All caught up

I finally feel as if I have caught up with everything; all of the fruit and veg I had planned to grow this year is now underway... some of it a fair bit later than previous years, but who says those dates are rigid anyway?

Today, I finally sowed carrots (nantes 5 & autumn king) and parsnips (albion). I also came across an unopened packet of butternut squash which had a sow by date of 2016; there were only 5 seeds so I thought I may as well sow them all.

To mark this momentous day, a couple of cucumber seedlings decided to make an appearance.

I am making some configuration changes this year, moving a few beds around and still haven't decided where everything is going to go, but as a result the poor raspberry canes have just been sat in the original packaging I brought them home in for over a month. So, I made the executive decision for this year to grow them in sacks alongside the potatoes. I have no idea how this will work out, but the roots looked quite healthy so fingers crossed.

Whilst I'm mentioning potatoes, they have put on some good growth since I planted them at Easter. The ones in buckets are doing just as well as the ones in the sacks.

Might start sowing flowers this weekend.

Shopping, chitting and waiting

Today's gardening activity was mainly spent in the garden centre. I needed to get some aubergine seeds (now sown) so thought I'd pick up a few other things too.

I went for bonnie potatoes again this year, a very reliable second early; they are now chitting alongside the sown seeds in the potting shed. This should provide 6 sacks of delicious spuds later in the year.

 

Red onions, garlic and shallots have also been purchased; bit too early to plant out though and the bed I'm going to put them in isn't ready yet anyway... might tackle that next weekend if it stays relatively dry this week. 

 

 

No green shoots yet from last week's sowings but hopefully something will appear soon; am patiently playing the waiting game.



Ready, Steady, Sow

My 2015 season has finally begun, I've never made it to March before without sowing anything so today I brushed away numerous cobwebs in the potting shed and got on with it, just managing to beat the rain... might not look like much now, but in a few weeks these little pots of black compost will be sprouting a fine selection of seedlings (hopefully)...

To be more precise, kaibi round and orange bell peppers; fatalii, hotscotch, basque and ohnivec chillies; moneymaker, san marzano and red pear tomatoes, pot black aubergine and cape gooseberry.

I also had a go at microgreens for the first time, so in 2-3 weeks I should be garnishing my meals with tiny, colourful bursts of intense beetroot flavour.

This year I will only be growing one variety of potatoes; I opted for Bonnie, a second early that I have grown a couple of times before. They are both reliable and delicious. The seed potatoes are chitting away and should be ready to go into sacks around Easter.

Finally, I pulled up the last of the carrots, apart from a few holes they were pretty good so leaving them in the ground this long hasn't done them any harm at all.

Will need to get sowing the next batch soon.

Where on earth have I been?

It's been ages... not posted since January; so far this year it's been a slow process but hopefully things are looking up with the weather and it shouldn't take too long to catch up.

So, what's doing well?

I have a fine selection (if a bit slug & snail munched!) of courgette, pumpkin & squash in the greenhouse; some of the larger ones should be ready for planting out soon.

Cucumbers and a couple of watermelon plants are also coming along nicely.

 

 

Tomotoes are coming into their own after a very slow start.

There is a very fine tray of various lettuce needing to be planted out...

... a few peppers and a couple of cape gooseberries coming up behind everything else.

The potatoes (for Easter) clearly didn't arrive in time, but they are looking quite healthy; I doubt they will be ready yet, but I might have a bit of a rummage in the sacks to see what's there.

And finally, there are loads of flowers on the strawberries so hopefully that means there will be lots of fruit.

 

 

There is still a lot to be done though; haven't sown any peas or beans yet, only have a few brassicas, sweetcorn germination was very poor so need to resow, not sown any leeks, parsnips or turnips either as it's been too cold... I am going to be very busy for the next few weeks!

Let's get this sow(ing) on the road!

It's been quite a nice weekend, apart from the torrential wind and rain overnight on Saturday (when I wouldn't have been doing much gardening anyway!)

So, got started with a bit of sowing; 3 each of moneymaker, gardener's delight, red cherry, green zebra and cream sausage, along with some mustard and cress which surprisingly I have never grown before.

I also purchased seed potatoes; maris bard & bonnie and set them out on the kitchen windowsill to chit until ready to plant in the spring.

Strawberry plants were delivered. A couple of weeks ago, the fruit bed was cleared out as I am relocating soft fruit elsewhere in the garden, so I ordered some new plants at the same time; 6 of the variety vibrant are in in the potting shed with the roots covered in moist compost until I plant them out.

Let's hope the last of the snow has fallen and I can continue as I have started.

First Job Done!

What a difference a day makes... yesterday was dark, miserable, near torrential rain, yet today was absolutely delightful; it might have been a little bit chilly which is to be expected for January, but it was dry and the sun was shining.

So, finally got the first job done this morning, planting my early, early potatoes... I usually do this around March or April time, but this way the plan is to have them ready to eat around March or April time; not sure if I'll achieve that but I'm giving it a go!

The 15 swift tubers that were chitting on the kitchen windowsill are now out there on their own to flourish... well, with a little bit of undercover support. This was the first sack before I covered them over

and this is all three sacks on location in the greenhouse (which is quite warm when it's sunny) for the next couple of months

The other thing I have done which is a bit different to normal, is fill the bags up with compost rather than wait for shoots to appear and do the topping up thing; I've always wanted to try it this way to see if it makes any difference. Roll on spring!

