So far, I've got the polytunnel and greenhouse bursting at the seams with seedlings and young vegetable plants but there's still the danger of frost in some areas, so I'm not taking any chances of putting young plants out just yet. This doesn't mean that you can't start putting plants out. Hardening off is a job that can be done. This is getting your young plants used to the outdoor climate (sun and wind as well as different temperatures), if you intend to plant them outdoors permanently. Place your plants outside in the day but remember to bring them back in at night time. Do this for a short time, gradually increasing the amount of time that your plants are out. Finally, once there is no danger of frost you can leave your plants outside overnight. I'm also potting lots of things on, using compost from the garden as it's hard to buy any at the moment. The advantages there are that there's no peat in home made compost and it doesn't cost me anything. Unfortunately though, it's not sterile and so I have weed seedlings growing among my veg plants. Home made compost can be sterilised but the process can put people off as baking the compost is the way to do it. I don't think my husband would appreciate finding that in the oven, never mind the smell!
A dangerously hot looking chilli ready for picking. This one is Apache, but I haven't tried any yet!
Pak choi - not yet ready for picking as they need to be bigger but once they're ready they will go into stir fries and salads.
Radishes are easy to grow. Sow seeds and watch them grow in just a few weeks. Pick as they get to a cherry size and enjoy. Regular picking thins them out and allows the remainder to grow. Better still, get your children to pick them.
Some mixed salad leaves. My husband will pop down to the polytunnel to cut some for his lunch everyday.
Of the successes up to now, I have potted on tomatoes and planted some in the raised beds in the polytunnel, transplanted flower seedlings in to pots and picking salad leaves, radishes and spring onions. I'm also starting to pick the ripe chillies of the apache and jalapeno plants that I sowed very early on.
The potatoes are growing well and I've started earthing them up to (hopefully) get a good yield.
Carrying on with work, I'm also making some liquid plant feed two ways: one by gathering bindweed and placing it in containers with water and I've also made a wormery, which should collect the liquid run off underneath to also use as feed. The bindweed liquid feed was suggested to me by a friend on the allotment. I once asked John about what to with all the bindweed I dug out of my plot when I first got it, as it would just grow again if I placed it on the compost heap. John advised me to put them in a container, fill it with water and cover it and after a few weeks I could dilute it with water (roughly 1 part feed, 10 parts water) and water my plants with it. In my experience I found that this worked, however I do combine my feeds by using different methods such as adding compost, chicken manure and leaf mulch. What you feed can depend on the plants that you grow. I'm hoping to write about that in more detail very soon.
I'll be concentrating on sowing more seeds this month too. Having already started on a second sowing of sweetcorn, I'm going to sow fennel and French beans. Here's some vegetable seeds that you can sow this month:
- Leaf beet
- Courgette (you can sow directly outside)
- Cauliflower
- Kohl rabi
- Beetroot
- Runner beans
- French beans
- Peas
- Micro greens and salad leaves
No comments:
Post a Comment