The Frantic Gardeners’ Blog

so not so much time to even garden frantically. a quick water is really all managing, but most do a weeding shortly! today spent a couple of hours on essential maintenance, tho could get called into work at a moment’s notice, so can’t do anything too big or get too messy!

Sown

the rest of the twinkle peas in situ. think none germinated before due to parched soil. so soil where sown is as mud, and will try and keep topped up with water!

Germinated

the second emergency sowing of pumpkins are germinating too. should have a lot in the veg bed then! The climbing bean blauhilde have germinated. when a bit bigger will plant out

awaiting the climbing bean cobra and the direct sown runnerbean…

Planted out

the rainbow chard, into bed 4. look v nice there. there are a few that didnt fit, so maybe DH will place in his square foot bed.

Harvesting

the rocket and a few salad leaves. the peapods on the first twinkle sown looking big, so hopefully not long, we have some green tomatoes and some green strawberries. i think the goosegogs nearly worth a try. the broad beans are some way off tho.

Maintenance

Need to keep those pesky rabbits off the veg! so have gone round the outside with chicken wire with 2 ad hoc ‘doors’. Wouldnt keep anything really determined out, but hoping that it will work for our domestic rabbits, as they have loads of other interesting places in the garden they can go [and lots of dandelions to nibble!]

Problems

1/2 our pak choi look really brilliant, 1/4 have died and the other 1/4 look pathetic. on uprooting one, there were hardly any roots. is this a pest? or just unfortunate??

something has been nibbling our pea leaves again, and it isn’t rabbits.

To Do:

1. plant out sweetcorn and the single pumpkin that is big

2. pot on all the new little pumpkins and squashes

3. get tomatoes supported.

Hmm, we have still been v much lacking in the rain department. however, have spent a little while frantically watering, plus a bit of good news about the germination of squashes and not so good re bean numbers!

Sowing

T and M had a half price seed sale, so I bought and sowed some runner beans moonlight, direct into the ground [eek!]

Germination

All the brassicas sown have germination. 1 pumpkin of those sown with old seed has germinated, and 2 of the new butternut squash. waiting for the winter squash and any others. so tiny and so far behind . the carrot sugarsnx [or something similar] has germinated well, but the purple variant hasn’t [both sown direct in rows] so wondering whether to resow or not.

Potted on

not quite potting on, but the side shoots of the toms had rooted, so potted on 4 for my mum to take home with her she has no greenhouse, so the perfect size for her to have on windowsill a bit longer and then go out.

Planted out

4 courgette plants [2 parador and 2 parthenon] , DD2’s 2 gourd plants [poor germination] and all the climbing bean cobra and blauhilde. There should have been 30 of each, but 5 destroyed detangling and a further 5 looking v sorry so a quick bit of resowing to plant in gaps if they appear, and the above runner beans, as our bean hedge has space for 70 plants. The early purple sprouting and normal brocolli has also gone out.Next year i need to sow the blauhilde 2 weeks later than i did, and cobra prob 1 week later than i did, and remember to sow so I have 25 of each of cobra, blauhilde and the runnerbean.

Pests

the rabbits have managed to decimate the leaves of the strawberries, so are confined to their pen currently, pending some fencing.

Maintenance

the pots have been emptied of dead stuff, yew and bay trimmed and we are ready to plant up the flowers again.

Jobs

1. tomatoes pole and strings

2. plant out sweetcorn [have to dig over the bed first]

3. pot up flowers into patio pots

I must get my photos onto flickr so i can add some here, as it has been far to long since i posted a pic, and I have taken loads! We did have some rain in the night. Not a huge amount, but at least some. Haven’t watered outside today as hoping for some more tonight. However, the sunflowers do have a bit of a droop to the lower leaves.

Sowing

OK, i am seriously worried about a lack of pumpkins and butternut squash as we love them. So, I can’t wait for the last sowing to germinate [no sign yet] and bought fresh seed and sowed 4 of each. Hopefully this will mean all will germinate and I will have too many.

Maintenance

I pruned the grape vine in the conservatory. It is thought it was planted when the conservatory was added to the house, approx 1850, so we try and care for it well! the main ‘trunk’ comes out the side of the wall and into the ground outside. It was v rampant when we bought the house, and in no particularly trained fashion, tho had about 50 bunches of grapes. We had to replace the conservatory last year due to falling down issues so pruned it back very hard and then built the conservatory around it. last year we allowed two fresh shoots of the main ‘trunk’ become the permanent horizantal cordons, and are spur pruning. However, we need to cut back the huge old loop, so are not actually letting much develop this year, just enough to keep the plant healthy, and will prune the big loop off in the winter and hopefully get the verticals up next year. There are lots of bunches of flowers currently.

