Sunday, April 27, 2003

Planted some dill and another coriander plant in the herb garden. Finally planted out the pea seedings and also some Sweet Pea seedlings. Decided to be daring and plant three of the courgettes out (one of each variety) in bed 3, as all of them germinated so have plenty spare. I bought some garden fleece to protect them incase the weather turns nippy. They are pretty ropey looking specimens as the slugs have had a good old munch on them during their hardening off period. One has been so badly munched that the main stem is almost in two, but somehow it is managing to survive. I had wondered if it was worth planting it at all but though it would make a good test run if nothing else. Millie helped me plant some nasturtiums around the perimeter of this bed as they are supposed to be a good companium to courgettes. I also read today that you can plant runner beans or sweetcorn over the top of courgette plants, so that might solve my problem of where to site those two when the time comes.

Saturday, April 26, 2003

Forgot to say before...we harvested our first asparagus spears last weekend, all 3 of them!! I noticed this morning that there are 2 more ready for cutting. Could take a while before we have enough to make a meal!

Well the peas didn't get planted yesterday as it poured with rain all afternoon, still we needed it i guess!

Friday, April 25, 2003

Aaarrrgggh! Those darn pesky slugs!!!!! My rocket was coming along beautifully, almost ready for picking. Then i went out there yesterday and it has ALL been eaten, just stalks left! I don't remember it being nibbled last year.
I have been stockpiling empty milk cartons to use as cloches. Have got six so far, so have put these over the pathetic remains. Once that was done i spent the rest of the afternoon removing fox poo from beds 2 and 3, lovely. Millie busied herself splashing around in all the puddles and looking for "woodlices" under stones. I also took the "cage" off the onions/garlic/shallots as most of them are a fair size now.
In the evening DP helped me put the "tennis net" up for the peas so i should, weather permitting, get them planted this afternoon. It was late when we had finished, twilight, and just as we were about to go in one of our friendly neighbourhood hedgehogs came out on patrol! Has obviously been neglecting bed number 4 though, will have to have words!!!

The peas that i planted in the guttering are just beginning to emerge as are the seeds that Millie planted a couple of weeks ago...not sure if i mentioned them. She has Sunflowers, Cornflowers, Nasturtiums and Clarkia in her own section of the garden.

Indoors, the tomato plants are ready for hardening off but not sure if to hold off until we come back from our week away. The Calabrese is coming along, although it snaps REALLY easily. I have broken about 3 of them, but amazingly they appear to still be surviving.

Tuesday, April 15, 2003

Bit behind with things....here's what i did on Sunday.

I planted out my pea row in some guttering. The idea being that you can hoist it up in the air to prevent rodents etc from stealing the seeds. My personal thought was that they would be safer from Millie's size 6's this way. I've no idea if this works but it is supposed to just slide out into the bed when the time comes, we'll see! If it all goes horribly wrong i have the seedlings that i planted indoors a few weeks ago. They are ready to be planted out but i am in the process of "hardening them off". I haven't a clue how to do this. I just keep sticking them outside (when i remember!) and leaving them a bit longer each day. If anyone has any advice about this (that is assuming anyone is reading this, lol) please enlighten me!

I repotted all my tomato plants into bigger pots. There are about 20 of them in total, the majority of them germinated. Still haven't decided if to plant them in growbags or in the ground. Bob Flowerdew reckons in the ground is better (they are a bush variety so would be fairly easy) problem is...space. I only have one of the raised beds occupied at the moment but i have all my peas and beans to go in one bed and then calabrese, sweetcorn and squashes to go in the remaining two - eek. Should really have thought about this a LOT more. I could always give some away, can't imagine i am going to need all 20 plants.

I also planted out the Allium (Purple Sensation) plant that we bought last week. Apparently the flower heads grow up to a metre tall, so i planted it near the back of the bed. The flowers should look nice with the green fence behind. I dug up the Dog Daisies (or Poo daisies as they came to be known) and planted some Echinacea plants instead. Similar size blooms i think but hopefully a lot less stinky.

Tuesday, April 08, 2003

Another fine day, so out in the garden again this afternoon :o)

Millie helped me plant the red and white onion sets we received yesterday. I then had lots of fun trying to re-create the elaborate "cage" i had constructed out of netting and some old bricks, to keep the birds off. I really must get some of those cane connector things - will save no end of time and my patience from being frayed.

Thats about all i got done, apart from tidying the flower beds a little. Not a very productive afternoon. Millie was tired and thought a great way to attract my attention was to rake over our seed beds - Aaarrrggghh! Was time to call it a day. Hopefully we will have a better day tomorrow.
Yesterday morning i received a mysterious parcel in the mornings post. Turned out to be some more onion sets (red & white) and some Rhubarb from BIL. Rhubarb was looking a bit worse for ware so thought i'd better plant it ASAP. I chose a nice sunny spot near the fence. Not sure i have had rhubarb since i had school dinners - not the most pleasent of exeriences, but i am confident that as with most things "home grown" it will be far superior to anything i've tasted previously ;o)

I also made second sowings of spring onions, rocket, lettuce and radishes (Cherry Belle this time) and thinned out the rocket seedlings. While i was busy dd had lots of fun squirting me with the hose, how i laughed!

I am all of a dither as to what to do next. The tomatoes are ready for transplanting but i need to buy some more pots. The courgettes are huge but there is no point hardening them off yet, (we have had frost 2 nights in a row - yikes!) The calabrese is probably ready for planting out, must check my books and i keep forgetting to plant my leaf beet! Must get more organised.

Oh and we finally have some delphinium seeds come through, had just about given up hope. The Sweet Peas are looking good too.

Sunday, April 06, 2003

Daddy cut the grass with our new mower, while Millie and i went to the Farmer's Market this morning. We bought a lovely Allium plant for £3.50 - bargain!

I was hoping to get out and do lots in the garden today but it's cold and i'm feeling a bit of a wimp!

I did transplant some of my seedlings though. The courgettes, peas and calabrese were all getting too big for their pots so i've moved them to bigger ones. The calabrese and peas could really have gone into their beds but as they were in trays with less hardy seedlings (in the house) i haven't been able to harden them off yet, so that is my plan for this week.

I still haven't quite decided what to do with my (mistakenly planted!) courgettes yet. I have been thinking that i could get a garden fleece tunnel to protect them until the better weather arrives (although until today it has been glorious). If the worst comes and they do not survive i still have half of the seeds left to plant in May.

The seedlings in the veggie garden are coming on a treat. The radishes, lettuce and rocket have all appeared and it's probably about time i planted a couple more rows of each. There are also little shoots of garlic, onion and shallots but no sign of the spring onions yet.

Oh, and the tadpoles are starting to get legs!