Phew what a Scorcher!….

July 2, 2009 at 11:34 am · Filed under Beans, Greenhouse, tomatoes, wildlife

It’s all going to fall apart at the weekend apparently but right now we are having temperatures of over 30degC and not dropping much below 20 at night – I bet air-conditioner sales are rocketing.

Of course this means long watering sessions in the evening, if I get the time, and so far no water restrictions but given a bit longer without rain we could be in trouble.

This means the plants are growing pretty well – and it has got the courgettes and cucumbers going properly now (see below) - although one cucumber plant is still struggling.

Courgette in flower

Courgette in flower

The mangetout peas (see below) and broad beans are well into production so we are eating some most nights, either in salad or cooked. The runners and french/dwarf beans won’t be far behind as they are flowering like mad now.

Mangetout Peas

Mangetout Peas

The broad beans are suffering blackfly attacks though not really badly as yet.

Blackfly on Broad Bean Plant

Blackfly on Broad Bean Plant

The salad crops are a bit of a mixed bag, the lettuce are fine – far too many really, but it does mean instead of harvesting whole plants I just cut leaves from a selection of plants for our salads. The rocket and mustard have just about had now but the replacements aren’t really yet, so I’ve added a bit of flavour to the salads with nasturtium leaves (at least those not badly infested with blackfly).

I noticed the other day that one of the broccoli plants had produced the beginning of a flower head – so maybe they’ll be a bit more successful than previous attempts.

Broccolli plant

Broccolli plant

Inside the greenhouse the tomato plants are going to have ripening fruit soon I think and there seems to be plenty being produced. The peppers are slowly getting bigger as is the aubergine plant, no sign of flowers yet.

I’ll include a recent picture of ‘our’ hedgehog here – haven’t seen it again since last week but I’m sure it’s still around. I have a short movie as well which I’ll put up if I can sort out how to do it…

Hedgehog out for a walk during the day

Hedgehog out for a walk during the day

We’re still getting visit from goldfinches and the other ‘regular’s are pretty busy. Noticed a squirrel in one of the trees at the bottom of the garden this morning – looks like the trap will be going out again…
One worrying thing, I spotted two ladybirds the other day, about the only ones I have seen so far this year, and they were both ‘harlequins’ I think – they really do seem to have taken over. They’ll have to revise all the pictures used in children’s books at this rate – they won’t ever see the classic ‘2 spot’ or ‘6 spot’ types in the wild.

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Yes it might be Summer

June 27, 2009 at 11:05 pm · Filed under Beans, Brassicas, wildlife

We’ve had good weather now for over a week and the weather forecast is for temperatures reaching 30deg C next week. As a gardener of course I’m now going to complain about the lack of rain…

So I’ve had to water outside with the hosepipe over the last week and it looks as if I’m going to be out there next week as well.

Mind, one of the uses of the hose has been to remove blackfly from the broad beans – not a bad attack yet but enough – I’ve removed the tops from some of the plants already and the rest will have to be taken out soon. We’ve had more beans – small ones in salads and I think we’ll have big enough beans for cooking next week.

The mangetout peas are also producing now – again they’ve been used cut up in salads so far. The main problem with the peas is always spotting them I find as they tend to be identical in colour to the rest of the plant so there are probably a lot more ready than I realise.

The rocket and mustard rows are fully in flower now (good fo the bees) but I’ve still been able to find a few leaves for salads. The newer rows are still a week away from being ready to harvest though. The lettuce outside are all big and there’s no way we can eat them all, so I’m already feeding some of the leaves to the guinea pig. Still the concentration of plants seem to be providing a haven for the frogs as it’s damp under the leaves.

The kale and spinach beet are coming along nicely (see photo below). The kale is a variety that can be harveseted from the autumn onwards so it’s got a lot more growing to do.

curly_kale

Nearby, the broccoli are now sturdy plants. I’ve been feeding them regularly – they are probably too close together so we’ll see if that affects them. I’ll need to start checking for cabbage white caterpillars soon…

The sweetcorn seem to be doing ok, but may be held back by the shading in section B, it’s noticeable that the salad crops planted there aren’t growing as fast as elsewhere. Nothing much I can do about it until the winter when I can give the hedge and pear tree good trims.

