The Frantic Gardeners’ Blog

Today I was supposed to plant out mangetout and peas, and also the potatoes.

Never mind - such things are what frantic gardening is all about!

Anyway, with my eldest daughter, we sowed some carrots into eggpots. we decided we weren’t sure whether we would recognise any carrot seedlings over weeds in the garden, so by doing this, we could potentially then identify any carrots in the weed row! i potted up half the toms into last but one size pot, and half the peppers into next size pot.

Finished hoeing the onions mind you, but that was it! Pleased to notice the minarette pear, the damson and a plum all had some flowers on them - just a few!

Firslty I potted up the plug plants that came today. They’re lavender, and came with a seed order from T and M. When I say, I, I actually mean my elder daughter for most of them. She did it very nicely too.

I then potted on a few of the tomatoes, and fiddled with the positioning of things within and wtihout the propagator. The pea and brassica previous sowings have now gone to the unheated greenhouse to start hardening off.

So for sowing, there was peas Misty and oregon sugarpod, first sowing of florence fennel victoria, a repeat sowing of brocolli ‘wok broc’ , romanescu and cauliflower autumn giant, and mixed lettuce.

We are full to the gunnels again.

our 150 year old grape vine has started sprouting. so hopefully a good crop this year. This winter was the first time we have ever pruned a grape vine, so we are pleased to see signs of life!

IMG 1429We have ordered some strawberries from T and M - a 36 pack collection.

so not a lot of gardening. Work went crazy [and still is] and the little beans [our kids] weren’t so well, SB in particular.

Today though, I was sooooo stresdsed by the time i returned from work, only cuddles with the girls and contact with the soil [and soon a glass of red wine] would do.

So on the veg plot front, the planted broad beans seem to be doing well. the mangetout are pretty much acclimatised, but since we are expecting a cooler bit at the end of the week, perhaps I’ll plant them out at the weekend. the weeds have also got going. SO now I’m debating whether a quick weed as i can’t see any carrot seedlings, though may decimate the radishes [but they were only in the drill for it to show up more quickly…].

on the fruit plot, the buds are coming on nicely, but not all our minarettes are planted - we had better get our skates on!

So into the propagatory. I potted up the rest of the tomatoes today. The potted aubergines are coming on nicely, and the peppers [though they aren’t ready yet for potting on. Sweetcorn germination has been overall poor - roughly 1/4 only. Was older seed, and have some this years for sowing next. Maybe should try chitting it? but not sure - maybe do an ‘experiment’ with my daughter. Speaking of experiments, the sunflowers in the large home made propagator germinated more quickly and better than those in a cheap electric one. the sprink onions have germinated well, and the leeks are just starting. The second sowing of artichokes also not germinating well. HMM! The caulis all came up, and all the salad leaves have. soon think of pricking them out to grow on. I always grow sacrifical spares, but when the time comes, my heart isn’t hard enough to not just ‘let them have a go!’
Amazingly, some of the asparagus seeds collected from the garden are also germinating - I had thought that would be a dead loss.

Today I sowed the cucurbits - I know, a bit early, but the conservatory is doing such a good job as a propagatory that I think its worth a show. So I sowed courgette gold rush, Squash Festival, and pumpkin Mars. i also sowed a tray of rootrainers with sweetcorn minipop - you know the one you are supposed to microwave to get popcorn. Should be nice.

No camera on me today - wil try and remedy that!

i think we will definitely try the North American 3 sisters thing with beans, sweetcorn and squashes and see how it goes. Probably in what will be half of the fruit bed next year.

where I write anything particularly interesting!

i potted up a couple of the tomatoes, and generally fiddled about watering and moving the seedlings in the propagators

After lunch eldeder daughter wanted to use the egg shells to grow cress in - no cress, so they now have basil. I didn’t supervise/help at all, and she quite happily got it all done, watered and ready for the propagator.

She said she wanted to take a ‘window picture’ so here is one by her of me potting up toms.

Next weeks jobs are sowing rest of onion sets, finishing planting the fruit trees, getting the stuff ready for planting peas out, and a flower bed in front of conservatory - not much then!

Chris built the big propagator whilst I potted up the aubergines and artichokes.We will start a gardening blog I think.