I've caught up a bit in the garden; it's all looking pretty neat. My aim is to have some crops through winter. I planted some chard a while back, that's growing well and should crop through winter. Meanwhile, there's the last of the root vegetables (carrots, beetroot and parsnips). I've planted another row of carrots (autumn king) and cauliflowers (all year round). Unfortunately, the cabbages that I planted all got eaten by catapillers (butterflies can get through fruit netting, apparently). I bought some from the garden center and I'm keeping them in the greenhouse for a while.

Meanwhile, I've taken a load of cutings from curry plants, lavander and box. Let's hope that they take.

Tags: root vegetables

We’ve started on the potatoes and beetroot. We’ve been eating the broad beans and onions for a couple of weeks now. I’ve taken to planting up the gaps as I pull stuff out. So, yesterday, I sewed more carrot and beetroot and a row of chard. I’m hoping that the chard will keep me going through the winter.

The weather continues to be warm and sunny with the occasional heavy showers keeping the water butts pretty full.

Everything is growing nicely (and the beds are all neat and tidy). I’ve potted on all of my chilies and sweet red peppers. I managed to give away three tomato plants to Jane and Mike, but I’ll still have a problem finding places to put them. At last carrots have started coming up in the bed to the side of the garage. I thought that I was jinxed. Speaking of jinxed; waiting until May to try and propagate green beans is a good idea, I’m having a lot more success.

Gill and I had a lovely time at the Barton open gardens afternoon (which is advertised under the National Gardens Scheme).

Gill and I went to the Hatfield Show yesterday and Ashwell at home (where I picked up a marjoram plant for 50p) today. Not much time for gardening; I’ve mostly been watering things. It’s been really dry lately and the water butts are running dry. Everything is growing nicely and I’m seeing carrot and parsnip seedlings. I have now potted on all my tomatoes. I got brave and pruned the vine ones. I tend to let them get out of control and this year I’m trying to keep more of them neater and smaller.

I’ve spent today tidying up ready for the plant swap afternoon tomorrow. Where I’ve sown seeds and they haven’t germinated, I’ve been sowing new seeds. That’s for spinach, beetroot, carrot and parsnip. The parsnip is coming up in the big bed; they’re just a bit gappy. There’s no sign of carrots or parnsips in the bed at the side of the garage. I probably sewed them too early.

A tip that I read is to line the trench or hole with potting compost as that’s a nicer medium for the seeds to sprout in and it makes them easy to find and water.

Tags: blog

Everything is growing away except the seeds that I’d sown in the plot to the side of the garage. Not a sign of any parsnips or carrots. I planted out the carrots that I grew from seeds in the greenhouse (Paris Market). They don’t like being disturbed but they will grow eventually, we’ll see. I also planted up another row in the bed next to the greenhouse, along with another row of beetroot (good old Detroit). The other beetroot is doing fine and I’m looking forward to some.

Some of the runner beans, the Enorma Elite, are mostly up and growing but I’m still waiting for Prince, the dwarf green beans. The woman in the shop tells me that she doesn’t sow beans until May as they really like to be warm.

The tomatoes are all doing well and I’ve potted a few up into larger pots. I plan to keep these in the greenhouse in a bid to get tomatoes earlier in the year. I planted a couple of the Garden Pearl into a hanging basket. They’ve already got blossoms. I’m having a plant swap next week, so I’m trying not to pot on the rest as I plan to swap them. They’re getting a bit pot bound.

I sowed more lettuce (Blonde Maraicheri) and the American land cress (which Gill loves) in the herb and salad bed. I made a row of carrots (Nantes 2) and planted some dwarf green beans (Sonesta) directly into the ground. A little early, but let’s see how they go.

The salad and herb plot looks nice with its little box hedge, but I wish that I’d made a separate herb bed. Still I can always modify it sometime.

