The Frantic Gardeners’ Blog

wow! this month we have had 1/3 of the annual rain. It has absolutely poured it down - which has been v good for the watering. Today, the weather has changed, just like a switch has been thrown. It is boiling/sweltering/hot hot hot!! And today was the day that I had set for completely weeding the veg plot, watering it if required and then mulching. hmmm!! I did have help from DD1 in the end and we took out a bottle of iced water to keep us going.

Planted out

spare alpine strawberries went in the gap just emptied by rocket

tomatoes grown from potting the side shoots - gone between the artichokes.

maintenance

weeded everything hoed, pulled and hopefully got the majority. then placed straw all over the top of the beds and plan to put membrane down on the ‘paths’ as we have a holiday soon v keen to minimise the jungle on our return!

sideshooted the toms.

DH put trellis on wall so can plant out clematis and honeysuckle that are desperate.

girls beds of flowers are really looking fabulous, and they are both v happy with them. DD2 not seen any strawbs yet - should come next year…

harvested

ooh, i like this time of year lots of our meals have been made with 3/4 of the ingredients direct from the garden.

broad beans - the first sown nearly all finished now, but second sowing of red epicure starting - funny to have pink beans!

rocket - all the last rocket had bolted, so we pulled it all out so can eat some leaves and the rest for compost. next year plant less!!

pak choi - all the first sowing now harvested, again some had bolted, but cut the flower stalk off and ate the rest - mmm i love pak choi

summer sprouting brocolli - harvested 4 large heads this week [2 meals for a family of 4] have other brassicas to come [despite the panic earlier in the year, it is def not club root]. this has been such a hit with the family, that next year should grow more.

tomatoes - the sungold has been first to be ready, and the most prolific. shame only 5 seeds to a packet. DH’s speriment as to whether ring pot in growbag or in big pot seems to be clear for healthy look as growbag option. however, nodifference in harvest as yet. or taste.

courgettes - the ones in the ground harvesting merrily. lots of courgettes in our lunch and tea menu currently as well. the 2 in pots are not as good, will see if they will crop longer as will put in greenhouse once weather starts to draw in.

potatoes - just about to start a harvest i think the girls in bags are ready [emerald and rocket].

peas and mangetout - tailing off in the mangetout, should have done a further successional sowing [remember for next year ]  however peas in between 2 crops as it were, so loads of pods to fill out.

french beans - pretty much between crops, v few left now on the pots in the greenhouse, tho will see if they flower and crop some more, some beans on the first of the climbing beans [cobra] v tiny yet, and the second dwarf beans are flowering. since we will shortly be having a holiday, happy for the break to be whilst we are away

strawberries - just a few as this is the first year, but loads of raspberries

Pests and Wildlife

we saw a hedgehog rootling around by the compost bins

less happy a sighting is some caterpillars on the brassicas. they have bee hidden under environmesh, the damage not huge, but obv at somepoint one has got in . we have had large and small before, think these might be from a small. good inspection by dd2 failed to find any. i prob should repeat the process…

I like the idea of square foot gardening, and liked the book, and our beds in leeds were 4 foot by 10 foot and often roughly square foot planted. But i can’t be doing with all the mixing and stuff of his special compost, and tend to use soil. I am not sure you can plant quite so close in soil and still get healthy strong plants, so i tend to plant a sort of hibrid square foot/ my own way

Anyway, DH was v keen to have a proper go at square foot planting and was grumpy some time ago because i planted ‘his’ bed with salads, chard and peas [oops!]. SO, being a most excellent wife , I made him another square bed to square foot in. However, this bed has been ignored for about 2 months, and i started to drop significant hints that this bed would be co-opted. So today, he planted it up with some mixed lettuces [i had sown] , some dwarf beans [i had sown] and some rainbow chard [admittedly he had sown, but i pricked out ]

I planted out the rest of the cucurbits, hoed, weeded and popped more straw mulch down, this time around the sweetcorn.

All of this was done in between massive downpours of torrential rain.

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!

The weather is changing though. the wind is blowing more, and although not rained, the forecast is for cooler. As long as no frosts [perlease!] an just milder [fingers crossed tho for gentle rain]

Potting on

The remaining mangetout have been planted up into a bucket for the patio pots. Still currently living in the greenhouse though. Greenhouse looking much emptier though

Germinating

All the chickpeas and all the brassicas bar the white cauli, and all the cucurbits bar the butternut squash.

Planting out

this is the scary bit really. due to the weather [gorgeous] and early sowing [taking advantage of the children’s interest] we have ended up with things that just have to go out, potentially too soon if the weather turns too dramatically. Just keeping fingers crossed really.

DD1’s bed is all planted up. She has made a cane wigwam and the sweet peas are out, and then done her initial in zinnias to one side of it, surrounded by autumn aster, and a fish the other side in night scented stock, with brompton stock around. All her own plan, with scant reference to heights, flower colour, season etc etc. Fingers very very crossed!

Potatoes are a go! The are all in. The kids have some earlies in sacks, and the rest are in the main veg bed. DH has decided to do a bit of an experiment. Half are going to be earthed up, and the others are thickly covered with straw. Let the science begin

Maintenance

The girls and I made some cane toppers out of fimo [bakeable modelling clay] Perhaps they will work! perhaps they are as perilous as the canes

To do:

1. globe artichoke - find a home!

2. DH beds to fill - quite urgent - salads currently

3. empty all weedy pots around patio and pop in spare flowers etc

4. buy climbers and plant infront of kitchen, and populate herb pots there

5. pot up tomatoes to final pots

6. sort out the beanfence.

7. make nettle infusion

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.

SB and I set up a sweetcorn experiment, we are ‘chitting’ half and sowing half. they are all going into the propagator under roughly identical conditions!, and we will see which gives us the best result.

The previosuly announced asparagus germination was a hoax - not sure what they are, but SB helped me, so could be a stray. however, there are some definite asparagus germinations occuring now - as these look like mini spears.

one of the pumpkin Mars has germinated - winning the speediest cucurbit award [it is in the electric mini propagator rather than our home made one], and some of the sweetcorn minipop are also germinating.

Did a fair bit of hoeing of weeds, watering in the greenhouse, and replanting pulled out onion sets - sigh!

Have re-read lots of the square foot gardener - which is how we started, but the raised beds, and now moving to an ‘allotment style’ plot have got me row sowing! I think, when we get the girls area sorted, i will arrange it as 2 square foot beds with the markers on for then - well, primarily SB to start with - as it really seems a great way to grow.