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 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??]

But not been entirely idle on the gardening front!

Seeds - the artichoke, sunflowers, indoor broad beans [now being experimented upon!] have all germinated , also the yellow tomatoes ilidi. i have sown peas endeavour and celebration today, some sweet peas and yard long beans.

outside - the fruit bed is all nicely weeded, the minarette trees trained, fed and pruned. [as an aside, i am never getting minarettes again, it is a big fib that they don’t need pruning and training! should have just got a cordon and been done with it!, at least they were part of an offer, though as 4 out of 10 died, still not entirely impressed] . the beginings of the industrial raspberry support has been done. this was less than planned, as i was also goldilocks to the children’s improvised 3 bears story, plated hide and seek, chased all spiders out of their den…

outside - the veg bed is all safely under that permeable plastic mulch awaiting using time. All the winds blew it around, so now it is truly fixed down. the broad beans and carrots not germinated yet.

wildlife - the birds def liking the new birdfeeders! have seen goldfinches for the first time - yippee.

have sown the toms - tigerella, gardeners delight and ilidi [a yellow cherry] with the girls. hopefully will get a good germination rate! Also sown the peppers - big banana, a black coloured one ?poblano - must check. they are late, so here’s hoping! also jalapeno. and also late, artichokes! the girls seed sowing technique means a very variable depth, but most things seem to survive.

Must now revitalise the propagator though. As the science experiments the girls have done show, warmth and water are the essentials.

chris has dug over the fruit bed, awaiting arrival of raspberries and of goosegogs. [the blueberries will go in the tubs]

broad beans done - through the cardboard again in a square foot type pattern. i am also trying carrots through cardboard this year. means that i am planting in stations rather than rows for a change, and wasn’t sure how many seeds per station, so will prob have to thin out terribly. just hoping that this will reduce the weedage! have planted flyaway [carrot fly resistant].

both girls helped me, the youngest by putting in the broad beans, and the oldest by putting the bricks on the cardboard to stop it flying away. An elemental idea, only thought this year, was to precut the holes on the comfort of my sofa, rather than grovelling on the ground with children throwing themselves across my back. much less stressful!

mulches R us - the rest of the veg bed a sea of black semipermeable membrane. we are going to lift, weed, dig and sow as we need each bit . As many things as poss will be grown through cardboard or newspaper with grass clippings on top. fingers crossed!

but we beat the bluster and went out to sow broad beans. that is me and the smallest undergardener! We are sowing through cardboard again this year as it was so succesful last year. they have gone into one of the bits that last year were nettles. a good choice i thought for the cardboard! i have sown bunyards exhibition, and we have [must look and add!] as well. we only put in half, as it was so cold and blustery that the wee one got a bit fed up. Anyway, its a start!

we have blossoms on the patio peach

so haven’t managed to tidy up the veg bed, and a full week ahead. oh well. What we did do was a bit more greenhouse tidying - getting the other side ready for the toms. Also sowed the melon amber nectar, and a few runners and french beans to fill in some gaps Will do some more perhaps to try a 3 rather than 2 sisters!

I potted up the final cucurbits, aubergines and peppers. SB then helped pot up some final toms to take to people. BB returned and also sowed some seeds - calendula and sunflowers.

found chris had put bricks holding environmesh directly on top of my florence fennel, and I have no more seeds. humph!

Yesterday was a fairly relaxed day. We spent lots of it in the garden, looking at the seeds sprouting, the flowers, and organising SB’s flower and veg beds by the playhouse. Hide and seek and lots of swinging! We need more of Merry’s cardboard boxes for the veg patch! I did some weeding though.
We also sowed some more seeds - our cucurbits [butternut squash, another squash, pumpkin and courgette], finished the packet of mangetout and also the fennel [which might not germinate as such an old packet! All the last lot of peas sown have germinated, and the spring onions. The broad beans are outside in open greenhouse to acclimatise before being planted.

Today, we have sowed the sweetcorn - including some bicolour from kirsty and some self supporting peas. i need to pot up the toms - anyone needing toms passing this way…

We all went outside after lunch to enjoy the good weather. the girls raced about playing games, SB made a potion with flowers, and BB watered things. our fruit trees are coming into flower - the merryweather damson is covered in flowers. Our broad beans outside are getting going, as is the radish. no sign yet of carrots though.

Seed sowing - cauliflower, autumn giant leek, mangetout and peas. [must reinstate gardening blog!] the aubergines, peppers and toms all have at least a few seedlings - unsure at present which are which as only seed leaves! The peas from before are coming up [1 week since sown]. Both girls ‘helped’ me - which is why there is a variable number of seeds in each module, and by the end I have no idea what is where! luckily, they become obvious as they grow.