Winter Slowdown

There's not been a lot to blog about recently.

It's been cold and frosty, then wet and windy and it looks like we are going back to cold and frosty for the weekend.

The onions on the plot have pretty much stopped growing now, the garlic is putting out loads of roots but no shoots from the other end (I only found this out becasue the pigeons have pulled up a couple of cloves - they must have mistaken them for worms).

The winter cabbages are beginning to heart up nicely and the first should be ready for harvest by Christmas.

No sprouts as yet, but the purple kale is looking wonderful.

The tallest of the perpetual spinach is suffering with the frost - I may have to cut it back hard as it is flopping all over the chard, which is doing remarkably well despite the hard frosts we have had.

The remaining two Pak Choi have survibed the frosts well and are looking good.

The rhubarb has finally admitted defeat and is dying back - this should be fine where it is until January when I will transplant it into the rhubarb bed near to the pond.

At home I have a couple of Romanesco Caulis forming nice curds, but a couple of the others look like they will be going to seed instead - not a problem as I will try to harvest the seed for next year.

My Cavolo Nero have recovered from being ravaged by caterpillars in the Autum and are producing lots of nice-looking leaves and are almost ready to start picking from.

All four apples on my trees were still on as of last weekend, and I was debating as to whether I should leave them or pick them - high winds have made that decision a bit unneccessary for the green apples as both were blown off, but the reds are still hanging on.

Until I can get the drainage problems at the plot sorted out I cannot build any fruit beds so the bare rooted strawberries that I bought have had to be sat in water for far longer than I was anticipating - I hope that they survive. 

I had them in the kitchen to start with but I had to move them off the worksurface so they ended up on the boxroom windowsill where I thought they would do well with whatever little daylight they could get, but I have noticed tonight that the fresh green leaves that appeared whilsat they were in the kitchen have started to fade and go brittle - maybe the cold from the glass has been too much?

I have now moved them away from the window in the hope that they will hang on until I can get them into a prepared raised bed at the allotment.

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.

D-Day

Today is the day I get my allotment!

Had lots of emails back and forth with the allotment secretary last night.

I have now been offered the full plot instead of the three quarters I was going to take - apparently the lady who was going to have the other quarter has been offered space on another plot.

I had a chat with my stepdad (who is my allotment partner) and my wife (who is having a quarter for soft fruit) and they both said to go for it, so this afternoon I will be signing up for the full plot.

I just hope that I am not taking on more than I can handle here.

The secretary also told me that the plot has been recently strimmed - I am not sure if that is good or bad right now as I would have liked to have walked the plot first just in case there were any plants mixed in with the weeds that could be saved as I had been told by a neighbouring plotholder that there was some rhubarb in there somewhere. It would also have shown me where the nasty perennial weeds were.

On the other hand, it has saved me a day's work, and I can get straight on with creating my first couple of beds, depending upon what the ground is like.  It has rained so much here recently that I am concerned that the soil will be so wet that I really can't dig it. or if there is a lot of clay in the ground as my stepdad thinks, there will be standing water all over the plot.



Seedlings ready for planting 



More seedlings!



Last night I totally emptied the blow away to do a thorough check for slugs and snails hiding on the underside of the various pots and planting trays in there.

It was only when I laid all the trays out on the hot tub lid I realised just how many seedlings I actually have ready for planting out - and remember, I also have more on the table in the front garden.

The haul in the blow away that is ready to plant out is:

67 onions - not sure if these are ready as they are only tiny as yet.

15 Winter Cauliflowers

15 Winter Cabbage

15 Purple Curly Kale

15 Brussel Sprouts

15 Purple Sprouting Broccoli

1 Tomato

6 Peas

1 Capsicum Pepper

2 Pumpkins

4 Courgettes



Even more seedlings!

Left over from planting the front garden

1 Swiss Chard

3 Leeks

2 Cavolo Nero

2 Curly Kale

1 Romanesco Broccoli

Not big enough to plant out yet are

9 Lettuce

3 Kohn Rabi

11 Courgettes

I have also got loads and loads of seeds ready to go in.

I just hope I can keep everything under control!

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.

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 :)