Happy New Year

I am so excited about the coming season; spent an hour wandering around the local garden centre this morning; ordered new seeds online (more about that later); and the sun is shining today, which I am taking as a sign that this year we will have more favourable weather than last year.

I have already started some things off; in the autumn I planted some onion sets and they seem to be doing pretty well

 

I also started off some peas and have so far managed to keep them pretty happy in the potting shed

 

Again I am trying with broad beans, which are now planted out and fleeced to keep out the cold, and hopefully the dreaded blackfly which seem to be present all year round

 

 

 

I was seduced by a mailing from one of the online garden centres which advertised “Potatoes for Easter”, so currently have 15 swift tubers chitting on the kitchen windowsill; they need to be planted in January so I will probably do that at the weekend and keep the sacks in the greenhouse for now.

I’m planning on trying a host of new produce this year:

Whilst I love french beans I’m not really a fan of runners, so this year they will be one of my “if I grow it I might like it” experiments; I will be trying hunter and jiminez.

I can’t seem to watch a cooking show, either professional chefs or amateurs without celeriac popping up somewhere, so I’ll be trying monarch this year.

I’m going big on winter veg, so as well as re-introducing leeks which I really missed last year and regret not growing any, I will be attempting two new varieties of squash; festival and sweet dumpling.

I’ll also be introducing a couple of heritage tomatoes, green zebra and cream sausage, just the names of them make me chuckle.

The most challenging new addition will be mushrooms, chestnut button portobello and white button; although, according to the write-up they are the easiest things to grow, so we’ll see.

So much to look forward to, I really can’t wait to get going.

End of Year Review

So, here it is... my end of year review. First things first, lets get the disappointments out of the way:

Beetroot - what on earth happened there? I had new varieties, burpees golden and chioggia to try but they came to nothing more or less; partly because next door's cat thought that the freshly sown bed was put there for his benefit, but even subsequent sowings were poor. Old faithful boltardy did better, but I still didn't get as many as I should have done.

Brassicas - the less said about these the better; I'm not even going to detail them separately as absolutely nothing grew.

Broad beans - my first proper attempt was devastated by blackfly.

Courgettes - not a single fruit formed on any plants... actually, that's not strictly true; there were a couple but they just shrivelled up, and I have never failed to grow courgettes before.

Cucumbers - after the first couple the plants just seemed to give up so I also gave in and pulled them up.

Herbs - failed to germinate... end of story.

That's enough of that, now onto the good stuff.

I had more berries than previous years; a constant supply throughout the summer, from strawberries

to raspberries

and blackberries

Onions were spectacular

and tomatoes were consistent; they kept cropping until November

This year I also kept a tally of how much it would have cost to buy all of the fruit and veg that I produced; excluding the few things that never made it to the kitchen scales the grand total was.....




... drumroll




... £115.85 and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. I'm under no illusions that I'm near self-sufficient (especially not this year), or have broken-even but still, it means I didn't spend it on produce.


The highlights were:

Potatoes £29.00
Tomatoes £15.31
Parsnips £10.55
Raspberries £8.62
Onions £8.54
Peppers £8.48
Strawberries £8.29

So, onwards and upwards to 2013 and next season!

Reliable Potatoes

I tried some new varieties this year; maris bard and bonnie, along with charlotte which I grow every year and they consistently made it to the dinner table from the first batch in June, through to about September

So much so, that I decided to take a break from them for a while; I cut the haulms and then left them in their sacks.

It wasn't until November, after a tonne of rain that I felt like digging some up again but wasn't expecting them to have survived very well; my good intentions to move the sacks into the greenhouse out of the wet weather had not materialised so they had just been getting drenched!

So I was pleasantly surprised when I unearthed these

and these

There were only a couple of rotten ones in amongst them; cue potatoes on the menu at every meal for the next few weeks!

Mighty fine haul

Today has been a good day... the sun was shining and I harvested a mighty fine haul from the garden.

Emptied the first sack of very pretty bonnie potatoes; this is the first time I have grown this variety and am very pleased with the results

A lovely selection of beetroot had reached picking size, so they came up

Tomatoes are ripening quite frequently now, so this is what gets picked on almost a daily basis

I have never been known for patience and my lack of it got the better of me today; I've been admiring the foliage on the parsnips and wondering what was happening under the ground so pulled one up

I should also be harvesting cucumbers and courgettes right now but it just isn't happening; so far I have only had 3 cucs and the plants aren't producing anything else so I made the decision to put them out of their misery and pull them up. On the courgette front I have not had a single one... I'll probably end up pulling them up as well, but saw a ray of hope on one of the plants this afternoon so will give them another week or so.

But, I don't want to finish on a negative so here are first blackberries of the year

It may only be a grand total of 3 at the moment, but there are loads more just about to turn so watch this space...

Proper Salad?!

I'm trying not to get too excited, but I think I may have harvested a whole salad... along with the rest of the grow your own community I have been battling with slugs this season so these two lettuces that have made it to picking size only slightly nibbled are a particular success

All washed up; literally leaf by leaf to make sure there were no lurkers in there, they look great and the taste is far superior to what you get in the supermarkets

Tomatoes have been ripening at the rate of about 2-3 a day which is slower than normal, but again the taste is amazing; this is the last few days worth

 First beetroot came out of the ground today

Sadly the cucumbers are way behind where they should be so they don't get to realise their potential today, but there are some signs that I may eventually get something to harvest

Add a few of today's potatoes

and I think I've got a pretty decent salad there.

Just need to get some of the other veg: courgettes, french beans, brassicas and carrots to catch up!