Harvesting my first spuds!

I'm so excited - I dug up my 1st Kestral potatoes tonight! It was all the more exciting as you have no idea what's hiding below the surface until you start poking around. These were the first few I found, and this should be enough for 1 meal so I stopped there. I can't wait to taste them!

PS They tasted absolutely great! - served with a knob of butter and a sprinkling of freshly picked garlic chives.

Looking good

A little bit of sun yesterday and things are looking up.


The 1st potato flowers are opening, as are the lupins. 

A few strawberries are developing - I think they may need netting to prevent the birds/mice getting them.

The salad leaves I planted a couple of weeks ago are also growing well and it looks like I might get some flowers on the courgettes in the next few days.

The mange tout are looking good too - might have to pick some for tea tonight!

Summer?!

So this is summer eh? I took this photo during the deluge we had earlier in the week - the blue tray had been propped up under the table, but blew over and was almost filled within a couple of hours! I suppose we should look on the bright side - no watering, the water butt is full and all the veggies are growing.

26th May 2012

16th June 2012

Monday 4th June

Everything's growing so well at the moment! I've been able to pick plenty of spicy salad leaves and rocket, although both have bolted are now beginning to flower. As a result I've sown some more - I wasn't sure I'd bother with a second sowing, but they've been so good I want more! I've also planted some rainbow chard this week.

The sweetcorn's shot up this week with all the warm weather, and the beans I put in beside them have germinated - they are quickly catching up with the one's I planted earlier in the toilet roll tubes. It makes me wonder whether it was worth sowing them early - or is it more down to the sudden change in weather conditions?

The peas are flowering, and the first potatoes have just started showing flower buds. The tomatoes are also showing a few flowers. I planted out a few more red onions, beside Amy's purple and globe carrots to discourage the carrot fly. As for the courgettes? Only one of the earlier sowings have survived, but 2 more have germinated from those I sowed last week.


My mini greenhouse has been cleared out and I've taken out the 2nd shelf to make room for a big planter. I've put the more tender plants (aubergine, chillies and peppers) in here. As for where to keep the spare shelf? - propped up behind the planter to act as a support framework for the aubergines and peppers!

Courgettes

I'm not having much luck with my courgettes. The first lot completely failed to germinate (I suspect it was too cold). The second batch germinated brilliantly and were looking really healthy until I potted them on, when they just seemed to shrivel up. Left with just 2 plants, I have planted up a new container (on special offer at the local plant nursery - so how could I refuse?).

The up-turned bottles were Sara's Mum's idea, having seen it done where they live in Greece. Since she mentioned this a few weeks ago I've seen it repeated in many places as a drought busting idea to encourage strong, deep roots. I've also reused the cut-off bottoms to act as propagators for six more seeds - I'm determined to harvest a few courgettes!!

Blackberries

I've always managed to get plenty of blackberries from the local hedges, but I was given a thorn-less blackberry plant by a neighbour a few weeks ago (see here) which apparently gives much bigger and sweeter fruit. This prompted me to clear another overgrown corner of the back garden to make space for it. I forgot to take a "before" shot, but here's the "after", complete with free poppy that had self-seeded in the same pot!

Cabbages

I hadn't really intended to grow cabbages, as no-one in the family is that keen on them. However, I've started  buying Kitchen Garden magazine and it invariably comes with free seeds. Well, it would have been rude not to plant them  - wouldn't it?! So, the first seeds I planted this year were cabbages - DT Brown Golden Acre (primo II). I got a bit carried away, and although I didn't plant the whole packet, I have more seedlings than we are ever going to eat! The ones in the ground are growing away nicely, despite the birds best efforts, so the potted ones are going spare. I cannot bring myself to throw them away (it's hard enough thinning my crops) - so what to do with them? I gave a few to my friend Sara (Sew Appetising) at the weekend, but that still leaves quite a few. So, I decided to give some away...

Sara pointed me at a website to make paper pots (higgledygarden.com) so I sat down with an old newspaper and wine bottle and this is the result. I wasn't sure how well they'd stay together, but once I'd put a bit of soil in they were pretty sturdy. Definitely worth doing again.

A bit of re-potting later and I was ready to put out my stall!






