Clearing and re-planting

Runner beans

Over the weekend I've got up most of the King Edward potatoes and disposed of the plants in the bin - not wanting to add blighted material to the compost heap. I did the same with the pea plants, which had developed black spots on the leaves and remaining pods, and then died off.

That left a fair bit of space in bed one, where there are just a few French beans growing, so I dug round them and planted more French beans there and in half of the potato overflow bed. The other half has been planted with lamb's lettuce. In bed two, where the Epicure potatoes were, I've planted two rows of kale and one of rocket.

I also did a bit of scything and shearing, partly just to keep the place tidy, but mostly to feed the ravenous compost heap. I noticed some earth sticking out halfway up the heap, which I thought odd, and on investigating found that it was full of ants, so they've evidently taken up residence in the compost. I don't know if this is a good thing or not - possibly they'll stir it and keep it aerated, but possibly they'll drive away the red composting worms who do most of the work.

The runner beans are doing well, and I picked just over 6 oz for supper.

Re-dug brassica bed

Brassica bed with protective chicken wire

Bed eleven had become overgrown with weeds because of the chicken wire cage I put up to keep pigeons off, and the cabbages and cauliflowers inside had bolted.

This morning I took up the cage, weeded and forked the bed, and expanded it by digging turf away around the edges. I hope this will make it easier to keep under control - previously the edge of the cage was on the grass, and it grew up inside the wire.

I planted the last of the cabbage Advantage F1, which took up two and a half rows, and filled the rest of the bed with cauliflower All Year Round.

Bed five re-planted

Today I took out the sad remnants of the plants in bed five - bolted turnips, withered broad beans, and some good, healthy weeds - and re-planted with turnips (because the last batch did well) and beetroot (because the last batch did badly.) It's a logical business, gardening.

I also sprayed the runner beans with soapy water, since blackfly were starting to gather on a couple of the flower stalks, and tidied up a few nettles and bits of long grass that escaped yesterday's tidying session.

Since there has been no rain since Friday (unheard of!), I watered half the potatoes and peas, and the French beans and carrots. I mixed in a little comfrey tea into each watering can, to add nutrients to the soil. It's been in a fermenting bin since last autumn, and it certainly smelled nutritious.

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.

Runner beans potted

Today I potted the six runner beans which showed the best roots into three inch pots. Yesterday I did the same for five of the dwarf French beans. The soil I used is a 50/50 mixture of soil from the garden and seed compost.

Courgettes sown

6 courgettes just sown, 3 tomato seedlings and a French bean

Today I planted six courgette plants (shown, with the under-performing tomato and French bean sowing). I don't think the bed where I intended them to go will be ready in time to plant them in June, since the spinach and turnips there haven't grown as quickly as I'd hoped. I'll have to dig another bed just for courgettes.

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.

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

More seeds planted

Another small batch of paper pots filled today:

• 6x Spinach Samich F1
• 6x Beetroot Chioggia Pink
• 7x Kale Nero di Toscana

On with the planting

The garden today

Marathon planting session this morning:
In paper pots:

• 6x Pak Choi
• 6x Purple Choy Sum
• 6x Lamb's Lettuce Elan
• 7x Lettuce Little Gem
• 7x Rocket
• 8x Chilli Peppers

Directly sown in beds:

• 1 row of carrots - half Early Nantes, half Nepal F1 (bed 6)
• 1 row of spring onions White Lisbon Winter Hardy (bed 8)
• 1 row of radishes French Breakfast 3 (bed 8)

I'm planning to use bed six pretty much exclusively for carrots, because I like them, and they are a good productive crop in terms of space usage. I will plant another row every three to four weeks, so with luck I ought to have a continuous supply from June or so. I intend to do this with a lot of crops, sowing in small amounts every few weeks, so I don't have to deal with gluts, and I can be flexible as I find out what grows well and what I most like to eat.

I've been told that the root systems of the broad beans and peas may well survive and put new growth up, despite being apparently dead. I cut off all the above-ground parts, except where new growth is indeed appearing. If they survive, I'll have to find space for all the replacements currently germinating in the greenhouse. Several of each type of pea (Greenshaft and Early Onward) have germinated and shoots are starting to push above the soil. Oh well, can't have too many peas.

I also cut a couple of branches off an overhanging bush, and dug the green manure into bed two.

More early planting

Pots with germinating seeds

A few days ago I watched 'Fort Apache', and while doing so I rolled another 70-odd paper pots.

Today I sowed more seeds, again varieties which should be started in March, but I'm taking a chance that the weather will continue mild. I've only done small batches of each, so I have plenty more seeds if these ones are killed by a hard frost.

The varieties are:

• 6x Spinach Samich F1
• 6x Beetroot Chioggia Pink
• 6x Basil Lettuce Leaf
• 12x Turnip Rubin
• 12x Cabbage Greyhound

To replace the original planting of broad beans, which I don't think will recover from the frost, I've planted six more of the Aguadulce variety in peat pots, also in the greenhouse, and six directly into bed five, since the lamb's lettuce there seems not to have germinated.

Busy morning

Making paper pots

First batch - leeks, cauliflowers, and two varieties of peas

Since the weather is very mild at the moment, and the long-term forecast says it will probably continue mild, I decided to try getting some veg off to an early start. I chose things that are supposed to be planted in March, and will keep them in the greenhouse for the first month or two. The veg chosen for this early experiment are leeks (Carlton F1), cauliflowers (All the Year Round), and two varieties of peas (Early Onward and Greenshaft).

For Christmas I got a wooden tool for making biodegradable pots out of newspaper, pictured right. A strip of newspaper about 4" wide is wrapped round the top part with about 1.5" sticking out, which is folded under and crushed against the bottom part of the tool.

They seem to stay together quite well. Obviously they won't be very strong when wet, but I will be able to leave them in their trays until it's time to plant them out, when the pots will be transferred whole to the beds - no need to unwrap them, the newspaper will just decompose in the ground.

Since the volume of earth in each is quite small, and the paper will wick water away, there may be problems with them drying out. Time will tell.

Raspberry plant

I also planted out the raspberry I got from the neighbours. I put plenty of slow-release fertilizer pellets in the hole, to help it along.

Some raspberry varieties produce fruit on the new year's growth, and some on year-old wood - if mine is the latter I wont see any raspberries until 2013. Hope it's the former!