The courgettes are well into flower and one plant has produced a rather weedy courgette, but it won’t be long before we are into a surfeit of courgettes. The cucumber plants are still looking a bit sad, but maybe the sunny weather next week will get them going.

The runner beans are in flower now – but the climbing french beans are not yet in flower, however the dwarf beans are just starting to flower.

On the wildlife front – another two squirrels have been evicted, and that leaves the area clear for now I think. The hedgehog has continued acting strangely, walking across the lawn up to the kitchen window in broad daylight the other day, and has been seen in daylight a couple of other times as well – curious.

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The First Beans

June 15, 2009 at 6:58 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

Yes, a first harvest of broad beans – I managed to find just enough on Sunday to mean we were able to have some whole pods steamed with our dinner. There seem to be quited a few pods coming along so the broad bean season is well and truly started.

Broad Bean Harvest

Broad Bean HarvestThe pen in the picture is for scale only....Broad bean Pods

The picture above shows some of the growing pods

We’ve had sunny weather for a few days which has helped get things moving in the garden, which has meant watering for the laast couple of days. Today we’ve had a helpful shower to save me from having to water – and a thunderstorm is rumbling around at the moment.

Elsewhere, the extra peas are now planted – in between the existing peas and the broad beans, and they seem to be happy enough.

I’ve planted  a short row of red mustard as the existing row is close to flowering, and they are through already.

One of the corugettes planted in the garden has flowered and may even be trying to produce a courgette!  The cucumber plants though are still looking a bit glum really – I guess they need some more consistant high temperatures.

All the outside tomatoes look pretty good now, some in flower and even the ‘runt’ in front of the kitchen has grown into a real plant.

Everything else is doing well apart from the salad rows in sections B & C which aren’t really all that good. See the broccoli plants below – coming on well.

Row of Broccoli

Row of Broccoli

In the greenhouse, the tomatoes are almost up to the roof, and tiny tomatoes are growing fast (see below).

Baby Tomatoes

Baby Tomatoes

The pepper plants in a growbag  have got over the initial shock of replanting and are coming on (see below)Pepper Plants

The plant in the lower RH corner is an aubegrine that I thought I would try – I saw it in a garden centre when buying some plants for our hanging baskets.

I’ve pricked out some of the celery seedlings into pots and they seem to have survived ok. The basil and coriander now have recognisable leaves. I’ve added some more seed to the top of the pot that had seed in which hasn’t made a show – so maybe that will get some growing.

I’ve even done some weeding – especially round the beans and peas.

Wildlife – well another squirrel has been evicted, I saw a hedgehog ambling down the path in daylight the other day and toads have taken up residence in the greenhouse growbags as usual – just 2 so far (see below).

Toad in growbag

Toad in growbag

The blackbirds are being very noisy, alarm calls in the morning and evening probably for the cat next door. The male still comes down often to investigate what I am doing in the garden – gets disappointed though as I’m not digging. We still got goldfinches turning up from time to time on the nyjer seed, and the ’sparrow gang’ is pretty active.

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Summer Made a Brief Appearance

June 8, 2009 at 12:36 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

Yes we had over a week of sunny weather, including amazingly, one weekend (we actually attended an outdoor meal and event in the sun!). Then, during last week it all fell apart again and topped by a very wet weekend, plus wind of course. Temperatures tumbled from over 20degC to less than 10degC last night – almost put the central heating back on!

However, some progress in the garden. All the french beans are in now, though some of those planted earlier are struggling to get going partly as a result of the weather I think, and partly as a result of pigeon attack.

The only things left to plant outside at the moment are the dozen peas – and I’m struggling to find where to put them, not to mention the weather (though it is fine today it is still windy, mostly cloudy and more rain predicted for late today & tomorrow) plus celery.

The climbing beans are now well up the fence, and the broad beans now have one or two baby pods (the row of dwarf type furthest from the fence) so maybe we’ll be eating a few in a week or so. The peas have started to flower, but as mentioned above, the french beans are disappointing – only one has really got to be full size and isn’t flowering yet.

The rocket and red mustard were being harvested while it was sunny and ’salad weather’, and the new row of rocket is just appearing but I still need to plant more to follow on (the rocket is already trying to flower). The weather will have to buck up before we will feel like eating more salad.

