Progression in the polytunnel

Well, it's getting closer to May and the weather has been warming up. It's certainly not really been a rainy April. I remember this time a few years ago being so wet and my polytunnel shelves groaning under the weight of countless seedlings waiting to go out!

At the moment,, I've carried on planting inside the polytunnel in the raised beds. Right now I have tomatoes, radishes, lettuce, garlic and parsnips all doing well.

Tomatoes:
My tomato plants are growing nicely, with about 50% now in the raised beds. I'll put about 30% more in this coming weekend and then the remainder (I'll not have room for all of them in the raised beds) will go in the greenhouse and mini greenhouse. Height wise, they are about 30cm tall but I've only tied the ones planted in the beds temporarily to sticks. I'll be attaching them to string (and I'll show you why I like this method when I do it) later.

Lettuce:
I've two varieties growing: Lollo rossa and Little Gem, both of which could really be picked now. I've not had a need for salad leaves at the dinner table just yet but it's good to know that there's something I can pick.

Pak Choi:
This is something that I also enjoy growing. It's easy to look after and I love it in a stir fry. I'll be sowing more seeds at the weekend to produce this in succession to carry on enjoying this leaf.

 Lollo rossa looking very good here.

 Pak choi growing on, some will still be in pots and I'll be sowing more seeds very soon.

 The tomatoes in their final growing place after being moved from their pots. I will keep some in bigger pots as well as growing in raised beds.

I've also gone ahead and removed some plants from the polytunnel, transferring them to the garden. I must admit that I haven't really hardened off any plants as the weather has been warm but if anything happens due to a cold snap then that's my own fault!

Why harden off?



Hardening off plants prepares them better for the outdoors if they have been grown indoors/under glass. It's not just the potential of damage from cold but also from wind and sun exposure (yes, plants can also get burnt in the sun just as we would do if left out all day). Gradual introduction to the great outdoors is often overlooked when it comes to growing (and I'm no exception).

Broad beans:
So, some of my varieties are being grown outside the old chicken shed (as I no longer have poultry). The soil should contain lots of nutrients from having poultry live there before and nothing else has grown there since. I don't really think that the soil should be damaging in any way to crops and plants (fresh manure can be too "hot" for plants, burning their roots etc but this area doesn't contain any fresh manure anymore). I've put out two varieties and am saving the other two for the allotment. Aquadulce Claudia and The Sutton are out in the garden and so far looking quite healthy.

 The roots of my broad beans getting quite busy in their pots!

 Healthy looking bean plants with no aphids or signs of chocolate spot.

Globe artichokes:

I quite like these both as flowering plants and as edibles. I think they look striking in a garden setting, reaching tall heights with unusual looking flowers. I like pickled artichokes but I'm the only one in the family that does! I've grown all mine from seeds I purchased last year. They are ready to go out as they are outgrowing their pots so I've planted them in a permanent area close to a fence by the old chicken shed. With growing this many I can keep some to flower in the garden and some to eat. Best of both!





 Globe artichokes raised from seed this year.

 Now in the ground, the globe artichokes will remain in this plot for a few years.

Blueberries:

Last year I also potted blueberries that I purchased as very young plants. They didn't produce any fruit last year but they are thriving this year. The reason behind growing them in pots is because they prefer a more acidic soil and I would like to be able to move them around in case they get attacked by pests or I simply want to have them in another location in the garden!

Also in this area, but in pots, are blueberries that I bought last year. They are already flowering.

All in all things are going well although I still feel that they are progressing too slowly this year, due to my work commitments. Hopefully I can find the time to do a lot more very soon!

Till next time x



The story so far

So, I've been trying to work as best as I can with the little time I've been given for now (work and other commitments).

It's now April and there's much to be done. I've made a start on my allotment, preparing the ground for the onions first as I'll need to transplant them soon. I've done this by manually digging instead of using my rotavator. The ground was quite good to work in that the soil wasn't too hard to dig. It was rich in life with plenty of worms, grubs, spiders and other marvellous creatures! It's always good to see and it is a good sign. Soil without any insect life shows that there's something wrong. Remember: not all insects are going to be out to get your plants. They can be pest predators, soils improvers and help to break down old plant fibres. As for the onions: well, my seeds have germinated but they are tiny in comparison to the sets I'm growing and although I'm experienced in growing both ways, having both methods grown in the same year has definitely made me think much more about it!

 

Seeds vs sets: The top photo is of my onion seedlings and below it the sets. Both put in at the same time. It seems like more patience will be required for the seedlings at this stage. 

