oh yes, we have been away for a holiday, but things are moving on!
planted out: runner beans; french beans; courgettes; squash; sweetcorn. actually the beans were planted out by M-I-L, who seems to have planted the squash up the poles too. oh well, i am sure i can transplant!
harvesting: strawberries [yummy]
Need to do: sow some more beans, weed [actually this might be a crisis!], final pot up toms [another crisis!] and sow some salady bits.
we have used some clippy things this year, which DH [beanwam builder] says is absolutely fab. will link at some point [idea from kitchen garden magazine]
elder child had a nasty bike accident though, so I am going to be running about with her, and imagine a decreased gardening and blogging. [nasty as in nasty foot injury, and awaiting what f any surgery needs doing]
We have done some clearing out of the greenhouse. so, with the staging visible again, i have been busy filling it up! the toms are in their penultimate pot, the baby yellow ilidi seem very different. i have also potted on the butternut squash, pumpkin and courgettes [they get potted on once before planting out, as they get sown in modules!]. the 4 peppers are busy going nowhere, so i think we will be buying in peppers this year!
the yard beans are in their final pots with canes in the greenhouse as well. fingers crossed for a crop this year, as they didn’t crop outside last year.
Our sweetcorn are growing beautifully, and the french bean cobra and the runner bean something are germinating too. I guess i need to do some successional sowing of the brocolli now, and think about some salads. i haven’t done them yet this year, as i often sow them and then realise i haven’t got anywhere to put them and they bold. this year i am trying to do a bit more planning! i also have some dwarf french beans to sow that will go in the pots for the kids area
we have some cherries appearing on the minarette too. must keep an eye out for gooseberry sawfly - in leeds they always hit. here we have more a problem with the cabbage white, so i might need more environmesh!
i am very happy, near 100% germination of all sweetcorn - goody! the climbing bean blauhilde also started to germinate. have watered the weekend plantlings outside - all happy in their safety zone, those pesky cabbage whites shouldn’t find a way in! DH has done a bit more weeding of the fruit bed. realised i didn’t take any photos of apple blossom - wah! lots of strawberry blossom though.
awaiting purchase of compost to pot on the remainder of toms and the squashes. not quite brave enough to plant them out yet! [and also would have to weed another area!] maybe i should plant out some and see??
must add some photos at some point to this blog.
today i have planted out into the veg bed the first sowing of celebration peas. [the endeavour have been composted] also the broc early red and cauli autumn giant. they are watered in nicely [waterbut] and environmeshed over, otherwise we have a plague of caterpillars. the peas also environmeshed as last time we had pea thrips. hopefully this will help.
to help me get to the veg, DH has been hacking away at one of the fabulous shaped yews. it feels sad and a bit of a desecration, but it is too big. they should shoot well from the woody bits, so we will have it as perhaps a simpler cylinder.
i am going to use the last of my compost now to pot on a few more toms.
we have some early cherries on the cherry minarette, and loads and loads of blossom on the apple minarettes, so hoping for a good crop. the strawbs are in full flower and looking v healthy, and all the bush fruit has settled. one of the raspberry canes appears to be doing nothing though.
its still under black membrane wraps, but the peas [celebration not hopeless endeavour] neeeeed to go out, as do the caulis and brocolli [so that i can then do a second sowing! I desperately need some more cardboard boxes, and some timeto do a spot of weeding! it is MUCH easier to do sowing and potting on with children than sorting and weeding. even if the sowing is ‘unusual’ and somethings don’t recover from the potting on!
the greenhouse also needs a bit of a sorting out, as i have potted on some of the toms again, and the yard long beans need to think about climbing up some permanent sticks! only 4 peppers, ah well.
oh, and the propagatory totally backed up! the artichokes have been potted on, as have some of the sunflowers.
for germination - we have had 100% of all the squash family [including the butternut squash from supermarket!] and the runners and celebration [but a solitary endeavour - will try sowing direct]. runners will soon need to go out [protected] and the squashes potted up.
for sowing, today i sowed the first lot of climbing bean blauhilde and cobra in roottrainers, the runner bean sunsomethingorother - to look up! I also sowed the sweetcorn - butterscotch and a supersweet.
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!