Kitchen garden update

Although we haven't been grow much veg this year, I am really happy with what we have so far. We've collected a nice bunch of mange touts. I had originally sown 3 seeds directly, I think next time I'll start them off in the greenhouse and then I will put together some bamboo canes and help them climb up. This year only one germinated and I have made it go up the fence. Looks nice, though!

The peppers are coming on nicely. I have potted them on twice, and this third time I hope I don't have to move them again. We are going on holiday soon, so I thought I would move them now so they won't go thirsty.

I personally don't like courgettes, but my mother-in-law does. These are growing nicely. I also bought a cucumber seedling from a garden centre, not expecting much. However, it has thrived! With T's SMYG, however, I have wondered whether the flowers have been pollinated properly... I guess if it has produced fruit it will be ok.

We've had a bunch of strawberries. I am not worried about the plants as I know they produce more fruit the more established they are. It's their first year and I think I've managed to eat about 2 dozen, with some casualties fallen to slug attack. They tasted amazing, I ate them au natural, without cream. The smell was so sweet and mouth watering that it took all my self-restrain not to each them one by one as I picked them. I have started making new strawberry plants with the tendrils they send out. It might be quite rudementary, but I out them in a pot and bury them a little, I place a pebble or stone on the tendril so it does not move and wait for the stem to root. Once it is rooted - and you can tell because there is resistance when you pull the plant up - you can cut the tendril from the mother plant and it will survive on its own.

We've had some spinach and salad leaves. The spinach has now gone to seed, probably because it has been very hot, the salad leaves are on their way out now too, I might sow some more. I also directly sowed some lettuce. I should have thinned the lettuce out, but I felt bad!

The carrots, onions and kale are still growing. The kale has slowly been attacked by slugs, and I have seen white butterflies around. I have planted sage near the kale to deter the butterflies, but perhaps it's something I should have done before. I have enjoyed having the veg spread about the garden. It has filled it out majorly, and I love the dark green of kale.

I thinned out the carrots in the pot. I got quite worried because I spotted some black bugs on the carrot and wished it wasn't carrot fly. I hosed them down, and I planted some garlic as I know the bugs don't like the smell of it. I know it's not the season to plant it, but my plan seems to be working!

 

 I think next year I will plant more onions out. I have about 5 spread out the garden at the moment. I have a line of spring onion next to the lettuce, and I have also planted some in a pot that is sitting next to the potted carrots, also to act as a fly deterrent.

Snippets of Spring 19.05.2015

The weather has been crazy these past couple of weeks!

Things are finally growing on in the garden! I have some snaps to show. However, geez with the weeds!! Most of the time I've been out there I have ended up getting distracted because I "just need to get rid of this one". And "this one" became all of the patch really. Anyway, here we go!

A few months ago, I made this teepee (officially called a wigwam). The sweet peas have started growing big and strong and I am excited to see them in bloom.

Last weekend, I decided it was time to plant out some sweet peas I had been hardening off for a couple of weeks. I didn't have as much germination success as I had before, and I don't really have space to build another teepee. So I put together some bamboo canes I had lying about and made some sort of trellis contraption.I spotted a slug while I was tying everything together, so I decided to scatter some gravel to make it a little difficult for them to nom on my beautiful seedling. 

 I tackled the back of the garden as well. It's difficult because the more you take out, the more it erodes. However, I don't want to spray it all with weed killer. If you have any suggestions let me know!

The of the best things about planting things from seed is not only to watch them grow and plant them out but to give plants to people. I grew some rudbeckia and dianthus from seed. Some friends of mine moved house recently and have been asked to assist in the design of it! (I might ask if I can document the progress). In any case, I thought adding some colour would look nice while they decide what to do with it. I've also got some strawberry plants to one side. In the meantime though, here are the rudbeckia I am keeping.

My spinach and salad leaves are growing so fast! I give some spinach to our guinea pigs and they gobble it all up. The carrots are also showing signs of their "top".

I've been collecting alpines these last couple of months. This area of the garden is a bit awkward to grow anything because it has some shrubs etc. and I have noticed cats like going to the toilet there. Also, given it was so barren, weeds popped up like crazy. So I weeded, and I am slowly filling it with alpines. I'm thinking of putting some ferns in the more shady areas. With these alpines it already looks so much better and I have been weeding a lot less. I chose alpines because they are low maintenance. However, you can't see it in this photo, but further up I have planted some thyme and a couple of onion.

