Re-commissioning of the greenhouse!

If there's one job I dread at this time of year it's clearing out the main greenhouse in readiness for the new season.  It always takes me far longer than I anticipate but as a plus means I usually find 'lost' items, such as my new secateurs which I mislaid last autumn.  With tomatoes, chillies and cucumber plants at, or approaching, the time when they need to go into their final containers, it's a job that really couldn't wait any longer.  As far as my indoor crop of tomatoes are concerned, this is Gro-Bags.

My preference is for the larger Giant Tomato Planters from Levingtons, which have the benefit of holding around twice as much growing medium as standard bags.  This year, I'm growing 'Dometica' which, after trialing it last year, seems to have more flavour than 'Cedrico', but still delivering the quality I want for my local show.  My plants are a bit on the small side this year, but they'll soon catch up.

As in previous years, I'm only growing 2 plants per bag in bottomless pots fitted into the Gro-bags.  Between the plants, I fit smaller bottomless pots which act as watering points.  This allows all the water/fertiliser to get straight to the roots and ensures that the compost remains moist at all times.  Using this method has definitely contributed to the better crops I've had over recent years.

Bank Holiday Weekend - Sunday & Monday

Sunday

Waking up to a glorious Sunday morning without a cloud in the sky was a rare treat, especially as I had 2 days of planting out, sowing and general maintenance planned.  So, after an hour in the woods with the dog and a breakfast of bacon sandwich, the planting out commenced

My Pendle Improved leeks are not as advanced as last year's due to the dreadful winter/early spring weather.  |However, with warmth at last, they're now showing signs of picking up.  I only grow these leeks with a view to getting an entry in the local show, which I've won for the last 2 years.  This year, I've planted out just 12 plants so far, but another 8 are waiting in the wings for any spare space I may be able to find.  Normally, I'd start the blanching process at this stage, but this year I've decided to wait until the plants have put on a bit more weight before fitting anything more than short collars which are only designed to increase the length of the stem.  Hopefully, I'll be able to start the blanching process blanching before the end of May.

My runner beans are the variety 'Enorma', which were good for me last year.  Just 6 plants feeds the 3 of us for most of the summer.  The dark patches behind the plants are where I've scattered a handful of pot marigold seeds saved from last year.

I've got several modules of brassicas on the go.  These are Cauliflower 'Raleigh' and Purple Sprouting.  Cabbage and broccoli plants are going to be a little later this year.

Other than a few lettuce plants and Dwarf French Beans (var. Speedy) I filled my largest raised bed with what I hope will end up as large onions.  The varieties are 'Mammoth Red', Kelsae and a locally saved selection from Kelsae stock that I was given some time ago last autumn.

Monday

Woke up to much the same cloudless, but noticeably warmer morning.  The poor old dog had to endure an even earlier outing at 6.30am.  She was not amused until she realised I'd got a load of dog treats in my pocket.  The first big event was that the following bacon sandwich benefited from the addition of a fried egg, thus creating the classic weekend breakfast.  I think I'll designate the bacon sandwich as my signature dish.

Today it was the turn of the smaller 'Vento' and 'Centro' onions to get planted out.  Although I had great hopes for 'Vento', now that the seed is no longer pelleted, again I've been disappointed with the germination rate at about 75% as opposed to 100% for 'Centro'.  So, it's the latter that is better represented.  All in all, I now have around 80 plants in the newest of the raised beds.

Last year, we suffered high winds through much of the earl;y part of the summer which severely damaged the top growth of my onions.  I quickly cobbled together a windbreak for one of the beds which worked well, but those not protected were badly damaged.  The upshot is that I've constructed easily removable protection for the whole crop this year.

New sowings were made of Marrow var. 'Table Dainty', Cabbage var. 'Golden Acre', Lettuce var. 'Little Gem' and more Dwarf Bean 'Speedy'.

Finally, knocked this together.  What is it, I hear you ask.  All will be revealed in about a month or so, at a guess.