As the weather continues to improve, I can't help but feel that I'm falling behind as I've given myself rather a lot to do. Not only do I have what is hundreds of seeds to sow, I have to prep the ground at my allotment and work on my front garden. It can seem very overwhelming and at a glance you may be thinking 'what's the point?' and 'is it really worth it?', while also thinking that maybe gardening is stressful and unforgiving. Having spent Mothers' Day sowing seeds and transferring plants into bigger pots and tidying up, the stress did go away. It has been upsetting as Mrs C, my last chicken had passed away recently. She's now at rest and probably with her old flock somewhere though. I will miss having chickens as I've kept poultry for 15 years, so watch this space as I may be tempted to get more after a break.

The dear, late Mrs C, my last hen. I photographed her here only just back in March.

 

The tomatoes are now growing very well. I did lose a few to damping off but I suppose that was due to lack of care as I perhaps had too much water in my heated propagators. The tomatoes on my windowsill planters did better and now I'm potting them on to encourage growth. There's two varieties that didn't come to much: Red Pear, which didn't germinate and White Wonder, where only one germinated and is quite slow to grow. Marmande is by far developing better than any of the other varieties.

 Transplanting tomatoes to larger pots is an easy task.

The one other plant I got on working with was the strawberry. I bought several online this year at a good price (about £15 for 25 plants). They arrive by post wrapped up in plastic to prevent drying up and I didn't hesitate getting stuck in to give them the best chance of survival. The variety I got was Late Florence. Last year I bought Cambridge Favourite, which produces some good sized fruit.

 Is it just garden rubbish or some potential tasty strawberries in this bag?

 There was some sign of life in this plant. 





Some of the strawberry plants looked almost dead when I removed the packaging but you needn't be so worried. Strawberries have a habit of looking their worst when they are dormant and I'm hoping that after some tender loving care they will provide me with good sweet fruit in the following months! I placed them in 9cm pots with an organic, peat free compost and am keeping them in the polytunnel for now. The Cambridge Favourite that overwintered in the poly has now been moved outdoors into a strawberry pot in a sheltered spot. I'll keep you posted on everything I've done so far.

Stress over, till next time!

Designing a new front garden

When I first moved to my current house, the neither the front garden nor the back garden were anything nice to look at or inspiring at all. I've worked on the back and there's been many changes and although it's not looking it's best, I'm hoping that I've got it right this summer. The front is just awful to be honest with you. There's a concrete drive (why oh why did the previous owner do that, I can't afford to put a new one in), an old low, wooden fence that hasn't really survived the last few days of storms but there are some lovely plants: escallonia (that I put in), roses, a weigela, crocosmia and some more roses growing against the house.

Now, I'm not one for removing plants that have nothing wrong with them so I'm keeping all the plants where they are and I'll be working around them. I'm no garden designer and despite going to a local horticultural meeting recently about designing a small garden I'm non the wiser really. I've taken some inspiration from the internet, creating a mood board with various ideas and here's what Im looking to do:

Remove the old wooden fencing
Clear up the old patch of grass
Add two ornaments and fill with flowers
Add hedging where I can

The main inspiration I got was from striking pictures from the Dubai Miracle Garden's floral clock. It was the peacock with flowers as its tail that made me want something similar but on a much smaller scale of course!

So, I sourced a peacock planter from Dunelm, priced at £18, which I thought was quite reasonable as some ornamental peacocks were priced much higher. In this case I'm not looking for something high quality, just a good start.

I'm looking to keep flowers to a similar colour to the peacock so I've chosen to plant the following in the planter:

Petunia Fanfare Dark Blue
Lobelia Waterfall Blue
Fuchsia Southern Belle Voodoo
Verbena Enchantment Purple

Hopefully you can see the colour of the flowers on the varieties I've picked here. 

My daughter asked if she could help so I got her to fill a clean pot with potting compost and then add the plants in, placing the lobelia on one side, which will be near the neck of the peacock, the fuchsia on the sides to trail over the wings, with the petunia and verbena at the back to trail over the tail. 

I was pleased to see that the plugs didn't have too much plastic by means of a small pot. Although there was still a lot of plastic in use buying this. 

Carefully packing the young plants in the pot.

I've kept the planter in the poly tunnel as it's still too cold for the plants to be outside. Some of them are not hardy so I don't want to lose any.  Just to be doubly sure that I won't see them succumb to frost I've placed protection over the planter until the danger of frost is over. 

