On the Home Front

With all that is going on down at the allotment I haven't done an update of what is happening at home for quite a while.

Aubergine 'Black Beauty'



Sweet Pepper

The sweet peppers and aubergine that I planted out into a growbag in the back garden are doing great.
The aubergine has loads of flowers which will hopefully provide at least one fruit if we have enough sun this September, and both peppers have got plenty of small, green fruit on, but nothing ready for picking as yet, probably down to the poor weather we have been having here.

Spring Onion 'White Lisbon'

The pot of spring onions are doing nicely, and will probably be ready to start harvesting from over the next couple of weeks.

Once I take the larger ones I hope the increased space available for the smaller ones will encourage them to grow a bit faster.

I posted some time back that my carrots had all been munched by the slugs, but I noticed the other day that I have three survivors that have germinated very late.  They are still tiny sedlings right now, but I have high hopes for them.

Winter Onion 'Tuffball'

The remaining onions I bought from Aldi are also doing well.  I have lost a small number of them, but I reckon I still have about 40 ready to go down to the allotment.

Now I have got bed 2 ready for them, they should be in by weekend, weather permitting.  The fifteen already planted in bed 1 are doing well, but not really showing much signs of starting to bulk out yet.  I have never planted such tiny sets before, so I don't really know what to expect.

Basil 'Minette'

I think that the basil is the one thing I am happiest with at home right now, as I have never been able to grow it past the first seedling stage before.

As you can see in the picture, it is doing really well, so well in fact that I potted on a few plants and gave them to a work colleague who was having problems with his own basil.

This variety has lovely, delicate, tiny leaves but is full of flavour.  I have harvested some already and we are looking forwards to growing this again next year on the plot, if I can get the fruit and herb area ready in time.

Spring Cabbage and Kale

I still have one tray of brassicas at home, waiting for space to be planted out at the plot.

There are fifteen spring cabbage and nine puprle curly kale.

So far they have escaped the cabbage white's attention, but I know it is only a matter of time before they are found and munched on.

Still on the Table

Most of the plants on the front garden table have been moved to the plot - all I have left are a few cavolo nero (caterpillar munched), a single strawberry that I couldn't get in the hanging planter, a gooseberry bush, one coriander, one oregano, a basil and the walking onion, which is ready for the seed pods (or whatever they are called) to be harvested as well.

Jalapeno

Oh - and the one jalapeno chilli pepper I have is producing some rather nice looking chillis.

In the raised beds the chard is being harvested and frozen, but the brassicas have all been attacked by the cabbage whites.  My own fault really as I was concentrating on the plot so much that I forgot to cover these at home.

The peas I put in have been pretty much munched down by the snails, as have two of the mange tout peas.

The borlotti, on the other hand, have put out a few flowers - tiny things compared to the size of the plants themselves - but no sign of any pods forming as yet.

Sweet Peas at Last

The sweet peas that were almost completely eaten have rallied, and we actually have three purple flowers.  I am going to cut these to encourage more to form.

Leeks almost overwhelmed by Chard

The leeks are all doing well, some are almost ready for picking (if we want baby leeks, that is) but I think I will leave them to mature over winter.

Both rhubarb plants are producing well - I think that I will have to harvest a few stalks this week.  Not sure if they will become wine or crumble right now - it all depends on how I feel at the time.

The tomatoes in the growbag have all got masses of flowers and loads of tiny fruits forming - I must remember to feed them this weekend.  Some of the leaves are turning brown on the ends - not sure if it is blight but I am removing them as I find them to try and slow it down if it is.

Even the tomato in the upside down planter has got flowers on it.

The lone remaining potato in the growing bag is not looking too happy right now, pretty sparse foliage and a spindly stem.  I may have to dig it up this weekend if it gets any worse.

Even the tomato in the upside down planter has got flowers on it.



