Friday, April 27, 2012
Jerusalem artichokes
Yet another experiment! I saw Jerusalem artichokes in Bonus and bought a bag of them (these are from Denmark). I think it is rather late in the year to be planting them so they may not doa great deal but if they are tiny come autumn then I can replant and leave them over the winter so they get an early start next year.
I put four of them in the spare square in the box where the potatoes and carrots are. If they grow then they will need staking.
The carrot week carrots are still not up, no surprise there really.
Monday, April 23, 2012
Carrots and parsnips
Just rounding off the seed sowing today.
Two squares each of The Student and Javelin F1 parsnips in the righthand deep box. I will post the plan when I have added the other squares in. I think I will have four squares for each of the two braodbeans, like last year, and then four squares of runners IF the customs let them through.
I also sowed four squares of Royal Chantenay carrot in the shallow box, next to the garlic. Last year they seemed too short a carrot for the deep box.
Each square was dressed with a handful of mushroom compost/chicken manure/dried seaweed.
The shallow box seems to have a lot of grass seedlings, not very happy about that.
Two squares each of The Student and Javelin F1 parsnips in the righthand deep box. I will post the plan when I have added the other squares in. I think I will have four squares for each of the two braodbeans, like last year, and then four squares of runners IF the customs let them through.
I also sowed four squares of Royal Chantenay carrot in the shallow box, next to the garlic. Last year they seemed too short a carrot for the deep box.
Each square was dressed with a handful of mushroom compost/chicken manure/dried seaweed.
The shallow box seems to have a lot of grass seedlings, not very happy about that.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Beans etc.
Note to self: keep better records!!!!
I'm not sure when I sowed the broadbeans last year, I seem to have planted them out on May 5th so I suspect I am a week or two late with starting them indoors. The trouble is you never can tell what the weather will do!
I had beans left over from last year so I used those again: Medes and Masterpiece.
I also started some left-over sweetpeas and nasturtium.
The sweetpeas are in toilet-roll tubes, seated in fine pumice and filled with Pindstrup. The others are in plastic pots of various sorts. My sister says that they are fine and just as good as peat-pots in her opinion.
Speaking of my sister, the runnerbeans and basil seed which I had sent to her has arrived so she should mail it on to me next week and if the customs don't make a fuss it should arrive soon and then I can try Moonlight runners which are supposed to self-fertilize.
I'm not sure when I sowed the broadbeans last year, I seem to have planted them out on May 5th so I suspect I am a week or two late with starting them indoors. The trouble is you never can tell what the weather will do!
I had beans left over from last year so I used those again: Medes and Masterpiece.
I also started some left-over sweetpeas and nasturtium.
The sweetpeas are in toilet-roll tubes, seated in fine pumice and filled with Pindstrup. The others are in plastic pots of various sorts. My sister says that they are fine and just as good as peat-pots in her opinion.
Speaking of my sister, the runnerbeans and basil seed which I had sent to her has arrived so she should mail it on to me next week and if the customs don't make a fuss it should arrive soon and then I can try Moonlight runners which are supposed to self-fertilize.
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Happy Summer!
Thursday was the first day of summer and certainly it is sunny but not terribly warm yet (7°C or less).
Ómar's mother gave me some chitted potatoes yesterday and told me to get them planted so I did! I added some leftover chicken manure and then decided I might as well get the carrots sown too. So I bought a bag of mushroom compost, a container of chicken manure, and one of dried seaweed. I put a handful of each in very square before sowing the carrot seed - see below. I added one square of spring onion seed too and there is a blank square left.
The garlic is looking pretty good now. I put some fertilizer round it today and covered it up again. Here is a picture of how it looks, and one of the potatoes before I planted them. Quite a mixture of potatoes, some I bought last autumn and kept in the fridge, the others are some French ones which I allowed to sprout a little.
Ómar's mother gave me some chitted potatoes yesterday and told me to get them planted so I did! I added some leftover chicken manure and then decided I might as well get the carrots sown too. So I bought a bag of mushroom compost, a container of chicken manure, and one of dried seaweed. I put a handful of each in very square before sowing the carrot seed - see below. I added one square of spring onion seed too and there is a blank square left.
The garlic is looking pretty good now. I put some fertilizer round it today and covered it up again. Here is a picture of how it looks, and one of the potatoes before I planted them. Quite a mixture of potatoes, some I bought last autumn and kept in the fridge, the others are some French ones which I allowed to sprout a little.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Seeds sown
I bought two neat little plastic propagators from Tiger (purple-pink ones) and have now sown the following:
Parsley - Plain Leaved 2 (4)
Basil - Tiger (4)
Basil - Sweet Genovese (4)
Pepper - California Wonder (3)
Pepper - Patio Red (3)
Pepper - (Hot) Hungarian Black (3)
Brussel Sprout - Evesham Special (3)
Parsley - Plain Leaved 2 (4)
Basil - Tiger (4)
Basil - Sweet Genovese (4)
Pepper - California Wonder (3)
Pepper - Patio Red (3)
Pepper - (Hot) Hungarian Black (3)
Brussel Sprout - Evesham Special (3)
Monday, April 9, 2012
Happy Easter!
It is Easter Monday and a lovely sunny day so I did a bit of tidying in the garden.
The official Square Foot Gardening site (http://squarefoot.creatingforum.com/) is having its second annual carrot week on April 16th +/- 1 week so I took the chance offered by the good weather and sowed some Nates 2 seed in one square. I added some chicken manure first and then the seeds - I was generous with the seed because they are from 2010 and may not germinate so well.
A while back we had a bad storm which washed a lot of seaweed up along the coast and I collected a few bags of it. I tipped it into the compost bin and gave it all a light stir. Seaweed is supposed to accelerate the rotting.
I plan on sowing some seed indoors in the next couple of days, basil at least and a couple of pepper plants.
The garlic is doing fine still. I had a poke around and it all seems to be making bulbs so perhaps I will actually get a crop this year?
The official Square Foot Gardening site (http://squarefoot.creatingforum.com/) is having its second annual carrot week on April 16th +/- 1 week so I took the chance offered by the good weather and sowed some Nates 2 seed in one square. I added some chicken manure first and then the seeds - I was generous with the seed because they are from 2010 and may not germinate so well.
A while back we had a bad storm which washed a lot of seaweed up along the coast and I collected a few bags of it. I tipped it into the compost bin and gave it all a light stir. Seaweed is supposed to accelerate the rotting.
I plan on sowing some seed indoors in the next couple of days, basil at least and a couple of pepper plants.
The garlic is doing fine still. I had a poke around and it all seems to be making bulbs so perhaps I will actually get a crop this year?
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