The sweetcorn seems to be coming along ok, but one or two plants are still lagging in size. The salad rows in the same plot are slowly coming through. 

On the plot A the broccoli are now looking pretty strong, apart from one at the end of the row that has been got at by pigeons I think.  The curly kale looks ok as well, the the nearby spinach plantlets are still recovering from their earlier pigeon damage. The courgettes and cucumbers both in the plot and in pots & growbag all look ok, but have been held back by the weather. I’ve been harvesting the lettuce already in plot A, as well as those inside the greenhouse. The short row of carrots is still looking very sparse, but the beetroot, turnip and radish are looking a bit better.

The growbag tomatoes by the greenhouse and outside the kithen are looking a lot more healthy now, even the tiny ‘runt’ one near the kitchen.

Inside the greenhouse the peppers are at last in a growbag – four of them so they will need to get growing fast. The tomatoes are now almost at roof  level with plenty of flowers, some of them set now I think. The basil and coriander planted in pots are now seedlings, but the lettuce planted in a pot haven’t shown at all – looks like I’ll have to plant some more asap as the pot of grown lettuce is now just about harvested out. The celery seedlings are coming on – slowly, it will still be a week or so before they can be planted out.

So that’s about it – the only other plants growing well are the weeds of course and the recent rain will only have made that worse – and I’m not the most enthusiastic weeder so the rows of beans and peas are well infested with weeds underneath.

Apart from the visits of feral pigeons, which continue though the ‘CD scarers’ seem to have put them off the crops mostly, I have managed to evict the latest squirrel intruder.

Now of course the lawn needs mowing (but it is wet) and the hedges…..

I’ll add photos if I get chance.

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Blasted wind – again

May 27, 2009 at 12:10 pm · Filed under Beans, Greenhouse, Progress, tomatoes, wildlife

Just when you think the weather is getting better – along comes another depression bringing wind and rain (starting yesterday). At least this time the wind is from the west so isn’t as cold, but nevertheless it’s not doing my beans any good. I’ve had to do more stringing to support the tall broad beans, and some of the french beans are being blown around so much I’ve considered staking them.  The only plus is the rain is saving me watering the plants outside.

So just when the tomatoes and courgettes etc. were thinking about getting a move on they are being held back again. We had temperatures of 24 degC on Monday and now it’s just about managing 10 degC – that’s British weather for you. It isn’t a surprise that the weather is such an important topic of conversation when you live through it…

Anyway, I’ve got the last courgette and cucumber into a growbag outside the greenhouse now, so that’s pretty much all the first lot of plants out now apart from one french bean.

Speaking of beans – the climbing beans are doing fairly well, but something has been giving their lower leaves a real going over – I suspect slugs but fortunately it isn’t too damaging to the plants as they are producing plenty of leaves further up.

Inside the greenhouse, the pots of basil are both showing seedlings now and it looks as if one pea is just appearing. I’ll have to get some more lettuce sown soon to make sure we have a continuous supply.

I forgot to mention that I’d planted some short rows of salad crops in section B, some rocket, lettuce and lambs lettuce so I’ll have to put some pigeon protection over them in the next few days before they start popping up. The sweetcorn close by are mostly thriving, apart from one which had been knocked over by something but I’ve staked it and it seems to be surviving.

Still, the weather is supposed to improve Friday and the weekend so we’ll see…

On the wildlife front – well too many pigeons attempting to infiltrate the garden but the CD scarers do seem to keep them away from the vital plants. No sign of the squirrel recently so I haven’t reset the trap yet. ‘Our’ male blackbird (or should it be ‘I am his human’ – it is his territory) is convinced that I am the source of food – whenever I work in the garden and move away from one area, he is down withing seconds to investigate the area I have just left – an takes little notice now if I walk near him. The blackbird chicks have fully fledged now (it looks as if only 2 survived) and still are hanging around annoying their parents and trying to be fed, though I suspect they will be encouraged to leave the area soon.

This is my 100th post (so the stats say)- amazing, and it’s proved useful to have the history of the last 3 years to look back on and check relative progress etc. So the discipline of blogging works for me as well as for my readers (over 20,000 views now).

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Some sunshine at last!