DH got the bean fence set up, and i will plant the climbing beans next week as we would be v unlucky to get a frost - always seems a bit risky tho! [coming from living in Leeds I think it takes quite a while to adjust to the difference a few weeks makes, as well as soil type and rainfall]

i felt a bit bad about taking over DH’s bed, so have made him a square foot bed, just need to add compost to it - think we might have enough in our earliest compost bin.

I love May. I love the smell of mayblossom and cow parsley, and then elderflowers to come. The rape flowers are fading now so the fields less fluorescently yellow! I love may. It reminds me of my youth, of infant school [surrounded by hawthorns] and my best beloved Nanny, who died 2 years ago, and whose birthday was May 1st.

Also, in May, if we have been organised, I can start to see the veg patch coming together, and the greenhouse starts to be in emptying phase ready for the final position of toms etc. We have been fairly organised this year.

Sowing

I am still sowing things! today it was some mixed lettuce and rocket into modules, to be planted out when big enough between brassicas for a catch crop.

Potting on

i have potted on all the tomatoes into their final pots - woohoo!! Also all the aubergines and half the peppers. Actually not all the tomatoes, as 3 will be going into a growbag and pot system [a DH trial to see which works best] . SO we have 15 tomato plants, 5 each of gardeners delight, sungold and golden sunrise. I have 6 aubergines [from a mixed pack, so will be looking forwad to seeing what they are!] currently 5 potted on and 1 spare, 5 pepper jalapeno, 5 pepper inferno and 6 pepper mixed grill. This is less tomato plants than normal, but we usually have had too many. More pepper plants than before tho. DD1 loves red peppers, so planted loads for her

Planting out

The second sowing of brassicas went out - some purple pak choi, white cauliflower and brocolli romanescu.  They went into my DH’s bed, and he grumbled a bit as he had planned to properly square foot things in it. sigh . a) he should have told me, b) what is he going to put in it? since i have done most of the sowing etc it would be helpful to know and c) with the girls 2 beds of flowers and his bed of square foot, by veg patch has had a quarter knocked out of it . Anyway, I apologised and next yea, with a bit of planning, he can have his to square foot [the brassicas are all at square foot distances tho…] and will try and persuade girls to be ‘in charge of some of the veg - eg carrots perhaps.

Maintenance

DH has dug over the area for the climbing bean fence, and so next weekend plan to plant out the beans - eek!

Jobs to do

1. put up bean fence

2. clean out pots and put in herbs/flowers for patio and in front of kitchen

3. order a couple of climbers and a chaenomeles for infront of the kitchen

4. rabbit proof our veg patch. they are our rabs, and i am soft hearted letting them run around the garden, but they are nibblers, and this cannot continue!

we are on a water meter here, and i think the garden is getting more than we are! it does really need to rain. SO v british that weather thoughts are at the top of my head! it also needs to not go below 0 again! last night it was -0.5 , and although there are no tender veg in the garden, the girls have all their flowers out, and actually i don’t want any checks to growth. so there you are, i would like warm sunny days and showery/rainy nights please The gooseberries are really starting to swell now - and no sign of sawfly, there are fruitlets starting on the raspberries, and the strawberry plants have flowers. Excellent.

Sowing

I have sown the last 3 butternut squash and 3 experimental pumpkin seeds. Only 1 butternut squash out of 6 had germinated, and 1 pumpkin out of 3, so thought i would hope for them all to germinate this time, and if not have chance to buy another packet of seeds.

Sown directly were peas [twinkle] in DH’s bed and a row of carrots there too.

pricking out/potting on

have pricked out DH’s rainbow chard. i had thought he had sowed that number close in modules because they were going to be cut and come again or salad leaves. Apparently not, so now each has its own module, and will eventually get planted out . Also pricked out were the last sowing of alpine strawberries. [mmm] . The chickpeas now have a new home having been potted on. They are very beautiful plantlets at the moment and having sown them in a moment of whimsy from dried chickpeas from the pantry, i have now looked up their cultivation. A couple of aubergines and peppers got potted on, but most are waiting their final potting. planned for this weekend.I collected the spare night scented stocks of DD1 and put 4 in a pot for many pots, and also at the weekend am planning to put them on the library stand [we gave the library just over £8 for spare plants sold to date]

Planting out

the lettuce little gem and the rocket have gone into DH’s bed, and been surrounded by  bit of wire fencing to deter the rabbits DD2s pansies were planted out as well.

Maintenance.

the modules and pots etc were sorted, as wild sowing into modules coming to an end. Everything was watered [lots] due to lack of rain. We uncovered the area that will hopefully be hosting the bean hedge, and covered over a weedy bit.

To Do

[1. find home for artichokes]

2. make the bean fencing

3. clear out the greenhouse of all that can go out

4. pot on all tomatoes and the melons.

