Fruit, Veg, Flowers and Slugs

Over the weekend I was lucky enough to get several hours in the garden, pottering around, doing a little weeding, edging the lawn where it had become a little untidy, moving some pots around and generally tidying up. I also had time to begin the Winter Crop Experiment.  The White Ishikura Spring Onions  have been sown into a trough and the Carrot Amsterdam Forcing 3  sown into a couple of old buckets that I grow the odd thing in and a spare terracotta pot. I have used bulk standard multi-purpose compost bought from the local Horticultural Guild Trading Sheds on Sunday morning. They have all been placed in the Greenhouse and now the waiting game begins. I am as confident as you can be that they will germinate and all being well I will have a few extra crops throughout the months of autumn and hopefully even early winter.   Just for fun, as I am not sure if this sowing will work, I have also sown a line of  Carrot Amsterdam Forcing 3 in the veg patch. This is very late for outdoor sowing

 I have decided to have a go at growing some crops that are usually more associated with summer and autumn for a winter harvest, all being well.  Growing salad leaves for winter harvests isn't that unusual, there are some that are better sown in winter. in fact such as Lamb's Lettuce. I have in the past grown various cut and come again types in pots and even old buckets, sown in late autumn and when the cold weather really hits moved under cover into the Greenhouse, which of course by that time was empty the Tomato plants having long since been removed and composted. You don't get copious amounts but I have managed to grow enough to see me through the winter months - I don't know about you but I don't eat as many salads in December and January anyway.  This year I am having a go with Spring Onions and Carrots!  I have White Ishikura Spring Onions which the packet informs me are tender with long stems and slow to bulb. Usually sown between March and July to be harve

I have been pretty useless updating the blog recently, my apologies for that. I have though been busy on the plot with plenty going on.  What a crazy year so far with the weather. We've had late frosts, baking sunshine and temperatures in the thirties, torrential downpours and near gale force winds at times all in the space of a few days! The mid-month heatwave meant the UK had its fifth warmest July on record but we'd also had the wettest May as I understand it and June was simply all over the show!  It has certainly kept me busy and meant some harvests are going incredibly well whilst others are struggling.  I have a Parsnip that has gone to seed, honestly the first time I have ever seen that in August and the Sonesta Dwarf French Beans (yellow) have been a disappointment thus far with lots of misshapen beans and the slugs have had a real go at some of the plants. There is hope though with some nice looking beans coming through now. The  Amethyst Dwarf French Beans  (purple

Firstly, sorry for the title but I do love a poor pun.  I managed to get a few hours in on the plot Saturday morning in the lovely sunshine which is always a bonus. I was down to my vest and shorts at one point, nice for me, not so nice fof the neighbours!  The Runner Bean seedlings have been planted out into the bed, some were significantly bigger than I had thought, and all look well and healthy as I write on Monday. They were given a real good soaking and I will continue to keep them well watered throughout spring and summer as they are thirsty plants.  The  Sonesta Dwarf French Bean  (yellow) seedlings have moved from the conservatory to the greenhouse as part of their hardening off programme and all seems well with them. The  Amethyst Dwarf French Beans  (purple) sowed direct into the bed have clearly failed - it was pretty ambitious on my part sowing them in March - and I have sowed a number into pots now which have taken the place of the Sonesta seedlings in the conservatory.  O

Sorry for the delay in this post, it has just been a bit manic down at mine one way or another and finding a few moments to sit down and compose some content has proved mission impossible. The good news is, the British weather being as it is, you haven't missed that much!  The best of the Tomato plant seedlings have been selected and planted out into the beds of the Greenhouse this week. So far so good as they say and they appear happy in their permanent home. I have a number of seedlings left over which will be grown on in their pots for now in case disaster strikes in the Greenhouse; I have a couple of friends and work colleagues who already have their name on a few and the spares will eventually be distributed appropriately. Sharing any spare plants remains a greats way to stay popular 😃 The Runner Bean seedlings were moved into the wood store to harden off around 10 days ago and shall be planted out into the bean bed this weekend with the forecast being warm and sunny for my

True to form it was certainly chilly for the Bank Holiday weekend but the worst of the weather never reached me down in the south-east and I was able to get a few things done out on the plot.  I have planted out three rows of the Leek seedlings into the raised bed to be used for veg this year. As I am trying to stay off the soil as much as possible a scaffold plank is laid across the bed which I crawl along slowly and surely. Whilst balancing on my board I quite simply poke a hole every six inches with a piece of bamboo cane, marked at six inch depth so each hole is roughly the same depth and width apart, and drop the seedling into that hole, very gently working the soil back in around the seedling. I do this for the entire row before then watering in well to settle the soil. It is a somewhat time consuming job but once you are focused in on it it is a pleasant little task and the rows look like a proper veg patch all the seedlings in a line straight as a die. I have talked of the Runn

The Easter Bank Holiday weekend approaches as I write and, like you dear reader no doubt, I have a long list of jobs to be getting on with over the coming four days out on the plot. There is though one problem looming large over the master plan, the good old British weather.  Earlier this week I was lunching in the garden in beautiful sunshine, by Easter Monday, if the weather forecasters have it right, I will turning the heating back on as the prospects of zero temperatures are apparently all too real. You can only smile and carry on; at least it appears we aren't going to get the hail some were forecasting at one point! The Runner Beans and Tomato seedlings are all now down in the Greenhouse, a little job I mentioned I needed to get done on an earlier post. Just to emphasis the change in the weather I had to put some shading up in the Greenhouse Tuesday to stop the seedlings getting scorched - that aint going to be a problem this weekend. The sowing of Carrots and more Beans on