Yay! The sun was here!

Well, the past 2 weeks have been great up here! It was about 20C nearly every day - perfect!

We always seem to get a burst of great weather in May - I love this time of year. Everything is really starting to take off, we get a taste of the (hopefully!) summer to come, without it being too hot. It is dreaming time, when we hope that we have planned right for the months ahead, and we can sit back & relax with anticipation of the next few months ahead!



I have been busy out in the garden - I planted the first tub of carrots on the 4th May, with Paris Market. They are now starting to show and I've covered the top of the tub with fleece to hopefully avoid the dreaded carrot root fly! My tubs are about 35cm high, so not sure if that is too high for the flies or not (I've read conflicting reports as to how high they can go!). I'm also hoping that as I seem to be the only gardener in the area growing carrots (indeed, growing anything!), that there might not be any of the pests about here anyway! But lets not take the chance!



The tomatoes, peppers and aubergines have certainly took off - I had to repot them all today. The tomatoes are now about 30cm tall, and into 18cm pots! The peppers and aubergines are all about 18cm tall, and into 15cm pots. The problem I now have is that the greenhouse is very crowded! I don't think it will be warm enough to put the tomatoes out for another 4 weeks (back to our usual cool weather now!) so they will have to put up with it!



The early potatoes are romping away, and I earthed them up today. I also finally planted the maincrops today (Robinta), and the 2nd tub of carrots - this time with Chantenay.



I also planted some lettuce seed this afternoon. Last year we had a bit of a dip in the grass next to the fence, and when my potatoes etc were finished I used the compost from the pots to build it back up a bit. We now though have a little bed just perfect for lettuce!

I love lettuce, but it's something I never buy much, usually because it seems so wasteful - we use it for one meal then it's past its best. It's also rather expensive, so I bought a selection of seed instead: Belize, Marvel of the Four Seasons, Paris Island Cos, Oakleaf and Tonale Ice Queen. I also planted some spring onion - Red Beard. I have some more tubs set aside for these and will plant another lot in a few weeks time (if I remember!).



The broad beans I sowed a few weeks ago are coming on now, and the strawberries are a mass of flowers so hoping we get a good crop from them!

A frost is forecast for tonight so I'd better go and wrap the plants up! I'll add some photos later.

This year's plans

I know it may seem a bit late to be talking about plans for the year, but I thought I would note what I'm growing or intending to do this year.







Last year we had 2 big tubs with potatoes (can't remember which type!), a tub with some broad beans my daughter had planted at Easter, and 3 courgette plants I'd bought on a whim and was surprised at how well they did! I also had 2 strawberry plants which gave us a handful of strawberries - hoping to do better this year, and we now have 3 as one runner moved into the tomato plant's pot next door!







Potatoes
This year I intend to have 4 tubs of potatoes - I already planted the 1st two tubs with early potatoes (Orla) on 29th April (3 seeds in each tub - I'm hoping this will be ok, the tubs are about 45cm diameter). I have the main crop potatoes (Robinta) chitting away on the windowsill and think they can maybe go in next week.







Peas
I cheated with the peas and bought some plugs from Organic Plants . Unfortunately only 3 have survived so they will go in another big tub.





Broad Beans

Last year we planted the broad beans at Easter (so mid April if I remember correctly). I'd really only bought the packet to show my 4 year old daughter what seeds were and how they grow etc, but they did so well we planted them out properly and got a great harvest from 4 plants. This year I forgot and only planted them the other day, so hopefully they will germinate ok and catch up!





Carrots

I also got a bit carried away when buying carrot seeds - I picked Paris Market, Chantenay and Rainbow Mix! I have 3 tubs planned for these (think the garden is going to be over-run with these huge black tubs now!), but still a bit undecided as to when to sow them.

Courgettes
I've ordered 3 courgette plants from Organic Plants again - I found them really easy to grow last year so hoping we do as well this year!



Tomatoes etc

Also from Organic Plants I bought some cherry tomatoes (Tumbler and Sweet Million), sweet pepper (Bell Boy) and slightly optimistic with the aubergine (Ophelia)! I also got this great mini greenhouse for them to live in at the moment! I'm hoping they do ok, but think I will need a lot of luck with these ones!


I'm also planting some lettuce and spring onion in amongst the flowerbed we have - it's something I always wish I had to hand, but in typical fashion, if I buy a whole lettuce at the shops, most of it goes to waste then the next day I'm looking for some!


Fruit - we have the aforementioned strawberries, plus a rather large rhubarb I got last year from my mum & dad's garden. I actually thought it had died & rotted away during the winter, but it came back with a flourish. I had to snap a few flower stalks off it last week. I haven't actually harvested from it yet - I may pick a few stalks from it in the next week or two!

I have also ordered some soft fruits in pots - autumn raspberries (Autumn Bliss and Fall Gold) and a blackberry (Loch Ness). I have no idea if these will do ok in large tubs (50 ltr) or if I should dig a spot for them at the bottom of the garden. I'd rather not do that as a) we rent and I don't want to dig up any more of the turf and b) the soil is awful - heavy clay - and I'd spend ages trying to dig it all out and replace it with decent stuff (as I know from experience when digging out the flower bed a few years ago!).


So that's it - apart from the herbs, but that will be another post!

Hello!

Thanks for dropping by! This is my blog about my (hopefully successful!) attempts at growing veg, fruit & herbs in containers.

My garden is rather small, and with heavy clay soil. As we rent I'm not too keen to be doing a lot of work to it, hence the gardening in containers! I have my name down for an allotment, which would be a dream, but unfortunately the waiting list is rather long. So, crops in pots it is!