And then......

So, that was pretty much it for the long weekend on the plot.  A very pleasing couple of days.

I started these couple of posts with a picture of the plot as it was on Saturday morning.  By last night, it looked like this.  Happy days!

Bank Holiday Weekend - Saturday

Although I'm working today, I found a few minutes around 7 this morning to take a few snaps which hopefully will be the start of a before and after thing.

The plot currently looks like this.  Click the pic to enlarge.

The mini-greenhouse contains various plants I'm hardening off which will be planted out tomorrow or Monday.

The spinach I've kept going over the winter, and trimmed a few weeks back, is ready for the first cut.  I'll sow more seed this weekend.

Parsnips are settling in well.

Sweet Candle carrots are away.

Garlic is doing really well.  Hopefully, I'll get a decent showing this year after a non-event in 2012!

Chillies are well behind last year, but they'll catch up if we get a bit of a summer.

Autumn Giant leeks pricked out into 15 cell modules.

Tomatoes are all coming along OK, but still relatively small.  They'll be OK come August/September.  These are 'Dometica'.

That's it for today.  Weather permitting, by Monday night it'll all look rather different.

April Update

Well, at last the Winter appears to be over.  Having said that, we had a couple of frosts at the beginning of last week, and the possibility of low night temperatures were mentioned on last night's forecast for later this week.  Hopefully, I've got enough protection set up in my greenhouses to minimise the risk to young plants.

It's been a rather frantic couple of weeks with everything needing attention at the same time.  Other commitments have meant that every spare daylight moment has needed to be spent trying to keep on top of things.  Later today I begin my habitual business trip to Manchester, Stockport and Huddersfield, so nothing more will get done on the plot before the middle of next week.  While in Huddersfield tomorrow, I'm going to visit Pauil Bastow's latest venture for a light lunch, his tapas restaurant, Casa Colina, in Slaithwaite, which apparently is rapidly becoming the must visit destination north of Watford.  The attached ferreting museum is World renowned, so I'm given to believe.  I'll hit Trip Advisor with my review next week, so the food better be good.  LOL!

The main greenhouse is packed to bursting, with so many plants catching up lost momentum due to the cold weather.  The legacy of the dreadful winter we've all endured is that just about everything is about 3-4 weeks behind where it should be for the end of April.  The current rate of growth would seem to indicate that most crops will catch up, but whether they perform as well as usual remains to be seen.

This photo shows a mixed bag of onions and flowering plants.  In the left corner is a locally bought large, white onion which I've set for seed.  This is the third (or fourth!) year I've tried this, but without success.  This year will be different..........

Here we have more onions, Gardener's Delight tomatoes and, in the background, my chilli plants which are well behind previous years.

In the top photo you can see my John Trim Pendle leeks which are also a couple of weeks behind.  Having said that, they're now growing well and should produce reasonable specimens for the village show in September.  Also on the bench are Dwarf French Beans, a tray of Autumn Giant leek seedlings and modules of cauliflower, cabbage and brocolli.

My first batches of carrots have just been sown.  Sow far, I have Sweet Candle, Purple Haze and Early Nantes.  Next month, I'll be sowing more of the same, plus Flyaway.

The first outdoor planting is of Red Baron onions grown from sets.  After a slow start in pots in the greenhouse, they've started to come on well and were planted out on Sunday.  This is the first time I've grown red onions from sets and I'm only taking this route as I forgot to order seed last Autumn!

The second outdoor planting is of 'Show Perfection' peas.

The third is of just a few parsnips - we don't eat that many.

That's really about it for now.  The only things I haven't mentioned are the runner beans (Enorma) which have just germinated, Dometica tomatoes and courgettes which are just sown.  Finally, I've prepared a mini raised bed with well rotted cow shite, horticultural sand and good quality compost which is destined to be the home for the best of my Long Green Trailing marrow plants.  I'm going to try and grow a seriously big marrow this year, and to quote the late Harry Worth, 'I don't know why, but there it is.'