May 23, 2009 at 8:11 pm · Filed under Beans, Brassicas, Greenhouse, Progress, tomatoes

Yes the weather has finally relented and we have sunshine – well today at least. The forecast is ok for tomorrow but after that it looks like we might be back into showers.

Still the last couple of days have seen  some progress though. All the sweetcorn (24 plants) are planted out now – they are in the relatively shady area so we’ll see how they progress.

One row of broad beans is fully in flower now, and the second row just starting. The runner and climbing french beans are growing nicely – most of them are well up the mesh fence they are against. I’ve alos planted the french/dwarf beans between the flagstones. There are three more to put in as well – somewhere. The peas look fine – just starting to climb up the sticks.

The broccoli look a lot better now, and the curly kale seem fin also. The lettuce have started growing again now the weather has warmed up – soon will be ready for some harvesting. The rocket and mizumo are also nearly ready.

There are two courgettes and a cucumber plant planted outside – they seem to be fine. I’ve planted another cucumber plant into a pot (ex the currant bush that didn’t survive) and still have a courgette and cucumber to do something with…

The tomatos outside the greenhouse look fine, again looking better thanks to the warmer weather. The ones outside the kitchen are going to take a few days to pick up though. Two of them are quite weedy anyway (see below)….

Kitchen tomatoes

Kitchen tomatoes

Inside the greenhouse, it’s looking a bit emptier now – but I have filled some of the space up with a couple of pots of basil (just coming through now) and one of coriander. The lettuce left over from the tray full (the rest are planted out) and put in a pot are now big enough to be able to harvest. Today I put another 12 peas into pots ready to create a new row. The celery seedlings are coming on as well. There are now 4 pepper seedlings, but they won’t be ready to plant out for a couple of weeks though so may well not produce ripe peppers by the end of summer.

The tomatoes inside the greenhouse are already in bud and stand around 3ft (~ 1 metre) high (there are six of them).

On top of that I’ve cut a couple more sections of hedge (and with the scratches on my arms to prove it…)  However, there is, of course, more hedge to cut.

Just looking back at previous years, it looks like this year I’m a week or tow behind previous – and that we had poor weather for each May as well. So will things catch up – we have a predicted hot summer so maybe?

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Just managed ahead of the rain

May 20, 2009 at 9:49 pm · Filed under tomatoes

Well at last – again I just had the afternoon and I got changed – and amazingly it didn’t rain – so managed to cut hedges, and mow the lawn – then almost as if it knew the rain started. However, I did also manage to plant the tomatoes for under the kitchen window and another courgette. After that it absolutely chucked it down including hail for about 10 minutes – and I feared for the new plantings – but they seem to have survived.

Mind there is still more hedge to cut – and I’ve still got to get the first tray of sweetcorn to plant out, but the weather over the next few days doesn’t look too good…

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The weather’s still messing me about

May 19, 2009 at 7:14 pm · Filed under Brassicas, tomatoes

There I was getting changed ready to tackle the hedges, all keyed up after a fine morning and – well you can guess – it started to rain! and accompaanied by winds again. So I cleaned out the guinea pig instead.

Later, the weather did relent and I managed to plant the courgette, replace a broccoli plant that hadn’t made it (I blame the wind), and move a growbag to under the kitchen window ready for tomatos (which are already outside ‘acclimatised’).

beans_string2

Broad beans - plus supports

Just thought I’d put in a picture of the broad beans to show I’ve actually got the supports in. – the white bits are lumps of polystyren to stop me poking my eye out on the canes!

Needless to say it is sunny, calm and fine now – but I’ve got to go out…..

I bet it’s fine tomorrow – just because I’m probably going to be out most of the day - harumph, grumble, grumble.

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Weather still crummy but managed to get things done

May 18, 2009 at 11:11 pm · Filed under Beans, Brassicas, Greenhouse, Progress, tomatoes, wildlife

The weather is still showery and rather more anoyingly is windy which makes it a bit dicey planting things out. However, in a burst of activity at the weekend I managed to get the beans strung/supported and the peas sticks in. One row of beans are well in flower now and are obviously a dwarf variety but I can’t remember which….

Also, I planted out the curly kale, or at least most of them, in the location where the spinach should have come up. It was obvious that the spinach beet seedlings were being attacked, probably by pigeons, so another set  of CD bird scarers have been put in – as there are over the broccoli rows.

