Plant order from Rocket Gardens

As you all know we have had some very wet weather here. A lot of plants have been smashed to bits by the torrential rain, or just didn't even germinate at all this year.

I had little success with my courgette plants - the two in the polytunnel are doing ok, but the four I planted outside got smashed in the last downpour which also flooded the garden and polytunnel.

I have also had a complete failure of dwarf french beans and the latest set of pea plants. I have planted loads more seeds in the polytunnel, I tried looking on Freecycle, I have asked around friends and I have looked in my local garden centres for organic plants but with no joy - I guess growers are suffering the same way and what few plants are in the shops are snapped up quite quickly!

So I decided to buy in some plants online and thought I would see what Rocket Gardens plants were like. I have heard good things about them from various friends and from reviews in the media  Rocket Gardens, say on their website

All of our seeds are sourced from Soil Association approved organic seed suppliers.
The compost we use to grow the seedlings in is approved for use in Organic systems by the Soil Association.
Our plants are grown naturally under a fully organic regime.

 
So, I decided to order some courgette plants, some peas and dwarf french beans as well as some more spinach as I have been having trouble with growing seedlings and I wanted a back up in case of any more losses! I also ordered some late strawberry plants and some herb plants. When I ordered there was 25 % off all orders so I did buy a few more plants than I originally intended (cough!)


The cardboard box came promptly and the plants were packed in layers of hay ( organic, I later found out on checking :-) )

The herbs were very good plants, I have brought the Lemongrass plants inside ( after listening to what Jekka McVicar had to say!)

The mint was to replace a variety which died in the very cold weather last year.

I also planted up a herb planter with some of the other herbs I bought. All were a good size and very healthy looking.

The strawberry plants were quite the best looking ones I have ever bought and I will be planting up a strawberry tower with them in the next day or so.

I shall pot on the beans, peas, spinach and  and courgette plants into individual containers and let them get a little larger before planting them out, but they were a good size also. I just want to make sure they do not get drowned or bashed to bits outside (especially as it is raining here AGAIN!)

Also had a very nice chat to a lady on the other end of the phone, when I called them about the hay, so all in all am impressed with their service and their plants. The prices are pretty good, also ( especially with a further 25 % off...)

Will keep you all updated :-)

Things to do in the garden in June

Things I plan on doing in June (sorry this is a bit late!) and with thanks to The Garden Smallholder for her post, which reminded me I needed to finish my post on June gardenening and publish it.

In the veg patch

• Plant out the spinach plants
• Plant out the Sunflower plants
• Plant out the pumpkin plants
• Plant out the Celeriac plants
• Clear the last of the old spinach from the raised bed and plant out Kale plants and Purple Sprouting Broccoli - make sure I net it from the birds!
• If I had any I would be thinning the carrots , as it is I have none so will be re sowing carrot seed - but I would be sowing more now even if I did have some carrots growing.
• Plant the leek plants into the prepared bed (done)
• Plant out more pea plants  and pick pods regularly from the existing plants (ongoing)
• Plant out new salads  (ongoing)
• Plant out the climbing french bean plants (done) Tie them up the poles as they grow!
• Earth up the potatos as needed (ongoing)
• Pinch out the tips on the Broad Beans to stop blackfly as soon as there are pods showing lower down (ongoing)
  
  In the polytunnel
• Keep planting more salad seeds, peas and spring onions (ongoing)
• Keep watering the floor to increase humidity (ongoing)
• Water tomatos regularly to avoid blossom end rot. (ongoing)
• Tie in tomato plants as needed and remove the side shoots from cordon varieties. (ongoing)
• Feed tomatoes several times a week (ongoing)
  
  Garden
• Watch for branch breaking on the fruit trees due to weight of fruit and prop if needed(ongoing)
• Thin apples if needed (ongoing)
• Tie up the tayberries
• Net the red and blackcurrent bushes
• Sow flower annuals
• Deadhead roses

• Weeding - everywhere!

