More sowing, potting on and planting out

Tomato plants in final pots

The two largest tomato plants are now in their final pots, and will sit outside in a sunny corner by the house. It's a bit sunnier after I pruned some hawthorn hedge and cut a big bough from an ash tree nearby.

I planted out another courgette seedling (only one out of three germinated from the second batch), and I put three chitted seeds in the bed to make up the six originally planned for (its actually seven, but two chitted seeds are in the same spot. I'll pull out the weaker one if necessary.) I'm not very impressed with the germination rate of these courgettes.

Lastly I planted another row of carrots in bed six, the radishes that were there temporarily having been thrown away yesterday. That finished up the packet of Early Nantes, and nearly finished the Nepal F1.

Putting a few more weeds on the compost heap I noticed that the top is warm to the touch - probably mid 30s C is my guess.

More tomato potting, new sowing of salad plants

Tomato plants

The three tomato plants from the second batch were poking roots through their peat pots, so I planted them into bigger pots. These pots are probably too big, but they're all I could find.

I also tore out the bolted rocket, choy sum, and pak choi from bed ten, and planted more mixed salad, lettuce (two rows), choy sum, rocket and radishes.

Earthing up potatoes

Out early this morning to earth up potatoes. Not as big a job as I'd thought it would be.

Some were earthed up just using the soil around them, and some using a mixture of soil and pig manure. We'll see if there's any difference in the crop.

I also planted out the three courgettes which had grown too big for their pots. There's space in the bed for another three, and I have some more planted in pots indoors, but they haven't shown yet.

I did a few other small jobs - a bit more scything and hand-weeding, and putting in canes to support a couple of  broad beans which were beginning to tip over. While I was pottering about, I noticed that the blackcurrant bush now has a dozen or so tiny green currants. Funny, I didn't see any flowers at any point. The apple tree didn't produce any flowers either - I think they should have been out in late April or early May, so perhaps I pruned the tree too hard.

French beans planted out, slugs attack broad beans

Legume bed - peas, broad and French beans

The last batch of French beans were showing good enough root growth to go into the ground, so they have gone into bed one - the seven seedlings just fitted into the available spaces left by dead broad beans. That makes ten dwarf French beans planted now, with the three in the overflow bed. That should be enough.

While doing this, I noticed that some of the developing broad bean pods have been nibbled, and the culprits left behind a slime trail. Now I'd like to garden organically, but I'm not going to mess about with crushed eggshell, sharp sand, copper foil, or any of the other traditional, ineffective anti-slug measures. And as for wasting good beer... that goes against my religious beliefs.

 It's Blue Chemical Death time.

Potting up, planting out

Tomato and courgette seedlings

Runner bean seedlings

The first batch of tomato seedlings were getting big enough to show roots out of the bottom of their peat pots, so I planted them into bigger pots. They will go into their final pots when they put roots out of the bottom of these ones.

Today I also planted out the runner beans. All eight of the chitted beans came up when planted in pots, and I'd made a wigwam wit six canes. I planted one in the middle of the wigwam - it may be able to grow up the central support, but I suspect the other beans will shade it too much. The last (smallest) bean seedling I planted in the pig manure to test for pesticide residues - the cress I planted to do that got covered with grass cuttings by the neighbours' gardener.

Beans in the ground

Dwarf French beans.

Three of the dwarf French beans were starting to poke roots out of their pots, so it was time for them to go in the ground - I put them in a gap between the overflow potatoes yesterday, as I'd made that bed longer than it needed to be. That freed up two plastic pots, and I put a couple more of the chitting runner bean seeds in them, so I now have eight seeds in pots, to fill six spaces. (One of the French beans was in a peat pot, so that just went straight in the ground.)

Tomato seedling

One of the first batch of runner beans has appeared above the soil today, as has one of the second batch of French beans. There are now seven tomato plants in small pots, from quite sturdy little plants to tiny seedlings, and there are also two basil seedlings - there were three, but one dried out. They are quite difficult, it seems. The last batch I killed by over-watering (I think), this batch the only casualty so far has been from the opposite cause.

Something starchy this way comes

Young potato plant

Young spring onions

Young radish plants

More sowing and planting out today: seven of each of basil and chillies in paper pots on the windowsill to replace the unsuccessful first batches.

I've planted out the last batch of leeks in bed zero, and since they took up a row and a bit, I finished the row with leek seeds. That's almost finished the packet of Carlton F1, almost all of which have germinated, and that bed is now full. I hope the spinach and turnips there hurry up - I will want that space for courgettes in about six weeks.

In bed nine I've sown two rows each of beetroots and turnips, leaving space for a couple more rows of something.

Bed five is now full, after planting another row of carrots (half a row each of Early Nantes and Nepal F1), but the radishes ought to be out of the way in another month and will be replaced with a final row of carrots.

Bed eight is also full - I put in another row of spring onions (White Lisbon Winter Hardy), but again there will be room for another row when the radishes (pictured) have been eaten. The second row has done much better than the first - although I protected the first sowing with garden fleece on frosty nights, they probably went in a bit early.

Finally, just to empty the greenhouse, I put three odd lamb's lettuces in the very corners of the runner bean bed.

Growth notes: The first potato plants are above ground now, all Epicure (the earlies). The maincrop spuds haven't appeared yet.

Three of the dwarf French beans have sprouted on the  windowsill, but still only two out of the twelve tomatoes, which isn't a great germination rate.