Our greenhouse is looking like a jungle and things are bursting out! The ornamental cherry is beautiful, and myself and the girls had a go at watercolour paintings of the flowers. We also got time for some gardening. Am getting a bit worried that there are lots of things in the greenhouse - particularly flowers! - and I am not sure where they are going to fit. The girls got ‘ a bit’ carried away.

Sowing

I still did some sowing tho as I realised I hadn’t sown any ‘normal’  brocolli [calabrese], nor had I sown any early purple sprouting. So I remedied this by sowing in modules. I also, for a bit of fun sowed some dried chickpeas. They do sprout, I have no idea if they crop, and didn’t want to pay a lot until i worked out how well they did for us - so these are a real trial. Also sown into modules and into the propagator to join the sweetcorn, french beans and watermelon currently in there.

Sown direct [eek, something i am still not comfortable with doing after all those years in Leeds] are 2 rows of carrots, a purple variety and a supersweet variety. the broad beans sown way back when have all germinated and are growing strongly.

Can’t locate any runner beans - odd that! so we won’t be growing any this year.

Potting Up

the dwarf gold french beans have been potted up, there are 8 in each of the girls painted buckets [with drainage holes] and with limanthes in the middle. i thought they might complain, as they have so many flowers to find a home for, but I don’t think they realise they have a problem yet!

In the same root trainers were the mangetout, so in the end i popped 8 of them in another bucket with a cane wigwam and if we hadn’t run out of compost, would have done that for all of them. I think I will do that for them all when we have some more compost.

Planting out

DH has got all the strawberries in the ground - woohoo . Unfortunately he has taken all the area which i had earmarked for artichokes! I will have to rething there

I did plant out the brassicas. I was going to plant 3 across a 4 foot bed, but having updated myself on some of the square foot plantings, I have done 4. they do look v close together! If they look crowded, the successional ones will be planted 3 spaced. I only planted out 4 of each - white cauli, violet queen cauli and broc romanescu. They had all germinated, and I had 12 of each, but am trying to be a bit more sensible with growing to see what we actually eat, and sowing successionally a bit. The spare modules where each given a pot so that they can go in DD1s honesty box drive sale in aid of the local library.

Also into this bed went the purple pak choi [at approx 4 per square foot] and I sowed the 2 carrot rows as above. At the end of the bed went out the twinkle peas. I love the guttering thingies! made the peas a doddle to slide across. Should have done them far earlier tho, as the roots had made a bit of a mat at the bottom. hmmm. These weren’t quite the square foot spacings, as had been in the guttering. next time will try and do them, asI think i have planted too closely.

The whole of this bed was then covered with enviromesh. Our peas have been decimated before, and i saw one white butterfly! SO thought would start off v covered and will obv release peas from this when they start to flower. it also will protect them from our rabbits until we sort out how to stop them getting into the veg patch.

The weather has been absolutely gorgeous, and the plants have grown well. The broad beans are flowering, and those sown in situ have all germinated and are growing up. the garlic is growing well too.The apples and pear tree have been absoluted covered in flowers, so hoping for a good harvest in the Autumn.

Sowing

Today I have sown sweetcorn ‘lark’ , climbing bean cobra and blauhilde and dwarf gold bean all in roottrainers, hoping to be not to early and not too late so we can plant  out in about 4-6 weeks. [lets see!] . I have also sown pumpkin [T and M experimental] Courgettes parthenon and … and butternut squash in module, again hoping for 4-6 weeks and out. As a gamble i have sown some watermelon seeds into pots - you never know!! I also sowed a second sowing of pak choi, broccolli romanescu and white cauliflower. only 3 of each, as think i sowed too many the first time, and really should think about when we are going to eat them! Next year I would like to work out how many of each to sow at a time. A second sowing of peas too [twinkle]

Potting On

I have potted on 5 each of the different peppers [inferno, jalapeno, mixed grill] all 6 of the aubergines [mixed] , 2 of the multiple cape gooseberries, 4 of the 5 melons and 1 more of each tomato [sungold, gardeners delight and golden sunrise] to make 5 of each. Hoping this will be the right amount of everything! I also potted up the last of DD 2’s short sunflowers - a week has made a noticeable difference between them and those potted up before we went on holiday.

Into the coldframe

go the brassicas and pak choi, and the mangetout. plan to be into the ground on weds.

Maintenance/DH

DH has finished this eve the first of the marked beds - not quite raised as our soil drains so very freely! but a marked out zone, one each so that we can be putting our chosen plants in.