I’ve now put three tomatos are in a growbag outside the greenhouse – though the weather meant they didn’t look too happy for the first couple of days.

I’ve put one of the courgettes out ready for planting, but again wit the wind today it wouldn’t have been a good idea – looks better tomorrow. The others aren’t far behind either.

The sweetcorn are now just about big enough to start planting out. About four pepper seedlings are through now and the celery seedlings are looking good.

I planted some basil in large pots – which is where I intend them to stay for now.

Two or three tomato plants remain and they will go into a growbag for under the kitchen window.

The pressing demand now is to get the hedges cut though, not really sensible while it is windy and showery, and the grass needs growing – though again it will have to wait until there is some dry weather….

Meanwhile, putting out the squirrel trap the other day (yes another squirrel has moved in) just led to our hedgehog being trapped again (he? must really like peanuts) so I need to try another spot.

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More is growing – weather variable

May 15, 2009 at 4:59 pm · Filed under Beans, Brassicas, Greenhouse, Progress, tomatoes

The last post got as far as a draft then never really finished off. I’ll try and precis what has happened and what the current situation is in this – I’ll add some photos if the weather allows it…

Well, speaking of the weather, we did have about a week or so of fairly good weather after the last post – and I did get more done, but the last week has been showery and for several days we had a cold east wind which didn’t help the garden much.

So what’s the situation you may ask? Starting with the crops already in:

The broad beans are coming up fine and in dire need of some support now. In one row there are several plants in flower, even though they aren’t very high yet.

The lettuce and other salad crops are growing – though the weather has slowed them down. Some carrots have appeared by the greenhouse and one of the two pak-choi seedlings has disappeared… The spare lettuce plants not planted out I’ve put into a large pot in the greenhouse as they will be producing leaves for use pretty soon.

I have plated out two rows of broccoli seedlings – they are still struggling to get going properly thanks to the weather and several plants looked pretty sick to start off with, but now look a bit better, though the picture below doesnt really illustrate this

broccoli1

Broccoli seedlings

When I finally took the cloche off what would have been a row of spinach & spinach beet only one set of seedling had appeared – the ? spinach beet ones. However, I have some  curly kale seedlings in the greenhouse to plant out in that area.

The peas as usual for me didn’t all come up – about half the ‘full’ peas and maybe two-thirds of the mangetout. Foreseeing htis I’d sown 8 mangetout peas in pots in the greenhous and I’ve planted those out in the gaps. All seem to be coming on ok.

Three climbing french beans are planted out now, and three runner beans are acclimatised outside ready to go in. The other plants in the greenhouse are ready to go outside as well.

Below you can see the broad beans – climbing beans are planted against the fence beyond then and the peas are this side of the beans.

Peas and Beans

Peas and Beans

The fruit bushes are mostly ok – though one of the blueberry bushes seems to have popped its clogs – all the leaves have dropped off. One of the currant bushes (beside the one that never started) looks unwell at the moment but might recover.

In the greenhouse:

Six tomato plants (mostly small olive type) are in growbags now and one growbag is ready outside for some more – I need to get a couple more soon.

tomatos_greenhouse1

Tomatos in greenhouse

The courgette and cucumber seedlings are almost big enough to go out – I’ve prepared some ‘pockets’ of compost and fertiliser ready for them to go in.

Almost all the sweetcorn seeds came up and will soon be ready to go out. The two that didn’t I planted new seeds to replace and they have just popped up.

Some celery seedlings have just appeared, and some peppers have just appeared at last -  bit late I fancy but we’ll see.

Some french bean seedlings are just about ready enough to go out as well.

I’ll sort out the names and add photos maybe tomorrow..

The weather is set to be variable for the next week – and the hedges now virtually all need cutting which is going to be tricky to fit in!

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Some Seeds Growin’ and Some Aint

May 15, 2009 at 4:33 pm · Filed under Beans, Brassicas, Greenhouse, Progress, tomatoes

This post written 5th May – not finished

Well we’ve had mixed weather since the last blog – showery, some sun and a couple of days with pretty constant rain. ‘Good growing weather’ my grandad would have said.

