After yesterday's chicken coop re-roofing, I had a light day in the garden digging more compost into the beds ready for sowing. I sowed some broad beans and parsnip too whilst I was at it. No sign of any shoots from the seeds that I sowed last week.

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

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

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.

Lots of seedlings

I got back from the far east yesterday, so today I had a gentle relaxing day catching up in the garden. I potted out more tomato plants (I have 25 plants for 4 varieties). I potted out all of the cauliflowers (23) and most of the cabbages ready for going into the ground over the next two or three weeks. To that end, I put some of the cabbages (11)and cauliflowers into the cold frame along with the beetroot (which are looking a bit stringy). In a moment of optimism, I sowed some beetroot ‘chioggia’ (which I got free with a magazine) and a row of parsnips (‘Gladiator F1’).

I filled up the propagator again with sweet pepper, sunflowers (the first 4 are looking sturdy) and some more lettuce.

Failures:
First lot of lettuce - no sign at all.
leeks - 3 out of 16 came up. I think that they were too damp. I’m going to wait and sow them directly into the garden.

We need more compost room (we run out of space when we mow the grass) and I need to replace the two wooden heaps that we inherited with the house (which are rotting). I emptied out one of the wooden ones into one of the raised beds. It’s enormous and I’m going to buy another one.

Once we’ve eaten the last of the beetroot and parsnips, I intend to leave this one empty over winter. The soil was pretty low, so it needed the compost.

I let the chickens (under gardeners) out and Amber came to help.

Tags: blog

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

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

I have spent weeks meaning to create a planting diary showing me when to plant successional plants. This weekend I failed (again) and decided to sow some new seeds of stuff that I want anyway but ran out of time. So, tonight as Gill made supper, I went out and pottered in the greenhouse. The result was a row each of green beans (Sonesta), rocket (Suffolk Herbs salad rocket), beetroot (Detroit 2), parsnip and broad bean.

Having lost a lot of green beans, I first put the soil in, damped it off, planted the seeds and then sprinkled a thin layer of soil over the top. The tray is under a lid in the greenhouse, but not in the propagator. I'll see how it goes.

Tags: legumes, root vegetables, salad

Started sowing outside. I sowed turnip (Purple Top Milan), Parsnip (Avonresistor), broad bean (??) and cress (American Land). Inside I sowed some round courgette (Tondo di pienza).

Tags: legumes, root vegetables, salad