The row of spinach that I planted on the 2nd March was a bit thin (about 4 plants poked their way out of the ground), so I’ve sown some more to bridge the gaps. I sowed a row of carrots (Paris Market) in the plot to the side of the garage. The books disagreed on when to sow, so no idea what results I’ll get. Finally, I put the last of the potatoes (Anya) into the same plot as the carrots and sowed the last few in plant pots in the greenhouse so that I get an early crop. The others that I sowed like that have started to sprout and I’m filling up the pot with earth.

Meanwhile, the cold frame is turning into a real investment (and a good present). I had my first salad leaves and a tiny radish today from there and the cabbages waiting to go into the ground are doing really well. It’s forecasting frosts this week, so I’ll wait.

We ate some of the cabbage (which is bolting) and the spinach with Sunday lunch.

I took a day off in lieu of my last Saturday last weekend and I spent a good part of it in the garden. Outside, I planted potatoes (Swift and Anya), beetroot (including transplants), leek, radish (French Breakfast), lettuce (Tin Tin) and parsnip. I also planted out the carrots that I grown in half toilet rolls into the ground inside the cold frame.

It has been very mild with little rain. This meant that digging chicken waste into the new potato plot was hot work. That bed is now ready and I thought about planting some potatoes in it, but decided against it because they’re predicting frosts next week. Instead I planted 3 ‘Swift’ potatoes into a bucket in the greenhouse so that I can have some early potatoes. I also tidied up the small bed and covered it with netting to keep the cats out. Last year’s spinach is growing nicely and looked better for a bit of a tidy up.

I did plant some spinach (‘American Giant’) in the bed outside. The propagator got more pepper (‘Sweet Romano’), lettuce (‘Blonde Maraicheri’) and dwarf french bean (‘The Prince’). I moved out the carrots (‘Paris Market’) because nothing seemed to be happening with them and I want to get as much of a throughput as I can through the propagator.

I also bought another gooseberry plant to go with the other one behind the greenhouse. I picked a red one (‘Hinnomaki Red’) which had a lot of shoots showing.

Tags: root vegetables, salad, fruit

The snow has almost gone now and the weather is warming up. This year I want to grow as much from seed as I can so I want to treat the propagator as a bit of a conveyer belt, getting stuff out of it and new seed in as fast as I can. Somewhere I read that when 75% of your seeds have germinated, take the containers out.

Tomatoes
I’ve taken most of the tomatoes out of the propagator. Both types, Alicante and Gardener’s Delight have sprouted. I sowed a batch of the ‘Garden Pearl’ (which I got from a magazine) into pots (three to a pot) and put those into the propagator. You can grow these in pots or in hanging baskets.

Carrots
I’ve taken the ‘Nante’s 2’ from the propagator as pretty much all of them have come up. I planted these in toilet rolls and, when the weather is warm enough, I plan to put them into the ground as is. I need to sow some more, but the propagator is now full.

Leeks and Beetroot
These have gone into the propagator.

Radish
I’ve sown ‘French Breakfast’ in the cold frame (where mixed salad leaves are starting to sprout. No sign of the carrots in the cold frame yet, but there has been a lot of snow and freezing temperatures.

Cabbage and Cauliflower
Despite last year’s doing really badly (the cauliflowers came late and rotted, caterpillars decimated the cabbage, only Savoy cabbages are left) I bought some more seeds and sowed them today. Cabbages were ‘Primo’ which are apparently ideal for small gardens and the cauliflowers are ‘All Year Round’ (Britain’s most popular). I want summer ones, these grow quickly and you can eat them in June / July. These will be grown under netting!


Tomato ‘Garden Pearl’
An outdoor tomato with big crops of very tasty sweet cherry tomatoes with pink-red fruit. It s (determinate) bush habit makes it ideal for pots tubs window boxes or borders.

Radish ‘French Breakfast’
Elongated, rosy scarlet with a white tip. The crunchy flesh has a pleasant flavour.

Tags: root vegetables, salad

How’s this for optimism? Deep in the snow, these carrots are starting to sprout in my propagator.