It’s a mixed bag though in terms of what’s coming up and what’s not. The broad beasn are doing pretty well – some of them are in flower already. They are going to need the ususal supports of canes and string soon as well. The peas planted nearby though are another story, I’ve never had a really sucsessful planting of peas.  If you look back you’ll see that there were two varieties sown, half a row of each. The mangetout type has produced about half the expected plants, and the ‘full pea’ variety only two or three seedlings have appeared. Meanwhile anticipating this, I had planted a few mangetout in pots in the greenhouse – and all of those have just come up. Don’t ask me why the outside plantings are always so poor – I’ve no idea.

Close by the rows of rocket & mustard have come up nicely, but of the ‘lambs lettuce’ planted between there isn’t a sign…

Over to the area near the greenhouse – a row of pak-choi type lettuce has produced two seedlings – and spaced well apart – so I don’t have to thin them out!

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Two Rows of Beans

April 19, 2009 at 10:26 pm · Filed under Beans, Brassicas, Greenhouse, Progress, tomatoes

Yes, after all the problems with mice etc. (totl count 4 so far). I have succeeded in producing two double rows of broad beans. One from those grown in the greenhouse and another from those planted direct. The direct planting was missing three plants, so I filled those gaps in with greenhouse ones tonight. Below are the results – greenhouse ones on the left. There are at least two varieties from the greenhouse and a different one planted outside. I’ll fill in the details when I find the packets.

Two rows of broad beans

Two rows of broad beans

Note the slabs, I’ll be planting dwarf or french beans between those as well. The runners and climbing french beans will go along the fence at the right of the picture.

Meanwhile the digging is pretty much complete, I’ve finished section B, and spread the spent compost from three growbags over the area along with some ‘growmore’ fertiliser and forked it all in. Once more the male blackbird kept a close eye on my digging looking for worms.

Apart from that the seedlings in the grenhouse are coming along. This evening I noticed that some of the cucumber/courgettes were popping up and some of the curly kale as well. No more tomatoes have appeared for a few days, so it loks like a totoal of 11 seedlings, which may well be enough. The lettuce are just about big enough to plant out now and the broccoli are looking a bit ‘leggy’ but growing ok. Three of the dwarf beans are through now as well. There are still about 10 broad bean seedlings left in the greenhouse, so I’ll have to fit them in somewhere once they are hardened off. Still no sign of the peppers though…

I had to drag the lawnmower out a few days ago and mow the lawn, it was so long thet the sparrows were getting rather wary of landing on it in case they got lost! Of course this can only mean hedge cutting can’t be far behind.

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There’s Bean Progress

April 15, 2009 at 11:39 am · Filed under Beans, Brassicas, Greenhouse, Progress, tomatoes, wildlife

Yes, given a couple of fine days over the Easter Hols lots of progress in the garden. Also, seedlings have been coming on in the greenhouse. Including planting beans of several types - hence the title.

So, where to start… Well I guess most important, I’ve started digging (well actually forking and removing weeds) the last undug section of the garden (section B)  Over Monday and Tuesday (13/14 April)  I have managed to dig most of it – at the same time helping out our local blackbird who was desperately looking for food to feed what I suspect is a nest full of hungry chicks – I was chucking worms in his direction whenever he appeared and he seemed quite happy with the arrangement, even coming within a few feet of me to check up. Fortunately that section of the garden hasn’t grown too many weeds, though I did harvest some leeks from last year initially – not blanched but cooked that day and very nice.

As well as the digging, I had a seed planting frenzy. A half-row of mangetout peas (Oregon Sugar Pod – they grew well last year), and the other half row (in the section with the broad beans – parallel to the second row) of ‘full’ peas (Kelvedon Wonder). I finally planted some salad seeds outside as well,  short rows of rocket, ‘lambs lettuce’ and mustard (Oriental Red), the last two from a packet of mixed salad seeds. In section A I sowed short rows of carrots (Early Nantes) and pak choi, close to the greenhouse. Further away, a half row of spinach (Toscane) and spinach beet (Perpetual). I also limed a section close to the spinach in anticipation of the broccoli. In the picture below you can just see where the spicah has been panted, just above the slabs (new innovation this year). The markers at the top of the picture show where the short rows of carrot and pak choi are planted

Section A - some seeds planted

Section A - some seeds planted

In the greenhouse, things are coming on. Some more of the broad beans are outside waiting to be planted out (three are already in) and more should be ready soon. Some of the supplementary plantings are through now so altogether there should be a full row. I planted some dwarf beans (Speedy), climbing french beans (Blue Lake, they did well last year), runner beans (Scarlet Emperoro) and a small tray of kale (Redbar).