On the other side, my father-in-law gave me a bunch of chives, and the kale and spinach seems happy where it is! The next photo is an update on my flower patch. You can see seedlings in neat rows. However, I'm sure seeds scattered around, so I don't want to weed anything that I don't recognise!

Finally a sneaky peak in the greenhouse. After watching the Great British Garden Revival, I got obsessed with getting "native British lavender", so I ordered a plant of hidcote lavender. It arrived last week and has been living in the greenhouse to aclimatise.

















 The greenhouse is slowly getting emptier now that the temperatures seem to be keeping at a decent level. I've still got my peppers growing, and my sunflowers. I also have 2 courgette plants for my mother-in-law.

Lastly, I'm trying to get these sage cutting to root. I have kept them in a sandwich bag for about a week now, making sure they have enough water. I obviously don't want to pull them out to see if they have rooted, so I don't know how they are doing, really. However, they haven't dried out and they still look pretty green! I hope they continue to remain alive.

Filling the garden little by little and update on direct sowing

The key to not lose your battle with the weeds is patience and tackling one area of the garden at a time. At least that is what has worked for me. We are lucky have a really big garden, but it did look rather sparse when we first moved in. I have been slowly filling it with plants that I like. I see it as a trial run for the garden at our forever home, whenever that may be. I buy things I like the look of; if they survive, great. If not, on to something else it is.

Up until now I had been concentrating on the parts of the garden that were closer to the house. I moved my way upwards, taking out weeds etc. Last weekend, my father-in-law took me to an old-school nursery some 30 minutes away. It's called Marbury Hall Nursery and it was a dream to walk through the rows and rows of plants. I bought a small collection of mostly alpines to plant on the opposite bed where my flower patch is growing. They look rather at home there now and it has inspired me to keep on adding to it. Also, I have to add that I got the plants, two ceramic pots and a carnivorous plant for the boyfriend for under £30. That gave me enough reason to make the decision that I will return.

While I was outside I decided to pay a visit to the different areas in the garden where I have sowed directly. One pea plant has showed it's head, and there is movement in the courgette+marigold area. The spinach and the kale are also growing nicely and the carrot has started to show too. We had a frost the other day that made me worry about them but they seem to be ok!

Edible Garden - update 15.04.2015

After dipping into Alys's excellent book, I decided to try and sow directly in some areas of the garden. I have been quite hesitant to plant anything directly which is not in pots, but I figured won't ever be able to improve if I don't try. If it works, great. If it doesn't, make a note of why and change it for next time.

So, I have used one bed in the garden for a small crop, and will try my hand at companion planting while I'm at it. So, here I have lettuce, spring onion and carrot. Not sure if the string is supposed to be there, but for me personally it helps me know where I have sowed should I want to add any flowers. Poppies, for example, could be grown with carrots. I have a fear of attracting carrot fly, so I invested in a big tall pot and thought I try to grow a smaller variety there, and use mint as the companion plant. After giving the seeds a sniff, I can totally understand why the fly wants the carrots; the smell is exquisite!

I also planted 3 peas, I want to try and grow Sugar Ann snap peas. We'll see how they go. If nothing happens, I might try again in the greenhouse and then plant them out. Not sure what that random lonely shoot is...

My mother-in-law likes courgettes, so I am trying to grow some for her. I only sowed 3 seeds at first, to see how it goes. I also sowed some calendula (marigold) around it as those two seem to be good for companion planting. I'm hoping that at least one of the seeds will germinate and make a nice little display on that bed.

Strawberries I'm really excited about. Birds stealing my fruit is something that is worrying me, but I will invest in a net and some hooks in the next couple of weeks. Birds never come to the part of garden nearest to the house as we have a cat that treats our garden and that of our neighbours at each side as her playground - I know she poos in mine, I have seen her digging!! Not impressed. Anyway, what I mean by that is that hopefully the strawberries in the tub will be safe... We'll see. I can always cover them up too.

Do people net spinach, kale and salad leaves too? Something else I need to look into. So far, I have taken the spinach and salad leaved out of the modules they were in because they were annoying me, all floppy. The salad leaves have been in the pot for a couple of days and it might be wishful thinking but I could swear some of the leaves have got bigger!  They are still living in the greenhouse for now, but I think they will go out in May.

Lastly, the potatoes! All of the bags are finally showing signs of growth. I am waiting patiently to cover the leaves up. I had the 3 bags sitting in a huge plastic tray so they wouldn't dry out, but I just found the water would collect from random showers during the day and the sacks would be sitting in an inch or two of water all day. So I have them sitting about in a little trio.