Autumn round-up

As usual I have forgot to update this!

On Monday I planted the garlic ready for next year. The garlic actually did pretty well this year and I decided to try all four sorts again. In retrospect I pulled up the Icelandic purple variety way too early - I noticed that it did not appear in the farm shop until almost a month after I harvested mine so I probably lost some growth there. In the chart below the Purplish white variety is what I grew on as a one year-old last year i.e. last autumn I replanted round, undivided, bulbs. The White variety did best of all and had very large cloves so it is certainly worth growing, and I think the Purplish white one will be as good next year. The Italian one only had very small cloves and I was surprised to find that although the bulb looks white, each clove is a rub red colour. Perhaps it will do better next summer. I planted 9 cloves in each square.
Some of the garlic had scapes and I let them develop. I saved a couple and scattered the bulbils in one square. From what I have read they take a couple of years to grow full-sized but after that they can be very good producers. Could be fun to see how they do.
The shallots did not do great this year so I decided to try them with autumn planting too - if they do not look good in the spring then I can just pull them up. I think I planted one square of each type which I bought in the spring, 5 per square.
I dug up the potatoes from the extra box of molta - they are small but very tasty. I put the molta into the veg boxes and added the usual seaweed and hen manure before planting the garlic.

Bulbils			Shallots (round)
Purplish white			Shallots
White
Red Italian	Icelandic purple	White	Purplish white

Wet summer!

Really! Was it summer at all?
A quick run through what happened... a new cat on the block decided that the veg boxes made perfect cat toilets :-( so the few carrots which struggled to germinate were decimated by digging. No carrots at all from the usual sowing period. The "carrot week" ones did rather better and I have a few nice carrots from them. They are Rainbow carrots so not quite as vigorous as normal orange ones, still, better than nothing.
The parsnips which I started indoors look fantastic! At any rate the leaves do, I have not pulled any up yet. The parsnips which I sowed as normal have hardly grown at all so I think this indoor method is the way to go in the future - assuming that it is not all top-growth.
I dug all the French La Ratte potatoes today, we had a couple of meals previously. the tops were being eaten to death by slugs so it seemed wise to get them up and out. Got about 2 kg all told which is pretty good from two squares. The adjacent Premiers are looking good but I left them in for now.
Beans... hmm, well it really was not warm enough when I put them out and the French ones died back. The summer was cold and wet and not a good one for beans. It looks as though there are a few broadbeans and two Borlotti!
The leeks are doing OK, all things considered. I did not thin them properly so perhaps they would be bigger if I had. Worth trying again next year. Same with the onions from seeds, they grew at least large enough to eat.
The shallots did OK, not huge but use-able. They had onion thrips when I took them up.
The Italian kale grew but I never actually used it! Kept waiting for it to get bigger. The broccoli had heads but did not do very well. 
The garlic was pretty successful. Both the cloves saved from last year and the 2nd year bulbs grew nicely. The purple ones from Frú Lauga did not do much - I may have pulled them up too early though, they may be a later variety. The soft neck from Italy did not make very big bulbs, they look as though they have divided but not grown much. May stick some of those back in later.
The rhubarb did very well, I took three small crops off it and it grew all summer. The strawberries suffered from lack of sun. I just picked the redcurrants and got about 600 g of those plus a handful of white currants.
There is a plague of slugs now, munching the potato grass and the last few strawberries.

17th June!

Yesterday I finally had time spare for the garden so even though there was a light drizzle I did a bit of work.
I planted-up the patio planters - with an odd mixture of flowers and salad leaves. Sweet peas at the back so they can go up the trellis, busy lizzies in front in one planter, and the other one got a few clumps of mixed Italian salad leaves which I had started indoors, and a couple of geranium.
I pulled some more rhubarb, almost a kilo this time. Still problem with slugs eating the talks.
The potatoes are doing well now. For some reason the carrots are barely germinated in the right hand box, not sure if I should cut my losses and sow some more or what.
I transplanted one of the aqualegia plants and put it in a flower bed. If it survives I might move one of the others too because they are too big for the box now. They are flowering and should not be in there.
The broad beans are rather sad looking and the french beans look half dead! One or two have flowers but must of them are dead back to the first pair of leaves. It looks as though they might be regrowing from that point though so I trimmed the stems and I will see how they do this week.
Looks like I may have plenty of empty squares soon :-(
The one nice surprise is the parsnips. The ones which I started indoors are flourishing. I pulled up two plants since they need thinning anyway, and they have lovely little roots! Perhaps I should try doing carrots this way too next year? The "carrot week" ones have germinated quite well this time but starting them off indoors would mean that they would be well away by now.

