Cold weather and slow growth

The temperatures are pretty low this week, with some night time temperatures still dipping around the 0 mark. While my seedlings are still progressing, their growth has definately slowed a little, due to the cold and the lower light levels.

Here's a little update on what I've got...

This morning I pricked out the weaker seedlings where I had sowed 2 to a module. I also took out anything that I felt was not doing well. Still no sign of the spring onions or the little gems - the seeds must be too old (although still in date), so I will be discarding those.

I have also moved my picollo tomatoes into their own pots. I will be giving some of these away - my plan was to sow 3 varieties, but not sure if I'm too late to do that now. Either way, I'm happy with these, and they were lovely last year.

Leeks still coming along nicely. I pulled the last of last years out of the ground at the weekend because one of them was starting to bolt. Used a couple and they were great. Might make a soup with the rest.

Sweet Peas are desperate to get planted in the ground, but I'm not sure they'd withstand the cool temperatures just yet. Really need to get them out in the next week or so, if I can.

Beetroot, waiting to get planted out in clumps. My beets didn't do at all well last year, so will be starting them all in modules this year.

A little experiment - pea shoots for salads. Don't think I've planted them thickly enough, but excited to try them anyway.

Dahlia - still plodding on, to be planted in the front garden, along with...

Caledulla. If they ever appear - they're on day 11, and only just emerging! Who knows?!

Early April Update

The past week or so was beginning to feel more like Spring, but this week has dropped very cold again, and this morning there was quite a frost. The cold spell is set to dominate this week, but hopefully will then go back in the right direction!

At least, I hope so, because I have begun to plant and sow many of my vegetables for the year.

Here is a comprehensive list of what I've got done so far:

Shakespear Onions grown from sets, I planted 4 in a large pot, and 4 in the ground back in October. 3 have begun to grow on in each location, which I'm happy with, as I've never grown onions before.

Garlic - I planned on only planting my own saved garlic from last year, but ended up planting another lot from the fridge. Both were in different locations, but for some reason the ones nearest the house got eaten by birds. Last weekend, I decided to re-work that bed as it was a bit weedy, and discovered that the bulbs were still there with healthy roots. However, I decided that I would remove them, as I was unsure whether they would develop without tops. So the 7 on the other side, from my saved garlic, are doing well.

These are my leeks, which I sowed back on 23rd February. I'm quite happy with them, and have tried 2 varieties this year - Musselburgh and Oarsman. Although I sowed the same number of each, the Musselburgh had a much lower rate of germination. I guess this is because they are older seeds.

The first tray of cells I sowed had several things in it, but some of them failed. They were all sowed on the 9th March. So what I have here are my Picollo tomatoes, Boltardy Beetroot, and Bolder Beetroot. I have decided to try multi-sowing my beetroot, and about half have germinated. The Boltardy have done much better thatn the yellow Bolder variety.

For a bit of colour and to attract some lovely bees, I have some Sweet Peas, saved from last year's plants. I sowed 6, and half have come up. I'm not entirely sure whether I should have in fact pinched out the tops, as there are no side shoots. But we will see!

And my final cell tray sowed on the 24th March - I'm really pleased with the rate of germination on this one! It contains All the Year Round Lettuce, Some multi-sown Basil, Broccoli Raab 60 Day, Golden Acre Cabbage, Greyhound Cabbage, Peas (Twinkle), and not yet germinated Little Gem Lettuce, and White Lisbon Spring Onion. Weirdly, these last 2 are the ones that failed in the first tray, so might have to throw away the seeds if they don;t come up.

Finally, for my front garden, I have a couple of new flowers - Caledula and Dehlia. Excited to see these as I've never grown them before. Both sowed on the 29th March.

Outside, I have also planted my potatoes into bins and pots. 3 varieties - Charlotte, Maris Piper, and Melody. As well as these, I have 2 varieties of carrot sowed in pots - Heritage and Nantes.

From last year, I still have 5 leeks, which will need to come out of the ground soon!

March Update

It's still very cold and windy here, but I have made a start on getting some of my seeds in. Here are some images of what I have so far...

Sweet peas, sowed 6, 3 emerged.

Leeks, approx 40 of each variety - Oarsman and Musselburgh

Just planted, waiting to germinate

Chitting potatoes

Yesterday, we had the most delicious mashed potato with our tea, and I have decided to save a few to try growing. I've always grown my potaptoes from store-bought rather than seeds, and got really good results with earlies over the past 2 years.

These potatoes are called 'Melody', and a quick search tells me that they are a maincrop, grown for boiling and mashing. Their origins, from what I can tell, are Dutch.

So here are my first pototoes to be chitted this year! How exciting!

December Garden Update

I wanted to record what's happening in the smallest veg garden in December - not much, but here's what I have...

