Well, with the lovely sunshine we've been getting over the last week or two, I decided it was about time I got organised and started planting!
Last Wednesday (1st April) I gave the mini greenhouse a good scrub out, washed & sorted all the old pots and sorted out the seed packets.
I planted a tray each of the broad beans (Super Aquadulce) and the climbing French beans (Barlotta di Fuoco). I also planted some various flowers & herbs: cornflower, calendula (I love these!), marigolds, lemon balm and Italian parsley.
A good few years ago I was really successul in growing Italian parsley from seed. Apparently they're supposed to be very difficult to germinate, but that year I had loads of huge plants! I hope I'm as successful this year.
I've also ordered some herbs from The Natural Gardener - basil, coriander and Italian parsley! I never seem to be able to grow enough herbs, and it's good to have a back up supply!
I actually found this site by Googling for coir pots. I needed some new pots for planting seeds (where do they all go to?!), but I wasn't keen on buying more plastic. I know the coir pots can only be used once, but they were very reasonably priced. I like this site because they sell them in small pack sizes, plus it seemed a nice friendly site!
This year I switched compost. I used West+ peat-free last year, and while it was ok, it did seem a very bark-like texture and tended to dry out quite a bit. This year I bought some coir compost from Fertile Fibre. It's peat free, and is made from organic coir! It was reasonably priced, delivery was quick and it seems a really nice compost too. The other great plus is that it's very light, so it was easy for me to carry the huge bags from the front door to the garden!! I'll see how we get on with it this year.
So, another sunny-ish day today (though rain forecast for this afternoon and the rest of the week). I planted some lettuce (Marvel of Four Seasons, Belize, Oakleaf, Paris Island Cos and Tonale Ice Queen) and spring onion in the seedling coir pots and put them all in one of the coir trays for the moment to keep them all together. Once the seedlings get bigger I'll stick 2 or 3 into a tray and let them get on with it. Last year I sowed the lettuce direct into the ground, but we had terrible problems with cats and had to bin the lot. This year I'm going to attempt to grow the lettuce in pots and hopefully we can avoid any cat problems.
Still to get the potatoes in, and prepare the pots for the carrots (need to remember to order more sand!). Even though I've cut back this year, I'm fast running out of space. I wish we were further up the list for an allotment - I might give them a phone actually and see if they have any idea how long a wait it is!
Wednesday 8 April 2009
Monday 23 February 2009
Getting excited again!
It's got to that time of year again when the days are getting just a little bit longer, the air is milder and there is a sense of things starting to come back to life. It's time to start thinking about the garden again, making plans for what to grow, ordering seeds and getting out there and tidying up a bit!
I have to admit the garden has been pretty much neglected for the past 3 months - we rarely venture out into it except to empty the bins and feed the birds, so there is a lot of tidying up to do!
I plan on doing this over the next week or two. I also need to clean all the tubs etc, and take stock of how much compost to order (one of the drawbacks of growing most of my crops in pots is having to order compost every year).
I was actually hoping we might have got an allotment this year - we've been on the waiting list for a year now, and I'm bursting with plans of all the things I want to grow this year, but we just don't have the room!
I think I'm going to stick to potatoes, carrots and broad beans, with perhaps some salad items and cherry tomatoes. But, you know, I'll probably get carried away as usual, and start adding things like courgettes, peppers, broccoli and all sorts of herbs! We also have our strawberry plants, plus the rhubarb and raspberry canes on the fruit side of things. I really want to add some blueberry bushes to the mix, but I'm being realistic as we really do not have the room.
I ordered some seed potatoes this week from The Organic Gardening Catalogue (I actually got a bit carried away so think I will have to off-load some of these on to my parents!). I ordered a selection:
Earlies: Orla
2nd earlies: Cosmos
Early main: Robinta (I've had these before - they have a lovely red skin and make great wedges!)
Late main: Golden Wonder (I love these boiled with loads of butter mmm) and I also got some Arran Victory as I am intrigued by their purple/blue skins!
I also ordered some broad bean seeds (super aquadulce) -broad beans are one of my favourite things about summer so I'm planning a few tubs of these this year!
I'm also planning on making a little wigwam out of canes, and growing some climbing beans (barlotta lingua di fuoco) around it, to make a little play tent for my kids. Not sure if that's going to work out a good idea or not (we'll see ;) ) but these beans have pretty purpley mottled pods!
One thing I also need to do is build a little bird feeder I got as a birthday present last year, and order some more bird food for the spring!
So, I'm going to be busy out there over the next few weeks. I'm going to spend the evenings reading some of my favourite gardening books and dreaming of the seasons ahead! I love spring!
I have to admit the garden has been pretty much neglected for the past 3 months - we rarely venture out into it except to empty the bins and feed the birds, so there is a lot of tidying up to do!
I plan on doing this over the next week or two. I also need to clean all the tubs etc, and take stock of how much compost to order (one of the drawbacks of growing most of my crops in pots is having to order compost every year).
I was actually hoping we might have got an allotment this year - we've been on the waiting list for a year now, and I'm bursting with plans of all the things I want to grow this year, but we just don't have the room!
I think I'm going to stick to potatoes, carrots and broad beans, with perhaps some salad items and cherry tomatoes. But, you know, I'll probably get carried away as usual, and start adding things like courgettes, peppers, broccoli and all sorts of herbs! We also have our strawberry plants, plus the rhubarb and raspberry canes on the fruit side of things. I really want to add some blueberry bushes to the mix, but I'm being realistic as we really do not have the room.
I ordered some seed potatoes this week from The Organic Gardening Catalogue (I actually got a bit carried away so think I will have to off-load some of these on to my parents!). I ordered a selection:
Earlies: Orla
2nd earlies: Cosmos
Early main: Robinta (I've had these before - they have a lovely red skin and make great wedges!)
Late main: Golden Wonder (I love these boiled with loads of butter mmm) and I also got some Arran Victory as I am intrigued by their purple/blue skins!
I also ordered some broad bean seeds (super aquadulce) -broad beans are one of my favourite things about summer so I'm planning a few tubs of these this year!
I'm also planning on making a little wigwam out of canes, and growing some climbing beans (barlotta lingua di fuoco) around it, to make a little play tent for my kids. Not sure if that's going to work out a good idea or not (we'll see ;) ) but these beans have pretty purpley mottled pods!
One thing I also need to do is build a little bird feeder I got as a birthday present last year, and order some more bird food for the spring!
So, I'm going to be busy out there over the next few weeks. I'm going to spend the evenings reading some of my favourite gardening books and dreaming of the seasons ahead! I love spring!
Monday 12 January 2009
Update!
Oh dear! I'm not very good at updating am I? Well, last year got a bit busy and I forgot about the blog, but I will add some photos from the year. The potatoes, carrots, broad beans and tomatoes all did well, so I think I will concentrate on more of them this year. The peppers and aubergines did ok, but the summer wasn't long enough to ripen them, so I will give them a miss this year. The peas and courgettes rotted as the summer was so wet, so I will have to think about whether to try again this year. I'm not sure about more lettuce - we have been getting a lot of cats in the garden and they use the lettuce bed as a toilet! Strawberries were great, so more of them! These photos are from June last year.
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