Bought some timber yesterday so that I can edge round the veg boxes and put down woodchips to make it look neater. Once that is done I will post an update picture to show how things are growing. We really need some sunshine.
Oh, forgot to say that I planted out the runner beans too. They have been outside in a tray for over a week so the garden should not come as a shock but they were started too early indoors, as were all the beans.

Beans out!

Still not much sign of summer here. The weather is mostly grey and either cold and windy or slightly less cold and windy.
The indoor beans were beginning to look pale and straggly so I planted them out today, except for the runner beans which really would not be happy in such cool temperatures.
I planted them pretty much as planned although I had some unnamed broadbeans which I think now were probably the Italian ones, anyhow I pushed them in where there seemed a little space.
The strawberry plants have plenty of flowers - and also plenty of green insects all up their stems. Sprayed them as best I could with green soap solution.
Sowed another square of spinach. The other square is doing OK, not all stations have germinated yet but most have. Some of the parsnip seed was on the surface which can't bode well. Some of the potatoes are showing and a few of the shallots look good.

Re-potting and potting-on

We ate the first cucumber last week!  There is another just about ready on the second plant, but the poor plants have been eaten half to death by some tiny brown insects which hang around on the underside of  the leaves. I tried spraying with dilute soap solution and that reduced the numbers I think but they bounced back very quickly. Then I tried submerging the whole plant. I tied a plastic bag around the pot, to keep the soil from washing out, then I dumped the whole lot horizontally in a bath of tepid water. That seems to have helped a lot. I did one plant and then repeated it, and did the second pot yesterday. If this doesn't fix it I may just toss the whole lot out and replant.

One of the key lime plants is rather sad-looking so I have cut away the dry bits and re potted it. The other one looks much healthier.

I was given some more chitted potatoes and as there was no space in the garden I made a ply-wood box, and filled it with some of the molta I bought. Not susre if it is suitable for potatoes but nothing much to lose.

I had two plants of big Italian flat-leaf parsley and I put that outside, in the same square as the Jerusalem artichokes. As far as I recall they do not put out much leaf low-down.

I had some busy lizzie cuttings in a vase, they rooted very quickly and I have potted them up. And there were a few small plants in the aerogarden which i also potted-up so now that is turned-off.

It is still way too cold to put out any summer plants. The broadbeans are looking very tall and thin, and some have sick-looking leaves. Hope it warms up outside soon!

More seeds in

I decided to get the carrot seed in while it is possible. The ground is wet now and the air temperature about 7°C over the day.
Sowed:
6 squares of Nantes2
1 square of Rainbow carrots to compare with the carrot week ones
2 squares of parsnip Albion F1, in case the indoor ones fail
3 squares of shallots - 1 bag of Picasso and 1 of Yellow Moon
1 square of spinach Fiorano F1, plan on second square in two weeks time
1 square of mixed salad leaves

That just about fills everything once the beans go in and the second square of spinach.
I never sowed anything else to have indoors. Or the sweetpeas. Plan to do that tomorrow.

Ascension Day planting

We have had lovely weather for the last couple of days and even though it is set to rain now, the temperature has at least gone up a bit and it does not look as though it will freeze... maybe.
Since I had so many indoor things ready to go out I decided just to plant them and hope for the best.
The parsnips which I started indoors were ready to go way too soon I think. They had roots curled up at the bottom of the paper pots so I can't see that they will develop long roots but I put them out anyway. They will need thinning and if I pull up a few and the roots look hopeless I will just pull them all up and plant something else.
I put the potatoes out now too, a bit later than last year. Two sorts, French salad ones which I saved from last year, and some which must be Premier or similar, from a supermarket.
I put out the Italian Kale, four plants to a square, and the calebrese/broccoli, two per square. I also planted out the leeks and the onions grown from seed, and some Alpine strawberry plants. And one parsley plant, I have more of those and some more strawberry plants indoors.
The bean plants are all up now. They can't go out just yet so maybe I should have planted them a little later, will have to see about that.
I watered everything and then covered with fleece.
I will post diagrams of the planting scheme later, once the boxes are full.
The strawberry box is doing well, some plants have flowers already. I noticed that at least one cutting of honeysuckle from my sister's/father's has survived. Also what must be a Bramley apple grown from seed. I put them in the coldframe, each in their own pot, because it seemed they were more likely to survive there than indoors.

