Come on the Reds

Onions that is... as expected I pulled up the mighty red onions this afternoon.

I really need to start looking for some onion recipies that make them the star of the show rather than an accompaniment.

Thinning Out

I'm not one for thinning out seedlings... my theory is that if something germinates, let it grow; in the case of carrots I try to sow thinly to start with. This year they are sharing a bed with parsnips and leeks and as they are all growing very well, the leaves are starting to get tangled, the poor leeks are a bit overcrowded and there is evidence of pests starting to move in and make themselves comfortable!

So I figured a bit of thinning out would be a good idea. After some furtling to check the size of each carrot, I pulled up this lot

Some of them were larger than I expected which was a nice surprise and hopefully the air flow should be a bit better for everything left in the ground. For similar reasons I pulled out a cabbage.

Even though I planted them out at wider spacings than last year, the brassicas are looking a bit crowded so I thought an early picked cabbage (even if a bit smaller than it could be) would pave the way for a better sprout harvest later in the year. 

Bakers' Dozen Potatoes

Today I harvested the first batch of first early potatoes, Sharpe's Express. I've sown three varieties this year all in potato sacks, but for each I sowed one seed in a bucket as an experiment.

This was the result when I emptied it

I can't believe how many came from one potato and that they grew so well in a regular bucket.

A more positive fruity note...

... berries and currants are doing rather well.

Raspberries in particular just keep coming :-)

Fruity Disaster!

So, there I was admiring my first successfully sown cape gooseberry plants. This was them a couple of weeks ago

At about the same time I read that they can grow to 6 feet tall and equally wide (well, maybe not equally wide but pretty bushy), so I had to reconsider my plan to keep them in those pots and grow them on in the greenhouse as I didn't think that wasn't going to work.

Last weekend I did a bit more admiring of the pretty flowers

and fruit which has now started to set

before attempting to pot them into suitably large containers to be located outside.

That is when disaster struck... I had prepared the new container with moist compost, managed to lift the first plant out of it's existing pot and carefully manouvre it to the new position. At this point the weight of the plant in conjunction the movement caused the main stem to snap.

Gutted was not strong enough for how bad I felt... I stood there staring at the decapitated plant, wondering if I could somehow stick it back together which probably sounds a bit silly but has worked in the past when tomato stems have snapped. Anyway, it had broken clean off so any attempt at plant micro-surgery would have been futile. 

So, I am now left with just the one plant, which seems contented enough in it's current pot so that is definitely where it will be staying.

All About Aliums

Last weekend was certainly one for aliums... I pulled up white onions

shallots

and garlic

Since then, the red onion leaves have keeled over so I think pulling them is a task for tomorrow.

I had high hopes for them all when I planted them out late last year, but when the snow came I was convinced that was the end of them... they were clearly meant to be!

Now, I just have to work out how / where to store them all.

Trug back in Action

The trug is out of hibernation as today is the first day I have harvested a selection of produce.

The onion leaves started to bend over a week or so ago which I think means they are just about ready to be picked.

I don't think the weather has been warm enough to pull them up and dry them out so they are still in the ground apart from this one, the biggest one.

The carrot was also in the onion bed... don't know how, but one solitary seed found it's way in there, germinated and grew.

I picked the courgette smaller than normal as it should encourage others to follow. Similarly with the mange tout, the more regularly you pick the more prolific the plants.

This is also the first picking of redcurrants and blackcurrants; the bushes are surrounded and overshadowed by the strawberries that ran and rooted themselves and the raspberries that I forgot (or rather left it too late) to cut down last season, but are still managing to crop quite well.

What else is going on in the garden?

First courgettes...

First buds and open flowers on the cape gooseberries

First tomatoes

First mange tout

Big Gardening Weekend - The Results

Where does the time go? It didn't help that today was almost a complete washout... this is how I performed against the plan:

lettuce to sow - nope

lettuce to plant out - yes, a selection of little gem and reines de glaces now reside in the wicker bed

brassicas to plant out - sort of... well, 50% of the ones I intended to plant out have been; 2 romanesca nautalino, 3 flower sprout and 2 savoy cabbages are now in a raised bed. The rest are still in the potting shed.

tomatoes to pot on and/or plant out - yes, 4 moneymaker have joined a slangen longoda and a mini-white in the reusable growbags

chillies to pot on - yes, all done... no photos though.

sweet peppers to pot on - yes, all done and they are flowering / bearing fruit already

squash to pot on - nope, but on closer inspection they didn't need to be

melons to pot on - again nope, but didn't to be

courgettes to plant out - yes, the final all green bush is now planted outside. Had to dispose of one of the earlier ones though and I'm not sure if it was a tondo di toscana or a gold rush... as I only had one of each of these might have to resow a couple of each.

cucumbers to pot on and/or plant out - yep, see mini-white above... the other ones, marketmore, marketer and a gherkin aren't actually ready to go out yet.

peas and beans to plant out (and work out why some of the ones already planted out appear to be dying) - nope, urgently need to to this during the week, but the good news is the earlier ones seem to be perking up.

sweetcorn to plant out - yes, all done

a raised bed that needs clearing - yes, this is where the newly planted brassicas are.

a fruit bed that needs weeding - yes, and I also put down some straw to hopefully keep the remaining strawberries clean.

nematodes to spread... that will teach those damn slugs! - oh yes, all out war has begun.

Big Gardening Weekend...

... that's what I'm planning anyway. For starters I have:

• lettuce to sow
• lettuce to plant out
• brassicas to plant out
• tomatoes to pot on and/or plant out
• chillies to pot on
• sweet peppers to pot on
• squash to pot on
• melons to pot on
• courgettes to plant out
• cucumbers to pot on and/or plant out
• peas and beans to plant out (and work out why some of the ones already planted out appear to be dying)
• sweetcorn to plant out
• a raised bed that needs clearing
• a fruit bed that needs weeding
• nematodes to spread... that will teach those damn slugs!

I wonder how much of that I will get done.

Fruity Friday

I have been picking strawberries for a week or so now and there are plenty left on the plants waiting to ripen. This was this evening's pickings along with the first of the raspberries

I decided to take a slow wander around the garden to see how the rest of the fruits are coming along, so here a few photos of apples

pears

plums

cherries

redcurrants (with a few blackberries sneaking into shot)

and the surprise of the evening... cranberries

...okay, so not enough to make a jar of sauce but I'm happy all the same. Last year's attempt produced nothing.