I initially put 8 out, and so far 6 have gone :-)

Sweetcorn

Just planted out Amy's sweetcorn (Sally and friends), along with it's companion planting - her broad bean (sadly, only "Biggy" made it), the single runner bean that grew in a toilet roll tube, and a trio of French beans (nicknamed "The triplets"!) that we bought from the outdoor education table at school. I've also put in a few more runner beans at the base of the sweetcorn, in keeping with the "Three sisters" planting method.

Tomatoes

Finally, the sun has returned and looks like it's here for the week! And, it's British Tomato Week, so when better to put in some tomatoes? This year I'm growing Alicante (a medium sized cordon type), Gardener's Delight (another cordon, cherry sized) and Sweet Million (again, a cordon and cherry sized).

Tomatoes are pretty much the only veg I've grown previously with any success. In the past they have been in a grow bag against the house, on the patio. But I've always struggled to keep them sufficiently watered. So, where to put them this year? After much debate, I've decided to stick with the grow bag, but have invested in a pack of 3 tomato grow-pots.

These are supposed to help by encouraging 2 types of root - the deeper, water-seeking roots go down into the bag, while the shallower feeding roots develop in the pot. I've sited the bag against the south facing fence so they should (British summer willing!) get plenty of sun.

Finally, a bit of companion planting - a pot marigold (Calendula). I've also planted some basil seeds today (free with Innocent Smoothies), which will be planted out in front of the tomatoes when they're big enough.

 In the meantime I've put out the pot of basil that has been sitting on the windowsill since I bought it (the best before date is 02 Nov 2011!!).

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!

Potatoes

Despite the distinct lack of sunshine recently, the potatoes are growing really well - they must like the rain!


This is what my Kestrel potatoes were looking like last weekend (5th May), before I did some "earthing up"...

And after the earthing up (on the 6th May)...

They have been growing well all week and are now even further above the soil than last week! 

And the ones growing in bags are doing pretty well too. In the bags, I've put a bottle with the bottom cut off so that I can water to the base more easily, although with all the rain we've had recently I haven't used the watering can in weeks!

5th May

6th May

11th May

Water butt

Way back in March, we had scorching temperature and wall-to-wall sunshine. With all the talk of a drought and impending hosepipe bans, I thought I'd better invest in a water butt. The downpipes from the house roof are both in the narrow pathway down the side of the house, so unless we invest in a slimline version, that's not going to be very practical. Instead, we figured that we could collect the water from the roof of the shed (this used to just get channelled to the ground and wasted).

Amy volunteered to get up on the roof of the shed and filled a bucket with dead leaves and moss.

I duly ordered the water butt and waited for it to arrive. And waited. And waited.

Somewhat more than 28 days later (of which it rained on every one, making April 2012 the wettest on record!) the water butt was delivered, complete with downpipe converter kit. Guess what? Our downpipe was too small - argh! Yesterday we spent a couple of hours removing the old coal bunker and today we bought new downpipe, and installed the butt! Typically, within minutes of finishing, the sun came out!

Things are growing!

The seeds I planted just 5 days ago have all germinated! The extra warmth on the kitchen windowsill has obviously done the trick. They are now growing so fast, you can almost see it! 

Sweetcorn seedlings

Courgette seedlings

And the crops outside have done pretty well this week too...

Spinach, salad and onions

Potatoes

Strawberries

Salad crops

Garlic and peas

Sally Sweetcorn

The other jobs I did in Monday's sunshine (that didn't last long did it?!) were planting another 8 seed potatoes (Sante - main crop) and potting on the more tender crops.

I pricked out the chilli, pepper and aubergines that finally germinated inside (see here and here). The courgettes never did show themselves, so I've ditched them and started again - a new packet of seed, covered in vermiculite, in a propagator on the kitchen windowsill. The other disaster we had was Amy's first sowing of sweetcorn. I think both of these were too cold outside, and by the time I'd realised and brought them inside, the seeds were no longer viable. We did manage to get 1 to germinate - nicknamed "Sally"!

Sally sweetcorn

At last - the sun has returned!

Phew! - after all the rain we've had over the last few weeks, I was beginning to wonder if the sun would ever return, but today's been glorious. I've put the salad plants that were in the greenhouse out into the raised bed. I'm not sure I'll bother planting them inside next year  as those I planted outside 2 weeks later seem much bigger and healthier already.

Before...

...after

Outdoor grown salad