Nearly Harvest Time

I'll soon be harvesting the first crops of the season... the first sowing of mixed salad leaves are coming on a treat in the greenhouse; they're almost at full picking size

I have tried a couple of leaves already and they are extremely flavoursome. For some reaon the rocket leaves sown on the same day are a fair bit behind

I suppose that means a staggered supply so it's not all bad.

First Seedlings

Yes they are tiny, but earlier this week saw the appearance of the first seedlings. You can just about see the rocket in here

Slightly easier to spot is the mixed salad

In harvesting news I pulled a few leeks

and dug up the last of the parsnips

on the same day that I sowed a row of white gem into a recently re-built raised bed.

I also sowed 6 mini-white cucumbers in the greenhouse. I have returned to this variety because they have always produced perfect results for me and in large quantities. I seem to struggle with the more traditional longer cukes so have decided to stick with what works well for me.

Now for a confession... I had to re-sow some broad beans. My autumn sown batch that were doing so well were killed in the frosts. My own fault; I kept reminding myself that they needed to be fleeced but never got round to it, so there are six new sutton sowings in the greenhouse alongside the cucumbers.

Whole lotta sowing going on...

... and I'm off! Sowing for the 2012 season has finally begun; a little bit later than originally planned, now that I think (hope) there won't be any more harsh frost.

Everything is in the potting shed with the tender stuff in unheated propagators, so fingers crossed it all germinates. I have sown:

• 40 tomatoes; 8 varieties (moneymaker, roma, gardener's delight, cherry, principe borghese, sub arctic plenty, rio grande, san marzano lungo)
• 40 chillies; 6 varieties (hungarian hot wax, rokita, orange wonder, aji crystal, cayenne, unknown from a mexican restaurant)
• 40 sweet peppers; 5 varieties (california wonder, corno rosso, bellboy, diablo, ozarowska)
• 6 aubergines; 2 varieties (viserba, black beauty)
• 6 cape gooseberries
• rocket
• mixed salad 

and finally, the charlotte seed potatoes have been put out to chit.

Bring on Spring!!

Seedlings

Most of my sowings from last week have already come up; in the potting shed, chinese cabbage

and lettuce

Outside in the wicker planter, both chicory and wild rocket have come up

I may get some autumn / winter salads after all.

I also have some larger seedlings in the potting shed. I went to a food festival a couple of months ago and one of the pop-up restaurants was giving away chilli seeds. Even though I thought it was probably too late for them to mature and produce any fruit this year, and unlikely I would be able to successfully over winter them I sowed a couple anyway... this is them now.

Will just have to see how I get on with them.

Summer Sowing

Once again my good intentions to sow successionally have fallen by the wayside, so today I attempted to rectify that by sowing a selection of lettuce (reine de glaces, little gem, romaine ballon and romana bougival), chicory, wild rocket, spring onions, chinese cabbage, calabrese and autumn king carrots. I'm about a month behind with the carrots so will just have to wait and see if anything comes up. It would be fantastic to have some to pull up on Christmas day.

On that subject, the potatoes for Christmas are coming along nicely; the plants are now peeking over the top of their sacks and looking very healthy

I gave them one last topping up with compost so they should be okay outside for a while yet.

Today's harvest made for a very pretty trug so I thought I'd share a picture of that too

I have decided that the peppers are actually sweet banana... I saw some similar plants in the garden centre today and they look exactly the same, plus the description that they ripen to orange then red was exactly what mine have done.

Similarly, I think that the orange chilli peppers are cheyenne because I saw them in the garden centre too... mystery solved.

First Harvest

The best thing about today, was that I had grown enough rocket to have some lovely fresh salad leaves with my dinner tonight... and there's plenty more waiting to be picked.

More outdoor sowings and a cheeky little taster

Encouraged by the evidence of new growth this morning I got on with a bit more outdoor sowing today; into the raised bed went a row each of:

• Carrot (Chantenay Red Cored)
• Carrot (Early Nantes)
• Beetroot (Boltardy)
• Parsnip (White Gem) - didn't use toilet roll tubes this time, but I did pour boiling water on the soil first.

