End of May

I am still adding things to the new shallow box. The two squares of spinach are up now, still only with seed-leaves. I sowed another two squares today, that should be more than enough! I think I am the only person to actual like it in salads.

I sprinkled some very old English mixed salad leaves over one square too. No loss if they do nothing.

Most of the carrots are up now, and the parsnip too.

Three empty squares left in the shallow box, plus what looks like space in the centre of the purple sprouting broccoli squares. Those plants are very small and it might be good to put a beetroot or something in the middle of each square.

Potatoes in

It is stupidly cold here now. The potatoes were barely sprouting but I put them in anyway (on the 24th) because the forecast is for rain later in the week.
I used the back two rows of the new deep box, so now it is full of potatoes and carrots - though they have not come up yet.
The kalibroc which I had grown indoors was hardened off a bit at least, and then put in the back row of the new shallow box. In front of that I put the purple sprouting broccoli which I grew in the winter sowing experiment. It is not as big as the indoor plants so I doubt if this will be a way to get things growing quickly. It will be interesting to see if it produces anything edible at all.
I now have three full boxes, space only in the new shallow box. If I get to Hveragerði next week then I will buy some plants to put in there, have to see what is available but perhaps some cabbage.
With temperatures well under 10°C and dropping to 3°C often over night, things are just hanging on rather than actually growing :-( We did have a very small amount of rhubarb though, mixed in some apple and made a crumble!

Quickie

Just ran out and added some seed to the new shallow box.
Sowed two squares of spinach, same sort as last year, and one square of coriander.
Plan to sow another square or two of spinach in two weeks time, perhaps more coriander then too, depends on how much space I have.

Most of the carrots which I sowed May 6th are up now.

More boxes!

Yesterday we bought the pumice and mushroom compost to put in the boxes. Bought 200l of each and already had the fortified moss, but still it was nowhere near enough!

Never mind,I sowed eight squares of carrots: four of Early Nantes 5 and four of Royal Chanteney which is an heirloom variety and supposed to be good for winter casseroles - I thought I could leave them in the ground longer. Just noticed that they are a short variety so probably a mistake to put them in the deep box!

Plan is to finish filling the second shallow box, and sow some spinach and salad leaves in there, perhaps buy the odd plant ready to put in, and I have the broccoli seedlings too which are almost big enough to harden off.

The weather forecast is for frost the night after this one, after that it should stay frost-free I think.

Carrots!

Finally!

I sowed Early Nantes 5 on April 14th and now I have some signs of life Very Happy One lone seedling has been there for a few days, but now they are popping up nicely. It was very very windy when I did the sowing so they are not at regular intervals and I put in more than I needed in case germination was poor.

I sowed one square, at the same time, in a box covered with a plastic lid. Those carrots seem to be a couple of days behind these ones, which were covered only by fleece. The ones in the box may not have been wet enough?














I dragged my long-suffering husband out today, and bought more wood and screws to make another two boxes. We got them put together in record time, and more or less in place. Now I just need the stuff to fill them :-)

First planting!

Getting some warm weather at last! The home thermometer says 15°C and it certainly feels like it.
Some of the carrots in the deep box, sown on April 14th for Carrot Week, look as though they may be germinating finally so I left that square alone for now. The carrots in the cold frame are not showing at all, possibly they got too dry?

Here is the plan for this deep bed:


















The broad bean plants were all raised inside. I sowed them in cardboard tubes, filled with compost, and seated on a layer of vermiculite. They made great root systems, out into the vermiculite. I hope that they will transplant OK. The Masterpiece beans are very tall, they certainly grow quickly - and claim to be the fastest growing broad bean. Both types should grow to 90cm. I've staked them now, and will have to stake them better later.





The sweet pea plants were also started off indoors in an eggbox - did not work so well as the roots must have been disturbed when planted out. May need to replace them with something else later.

I sowed one square of the Javelin parsnip which I tried last year. Also three squares of The Student. I grew that some years ago and thought it did very well so it will be interesting to compare a heritage type with an F1. Not sure if 16 seeds per square is too many, so did one square of 9 seeds.

The box had one square of Early Nantes 5, sown in Carrot Week. I put another squeare next to it, this is three weeks later and if the first lot do anything at all then I want to know if there is any overall advantage of early sowing. The final two squares are Amsterdam 3 Sprint. Grew these last year and they did seem to be a tad faster than the Nantes.



I watered everything and covered the whole box with fleece.
The shallow box still has the coldframes over it. The strawberry plants look good and the garlic is mostly doing fine. Some cloves had rotted so I pulled those out. there were three squares unplanted in there, so I planted those up with onions: Centurian, a white onion, 16 to each square.

Next thing to do is get another box (or two) made, and buy potatoes to chit.