The Frantic Gardeners’ Blog

beautifully chitted!! we have planted charlotte and pink fir apple. we don’t need to do much in the potato line, as a farm on the edge of the village sells so many diff varieties. infact, we have that many farm shops that we are spoilt for local grown organic [though not yet able to be labelled as such] produce.

We have planted through cardboard again, as that seems to be reasonably successful, and we are hopeless at weeding!

I am looking at the caulis and brocolli and peas and thinking they are also ready to go out. hmm, they’ll have to wait a bit!

toms have been happy with the repotting, and getting a move on. the yard long beans at least haven’t sulked too much!

the first of the squashes are already germinating - butternut from the supermarket. the girls always like to sow some saved seeds.

I did get to pot up the yard long beans. still giving them a little bit of bottom heat [in the last bit before unheated greenhouse!] Also potted on toms for the first time. a bit early, but usually i am weeks late, so thought it might make a change! looked at the artichokes, and thought they also needed potting on, but my 5 seconds was over. hopefully do them tomorrow. as being a bit soft on the toms and yard beans, no room in the inn for runners and french beans, so will do them perhaps at le weekend.

BTW, for the record, we have a conservatory on the back of the house, south facing, containing a victorian grape that is massive! in summer, it is totally shaded by the vine, but at this time of year the vine leaves are still small and light good. it could be heated, as has radiators, but we object to sending all that heat out as has greenhouse glass windows [with holes] due to position it doesn’t tend to frost like a greenhouse can, but can still get v chilly in jan/feb. in it we have a home made propagator [big chipboard and wood box, lined with polythene, soil warming cable to a thermostat on the outside and elec. filled with sand, and a coldframe on the top. things tend to start in there. if v fragile [or vwintry] some get propagator lids over the trays within the propagator proper - as it were! i have some non-thermostat electric tray propagators as well, that we used a lot in previous house. these tend to be for overflows if too many seeds, or for those that have germinated, still need some warmth and i need propagator proper space. at the moment, these are providing a bit of bottom heat for yard beans and toms. [not for long!]

… I have done some catch up sowing! With all that hail and coldness, and space being a bit limited, I hadn’t sown any of the beans and cucurbits. remedied now!

This morning, DD2 and I have sown a further tray of endeavour [ which is gradually coming on!] and celebration peas, some giant russian sunflowers [ we killed all the first lot with experiments - oops!] . we have also sown some courgette parador, squash - butternut, festival mixed and pumpkin mars.

when go out and get some more compost i will pot up the yard beans, and sown some runners and french beans. then i wil see what else i should have done [put potatoes in earth perhaps??]

sown at the same time, sharing the same propagator. pretty much all things equal, but all the celebration peas have germinated, grown well and are hardening off to go out. about 1/10 of the endeavour have germinated, and of those, some are just showing tips only. my current recommnedation is celebration!

yay! the broad beans in the garden are poking there heads above the ground. no signs of the carrots. also a bit concerned that one of the gooseberries doesn’t seem to have any sign of life. will have to let nice mr ken muir know!

i must get to sow some more seeds. interestingly, pea celebration has germinated much more quickly and evenly than pea endeavour.

all the tomatoes have germinated, though the peppers lagging behind! the yard long beans also all germinated. the peas and sweetpeas, broccoli and cauliflowers also started to peek through. as soon as enough of the peas and brassicas have germinated, they will be out of the propagator to make room for some of the companion flowers to be started off.

brocolli extra early red sprouting - rudolph, and also cauliflower autumn giant. the carrots indoors are poking their noses up, though as they are part of a science experiment, we will have to see the survivability!

bit more tidying and organising of veg bed and fruit bed - the goosegogs are now in as well.

also this year we have started mushrooms in a box, lets see how successful they are! certainly messy, as was told to pour water in slowly, but there is a walloping hole in bottom of bag to aerate, so just came out!