Is Spring about to happen?

Well, it's now a couple of weeks since we had any rain or snow worth talking about and the soil on the plot is just about workable for the first time since last October.  Surly this must have been the most vicious winter we've endured for many a decade.  So, I dug out my little electric rotavator and gave the plot a good going over.  I'll run over it again over the weekend and a couple more times over the next few weeks so that I have a good and fine tilth for the early sowings and planting out.

After a certain amount of nagging from 'er in doors, I moved 7 bags of compost off the drive and, after mixing with various potions, finished filling my 3 carrot boxes and the parsnip box.  'Various potions' means sharp sand, Vermiculite, Sulphate of Potash, Superphosphate, Vitax Q4 and lime.

Last week I set my parsnip seed to chit.  Now the seeds showing signs of life are sown in bio-degradable tubes filled with MG compost.

Have sown my tomato seeds indoors.  This year, once again, I'm growing 'Dometica' which has a lovely balance between flavour and a shape suitable for showing.

Parsnips are go, go, go!

Exactly a week after they were set out to chit, the first four seeds have come to life.  They've now been planted in biodegradable tubes filled with MG compost.  Hopefully they will be showing through the compost within a fortnight or so.

With the weather still bitterly cold, there's no immediate prospect of getting anything else done this side of Easter as far as the plot is concerned.  However, on my day off on Wednesday, I'm hoping to get my main tomato sowing done,  The Gardener's Delight are now germinated but will remain in the growing chamber until the weather warms up.

As far as the current contents of the greenhouse are concerned, mostly onions and leeks, they will catch up to a degree, but I'm getting close to giving up on producing any show stoppers this year.

This weather is now getting boring!

Well, it's back to arctic conditions her with bitterly cold wind, rain and a real threat of more snow if the temperature drops by another couple of degrees.  It really is very depressing, to the point that I'm seriously considering just producing good kitchen quality crops this year,. rather than attempting grow top quality stuff which may or may not get entered into local shows.  Just about everything I've sown so far this year is way behind, probably by almost a month in the case of some of my onion seedlings.  At least my Pendle Improved leeks are growing away nicely, but even they are behind by a couple of weeks or more.

The only outside job I've done today, before the rain set in, was to plant out the first of my shallots into the big planter I built a couple of years back.  These are bulbs saved from my last years crop which were planted at Christmas.  They're OK, but growing rather erratically and are certainly not as good as at this time last year.  I've still got quite a few new Hative de Niort and Jermor bulbs in pots in the greenhouse which I'll try and get planted out by Easter.  Sorry there's no photo, but the rain started before I had a chance to do it.

I'm not growing as many parsnips as usual this year as we just don't use enough of them to justify it.  However, I do like to grow some, so I've set the seed out to chit as usual.  The reason for chitting is quite simple.  Firstly, with parsnip seed being somewhat fickle when it comes to germination, starting them off in the kitchen on damp kitchen towel means that one can eventually plant only those seeds that have actually sprung into life.  Secondly, starting them off this way seems to give stronger plants earlier.  Thirdly, it involves little effort other than placing the seed on on the wet paper in a saucer and putting a glass over them .  They'll start shooting in a week or so and be planted into compost immediately they show that first sign of life.

Spring threatens!

By 7am yesterday, the garden was bathed in the first serious sunshine we've experienced in 2013.  By 9am, the aforementioned sun had begun to warm the air resulting in a truly Spring-like day.  Fortunately, I had nothing planned, other than to work in the garden.  Even 'er in doors appeared outdoors, together with the Director of Horticulture.  However, the latter seemed more inclined to playing football rather than helping!

