First day in the garden!

I finally got around to cleaning the strawberry box. I dug out all the strawberry plants, threw away a lot of mint and couch grass, applied hot water from the hose in the hope of killing-off some mint and grass, added a wheelbarrow-load of compost, and then planted four or five strawberry plants/squarefoot. A lot of the plants are a bit old and woody but with the extra space I can let runners root this summer and renew the plants that way.
The garlic has been emerging square by square for quite a while now. The white and purplish white bulbs came up first, but now even the little bulbils are up - it will be interesting to see how they do.
I sowed two squares of carrots, one Nantes and one the mixed coloured ones left from last year. I sowed them  on April 23rd and the soil seemed quite warm already.
I also took the potatoes out of the fridge and set them to sprout. They had stored very well in kitchen paper in ice-cream boxes, no mould at all.

Indoors I have done nothing really! I started parsnip seed on tissue paper on almost a week ago and some of those are sprouting and will need potting tomorrow.

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.

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.

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.