly as they've got lovely shoots by now. I've still got some more to plant, but can't decide where to put them, so they'll have to wait.










In the afternoon, I put in a wide row of 30 mangetout (Delikata) and 2 rows of parsnips (Lisbonnais on a tape, and Duchess F1). I'm going to make a big effort to thin them out this year in the hope that I get better roots. I also sowed some sweetcorn (Applause F1), courgettes (All Green Bush), chillis (Hot Cayenne) and 2 types of basil Red Rubin and Sweet Genovese). These have all gone into my windowsill propagator in the kitchen.

Today I had more of a flower day, with a trip to the local nursery to buy some plug plants to grow on. I've put some sweet pea seeds in to soak overnight and some more directly into toilet roll tubes. I'm also trying another method for sweetcorn - they are sitting on damp kitchen towel in the airing cupboard until they sprout. It will be interesting to see which method does best.

Carrots

Just found this post that I wrote last October, but doesn't seem to have been published:

I've been regularly picking carrots for a few weeks now. A few had split (blame the weather) but not so many of the recent ones.These little ones were the first of the Chanteney carrots that Amy planted. They look good and taste fine, but they have pretty much all had a green top, and don't taste as carrotty as the conventional ones. I'm not sure about green bits, so tend to cut the worst out, which is a bit fiddly given the size. I wonder whether I should have earthed them up like the potatoes?

Getting ready for the summer

This morning the clocks changed, the sun was out and it was beginning to feel a bit like Spring. Our back garden is gradually drying out, so it's now possible to walk on the grass in Crocs and not get muddy toes! Anyway, I thought I'd make the most of it and decided to prune the raspberries that I planted last year (have a look here). 4 of the 6 canes have started sprouting and it looks like there's a few runners coming up too, so I guess they weren't too waterlogged last year. I've also dug out some of the bottom of the compost bin to use as a mulch for them (and the strawberries in the same bed).

By this afternoon, the winter had returned - overcast and cold. I decided the ground is still a bit cold to sow much in the raised beds, so have started a few things off in seed trays in my new growhouse. I've put in some Galaxy runner beans (in toilet roll tubes), Lisbon spring onions and a couple of types of mixed salad leaves (Mr Fothergill's mixed lettuce leaves and Suttons Spicy Oriental mix). These were all from seed packets I opened last year, but hopefully they'll still germinate well enough.

Shallots

Last year I grew red onions from seed. Although I did get a few that developed to an eatable size, they were all pretty small. I'm not sure whether the rubbish weather was to blame or whether it was because I grew them from seed. Anyway, this year I thought I'd have a change. Before Christmas I put in Senshyu Yellow Onions and today I've put in some shallots. My fingers were frozen in the few minutes I was outside, so I've covered them up with fleece (will keep the birds off too!). The onions are beginning to show some green shoots already, so I won't bother covering them. Only time will tell...

Last year's red onions

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!

Asparagus

I wasn't planning to grow asparagus, as the family never seem that enthusiastic when I buy it. But when we went to the garden centre the other day, Amy persuaded me that I should get some as she loves it! Needless to say, the pot was purchased. Today I finally managed to find 5 minutes between the showers to get it in the ground. The pot label says it's a year old, so I might even get a few spears this year if I'm lucky...

Garden planner software

I've been playing with the 30 day free trial of Dobies (of Devon) garden planner software. I've not included the whole garden, and not used all the software's features, but I like it so far. I put in last year's plants and it warns me for this year's positions for healthy crop rotation which is handy. It can create a web page for mobile use which might be useful when I'm outside, although could result in a very muddy phone!

If you're interested, the webpage it generated is here.

Christmas Veggies

They may have been small (and not quite perfectly formed) but I managed to harvest a few fresh carrots and sprouts for our Christmas lunch! The carrots had been got by carrot fly larvae, but I managed to cut those bits out and once I'd added some shop bought veg we had a feast (although mine definitely tasted better than those I bought!) The aim for next year - keep some parsnips and potatoes as well...

Purple radishes

On a sunny day, way back in August, I pulled up these beauties. They didn't look much covered in mud, but just look how bright they were once I'd washed them off! The first few I harvested small, but realised that they are supposed to be this big, so left the rest to grow away and picked them when they started flowering.

They sat in the fridge for a while before I could decide what to do with them. Apparently it's a German tradition to eat this type thinly sliced and served with salt as an accompaniment to beer! As I mentioned before, the taste was more than a bit overpowering for our tastes, so I looked up some recipes for radish relish. In the end I combined a few to come up with my own, but these 2 were good sources:
www.radishgarden.com
www.food.com

What I ended up using using was:
1 1/2 lb Radish
1 1/2 large Onions
3 sticks Celery
3 tsp Salt
3/4 lb Sugar
1 1/2 tbsp Dill seed
1 1/2 tsp Celery seed
1 whole Chilli
1 1/2 tbsp Mustard seed
12 fl oz Vinegar

As yet I haven't tried the finished product, preferring to let it mature. It must be close now...

Long over-due update

It's been far too long since I last did a post, but I've got several lined up to get back up to date. The school holidays didn't leave me much time to get out into the garden, but luckily there wasn't a great deal to do. Then we went away for a couple of weeks and inevitably the weeds and pests made themselves at home. I'm finally feeling on top of things again, so will find some time to finish off the waiting posts.

Overall, I've not done too badly considering the terrible weather we've had this year, but have learnt a few lessons along the way - there are some things I will definitely try again, and others I won't!

Time for some more salad

Wow, what a change in the weather - sunny and mid 20s!! I cleared out the first sowing of salad leaves and rocket a couple of weeks ago (see here) which left some space for more. So this morning, I made the most of the sunshine and sowed a wide row of mixed leaves (not spicy this time - a more traditional mix of lettuces) and another of basil.

Having watched Gardener's World last Friday, I'm feeling quite smug about my carrots - Monty Don only managed to harvest 3 tiny ones, whereas I've already pulled a few and have got lots more nearly ready. We love carrots, so I've put in some more today (Autumn King). Rather than a narrow row, I've sown the carrots in a wide row (as Monty Don did!) to see if that works better. I also put in the last 7 red onions that were still in pots. They've gone in next to the carrots in the hope that the smell keeps the carrot fly away.

We found the purple radishes a bit too strong to eat raw, so I've sown some traditional pink ones today (French Breakfast). Let's hope they're more palatable!

Innocent seeds update

Back in the Spring, I collected quite a few seeds from Innocent Smoothies and duly planted them (see here and here) and watered them. Unfortunately hardly any of them germinated (1 single carrot, no tomatoes). I followed the instruction on the first few packets, but the basil packs split open when I removed them from the packaging. I planted  the seeds anyway and this is what they look like now (after I pinched out a few of the growing tips for pizzas!). The seeds came in thinnish cardboard, but my feeling is that it was too thick for the seedlings to break through. I think I'm going to leave them in pots now, as all my bedding plants and the pot of basil I planted out have all been either eaten by pests, or washed away!