As I am still recovering from a chest infection and a flu-like bug, I thought it best to get the only urgent heavy job out of the way first and then do the easy stuff later.  This involved moving the remaining pile of topsoil that has sat on my drive for the best part of 8 months.  The soil has always been earmarked for the new raised bed I put together in January, but this has been the first opportunity to finish filling it owing to the persistent wet weather of late.  Anyway, it's done now.  All that remains is to slowly but surely incorporate it into the existing compost by going over it a number of times with a 3 prong cultivator, followed by a good raking to produce a fine tilth.

The same wet weather that has stopped me from filling the raised bed has also meant that I haven't yet been able yet to rotovate the open part of the plot or indeed, do anything to it.  The remains of last years crop of spinach is still in the ground having survived temperatures down to -5C and starting to send up new growth.
I've now tidied up the plants in the hope that I'll get a nice early crop well before this years sowings mature.

The only real job of consequence to do in the greenhouse was to fit the first collars to my 'Pendle Improved' leeks in order to encourage them to lengthen.  I'm not too optimistic that I can produce leeks to the same standard as last year's, but I'll certainly have a go

While on the subject of leeks, for general kitchen use, I've sown 60 stations with 'Autumn Giant' seed, a variety that I haven't tried before.  They're now in the warmth of my office until germination.

Other sowings included Chilli - 'Demon Red', Cauliflower - 'Raleigh' and Cabbage - 'Golden Acre' and Lettuce - 'Little Gem'.

Last week, Thompson & Morgan sent me a 'come back, all is forgiven' mailshot which included a £5 voucher.  This was timely seeing as I'd planned to buy some 'Gardener's Delight' tomato seed which I'd forgotten to get, some more chilli seed to replace the failed 'Firecracker' sown just after Christmas and 3 packets of Cosmos seed.  The whole lot for £2.10.  Cant be bad!

Finally, I found 2x 15-cell modules in one of my propagators with onion seedlings poking through but without labels.  I think they're the remains of my 'Vento' seed, but I'm not at all certain.  Age does wonders for the memory.......not!

I've had enough of this winter!

Suffering from some sort of winter bug has stopped me doing anything much outdoors for the past couple of weeks.  There's nothing that won't wait for a few more weeks when, hopefully, the weather will be starting to settle down a bit.  I hate bloody winter!

In doors, things are starting to move on as expected.  I've only got onions, leeks ands shallots on the go,but all seem to be coming on fine.  This week it was the turn of my Vento and Centro onions to get repotted.

The Centro, were re-housed in 3" square pots in Humax MG compost.  At the next re-potting, they go into a stronger growing compost from Sinclair.

I usually leave re-potting until the plants are growing on strongly and filling their module cells with roots.  However, most seem to re-plant when the seedlings are at the crook stage so, with this in mind, a couple of weeks ago, I sowed a batch of 'Vento' in small cells.  They have now been re-planted into 24 cell modules to grow on.

That's it for now.  Hardly an exciting post, but hopefully things will start to get busier within a couple of weeks.

Cold, windy and sleet!

Bloody weather!  Enough said!

Given the set up I have, the onions I'm growing in root trainers are coming on fine as can be seen in the photo above.  Varieties are Kelsae, a Kelsae-type strain from a local grower and Mammoth Red.

Last week it dawned on me that I had forgotten to order any red onion seed this year, other than the Mammoth Red.  My local rip off garden centre didn't have any seed so, as I've never grown red onions from sets, I thought I'd give them a try and bought a small bag of Red Baron.  I've now got 45 planted in 15 cell modules in the greenhouse.

Other than sowing a small tray of both red and white Cipollini onions, that was it for today.  Hopefully, I'll have a bit more to report later in the week..........weather permitting!

Here endeth the first month!

From bitterly cold last week to an outside temperature yesterday of 13°C and almost 19 in the greenhouse.  Now, we have torrential rain forecast yet again, but at least it's another bright day today.  The ground is still absolutely sodden so it's still a case of no work being done on the plot.  Actually, there's nothing vital that need my attention just now, but it would be nice to spread the work now rather than have it all build up for the spring.