Next I'll be working on the front to clear any rubbish and give the roses a clip. After that I'll plan to dig and level the patch of land. I want to add some more dramatic planting as the flower varieties I'm using for the tail will be low plants. I'm hoping that the peacock will stand in a place that looks like a small jungle! 

Until next time x

Bulbs

Just as February is coming to an end, I'm now sowing onion seeds, along with sets to see what comes out best at harvest time.

Originally I always grew my onions (white and red) from seed, however, for ease I started growing onions from sets a few years ago, thus abandoning my seed sowing. So, I can't really compare which is the better method unless I grow onions by both methods at the same time. Aside from onions, I'm also growing shallots and garlic from sets and leeks (a member of the onion family) from seed.

Onions from seed

Back when I first moved into my current house I decided to grow onions, red and white, from seed. I originally purchased Bedfordshire Champion and Red Baron. The seeds were quick to germinate and I transplanted them from seeds trays to prepared beds in my back garden as I didn't have an allotment then. I found them surprisingly easy to grow and enjoyed harvesting them so much that the following year I also purchased Japanese onion seeds to grow in the summer months as I could harvest these a little earlier the following year to give me a succession of onions. Then, when I got my first allotment plot I gave up with seeds and grew from sets. The reason why I did this was because I thought that it would be easier to grow from sets.

Now I'm back to trying with seeds again. I've sown seeds in trays as before and left enough space between each seed, which is around 2cm. Later on, when these have germinated and grown on a little I will transplant them, leaving more of a gap. As of now nothing has germinated so I can't show you any photos of onion seedlings but will keep you updated when that does happen.

Onions from sets

This year I bought the following sets from Wilko:

White onions - Sturon
Red onions - sadly, there wasn't a variety name supplied

Both were priced at £1.50 each and as the deal is buy 3 for 2 I also bought shallots and garlic.

As I haven't yet prepared the soil on my allotment I decided to place the sets in individual small pots to get as many growing on as I can. I don't know if this could cause me problems though as I'm not sure whether moving them again will cause issues with growth (some plants really dislike being moved).

For the pots I just used potting compost for now. As they start to grow I'll transplant them to the allotment, so I'll need to prepare the soil! Onions like a good fertile soil to grow.

Pros and Cons of both

I've always found that when I've grown from seed onions tend not to really bolt (produce a flower and go to seed), whereas onions grown from sets can do. In the past I've cut off any flower stems growing on onions but I've not found the onion particularly good even after doing that.

If you're wanting to find an easy and quick way of growing onions then the best way probably is with sets as you can simply prepare your soil beds and put them in. Keep an eye on them though as birds quite like to pull them out (only to look underneath).

Either way, as I'm fond of using onions in cooking whatever I do get as a crop I'll be happy with!

"Bean" a habit for so long

Still into February and I'm starting to sow more and more. Now, I'm a great fan of beans: broad, runner, French, kidney etc and this week I've started sowing broad beans.

I didn't have much success at the start of last year with my broad beans. Unfortunately fungal diseases and poor yields meant that I didn't gather the usual amount of broad beans that I'm used to, which is about 2kg each year.

One thing that broad beans will need is support. I usually use string and small canes to make supports for them. 

Broad beans
These are such great beans to grow (with exception of last year) because they are usually tough plants that have never needed much assistance from me with growing. They can get chocolate spot, which is a fungus and I've seen this on my plants once. It didn't affect them too much, but if you spot this on your broad beans it usually means that air isn't circulating around the plants very well (this was the case for me as I planted my beans far too close to each other). Aphids can be another problem but I can say that I have never had to treat my broad beans for any problems.

In the case of last year, it may well have been other factors that caused a low yield for me as there were no signs of disease in the plants on my allotment and no signs of pests. It hasn't put me off though and so the varieties I'm growing this year are:

Aquadulce Claudia
Robin Hood
Express
The Sutton

Broad beans are my favourite bean simply because they store so well. Once I've picked them I'll remove the beans from the pods and freeze those that I don't intend to use straight away. This type of bean is very popular in Poland, where my family also grows them in large quantities. They are added to soups or simply boiled as an accompaniment to any main dish. I'm the only one in my household though, that enjoys them so much. I'll boil them and then add them to a frying pan with onions, garlic and diced pancetta. Alternatively, I'll roast them in the oven with salt and/or chilli flakes. Having said that my roasting technique needs improving!