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Both apple trees have still got their two apples each, these are now getting to quite a decent size but I will need to start staking the trunks as the weight of the fruit is causing them to bend alarmingly.

The autumn raspberries and the blackberry are all starting to show signs of flower buds forming, so I hope to get a small crop from them too before the fruit area at the plot is ready for them.

Hanging Strawberries

The strawberries in the hanging planter has got plenty of fruit on it now - this is the variety with pink flowers and I hope we will have enough sun to allow them to ripen.

The lettuce tub by the door has been allowed to go to seed so I can try and save some for next year.

Salad or Weeds??

A couple of the tubs that Angela sowed, and forgot to label have started to mature, it looks like we have a few nice lettuce developing along with a few other salad leaves that I am not familiar with.  I shall have to look them up before harvest, just in case they aren't salad leaves but weeds.

All of the herbs are doing well, and filling out the planters.

Allotment Countdown. T-6

There are now only six days until I get my allotment, so I have been working hard to try and get sone seedlings ready for transplanting as soon as I get a couple of beds ready.

Got some more veg plugs from Aldi today - I got Brussel Sprouts and purple Curly Kale, and I also picked up a tray of strawberries as I needed five more plants to fill up my hanging planter..

I have also sown nine modules of lettuce, All Year Round, and I have tried an experiment with the water retaining gel that came with the Aldi veg plugs by replacing the compost and sowing a couple of spinach seeds into each cell.

I also picked up an olive and a fig from Lidl.  The olive was in reasonable condition, but I don't think that the fig is going to survive long at all.  Still, I will give it a chance.

These won't be going to the allotment as they need to be brought in over winter.

Multi Onions per plug

After having transplanted all the veg plugs my blow away is absolutely full - I ended up with 59 onions as each plug had up to six separate seedlings - after asking for advice on The Grapevine I decided to carefully split them and give each one its own separate cell.



A very full blow away

 We have finally had a bit of sun, inbetween the torrential rain and hail, and this seems to have given everything a bit of a kick start.

Lettuce by the front door

The cut-and-come-again lettuce by the front door is looking great and we have already had three or four meals from it.  I am hoping that it will last long enough for me to get some lettuce grown down at the allotment.  I cheated a bit with this lettuce - I noticed a pack of 'living lettuce' in the reduced section at Asda marked down to 20p, so I bought it and carefully split it into eight sectios, each with a well defined root system, and planted them in a large tub.  Three weeks later they had almost filled the tub and we were popping out for some lettuce whenever we needed some.  I think I will give that a try again next year.

The tomatoes in the growbag at the front of the house look like they are finally starting to develop some flowers.

The thyme has almost doubled in size over the past week which is really good as it is the herb we use most in the kitchen.

A couple more kohl rabi have germinated along with two Sweet Baby tomato and two Oregon Sugar Pod mange tout  on the boxroom windowsil.

Still nothing from the Borlitti, Mammoth pumpkin or Anaheim chillis but it has only been six days.

I was expecting these to germinate faster than those outdoors - the Mammoth pumpkin in the blow away took 10 days to finally show - it will be interesting to see how long the one inside takes.


I have also decided it is time to plant out my aubergine and a couple of the peppers, so I balanced a grow bag on some greenhouse staging to keep the plants away from the slugs and snails.  I already have one pepper forming, and both plants look like they are about to produce a few more flowers.



Two Peppers flanking the Aubergine in the GrowBag



Not sure about the aubergine - it is going strong, but I can't make up my mind if it is about to flower or just produce more leaves

More seeds

Sowed a load of seeds yesterday ready to be transplanted to the allotment as soon as I have a bed ready for them, which I am hoping will be around my birthday on July 10.

I put in loads of cucurbits (courgette family) as last year I put them in late, and although some small fruit formed almost all rotted from the flower end before they were big enough to pick.