So, with the above in mind, it was a case of rearranging the greenhouse and sow a few more seeds.

The John Trim leeks have settled in well.  They are now all in the greenhouse on heated mats which should encourage strong root growth.  I also moved all my December sowings of large onions into the greenhouse but am keeping an eye on the nightime temperatures as I don't want them getting too cold.

On the plot, the garlic has emerged unscathed from being covered in 4" snow for a week or so.  All 42 cloves that I planted in October are shooting well, with some varieties really motoring.  The 4 elephant garlic cloves are also doing well, although only 2 out of 3 of my own stock from last year have broken into life.

Back in the early autumn, at the behest of my dearly beloved, I bought half a dozen French Tarragon plug-plants online.  One didn't survive the first week, but the other 5 appeared to be doing quite well until early November when they all appeared to die quite suddenly.  I dumped them next to my compost bin still in their pots and watering tray and forgot about them.  Since that day, the tray has been permanently full of water, they've suffered temperatures down to -5°C, and been covered in snow on 2 occasions, most recently for a full week.  Whilst tidying up yesterday afternoon, I noticed them in their pseudo-aquarium and, to my amazement, they were all showing signs of new growth.  So, once drained, they again reside in the greenhouse drying off!

For the record, unlike the more usually seen Russian Tarragon, French Tarragon is not hardy in the UK........apparently!!!

I also sowed the last of my 'Centro' onion seed having achieved 100% germination from the first sowing.

Leeks 2013

To grow leeks that are both excellent in the kitchen and impressive on the show bench is a challenge which I've come to look forward to each year.  I'm not talking about major NVS events here, you understand.  Most areas have local town or village shows in which it is quite possible for the average veg grower to compete effectively.  I have won 'Best in Show' for two years running in my local village show, first with pot leeks and then with blanch leeks.  For 2013, I'm growing a few of both, but I suspect that it'll be the more conventional blanch leeks that end up in the show.

To grow leeks from seed with a view to the show bench is certainly not easy.  You can certainly get shop quality without much effort, but show quality is another kettle of fish altogether.  For those without dedicated well lit and well heated propagation facilities, the answer is to buy in young plants at this time of year and grow them on under cover through the winter months.

Yesterday, for the second year running, mine arrived in the post from John Trim in Southampton.  I immediately unpacked them and stood them in a jug of water to revive them, despite the fact that they had travelled really well.  The variety is 'Pendle Improved' and they are currently about half the thickness of a pencil.

After a couple of hours, I potted them up into 4" square pots in Sinclair Professional Fine Potting Medium and added a cane and support clip.  They were left on the floor of my office overnight, and I'm just about to reduce the young flags by  about a third of their height which Jon has advised me to do in order to kick start new growth.  Because it is still very cold here, they'll stay in my office until the threat of heavy frost has receeded, before being moved to the greenhouse, hopefully at the weekend.

Take a look at my 2012 efforts to see how I progressed with my leeks from purchase to Village Hall.

Not the best of weather!

We've had a bit of snow yesterday and today, but really we've got off lightly compared with some parts of the country.  This photo was taken mid-morning today when we had about 2½" on the ground.

By early afternoon there was about 3½", but with a little bit of a thaw, plus a bit more snow, that's about it.  The forecast looks marginally more promising for the rest of the week.  The green leaves poking through the white stuff is some of the garlic I planted in October.

The only job that I was actually able to do was to sow my early onions.  So, we now have 40 cells on 'Centro' and 80 of 'Vento'.  These are aimed at the village show in September, and maybe the rather bigger show in Faversham.  The are now on one of my heated propagators at around 20C which should ensure germination in a week to 10 days.  I'll likely make a further sowing next month.

The December sown 'Kelsae' are mostly at the first true leaf stage and coming along just fine.