And harvest and enjoy the crops you now have ready :-) I am soon to harvest outdoor early spuds, broad beans, mange tout, salads and courgettes. Pick peas when young and tender to encourage more to form!

With the weather we have had recently lets hope you have something to harvest! - I have no carrots and have only just started eating courgettes and new potatoes from the ones I grew inside the polytunnel. The only salads we have been eating here are, again, from those grown inside the polytunnel. It has been SUCH a poor growing season so far :-( but there is still time to re sow and re plant so if it all looks a bit bare in YOUR garden - don't despair, just sow some more seeds. Maybe try Freecycle for plants, or a local allotment or gardening group may have surplus plants? Or buy from a garden centre but be quick as they seem to have run out of lots of veg plants.

And don't forget to enjoy your garden well as work in it- stop, sit and admire the view sometimes.

Lets hope the rest of June is better for gardening 

More on that Watercress I planted...

 This is the seed I sowed on  26 May. See how it has grown!

This is taken from the original pot of watercress I sowed back in Feb

Can you see the tiny rootlets?

If you fill a pot with growing medium and lay the stems on the surface so the rootlets are touching the surface

And lightly cover the rootlets and bottom of the stem with more growing medium.

Put it in a tray with water in, DON'T water it from the top as you will wash away the growing medium. Keep it moist and always standing in a little water  and it should grow :-)

You can use the same method to grow watercress bought from a shop as well :-)

Summer Solstice (1)

Solstice Blessings to all my lovely readers:-)

Look! No rain! Washing drying on the line!

Today it was warm, fine and dry so in the morning we went out to Ledbury - I had a hair trim,we went to various shops including giving more stuff to the charity shop and then to the recycling site and the feed store for various chicken food and bedding.

We then had lunch in Much Marcle at The Royal Oak, very enjoyable to go out as we don't do it very often.

Once we got home I got on with the mowing - the grass, although very long,was finally dry enough to cut and I managed to get it ALL done including the little paddock at the top of the wood. Which meant I could move one of the hen runs and give some of the hens fresh grass - they were very impressed! The girls in the Mega Hen Pen had to make do with a large pot of finally-past-its-best-and-gone-tough Kale from the polytunnel- which they stripped in seconds, it was quite scary to see them go at it - locusts sprang to mind.

 Compostman had meanwhile finally planted out all the leeks

And he weeded the potatoes

I harvested the last of the 2011 planted spinach plants

I couldn't leave all the clover etc as it was longer than even the highest setting on the cutter but I left a number of big patches uncut for the bees and butterflies. Compostman will scythe it off later on and we can use it as hay.

I had just finished the mowing at about 7 pm when it came on to rain - cue to stop.

Then I read a book and crochet more of my throw. A good day :-)

More rain

Yet more rain, here :-( It is seriously wet here, now :-( Beyond just "topping up the water butts" or " wetting the soil" wet.

This is torrential. Downpours. Sodden. Drenching. The ground underfoot is not just damp but squelching underfoot, and if I walk the same path over the lawn more than once or twice the ground oozes and the grass turns into a muddy track.

I left a wheelbarrow, with a bit of compost in, outside the poly tunnel - I WAS going to use the compost in the bottom of some pepper pots...but after yesterday and today the wheelbarrow is full of water :-( and the compost is all floating on the surface.

I left some deep gravel trays outside meaning to scrub them - they WERE empty but are now full of water.
I guess that makes them easier to scrub?

In the veg plot all is NOT well. The spuds are still OK at the moment, even though we are already into Smith periods for early Blight ! The onions and parsnips are doing well but beans are struggling and I have not yet managed to plant out more pea plants or the leek plants as do not relish doing so in torrential rain, and the ground is so sodden I do not want to squish it! Courgette and pumpkin plants are battered beyond redemption - and as for the spinach and salad plants outside - oh dear they have just been pounded into the soil and oblivion :-(

Good job we have the poly tunnel to protect some crops for us to eat! So I have been working inside there, 

trying to pot on some of the plants which really should be outside by now. If I can get them into larger pots I may still be able to harvest from them. But the kales and other brassicas and the rest of the pumpkin plants will just have to wait - it is just to wild and wet for them to go outside just yet.