I used one of the spare bulb crates to broadcast sow Kamal and Sweet Spanish Yellow onions. Depending on how they get on I will thin out at salad onion size as necessary and leave some to grown on to full size. I'll also compare these ones to the ones I sowed undercover last month (below) that will be planted out into the raised bed.

I also thought I'd sow another row of Paris Market into the bulb crate with the others as I need to get into the habit of succession sowing.

The rocket was looking rather tasty and I couldn't help myself... I only pinched a couple of leaves, just to try them and they were delicious.

Must exercise more self control!

A few seedlings and a bit more sowing

Yesterday was very busy outdoors, and the weather didn't disappoint so I was a very happy gardener. I started off by doing a bit of tidying up and a check on my seedlings; garlic, rocket and brassicas are coming on quite nicely now:

Only two of my herb pots have germinated; coriander and dill:

I can't work out why things are taking so much longer than previous years. I usually have pepper and tomato seedlings by now, but my first sowings have so far yielded 2 gardeners delight, a red cherry and no peppers :-(...

... at least there is still time to sow some more if needed - I'll check if there is any more movement by the weekend and make a decision then.

In terms of new sowings, the greenhouse now contains:

• Peas (Feltham First) x 8
• Peas (Golden Sweet Yellow Mangetout) x 8
• Lettuce (Reine De Glaces) x 3
• Lettuce (Little Gem) x 3
• Lettuce (Lollo Rossa) x 3
• Tomato (Garden Pearl) x 4
• Tomato (Costoluto Fiorentino) x 4

Outside I sowed:

• Leeks (Autumn Mammoth 2 - Snowstar) 1 row in the raised bed
• Mizuna & Mixed Lettuce scattered together in a bulb crate
• Spring Onion (Ishikura) 1 row in a bulb crate
• Spring Onion (White Lisbon) 1 row in a bulb crate
• Pickling Onions (Barletta) 3 rows in a bulb crate
• Pickling Onions (Purplette) 3 rows in a bulb crate

There are a few new things here that I am trying this year; Lollo Rossa is a pretty looking lettuce and Costoluto Fiorentino will be the first beef tomatoes I have grown. Barletta and Purplette are part of my master plan for storing my produce so I am really looking forward to seeing how they turn out.

Whilst my mange tout has always been a great cropper, I have not had success with harvesting regular peas in the past... I either pick them too early when they are very tiny even though the pods look fat, or let them go too long and they turn yellow, maybe I just need to pay a bit more attention to them.

On my way back inside I noticed a bit of green action on the raspberry canes:

Couldn't help but smile at the thought of picking them in the autumn... they are always delicious.

Slowly, but surely...

A couple of days sunshine - what a difference compared to the weekend! - and the seedlings are starting to push their heads up through the compost.

A trip outside today revealed a sprinkling of rocket, along with a small contingent of evesham special sprouts, broccoli raab and all year round cauliflower.

I also spread out my seed potatoes (Charlotte) to chit, so come Easter they should be ready for planting.

Let's hope the sun is here to stay.

The Germinator... or should that be germinated?

Yep, just the one. Of all the seeds I have sown so far, only one has germinated... can you spot it?

It's a cauliflower (all year round). What are the others waiting for?! Having checked my notes from previous years, germination has taken about a month, so I guess I am being a bit impatient... good things come to those who wait and all that.

Anyway, one or two of the garlic cloves have already put up shoots so there is some action in the garden.

So, what did I do today? In the potting shed I sowed:

• Onion (Kamal) x 5
• Onion (Sweet Spanish Yellow) x 5 

in little individual pots, and some rocket in a trough.

Outdoors, I planted the shallots (Golden Gourmet) x 12 in the raised bed, and also sowed:

• Carrots (Paris Market) x 2 rows
• Radish (Prinz Rotin) x 1 row
• Radish (French Breakfast) x 1 row

in a free bulb crate that I got from the local garden centre, and finally parsnips (White Gem) x 10 in the raised bed. Now with the parsnips I have sown in toilet roll tubes (which I did in my first year), and poured boiling water on the soil before dropping in the seeds (which I did in my second year... can't remember where I got that tip from), so hopefully the two in combination should work wonders.