The first chillies have germinated, but hardly worth photographing yet.  Both 'Stumpy' and 'Inferno' are well away.  The remaining variety, 'Firecracker' will take a while longer before they break the surface of the compost.

I'll grow fewer chillies this year.........not!

There's something about chillies that makes growing far more than I could ever need completely irresistible.  All the family get a bag full each year, as do several friends.  If there's still a surplus, they go into box with a 'Help yourself' notice and get dumped in the village pub.

For 2013, I decided I wouldn't grow any, but withdrawal symptoms were soon apparent and, yet again, I'm displaying a complete lack of willpower!  Giving up smoking 7 years ago was a breeze in comparison!

Rummaging through my seed stock, I found I had the seed of 6 varieties to choose from.  In the end I settled on the following:

'Firecracker' - a seriously hot chilli from Assam that I grew in 2010 and 2011.  They need a long growing season to turn red (around 9 months), but are delicious when green.  One of the very best as far as I'm concerned.

'Inferno' - I grew these in 2010 with some success and wished I'd grown more.  They produce a very large, medium to hot fruit which turns from green through orange to red.  They are great stuffed with cream cheese or make a great addition to a summer BBQ when cooked.

'Stumpy' - a small compact pot plant producing a mass of fairly hot upright pointing red fruits in July/August from a Jan/Feb sowing.  Very attractive, suitable for the window sill and easy to grow.

I've sown 6 seeds of each so far.  They're now in a heated propagator at a soil temperature of between 21° and 23°C.  Germination should take between 1 and 4 weeks depending on the variety.

The only other job that I managed was to water all the raised beds that are earmarked for onions with dilute Armillatox in an effort to kill off any rot-causing nasties that may lurking in the soil.  The original publicity for Armillatox stated that it was effectyive against White Rot, which is hard to believe.  Time will tell!

The first painful lesson of 2013!

A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL READERS

 

 

So, there I was busy planting up my shallot bulbs when I tripped over a tray full of water, put my arm out to break my fall and went through the glass side of the greenhouse.  The lucky bit is that the only part of me that got in the way of the breaking glass was the fingers of my right hand.  The bad news is that the cut to my middle finger is quite bad and I won't be able to do much for a while.  The good news is that my retired nurse wife managed to put me back together with assaulted dressings thus avoiding sitting in casualty for hours on end with all the NY walking wounded.  Lessons will probably not be learnt!

So, as the picture shows, there's now a bloody (literally) great hole in the side of the greenhouse which needs a couple of new bits of glass.  Thanks to my mate Andy, who kindly did a temporary polythene patch up for me.  He's back on Sunday to clip in the new glass, as it's unlikely I'll be able to get the clips in place by then.  The cost?  The glass + several light and bitters!

Obviously, the above mishap meant that I couldn't get much done.  I did manage to finish planting the exhibition shallots, which just leaves a few smaller bulbs which will  grown purely with the kitchen in mind. 

I had a difficult year with my shallots in 2012.  True, I won the class at the village show, albeit with quite small bulbs, but that was primarily down to the fact that everybody else had similar problems.  Consequently, my plans of being completely self sufficient shallot-wise didn't happen.  However, I was fortunate in that I was given a bag of around 30 'Hative de Niort' bulbs of varying sizes.  The largest 21 bulbs are now in 3½" pots.  I've also planted up 9 'Jermor' bulbs from Medwyns and 15 of the largest of my own stock of H de N and 'Aristocrat'.

For the past 4 years I've started off my onion seeds in heated propagators and once they've germinated they've been moved to my homemade growing chamber.  It's a system that's worked well for me, so I could see no reason to change my routine.  I'd got the 4 bits of the chamber out of storage on New Years Eve, so it was just a matter of screwing it back together, placing it on my office work surface by the window, and fixing up the light above.  Fortunately, I did all this before the aforementioned mishap to my hand.

The onion seedlings are now in the chamber and growing strongly.  I'll thin them down to one seedling per station over the next couple of days.