[The next day the tomatoes (Alicante) had started to sprout]

I heard about sowing carrots and lettuce early under a cold frame from the Alternative Kitchen Garden blog (akg). Apparently, you can eat them by the end of March. Worth a try, so I’ve sited my new cold frame on the south wall of the garage (where I’ve grown tomatoes for the last two years). The carrots came with the Grow Your Own magazine.

I’ve also sown carrots, chili pepper and tomatoes in the propagator. Good old Gardener’s Delight which was really good last year. The other type were ‘Alicante’. The peppers are ‘Ring of Fire’ (wonder what that means?).

Carrot ‘Paris Market’
One of the best all rounders, as the sphericall ‘baby’ carrots are unlikely to grow more than an inch in length.

Tomatoes Alicante
Cordon (Indeterminate). Ideal variety for beginners. A superior variety possessing all the things we look for in a tomato. Alicante produces a heavy crop of greenback free fruit early in the season and the flavour is excellent.

Chili Pepper Ring of Fire (Heat Level 6)
Cayenne type chilli this is ideal for drying and grinding into powder. 4 inch long thin chillies, red when ripe after 80 days. Very abundant 2 foot plants form a perfect shape. (Capsicum annuum)

The carrots were Nantes 2. I’ve grown these for a couple of years and they grow really well and cook well too.

Tags: salad, root vegetables, blog

Probably a bit late for these, but they were on sale in the garden center so in they go. This also gave me a chance to play with my latest toy - a tablet and pen.

Beetroot Woden F1 Hybrid
Woden F1 hybrid was bred by Thompson and Morgan and introduced in their 2004 catalogue. It is a globe beetroot with bright red flesh that can be harvested as baby or mature beets. Mature beets do not go fibrous and store well. Young leaves can be eaten as spinach.

It’s a bit late in the year for carrots, but I planted some anyway and we’ll see. I’ll let one of the beds empty out so that I can use up the compost on it (it’s a bit low), but I’d like the other two to be productive into autumn and even winter.

Tags: blog, root vegetables

I wouldn't say that this is a big carrot, but those are size 9 shoes. Actually, the rest of my family think that Crocs are gross, but I like them.

Tags: root vegetables

It's all happening in the garden. Clockwise from top left:
tomato
potatoes
green beans, peas, turnip
asparagus
turnip
strawberries
peppers
beetroot, shallots, parsnips, broad beans, carrot, onions

In the middle is garlic, onion, spinach and swede

Tags: root vegetables, legumes

The weather report said that there might be snow and here it is. I'm glad that I didn't plant out my beetroot and lettuce. Hope the peas are all right and that the little carrot seedlings are surviving under the cloche that I put back yesterday.

Tags: blog, root vegetables, salad, legumes

It's been surprisingly dry, I've had to remove the cloches and water under them this weekend (as I did last weekend). Still no sign of any outdoor seeds sprouting (carrot, peas, beetroot). The greenhouse sown seeds are making a showing, but I'm disappointed in the green beans. Some just expired. One of the green beans that I sowed last week has sprouted - I wish the others would be more enthusiastic. I'm not too worried, I checked last year's blog and I finished the raised beds at the end of April and planted out bought seedlings at that time. If all else fails, I can still buy seedlings.

I've used about 2/3 of the soil that I had delivered on Thursday, I think that I over estimated how much I'd need. I've been filling up the raised beds (I didn't quite buy enough soil last year and my compost heaps are not producing enough (yet)). Maybe I'll get some of the paths done this weekend; I bought some weed membrane yesterday.

Tags: root vegetables, blog, legumes

The frosts seem to be (mostly) over. According to my books, you can sow carrots outside at the end of February if they're under a cloche. I've just sown two lines of Nantes 2 (from Alan Titchmarsh's organic range).

Nantes 2

Quick maturing and ideal for sowings from Feb under cloches or fleece cropping from June. Can also be sown as late as August. Blunt ended 16cm cylindrical roots with almost no core and a lovely sweet flavour.

Tags: root vegetables