Potatoes in

Chitted potatoes ready for planting

It's traditional to plant potatoes out on Good Friday, but I left it a bit later because the weather was cool that week, and because I wanted to put up the mesh cage over bed three without having to worry about trampling the potatoes.

Now they're all in the ground, the earlies in bed two and the maincrop in bed four. In the end there were 23 of each type to go in, 18 of each in the main beds, and five of each in the overflow bed.

I also planted out some spinach from paper pots (in bed zero), a row of chives in bed eight, and eight dwarf French beans in large pots. There's enough space in the overflow bed for four dwarf beans, and enough space in bed one (where some broad beans didn't make it through the winter) for another four. The chives and the French beans were impulse buys when I was getting the chicken wire.

If the chives and the early potatoes are ready at the same time, I can have potato salad. Mmmm!

I have built a replica of the Millenium Dome

Bed three cage

Bed eleven cage

Today I built cages to protect the brassicas from pigeons, using chicken wire. The cage over bed three is suspended from wires attached to a stake and the fence, the other one is a wood-frame structure. They are both pegged to the ground around the edges, and the separate sections of chicken wire are 'sewn' together with more wire.

I planted out the new batch of kale into bed three before building the cage, and I hoed round the surviving plants. There are still a few gaps for cabbages, which will be somewhat difficult to plant without taking the cage apart.

Your move, pigeons!

First potatoes in

Purple choy sum, rocket, 3 rows of mixed salad, pak choi, and lettuce.

Today I planted the overflow bed with five each of the Epicure (early) and King Edward (maincrop) potatoes, and put a row of parsnip seeds along the other side of the bed.

I also planted out some seedlings - the pak choi in bed ten, where various lettuce-type plants have sprouted.

The second batch of beetroots and turnips have gone into bed zero, where the spinach seedlings have appeared. These are all intended to be quick-cropping veg to make use of the space which will have courgettes sown in it in June.

Other growth notes: the peas in bed eight have sprouted, and in the row next to them there are about ten of the first planting of spring onions. The leeks planted among the garlic in bed seven seem to be doing OK, and the next batch of leeks in paper pots have mostly sprouted - thirteen out of sixteen visible so far. The pigeons have pretty much demolished all the cabbages and started on the kale in bed three, though.

Window box for parsley

Window box for parsley

This window box was in place when I moved to this house, so I tipped the old soil and dead plants on to the compost heap and filled it with fresh earth from the garden. I mixed in the last of a bag of potting compost into the top inch or so, and added a packet of parsley seeds.

I also planted out the first batch of leeks into gaps in the garlic (bed seven). I planted the garlic cloves much too far apart, and I hope the leeks will be OK in between them. I found that using two trowels facing each other produced very neat holes, just the right size for the paper pots, so I will not bother making another transplanting tool.

Vegetables!

Another major planting session today:
Bed eight: a row of peas (the last of the Greenshaft) and another row of spring onions (despite the fact that the first row hasn't appeared yet, after just over three weeks.)
Bed five: another row of carrots - half Nepal F1 and half Early Nantes. I think the Nepal ones in the first row are just starting to show, but they could be grass at this stage. I'm planning to plant four rows in this bed at monthly intervals, to get a continuous crop, which means that row four isn't going to be planted for ages - I put some radishes in that space, which will have come and gone by the time I want it for the last sowing of carrots.
Bed zero: On the same principal, I filled a space earmarked for courgettes with a direct sowing of a row of spinach (Samich F1).
In the salad bed, bed ten, I planted out the two pak choi from the first batch which germinated, leaving the rest of the row for the second batch. I also sowed a row of Little Gem lettuce, and three rows of mixed salad leaf seeds - mizuna, chicory, corn salad, rocket, and texsei. (I don't know what all of those are, hope I like them!)
Lastly, I put two tomato seeds in each of six pots - I'll keep whichever is the strongest plant in each one, before planting them out.

Then I tested my newest bit of garden equipment - a hammock. Great!

Update: Corn salad is the same thing as lamb's lettuce! So I'll have tons of that if it all comes up. 

Transplanting and sowing

The garden today

Yesterday I transplanted the purple choy sum and rocket seedlings into bed ten. Because there were only six or seven seedlings, I planted them quite widely separated, and sowed three or four more seeds between each plant.





Now that the greenhouse is fairly empty, I sowed more seeds into paper pots today:

• 16 x Pak Choi (because only two out of six of the first batch germinated)
• 16 x Leeks
• 12 x Turnips

Planting out

Planting out turnip seedlings

Today I planted out a lot of the paper pots - cabbage 'greyhound' and cauliflower 'All Year Round' into bed eleven (and two spare cauliflowers in gaps in the kale bed). Bed five is turning into a collection of small numbers of different plants - there is some surviving land cress and two lamb's lettuces from the autumn planting, and six broad beans (one now showing leaves) planted as replacements for the dead ones in bed one. In the spaces left by these, I've now planted eight turnips, six beetroots, and five spinach plants.

All this planting was done using the transplanter I made, which worked better than I expected. I thought that the soil might not be lifted out of the hole, but it came up in neat little plugs leaving cylindrical holes of the right size. Unfortunately the plastic was too brittle to take the load, and after making about thirty holes it broke up. I'll call it a successful prototype, and think about making a more robust one out of metal. It would also be better if the handle was in line with the axis of the barrel. Hmmm.