Shop bought garlic - doing well so far

New strawberry plants taken from runners

Remaining Leeks

4 Shakespear onions, only 2 emerged

4 Shakespear onion, 3 emerged

Lavendar, Tulip bulbs, and chives

An overview of the garden

A little bit at least. And for reference, I have worked out that the overall square meterage of the 7 beds is 3.1115sq.m. Aside from the pots, that is all I have to play with!

2018 roundup

It’s been a while – my garden is looking very empty now. All I have left in the earth are 2 savoy cabbages (one of which is destined for Sunday lunch this week!), and about 8 leeks. I have made a couple of batches of leek and potato soup recently, which has been lovely, but I have only used the few leeks which were planted as ‘spares’. The rest are a bit of a mixed bag – some of them are pretty fat already, but some of them are still a bit skinny and weedy looking. They look healthy, and I’m sure they fatten up a bit more over the winter months – fingers crossed!

I have decided to dig up and dispose of my tomato plants now, as they had pretty much stopped producing, and were looking less than healthy. I also dug up my 2 chilli pepper plants – I have frozen 3 fruits, and have 3 more drying out on my utility room (Which is lovely and sunny – you will see my seedlings raised there in the spring!).

The garlic and the remainder of the tomatoes are still on the windowsill finishing off, to be used shortly!

Speaking of garlic – my husband had bought a pack of garlic not so long ago, before I’d harvested these, and there was one that started to sprout in the fridge. So that one has been separated and popped into little pots to see if they are healthy enough to grow on. I managed 7, and I plan to use at least 1 of my harvested bulbs to grow some for next year. So should have plenty of lovely home-grown garlic next summer!

As I said in my last post, there were quite a few successes this year, a few disappointing crops, but a lot of valuable lessons learned once again! And with that in mind, I have made a plan for next year, which involves making much more use of the little space I have been blessed with. The whole garden needs to work much harder next year, and I’m hoping to have less empty space, and make more use of space as it becomes available after harvesting crops.

Over the past couple of weeks, as well as dealing with those unexpected shop-bought garlic cloves, I have bought and planted 8 sets of Shakespeare Onions, 4 direct into a raised bed, and 4 into the terracotta pot where my carrots grew in the summer. It feels great to have at least put something new in! And as I said, I will be putting some of last years’ garlic cloves in over the next few weeks, when I get a spare minute!

Something else I need to do is write these posts a bit more frequently. I don’t think many people read them (hi, if you do!), but it serves as a useful record for me each year, so I need to keep on top of that.

Triumphs and disappointments

Hello Friends,

We've had some gorgeous hot weather over the past few weeks - not that I'm complaining, but I think my garden might if it could speak!

I've had a few good little harvests from my tiny garden so far - the biggest success must have been my 2 bins of potatoes. I planted 3 seeds in each, and had a lovely yeild of about 35 from each, which equates to around 10 per seed. On the down side, as they were all earlies, they were all ready around the same time, which means they've almost all gone already. I think next year, I will try some different varieties, and so make them last a little longer.

Little Gem Lettuce

I have also had an abundance of lettuce - again, I didn't do well with timings when I planted the seeds, so I ended up with 4 all at once, and am now waiting for another 2 which won't be ready for a couple of weeks at least! Next year, I need to be more organised with that too.

As always, my mint is thriving, I now have 3 pots which have grown from one original plant my dad gave my about 3 years ago. I also have had some success with chives and basil.

I dug up my garlic just before I wnt on holiday a couple of weeks ago, and that is now drying out nicely in my shed. Looking forward to tasting that - I have already eaten the scarps, which  used in salads and sandwiches - they were loveley, a nice blend of garlic and spring onion.

Savoy Cabbages

My cabages ar begining to fatten out nicely, and should make a lovely meal or two during the winter, as with the leeks, which are also doing really well.

None of the beetroots (2 varieties) which I planted twice(!) emerged. I think that the minute they sprouted, the birds had them, despite my efforts to net them. I need to start the seedlings indoors next year, and give them much better protection.

Dwarf French Beans, Twinkle in background!

Mange Tout

My peas and beans are just starting to produce. We had our first small batch with Sunday lunch yesterday. Delicious! I thought that the dwarf french beans were going to fail, as they took ages to start producing, so I planted an additional 'Twinkle' pea, which is now sharing the space. Hopefully, they will be happy doing so as I'm looking forward to the pleaseure of shelling those peas!

Chillis

My chilli plants have quite a few green fruits on them - for some reason, they are much darker one one plant that the other. But they are a good size, so I will leave them to do their thing and hopefully will be able to enjoy them over the coming months.

My 7 tomato plants are all starting to bear fruit, I picked 3 lovely red fruits yesterday - should get some good ones if the buds are anything to go by.

So, lots going on, quite a bit growing, and a few lessons for next year. I thought I'd planned well enough, but I need to get stuff to fill gaps as they emerge.

How are your gardens doing?