 

And harvesting the crops. Lots of salad leaves, cucumbers, courgettes - the outside plants still only have about 4 leaves on, so it is a good job I have two plants producing inside the polytunnel!

When (!) we get the new paddock area I think I will install another poly tunnel - a flat sided modern one to maximise space, and will then grow direct into the ground as it will be good soil over there rather than sub soil as in the existing poly tunnel. So I could grow all sorts of extra stuff direct into the soil :-)

I am very fortunate to have such a lovely polytunnel - it means I can at least carry on gardening and growing something, even if it IS pouring with rain outside.

A wander in the garden...

 Ok, so it FINALLY has stopped raining , here!

So I went for a wander around, to see what everything looked like.

 First stop is a very special patch of grass next to the polytunnel...any idea what might make it so special? I will tell you later on, if you can't already guess :-)



Out into the wood,to look at the compost bins

and to let out the hens (hello, girls, )


I spotted this as I wandered around the top of the wood - an Early Purple Orchid, with Bumblebee feeding.

 I went down into the wood where it was cool and very damp - raindrops fell from the trees overhead and the Jays chattered at me.

Back up to the garden, to check on the veg patch - all very soggy! I have loads of plants waiting to be put into their final positions but it has been SO wet I have not been able to put them out - am hoping that the weather improves enough in the next few days to do something about the plant backlog

The Broad bean flowers are very pretty

 

And finally, back to that patch by the polytunnel - have you guessed, yet? Here is a clue.

Can you see? In the middle? 

Yes! it is our very own four ( or five, or even six) leaved clover patch. Very handy to have around before exams :-)

What I am planting now - April

It is what I have been doing for the last few weeks, !

Things I am either sowing, have just sown or am planning to sow very soon.

When soil and growing conditions are right, it is time to sow vegetables! A good indication that it is time, is to look at your lawn:- if the grass has started to grow the soil temperature will be above 5-6 degrees centigrade and you can sow/plant hardier seeds direct in the ground, or plant out tubers such as potatoes.

BUT If you have a heavy clay soil wait!. Seeds sown in wet or cold soil tend to rot and die. Waiting for a few more weeks won’t hurt, ( honest!)

A black or clear plastic covering over soil will warm it up, so you can sow some seeds outside a little earlier than usual. Spread plastic sheeting over the areas where you plan to sow the seeds. Weigh down the sides so it can't blow away in winter winds. After 3 - 4 weeks, the soil should be warm enough for seed sowing. I use big sheets of Geotextile ( weed sheet) which we have a huge roll of, so we have 4 sheets which cover the 4 plots in the veg garden all winter. We turn them back to let the weed seeds germinate in Jan, then cover the weeds up to kill them off ready for digging and planting in March :-)

I am sowing now outside in the ground

BUT in beds warmed up by geotextile cover and covered by fleece/cloche after, so you need to allow for my soil being quite warm and the seeds being protected after!

Broad bean plants sown and overwintered in the polyunnel

Parsnips grown in loo roll tubes seed planted in March

Radish
Turnip
Early carrots
Kohlrabi



Planting outdoors

Potatoes  (Maincrop Desiree - have already got all the earlies into the ground!)
Shallots - mine went in several weeks ago.

Outside sometime soon, when I think its warm enough for them!

Onion sets

I am currently sowing in trays and modules

Raising plants to transplant outdoors (or under cloches or in a greenhouse/ tunnel) gives you a head start on the season. It is simple to provide extra warmth for a few pots and trays of seeds - in a warm room, or on a heated bench for example. But remember - the seedlings that appear will also need some warmth and good light levels, until they can be moved to a frost free final position, so allow for where you are going to keep them. I have had a lot of success with a cold frame inside an unheated polytunnel and this would work just as well inside a conservatory or a plastic small greenhouse I think.

