Autumn Jobs... even though it's almost winter

So, it's that time of year again... the greenhouse and potting shed needed a clear out, tired plants needed to be thrown out, and autumn onions & garlic needed to be planted out, so that's what I did today.

The pepper and chilli plants in the greenhouse were definitely in need of some attention... most of them were put in the compost bag, although I did manage to pick these little beauties first.

One Bellboy and one Oregon looked like they might have a bit more to give, so I topped them up with a bit of fresh compost and moved them to the potting shed.

Similarly, a couple of the Apache plants are still showing a bit of life in them so I did the same.

Could just be wishful thinking on my part, but we'll see.

50 Troy sets, 50 Electric sets, 10 Jermor sets and 16 cloves of Lautrec Wight have been planted out where the brassicas used to live.

I also emptied out the last bag of rooster potatoes and was again pleased with the contents.

When I was tidying up the potting shed I found a couple of opened packets of salad seeds (lollo rossa & rocket) and an almost empty packet of feltham first peas... rather than wrap them up for next year I thought I'd see if I can get a few salad leaves and pea shoots out of them, so they are now in a couple of troughs in the greenhouse.

I still have a few more jobs to do outside, but thought that was plenty for one Sunday so they will have to wait for another weekend.

Yummy Pea Shoots

I looked at the pea shoots this morning and thought, yep they are large enough to start harvesting.

I wasn't really sure where to cut them so that they re-shoot, but did it anyway. With a few of my home grown rocket leaves, they made a lovely salad for lunch.

Absolutely delicious!

Planting out and potting on

This morning I planted out 3 reine de glaces, 3 lollo rossa and 2 little gem lettuces into my recently acquired wicker planter.

When I checked on the seedlings in the greenhouse the roots from 2 of the yellow scallop squash and the all green bush courgette were about to take over so I potted them on into the next size up.

I also think that I made the wrong container choice when I sowed the peas shoots, so undertook a very delicate operation to extract them from a shallow seed tray and move them into a trough. I think I might have lost a couple, but most of them seem to have made it okay. 

Making the most of the spring sunshine

I have been making the most of the recent good weather and luckily had a few a few days away from work so have been able to spend a lot of time in the garden.

Yesterday I planted out a row each of peas and mange tout into the raised bed. My cunning trick to stop the slugs and snails was to scatter vermiculite around them. I'm sure they won't like crawling over that to get the goodies and it seems to have worked last night anyway.

I was also pleased to see that 6 of the minipop seeds have germinated in the greenhouse.

First thing this morning I continued with planting out...

... brassicas; evesham special, raab and all year round are now located in the raised bed, protected by cabbage collars for the root fly and a net for the butterfly... the last thing I want is them laying their eggs all over the plants.

... and onions; kamal and sweet spanish have now been planted in the bed with the shallots and leeks (that have yet to make an appearance). Talking of onions, the pickling kind; barletta and purplette have germinated in their separate bulb crate.

 I also did a fair bit of sowing today, undercover:

• Brussels Sprout (Red Delicious) x 5
• Brussels Sprout (Evesham Special) x 2
• Broccoli (Green Heading Calabrese) x 3
• Broccoli (Early Purple Sprouting) x 1
• Cauliflower (Autumn Giant) x 2
• Cabbage (Savoy) x 2
• French Beans (Cherokee Trail of Tears) x 8
• French Beans (Cherokee Trail of Tears) x 8 that I saved myself a couple of years ago
• Peas (Golden Sweet Yellow Mangetout) x 8

Outdoors I sowed:

• Chard (White Silver 2) x 1 row in the raised bed
• Lambs Lettuce in a trough
• Spring Onion (Ishikura) x 1 row in a bulb crate
• Spring Onion (White Lisbon) x 1 row in a bulb crate

and planted the first batch of main crop potatoes (Rooster) into potato bags.

Elsewhere, the pea shoots are coming along nicely:

... so I decided to sow another batch of those in the greenhouse, but the herbs could be doing better, so I direct sowed the following in various containers outdoors; rosemary, chives, sage, mint, thyme, parsley, basil, dill, chervil and coriander.

Heading lettuces are also growing well:

I was tempted to plant them out too because quite a few of the roots are already showing through the bottom of the pots. I managed to stop myself, but did sow 3 Romana Bougival seeds, which is a new variety for me.

I think I managed to cover all the vegetable groups so all in all a very productive couple of days.

Pea Shoots

I was watching my favourite TV chef this weekend and one of the recipes called for pea shoots. He mentioned how easy they are to grow and said that they can be produced on tissue paper... a bit like growing cress. I had never thought about them like that and always viewed them as an off-shoot (no pun intended) from growing peas.

As I have a huge quantity of pea seed and based on previous attempts, little confidence in my ability to harvest them at the right time I thought I'd have a go at growing some specifically for shoots.

I did a quick internet search and it seems pretty simple... just sow as normal, when they get to about 5 inches tall cut the shoots, leaving about an inch of stem and they will reshoot. So, this is before I covered them over with compost:

and they are now on the top shelf in the greenhouse.

In other pea news, my mange tout and regular pea sowings have put in an appearance above the compost: