The weather's been milder (although much colder than California where I was last week). I've planted up the seeds that I saved last year from my chilli peppers (Ring of Fire) and sweet red peppers (Quadrato d’Asti Rosso). I've also planted up 8 Gardener's Delight tomatoes; I'm not sure if I'll bother planting other varieties this year.

They're in the propagator now, we'll see how they do. Meanwhile, I decided to have a look at the cuttings that I took last year. I have been surprisingly successful with 3 rosemary plants (lots of root), 8 box plants (less root, but root nonetheless) and 3 curry plant.

One of the lovely things about growing your own vegetables is eating them. Today some of our vegetables spent less than a minute or two in the kitchen before being made into this salad (and we’re talking about food yards here). All of my salad recipes are here.

Ate my first home grown tomato of the year (Gardener’s Delight). Turned out that Gill had had a couple of other ones earlier in the week.

When I said last month that everything is growing, I wasn’t kidding. It’s been pretty dry, so we’ve been watering like mad. Luckily, there’s also been some pretty heavy rainfalls, so the water butts are holding up. Anyhow, this is the garden now!

We’re also eating our first crops. I pulled a couple of potato plants (Swift) and got this haul, which is not too bad.

We’ve been picking and eating broad beans for a couple of weeks now:

No pictures but I’ve got my first tomato fruits, so looking forward to eating my own soon. First out were Alicante (greenhouse and garden), followed by Moneymaker.

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.

It forecast rain today (well it is a bank holiday) so I dashed around putting things into the ground. This included cauliflowers, which I squeezed in amongst their siblings and cabbages, kale and pink fir apple potatoes. I planted out the main 7 tomato plants, but I have no idea where I’m going to put the rest of them (or the courgette come to that). I planted out the runner beans (Enorma Elite) onto their wigwams.

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.

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.

More planting. I’m trying to grow a great variety this year (so, four types of tomato, for example). I also got cracking and dug the new bed. And, yes, it is on a slope (from left to right). I’ve ended up terracing the vegetable plot bit by bit. I put a lot of the turf to the right of the new bed, that used to be a semicircular bed. I’m planning to put potatoes in it (they’re chitting nicely in the greenhouse). I’m pretty confident my back’s going to ache tomorrow.

The tip for the propagator that I read was that once 75% of the seeds are up, take them out. Last year I managed to nearly destroy several plants on sunny days. They also go pretty leggy if left in. The seedlings (as you can see) are fine in the greenhouse, it’s got a heater that prevents it going below about 5C. This weekend the outside temperature has been about 7C, pretty warm.

Yesterday and today, I planted tomatoes (‘Moneymaker’), more Primo cabbages (the first lot have come up and I’ve taken them out of the propagator). I moved last week’s cauliflowers into the propagator and the seeds were sprouting within a day - shows the power of the propagator. I’ve sown some more ‘ring of fire’ chilies and some sunflower seeds (I’m determined to grow some this year, they’re lovely even if they’re not edible). I planted up some more carrots (‘Paris Market’). The first lot (‘Nantes 2’) are in the toilet rolls on the right of the picture - hopefully they’ll not mind growing there until they’re planted out. So far, no sign of the leeks, but I’ve put these into the propagator, so maybe something soon. The beetroot ‘Detroit 2’ are all up, so I’ve taken them out of the propagator (strangely, not much sign of the ‘Boltardy’.

All of the seedlings that are now out of the propagator are doing well - I just have to keep them watered, but not too damp and wait for the right weather to plant them out.

I sowed some lettuce (‘Blonde Maraicheri’) into the cold frame. The mixed lettuce that I sowed earlier is coming up (but no sign of anything else, still, it is an experiment).

Tags: root vegetables, salad

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

I picked the last of tomatoes, they’re never going to ripen now and they’re prone to blight. I made some green tomato chutney with them.

These are some of the Red Pear. I’m slightly disappointed with these, they’re cropping less well than the Gardener’s Delight and quite often have blemishes, splits and so on. They also don’t taste as wonderful as the Delights.

Last year I grew a few peppers but didn’t do anything with them. The Anaheim peppers don’t appear to be turning red (just drying out), so I decided to pick them, chop them up and freeze them. Whilst I was at it, I made some “sundried” tomatoes in the oven.

Tags: blog

These are Gardener's Delight and they're just starting to ripen.

These are Red Pear and are a bit behind the Gardener's Delight. I'm a bit surprised that they look so big, but looking forward to eating them.

Tags: salad

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

These are my dwarf green beans. They're coming along but I have a high failure rate. The problem seems to be that I'm waterlogging them and they end up rotting. Still these are being hardened off ready to go out next weekend.

The tomatoes are looking good too. Again, I'm hardening these off. The tallest one is Red Pear, the rest are Gardener's Delight.

These poor souls are also Red Pear. I nearly killed them by leaving them in the propagator one hot, sunny afternoon. Most of their leaves turned brown and died. I've nursed these back to health, but they're way behind the others.

Tags: salad, legumes

They looking like they can go out in a week or so. These are Gardener's Delight.

Tags: salad

Lots of gardening jobs today:

Outside

Planted spinach seeds in the small bed.
Built cane supports for the peas (which are now starting to come through)
Planted first early potatoes ("Rocket")

greenhouse

Planted "slenderette" dwarf green beans
potted up Gardener's Delight tomatoes (next stop outside in the garden at the end of April)

propagator

Planted more Rocquencourt (here's hoping)
Added more basil, only one plant came up.
Planted chilli pepper ("Anaheim"), these came free with Gardener's World

Tags: salad, herbs, root vegetables, legumes

The tomatoes that planted (Red Pear) have started to come through (no idea what happened to the first lot). Also, both varieties of the green beans are coming through. The gardener's delight (and one Red Pear) are out of the propagator and are doing well.

Tags: salad, legumes

The gardener's delight are going well (with 6 strong plants), the Red Pear has only one. So, I planted some more Red Pear seeds in the hope that I'll get more. We saw some tomato plants for sale today in the gardening center - but I'm determined to grow my own from seed.

Tags: salad

The tomatoes are sprouting, mostly Gardener's Delight, but a few Red Pear are starting to show.

Tags: salad

My tomatoes and green beans have stubbornly refused to sprout so I've bought myself a heated propagator which I hope will help. Actually, I had a little accident with the green beans and I saw one of them - it is starting to sprout, but hasn't reached the surface yet.

Tags: salad, legumes

In an act of optimism, I've planted out some tomato seeds (Gardener's Delight and Red Pear ("the gourmet salad workhorse of the tomato world")). Hopefully the heated greenhouse will keep them free from frost and I'll be able to plant them early in spring. Apparently they should take 8 weeks from sowing to being able to be planted out. I just checked and it showed twice last year, 24th January and 9th Februray. Today, by contrast it's 11º C! I also dug some compost into the bed where I'll be putting them. The same as last year - a south facing plot behind the garage. I think that the wall helps shelter them and keep them nice and warm.

Tags: salad