The tray of broccoli seedlinga are coming on well, as are the lettuce. There are now about ten tomato seedlings coming up which may well be enough. Worryingly though no sign of the peppers yet…..

Meanwhile the blueberry bushes in containers are well into sprouting leaves. Most of the currants (9) I acquired a few weeks ago are now sprouting happily, but one of them has failed to produce anything yet so looks like a failure. One or two others have only a few buds in leaf, but I guess they will survive. The gooseberry bushes planted last year now have flower buds. The apple is just about in flower, the buds are just opening and the pears are in full flower. The  ‘wild’ damsons at the bottom of the garden are flowering like mad so we may be in for a good year (it only seems to happen every few years) but they may not produce much – we’ll see. 

Blueberry Bushes in leaf

Blueberry Bushes in leaf

On the wildlife front as mentioned, the blackbirds have been very active looking for food. None of our bird boxes seem to be inhabited though, there are too many good natural nesting spots for the tits I think.  Something (a fox I suspect) dug a hole into the area where the runner beans are going to go – maybe something from the compost below attracted them?

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More Seeds and Sprouting

April 11, 2009 at 7:58 pm · Filed under Beans, Brassicas, Greenhouse, tomatoes, wildlife

Although the blog has been quiet I have actually been moving a bit as far as planting i concerned. The broad beans have come on a bit and now the situation looks a bit more hopeful. There are now around 14 that have come up so those (see picture below) plus some more I planted separately. You can see in the pictures below top left the empty pots where no beans have come up. Just below you can see another tray with four pots I planted later – the beans are just coming through.

Meanwhile I looks as if the broad beans planted outside look as if they have started to come through.

Seedlings in Greenhouse

Seedlings in Greenhouse

In the greenhouse as well as the broad beans there is also a tray of lettuce – coming on nicely (right hand side) , also several tomatoes are through now (the seedlings in the middle of the picture) .

There are some peppers planted, plus courgettes and cucumbers but they won’t be through for a few more days yet. There are a few french beans also waiting to come through.

The tray lower middle with seedlings has two kinds of broccoli – despite problems when growing brassicas before I thought I would try again.

Meanwhile, outside, there is still one section of garden to dig but I have started to remove the large weeds. I have at least trimmed the ‘Russian vine’ which occupies an arch in the middle of the garden – if it doesn’t get a good trim it’s liable to take over the whole garden.

The grass is now long enough to need cutting – but true to form it has been rainy every day for the past few days. The hedges have started growing as well…..

The blackbirds have been very busy all over the garden, and have been very happy to search the ground within a few feet of me when I’ve been digging. I suspect they already have chicks to feed – hence their desperate searching for food.

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More Seeds Planted

March 26, 2009 at 12:20 am · Filed under Beans, Greenhouse, Progress, tomatoes, wildlife

Well I have managed to get a bit more done since the last post. Now there are two lots of tomato seeds in pots – both ‘cherry’ varieties. Also some mixed salad lettuce seed planted a few days ago has started to come through. However, the broad beans planted (or rather replanted after the mouse problem) have not done very well – only about 3 have come through so far, though one or two more may make it – some have been affected by mould though. I’ve planted the remainder of the beans left from last year into some other pots now. As a backup, I’ve planted a double row direct into the soil under one of the cloches (a new packet – a long pod variety).

Aprt from the seeds, I’ve managed to get all the  currant bushes in – either in te ground or into containers. All the blueberry bushes re in containers as well. Some of the currants are sprouting away, but others are worryingly free of any buds – the blueberries all look OK though.

No mor exciting wildlife incidents to report – just regular visit to the nyjer seed by goldfinches, and the odd chaffinch. There have been quite a few visits to the seed dispensers by long-tailed tits as well as the usual great and blue tits. The blackbirds have been very busy in the garden but no sign of them nest building so far.

Just need to get the last section of the garden dug now….

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