I planted 3 x Courgette 'De Nice A Fruit Rond' (never had a round courgette before so really hoping these come up),  4 x Squash 'Patty Pan Custard White', 3 x Courgette 'All Green Bush', 3 x Courgette 'F1 Defender' and 3 x Courgette 'F1 Atena'

I had a few spaces left so I decided to try some Kohl Rabi 'Purple Vienna' - another veggie I have never grown, or even eaten for that matter.  I sowed three or four seeds in each 'plug' just in case some didn't germinate.



What I planted today.



I also planted out a couple of spare plants to replace the slug and snail eaten ones - a couple of Romanesque broccoli and a Cavolo Nero kale.  All my brassicas are now protected by pop bottle cloches.

I don't want to lose any more seedlings so the cloches will stay on until the plant is too big for them and hopefully big enough to survive the odd leaf being munched,

Fully loaded Blow Away

Had a quick look at the seeds I planted 10 days ago - no signs of anything from either of the pumpkins or the spring onions, but a couple of the Kelvedon Wonder peas are showing, and there is even a tiny bit of green from one of the Paris Market carrots.

One of the pepper plants in the blow away has got a flower on it.  Apparently they self-pollenate, so I may have at least one fruit this year.

Flowering Pepper

Also in the blow away is my single aubergine plant which is getting quite tall now, and looks like it has recovered from the slug attack a couple of weeks back.  Apart from the pumpkins I think that this is the plant I am most looking forwards to see growing.

Aubergine - Recovered after slug attack

Maybe I can do this gardening stuff after all!

One new thing I tried yesterday was to mulch round the leeks in my raised bed with grass clipplings.  It is supposed to keep water in the soil - not that we have had any problems with shortage of water recently! and also to deter slugs and snails as it dries and becomes a barrier.

Part-mulched raised bed

We will see.

We are now officially at DefCon One!

War has now officially been declared between me and the slugs and snails in the garden.

It started off small, as these things tend to do.

There were losses on both sides, but more of a skirmish than a war at that point. A few leaves here and there in exchange for a couple of hundred enforced salty swimming lessons.

Then one morning everything changed

.

Two whole brassica seedlings were completely stripped overnight, along with major damage to an aubergine and a pepper. The aubergine is going to be OK, but it is still touch and go for the pepper.

In response to this unprovoked escalation I have been forced to bring out the biological weaponry in the form of Nemaslug, and tonight I spent a happy hour dosing every inch of the front garden I could get to, and also around the blow-away in the back.

Only time will tell if this all-out retributive strike will be successful, but just in case I have placed all surviving brassicas into their own personal fall-out shelters made from 2L pop bottles.

Pop Bottle Cloches

If you don't hear from me again it means that I will have seriously underestimated the slug and snails' defensive capability!

Wish me luck!

Bloody Cats!!

I was a bit annoyed when I went out this morning to check on yesterday's plantings.

I was looking for any slug damage, and thankfully there wasn't any, but one of our cats had decided that the newly dug and planted raised bed was a good place for a toilet, and had gone between the rows of leeks :(

Nothing was dug up, but I had gone to the trouble of carefully planting the leeks in deep holes and not back filling with soil, but simply filling the hole with water, as recommended by all my gardening books.  Now about half of the plants have been buried  and knocked sideways by soil thrown about by the cat's scratching.

By carefully removing the excess soil (and poo) I have managed to get most of the plants stood up straight again, but a lot do not have their specially prepared growing tunnel any more - I wonder if that will stop them fattening up?  I will have to ask on The Grapevine.

There is really only one plant I an a bit woried about, but it was the runt of the planting and if it dies off I still have a couple of spares that I wasn't able to plant due to running out of space.

Tonight it is time to finish off planting the young plants I got from the garden centre yesterday.



Curly Kale to the left, Romanesco Broccoli to the right

I have got half a dozen of Curly Kale and Romanesco Broccoli in the front raised bed.  I always called the Romanesco a cauliflower before, but good old Google seems to be split 50:50 between broccoli and cauli.  Still, it said broccoli on the label from the garden centre, so that's what they are.

I also managed to get a couple of rows of peas in tight against the back trellis.  The plan is for them to be trained up the trellis and away from the slow developing brassicas.  Then again, that was the plan with the sweet peas I put in a couple of weeks ago, but they don't seem to want to do much so far. (they are starting to climb the canes to the left of the picture above)

There are also a couple of peppers and an aubergine for a growbag in the back garden, and a Horseradish - never grown one before, so that should be interesting.


Horseradish Plant

I will also have to rig something up over the raised bed to stop our boys using it as a litter tray again tonight - wish me luck!

Just got back in from planting - looks like I was celebrating no slug/snail damage too soon - they have taken great chunks out of my aubergine and one of the peppers.  I shall have to keep them on my tool store roof for a day or so to see if they recover before planting them out in the grow bag.

I also had a look at my tomato experiment - to be honest it isn't looking good right now.  It has only been a day since I planted it up, but it has already tried to double back on itslelf to try and head for the sun.

I will let it grow a bit larger - maybe the weight of any fruit will straighten it out a bit.  (assuming I actually get some fruit, that is)

I move towards the Dark Side

As I was sat in front of the TV last night, planning out what I could plant for the rest of the year I was hit by the realisation that, once again, I had officially Left It Too Late to get any kind of decent crop for summer, or even autumn.

The visions I had of luxurious beds of home grown veg just outside the door, ready for me to harvest whenever I felt like it disappeared, and I decided that if I was to get anything planted for this year's harvest I would have to either borrow the Doctor's Tardis and go back a couple of months or do the unthinkable.

As I am unfortunately not on speaking terms with said Doctor, I had to revert to plan B and surrender to the Dark Side.
 
I went to the local Garden Centre to buy some established plants.

An hour or so later I was back home with trays full of green goodness and wasted no time in planting up the recently emptied raised bed.

The bed filled with new plantings - Oh, the shame

From right to left there is Rainbow Chard, three rows of leeks and a row of Cavolo Nero.

I also picked up some thyme to replace the one that didn't survive the winter and some tarragon which I potted up with some rosemary. 

There was also a couple of Catmint plants for our four boys - if you have never seen cats near catmint before it is fun to watch as it gets them totally stoned.  In previous years the plants have lasted less than a week as when high the cats have a tendency to roll around over the plant, but this year I have put them in a tall tub to see if they will survive for a bit longer

Having a couple of tomato plants left over I decided to try a new way (to me anyway) of growing tomatoes.

Upside Down Tomato Planter

This is an upside-down tomato planter - the idea is that you put a single tomato plant in the bottom of the bag, held in place by a foam collar and fill the bag with compost.  As the plant grows it is supposed to hang down while the roots grow upwards into the compost.  This is said to keep the plant free from slugs and snails and allows the fruit to develop unhindered by bent stems etc.  Time will tell.

It was about this time that the rain started quite heavily, so I abandoned the rest of the planting until tomorrow night after work - I have still got a trays of Curly Kale, Broccoli and the rest of the Cavolo Nero to plant in my other raised bed,


Curly Kale, Broccoli and a single Rainbow Chard waiting to be planted





Aubergine, two Peppers, a few remaining Leeks and Cavolo Nero



I also have an Aubergine, a Red Capiscum and a Yellow Capiscum for a growbag in the back garden.  Hopefully it will be a bit more sheltered there allowing them to thrive even in this northern climate.

I just hope that the new plants don't become tea for the local slug and snail population.  I had a little wander tonight around dusk, between the rain showers and there didn't seem to be any slugs or snails anywhere near the raised bed.

I found loads on one of my potatoes that was starting to look a bit worse for wear so I picked them off and 'disposed' of them - hopefully that will allow the potatoes to produce some strong foliage and get on with the important business of making lots of tubers for me :)