Broad beans in detail

Now that you know a little about broad beans (or fava beans in the States), I want to write a bit more in depth about them. Beans are a member of the legume family. So what are legumes? They are plants that have nitrogen fixing bacteria in root nodules. This is a symbiotic relationship (meaning that the bacteria and the bean live together in harmony). The bacteria is called Rhizobia, which makes the legume plant one that is rich in protein (hence beans being a good source of protein). Once the plant dies, the nitrogen stored in the  root nodules is released back in the soil and this is why experienced gardeners will tell you that legumes are great to grow to increase nutrients in soil.

To grow your own is easy: start off by sowing seeds in ideally in pots - small ones do - and you don't need to soak the beans overnight to do this. They should germinate in just a couple of weeks and will look like this as they start to grow:

Broad beans are fast growers, so make sure that once you see the seeds germinate that you prepare the soil beds that you will eventually move them to as soon as you can.

When you have prepared beds for the plants, broad beans depend on some support. I use a mix of canes and string, which doesn't take up too much time and isn't difficult to do, as you can see below:

One tip is that once you see pods starting to develop you should pinch out the tops. This is done for two reasons: the first is that you will be able to harvest your beans a bit earlier and secondly it's supposed to help with aphid control. As I don't like to use chemicals at all, that's why I pinch out the tops and I can honestly say that I rarely get severe aphid problems. The tops can be coked and eaten, or if you keep poultry it may be worth saving the tops for your chickens and ducks. Over the growing season keep your beans free from competitive weeds (a little gentle hoeing could help), water them but you'll find that you don't need to feed them (remember those Rhizobia bacteria - they will help give your beans the nutrients they need).

I hope that this article is useful - it's not too late to start sowing broad beans but you can always start late in the year like November to get more broad beans in succession for next year!

Let's talk tomatoes

It's February, it's still cold and yet now is the time to start sowing tomato seeds!

As always I start off sowing using heated propagators because you'll find that without the extra warmth you won't get tomato seedlings for a long while. Seeds will come to life when the soil is the right temperature and you can do this a few ways:

Heated Propagators  - these will require electricity to work

Sowing indoors - There are window sill seeds trays in so many shops this year and you could grow from seeds and cuttings in the warmth of your house this time of year.

Heated Beds - I did try to grow seeds in raised beds a couple of years ago, which had lots of fresh poultry manure dug in. The plan was to try and increase the soil temperature from the manure rotting away from below (a Victorian method) but alas this didn't work for me. I'd suggest that you'd need a big greenhouse and lots of manure to try this method.

So this year I'm growing several varieties of tomatoes. This is because I want to maximise my productivity. My children enjoy all different colours of tomatoes (when on holiday in France they loved picking orange, green and black toms off the supermarket shelves) so I want some different colours for salads. I've also chosen some large, fleshy varieties for bottling up for the winter, meaning I'll still be using home grown tomatoes for meals long after the growing season.

Orange, black and green tomatoes with radishes - my kids loved these when we were in France

How to choose the right tomato for you

You might find that when you're looking at buying tomato seeds or plug plants that they come in two categories: determinate and indeterminate but what does this mean?

Determinate: this means that the plant is a bush variety and will stop growing at a certain height, producing several fruit from it's branches. What'll happen is once fruit starts forming the plant will stop growing.

I love growing determinate tomatoes in hanging baskets in the garden, such as cherry varieties, which are great for salads and accompaniments to all sorts of food. Tumbling Tom is a good cherry variety, which I grow both the red and yellow colours.

Indeterminate: these are the tomato plants that will grow for as long as the weather allows them. I grow indeterminate tomatoes in my polytunnel, using string to support them. Usually, the varieties of indeterminate toms that I like to grow are larger fruit such as the fleshy Marmande and some plum tomatoes. One indeterminate that has always been a success for me is Money Maker.

Indeterminate tomatoes will need support while they grow. Canes (as seen above) are a simple, reliable method. 

When choosing which tomato plant you want to grow have a think about what you want. Do you want a salad crop? Are you into small tomatoes or do you prefer the large fruits that have less seeds? What space do you have for growing tomatoes? Limited spaces usually mean that small determinate plants would be better but then maybe you feel you can train an indeterminate like the big commercial growers do, making plants grow in circles.

Fancy growing tomatoes like a commercial grower? They use indeterminate varieties that are grown under glass, circling around long lines, producing tonnes of fruit every year. The crates pictured above are just some picked from one line. 

Once you've decided what you want to eat, go get those seeds and sow them! You don't have to start early as I have, especially if you don't want the added cost of using heated propagators. You can sow your seeds under glass or on a window sill in March and still enjoy tasty fruits over the summer.