Beans, beans, beans!

The weather is still not very spring-like. Finally got around to sowing beans indoors today. I have always had 4 broad beans per square and that seems about right to me. In Mel's book it says 9 per square for bush beans, and 8 per square for pole beans. So with this in mind I sowed enough for 9 per square - except the Masterpiece broad bean which will be 5 per square (mostly because I had run out of tray space!). That is the plan at least, assuming they all come up.
The Masterpiece and Moonlight beans are old ones from last year or the year before. Moonlight did not do well last year but I am giving it a second shot.
The Borlotti beans and some broad beans called Aguadulce Supersimonia are ones which I bought from a farm shop near Derby. They are Italian so may not be suited to this climate.
The French beans are from a Nordic company It will be interesting to see how they perform.
Below is the plan as I see it. The empty spaces will be for carrots.

Jerusalem artichokes	Moonlight runner beans x9	Broad bean Masterpiece x5	Broad bean Masterpiece x5
French bean Lord Nelson x9	Borlotti bean x9	Broad bean Italian x9	Broad bean Italian x9
French bean Lord Nelson x9
Rainbow carrot  x16	Rainbow carrot  x16

Carrot Week!

This year SquareFoot Gardening has added a twist to Carrot Week. Instead of sowing Nantes carrots we are sowing any coloured ones. I chose Rainbow F1 from Johnsons. They are Nantes carrots but in various shades of white-yellow-orange.
Past experience shows that Carrot Week is too early for Iceland but you never can tell what the weather will be like. I sowed one square as usual, and one square of pre-soaked seed. All I did was station three seed together on kitchen-roll, covered with another sheet and then wet the whole lot over night. Then today I snipped the groups of seed off and placed them on the prepared bed. Actually, thinking about it, someone once suggested that you could just bury the whole sheet of paper.
If there is any difference in speed of germination then I may try that next.

I also re-potted some more of the indoor seeds. I also re-potted the cucumber plants... I have not been treating them very well, and let them dry out once. I noticed that they have some flowers, tiny cucumbers even, and I am not sure if this is a good thing or a sign that they are stressed. Anyhow, they should feel better in bigger pots.

Three of the purple garlic are now showing their tips. Perhaps that is why the garlic lady grows this sort, because  they come up late? The strongest growers are the one-year old bulbs but the rest look OK too.

Indoor seeds cntd.

I am a bit disappointed with the aerogarden seed system. Quite a lot of the seeds have failed to germinate so far, and some look as though they never will as they are mouldy. Next year I will try covering them to begin with to keep off mould spores in the air.

The kale and broccoli look as though they do not get enough nitrogen so I have re-potted the larger ones, using paper pots. I need to get more compost and do some more of them. I also re-potted the basil which had begun to flop over.

The dahlia is quite tall now and the lily of the valley beginning to show. The onion/leek plants look quite good and the parsnips too - tend to dry out very fast so need careful watching as far as watering goes.

The weather was very mild for most of March. The garlic is doing amazingly well, or at least it was until the temperature dropped to -7°C! I hope it is OK under the layer of fleece.

Hmm, carrot week has started http://squarefoot.creatingforum.com/t14487-carrot-week-2013#149119 so I need to get that sorted out as soon as it is warm again.

Potting

Just noting that today I potted-up a dahlia and some lily of the valley which I had bought.

The parsips are coming along fine and the onion/leek are still alive. I have put them in the cooler balcony room.

A couple of Seville orange pips have germinated too.

Up already!

Just checked the seeds and was excited to see that some are already germinating - less excited to note that they are the basil and broccoli :-) Oh well, at least the system is working.