Inside in heated propagator



Tomatoes/Peppers/ - for growing on in a cold greenhouse or tunnel. I planted the early varieties in Feb, and now have sturdy 8 inch plants in the polytunnel with the later varieties protected inside cold frames in the Polytunnel

Herbs and salad leaves
Courgettes and other Squashes.

Outside in PT

Potatoes in grow sacks
To get an earlier crop! I planted these in Feb. If you have a sheltered place you will get an earlier crop by doing this, up to 4 weeks earlier. Mmmmm new potatoes and butter...mmmmm

Kales
Chineese Broccoli
Purple Sprouting Broccoli early
Broad Beans in pots
Spring onions
Lettuce and other salad stuff.
Herbs of all sorts
Leeks for transplanting ( I sow the autumn ones end of Feb and the winter ones now.)
Kohl Rabi - best sown in modules for transplanting
Celeriac - best sown in modules for transplanting
Peas in rootrainers or loo roll tubes.
Mange tout  peas in rootrainers or loo roll tubes.
Dwarf and Climbing French Beans.in rootrainers or loo roll tubes.

Sowing Leeks
Wait till early to mid-spring before sowing leek seed, depending on the weather. They can either be sown in a seed bed for transplanting the following summer, sown in trays/pots, or sown in their permanent positions. If you sow in a seed bed you have the added bother of transplanting, but this must be balanced out by the fact that if they are sown in their permanent position, they will take up a lot of space for a long time before producing results

I always sow seed in pots and then transplant.


A general note

Silly though this may sound, plant stuff you know you want to eat! Also, decide what you like and if space/time is limited, grow the stuff which is most expensive to buy. So, if you LOVE salad leaves and herbs, grow lots of them! If your favourite thing is new potatoes then grow lots of them!

It is much better to grow the veg you really really love, and eat lots of it, fresh and straight from your garden, than feel you "have" to grow beans, peas, onions or whatever....and then not want to eat it.

We grow lots of stuff, because we are trying to feed ourselves for most of the year!. Unless you have the time, space and inclination to do this, DON'T!

I used to grow new potatoes, salads, herbs and mange tout in our tiny garden in Worcester, ...and sprouts, leeks and carrots in winter because thay were the veg I loved to eat fresh from the garden.

Hope this helps

Rainy Sunday

Have been gardening and composting all morning in the pouring rain Only just had lunch and a sit down!

I like warm rain....

Also have washed out the rabbit hutch and now have to refill it and replace it in the run. Compostgirl has cleaned out the two Guinea pig runs and refilled them with paper and hay etc. She did a really good job of it!

Am having a bit of a sit down before I start on that, and potting up some okra plants and more tom plants , for outside growing. Will then plant some pea plants outside...

Later...

I have just planted some sprouting earlies in old growing medium bags.. I had some left over from the 400 seed spuds... so why not? If you don't plant them, they will certainly NOT grow...but if you do, they might give you a few nice spuds....

I have just eaten some gourmet baby broad beans, new potatoes ..yummy, mmmmm along with a casserole of home grown leeks, dried tomatoes and courgettes and local chicken,.......yummy yummy....and home made cider and later on, a glass of home made wine...mmmm

Potato bed - how four weeks have flown!

 

On the 15th March I emptied out the old compost from this 2 m x 3 m raised bed and filled it with my new season compost. I planted out 20 "Charlotte" and in the next door raised bed I planted out 20 "Nicola" chitted, organic tubers. I then covered the 2 beds with geotextile to warm them up and keep them safe from frost.


Today I uncovered the 2 raised beds and replaced the Geotextile with open woven mesh. This keeps the hens off the growing spuds AND provides a bit of frost protection.

They are growing really well!

First parsnips

 

 

Now we have had a couple of decent frosts here at Compost Mansions, it is time to start using our parsnips.

This year I constructed a raised bed so as to have a greater depth of friable, enriched soil to grow them in.

We are on over 100 foot of solid clay here and the parsnips were really hard to dig out of it once they got thier roots down into the clay. I was fed up with losing the end of the parsnips so created the raised beds.

It seems to have worked!

Mmm parsnips, we love them!