So, To Do:

Sowing:

locate the runner beans and sow! then see what other wierd and wonderfuls i have bought and if there might be space

Into the veg patch:

Strawberries into strawberry planter and along veg bed wall. artichoke also along veg bed wall

Potatoes - into bags and into the ground

beds 1 and 2 of the 4:

Brassicas - into bed and enviromesh around them

peas/mangetout - into bed and need supporting structure

carrots - into bed if there is space! otherwise consider sowing into pots?

beds 3 and 4:

get ready really, some of the girls plants could go out, tho quite small ? better to pot on further before planting out? never sure of optimal size. DD2’s sunflowers are ready, but not sure whether not too early?

into pots:

dwarf french beans

discuss with girls and DH all their flowers and herbs and where they are hoping to put them!

Maintenance

lots of weeding!!

well, we are carrying on and actually the greenhouse is turning into a mini garden of eden.

 Sowing

DH has been sowing loads of herbs and some lettuces [he says he knows which ones and will blog ]

Pricking Out and Potting On

This was the main focus of my gardening this weekend. DD2’s seedlings have all been pricked out into individual modules - 0bviously not by her! She does have 36 foxgloves to house tho in her flower bed, [16 sunflowers potted on before], 24 alpine strawberries and the gourds, yet to germinate

DD1 was going to do hers… but will remind again tomorrow she seems to have sown a good number of most things except sweet peas. might suggest she sows some more.

I also potted on all the remaining tomatoes and the melons. The propagator within the greenhouse is groaning, and the barely germinated marigolds have had to come out to keep the toms in. have a couple in greenhouse to make sure that they do ok with the colder nights before they all come out.

Germinating.

DH’s eryngiums seem to be finally germinating, and when enough appear to have poked their heads out, they too can be removed from the propagator. The pak choi have germinated really quickly, as has the rocket.

Veg beds.

we have to get the first ones done this week, as by the weekend loads of stuff will really have wanted to get out there. Peas and nasturtiums being hardened off currently.

Fruit

lots of buds and leaves on cherries and apples and pears, so that is good. must get a pic [and weed!!]

just being a bit more frantic than normal I have fitted in work, playing and doing stuff [lots] with kids, some sowing and potting on, but no time or energy left for blogging!! [or tweeting which I was going to try and do well this year! maybe slow and steady ] so what have we been doing?

Sowing

Garlic has gone straight out into the veg bed, way too late really but will keep hopeful Various salad potatoes and earlies have been chitting, and now we need to plant them out - maybe this weekend.

today i have sown marigold, dwarf french bean, mangetout oregon sugar pod,  pak choi [purple] and DD2 has sown her gourds.

previously [march 13 ] i have sown some jaguar peas into half gutters to see how that works and also some cauli purple queen, romanescu brocolli and normal white cauli. DD1 sowed all her flowers - mostly stocks but some zinnia, stocks, sweet peas and rudbeckia too. all now germinated .

germinating

we are doing well with germinating so far this year. just waiting for the eryngiums still, but everything else done rather well. was v relieved that the peppers made it

Potting on

i have potted on DD2s sunflowers today, and they automatically look happier. I also potted on the tomatoes gardeners delight - probably a bit to soon as their roots not huge, but because i had 2 per module.

the nights are still pretty chilly here [into the minus anyway] and some of the days pretty hot, so there is lots of running and opening up greenhouse and then running and closing [just remembered the tops, so better go back out!] and have taken lots of things out of the propagator today that are teeny tiny, as they only get to stay in if not germinated or particularly tender.

I really must get the blog picking up my flickr pics. just need a widget i guess also wanting a widget to autonotify twitter - hoping my sysadmin can sort that out too. [please ]

Sowing

So, we have sown today [frantically admidst all sorts of other jobs ] globe artichoke, tomato sungold and gardeners delight, and golden sunrise[ sungold is orange - confusing or what!] . Was v disappointed in the sungold, as there were only 6 seeds in the packet, and it says average of 10. i think 6 is too far away, so emailing their customer care, and hope to have a replacement pack. will see how that goes! I also sowed my DH choice of seeds for pots and his vegbed: datura for the pots, echinacaea and eryngium for the bed. I think I need to remind everyone about THE VEG!! I am v happy for some flowers to attract in beneficials, and also for general wildlife and looks, but i do prefer to mostly have VEG. I also sowed lot of nasturtiums, which admittedly he bought, but i am very fond of . With 6 seed trays in the propogator, there is only room for pots now, so no more sowing until things move out. For me, i sowed canteloupe melon mmm mmm

Germination

Mistakenly, thinking the propogator in greenhouse not quite so warm as when in conservatory, i put the peppers and aubergines in a mini electric one in conservatory, and it doesn’t seem to have worked, and none germinated. Peppers are awkwrd things tho, so will keep my fingers crossed for another week. If they haven’t grown then i will by a few more packets to resow.

the broad beans tho are having erupted looking earth in some of the modules, which suggests they are about to appear and the sunflowers have all germinated for DD2.

Maintenance

It has been far too rainy recently to want to dig over and further organise veg patch, but this is getting higher up urgency list