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Seed time

I sowed the following in the Aerogarden today
               
Broccoli    Calabrese       4
Rosemary             3
Parsley    Moss curled         4
Sage        14-28        2
Strawberry    Alpine       8
Kale    Toscana            4
Busy-lizzie    Safari       10
Delphinium    Magic        6
Petunia    Purple lady      10
Geranium    Pelargonium     12
Basil    Large leaf            2

I miscalculated so actually have one station un-sown, need to fill that tomorrow.

The onion/leek and cucumber are now upstairs and I will move them into the cool balcony room as soon as I can.

I am planting the parsnips as they germinate, still need a few extra seeds. One has come up but no leaves yet.

Parsnips

I decided to try germinating parsnips indoors this year. A guy on Gardener's Question Time BBC radio said that you could germinate them on damp kitchen paper and then when roots appear use tweezers to transfer them to open-ended peat pots to grow on indoors. then plant out when warm enough. He said to put three seeds in each t and thin to one once established outside.
If I can do this then it could give me an extra month or so of growth, even longer maybe. Today some of the seeds have already germinated so I have potted them up. Normally I would be looking to sow them outdoors in May so if they don't suffer any shock going outdoors I will have gained as much as two months! Hm, perhaps I started them off too early.
I potted them up in newspaper puts - wrapped double paper around a narrow jam-jar. I put potting compost in the bottom and firmed it well, then topped up with seed compost so the seed will start in that and grow down into the stronger mix.

Cucumber and onion/leek seedlings all doing well.

Now it is March

Right then! For starters I am going to be much better at updating this blog!

On 27th Feb I sowed a few seeds -

Cucumber (Emile F1)
Onion (Bedfordshire Champion)
Leek (Starozagorski kamus)

The cucumbers (only two seeds sown) zoomed up and emerged on the 3rd day. The onions/leeks are not up yet but they should take minimum of 14 days so not really expecting them!
The cucumbers have a put each. Gardener's Question Time said that one plant of an all-female type would provide enough cucumbers for the whole summer so I may give one away if they are both producing. At the moment the plants are under lights in the kitchen, I will move them up to the sun-room when they are bigger and there is less risk of frosty nights chilling them.
Thought it would be fun to try onion from seed. Each will have  a pot of its own and then I hope to get them in the garden but I am not sure if they will do any better, or even as well, as the onion sets. Just wanted to try.

The kids gave me an Aerogarden for my birthday and we have enjoyed fresh herbs all winter. It came with various herbs, ready to start. The garlic chives did not germinate at all and the parsley and thyme did not grow as strongly as I expected - or possibly I over-cropped them too early. the two types of basil were great though and the dill was also very good. I have tried transplanting the basil, thyme and mint into pots of compost, not sure if that will work or not but the Aerogarden had finished its supplies of plant food and in any case I want it for seedlings.

I bought a seedling starter kit which has spaces for 72 plants so the next thing is to decide what plants to have in there and when to sow them. They don't all have to go in at the same time and I don't want them ready too soon.

This is the plan for now:

Name	Type	Germination	Plant out	Number
Strawberry	Alpine	14-28	Frost-free	8
Broccoli	Calabrese	14-18	When large	4
Rosemary			Frost-free	3
Parsley	Moss curled	14-21		4
Busy-lizzie	Safari	21-28	Frost-free	10
Sweet-pea	Jet-set	12 to 10	Frost-free	6
Petunia	Purple lady	14-21	Frost-free	10
Geranium	Pelargonium	7 to 10	Frost-free	12
Stock	10 week	14-21	Frost-free	9
Delphinium	Magic	21-42	Frost-free	6

Autumn already!

Actually it is more like winter now, with a good 3cm of frost in my square-foot beds.
I decided to get the garlic planted just in case it stays this cold for the rest of the month.
I planted four squares of garlic in the right-hand shallow box. In one square I put the small bulbs which I planted as cloves last autumn; I planted two squares with cloves from my 2nd-year garlic; and in one square I put cloves of a purple garlic which I bought at Frú Lauga. It will be interesting to see if any of those cloves mature in just one season or not.

Hmmm! Can't recall when I wrote that but obviously I forgot to publish it. I added another square of Italian soft-neck garlic from Frú Lauga.
 

Soft neck
1 year-old
M y cloves	Frú Lauga	My cloves