Today I was back to the allotment for 3 hours, I did lots of soil preparation on what will be the carrot bed. As I shall be sowing seeds the soil has to be really fine; the last few days of rain and a lot of elbow grease with a rake means that it’s pretty much there. I’ve been debating for a while whether to intermingle the carrots and onions per the companion planting view, or to keep them separate per the crop rotation plan. Both options have their pro’s and cons in organic growing.
Next job was to plant the cauliflowers (I limed the soil a week ago to prepare) so that bed also got a raking over. I placed bits of wood found on the plot strategically to hold up netting, then planted around them. At which point I planned how the netting would sit. It might have been wiser to wait until I’d finished planting but I wanted to make sure I’d fit under the net when I needed to work.
I then planted my pak choi seedlings that had been hardening off in the last week. As I planted them I thought it a good idea to sow some more pak choi seeds and seeing as I had my seed box, I may as well sow other seeds that fit with the planting plan. So as well as some more pak choi, in went a row each of radishes, rocket and some purple sprouting broccoli, which I hadn’t planned to sow; I wanted to grow quicker growing crops but the label said this year was the best before date so I figured why not.
At this point I had enough light still and good weather that I wanted to start putting in my root veg and finish planting my onion sets however I have been bidding on a few manual/petrol lawnmowers on the internet and an auction for one I particularly liked was due to end so I wanted to nip back – and I was in need of something to eat too. Being that the weather is forecast as awful for planting tomorrow and that I didn’t win the lawnmower anyway, I probably should have stayed!
In the end I added some organic slug pellets around the Brassica, closed the end of the netting and tidied away, hoping that the weatherman is being pessimistic again so that we all smile when they are wrong tomorrow!
I planted my chitted potatoes (Anya new potatoes and Maris Piper main crop) on the 5th May (the Bank Holiday Monday) and although expecting them to grow a little quicker that the 30 days they took planted 1st March in the garden as the soil is warmer, I didn’t expect that they’d be poking through the soil already!
The weather has been rather rainy in the last few days so that and the fact I sliced my thumb with a parang, plus other commitments have meant that I haven’t been to the plot since the weekend, it’s good to see that things are starting to grow. Unfortunately so are the slugs and I perhaps need to invest in some more organic slug pellets.
I’m really impressed with the efforts the rhubarb has made in the last few days and that the potatoes sprouted after only 18 days is fantastic. The jerusalem artichoke is settling in ok, despite the slugs.
This weekend I have to fit in time to plant the rest of my onion sets, pot on the strawberry plants as well as the butternut squash plants and give the mini-greenhouse at home a lot of attention. I need to plan where I am planting the outdoor tomato plants too. Fingers crossed the sun shines for us all!
The last couple of weeks have been very busy indeed, as you’ll have seen from the previous post, the plot had become overgrown with weeds. It took about a week of weeding to get to the point where I could start to dig over the beds, fortunately, a couple of the other plot holders offered to give me a helping hand by rotorvating the beds once the weeds were clear and the edges of the beds were defined (tomato plants as thank yous!) so I have planted all my chitted potatoes in the bed in front of the shed.
I’ll draw up a plan once I have it all planned out, but I have it in pencil at the moment. If I can find an old greenhouse from somewhere then I shall go with that, otherwise I shall try to fashion a polytunnel for the tender crops: tomatoes, aubergine, chillies etc.
If you’ve heard of native American Indian cultivating technique know as the three sisters, then you’ll know that sweetcorn, squash and beans make for good growing companions. I shall test this out on the bed next to the potatoes that over the winter.
I have chatted quite a bit with other allotment holders about various crops, including some globe artichoke tubers I have been given, I had a few spare so offered them around – no-one wanted them – apparently they are quite prolific. I am forewarned, but I shall probably grow some in a corner of the allotment as they are rather pretty, and see how they go.
I have started a new job in the last week and the weather has been a little rainy (ideal for breaking up the soil after rotorvating) and windy so really all I have done since is rake over the soil to break it down some more ready for planting. In the next couple of days I shall plant out my onion sets, I have beans and peas to plant out too but I think I shall have to invest in organic slug pellets before then!
My sweetcorn are almost ready to plant out too but I shall have to wait for the soil to break down a little more. The same with a few other young plants.
This evening I was give a small amount of home brewing kit, specifically the containers, so already I am looking at where to buy hop seeds….
A lot is about to happen on the plot, it’s rather exciting!
This afternoon I held a little plant sale, I had been worried whether to hold it at all due to the weather forecast, but the day before I decided to go for it and advertised.
Thank you to those who popped by, a reminder; plant info is located here.
The sun showed it’s face for a while and in the end it didn’t rain! I sold a few plants, enough to pay for my allotment for the year anyhow!
I must say I rather enjoyed it, it was lovely that a friend popped over for a natter, plus in the downtime I had the chance to plant my beetroot seedlings and pot on my nasturtium.
There’s still quite a few plants leftover so I might see what the weather is like next weekend, maybe another sale will pay for some organic compost from Haddenham Garden Centre, any leftover can go in the allotment if not!
There’s been a few sunny days with lots of April showers recently, which I guess is only to be expected!
Here are a few things happening in the garden currently:
Apple blossoms
Cosse Violette and Cobra plants ready to go
Peas loving the sunshine
My second early’s sprouting
Chilli plants in the warm greenhouse
Rocket seedlings
Spinach seedlings
Aaron Pilot 1st Early and Scarlet Globe radishes
Winter squash seedlings appearing
Tomatoes almost ready to plant out
I’ve had a couple of dramas trying to get an allotment, which I shall mention in another post, but suffice to say the plants I have been getting ready to go on the plot are pretty much ready and I have no plot to put them on!
I’m thinking of having a plant sale to sell my excess plants but I’m not sure what the weather will be doing from one day to the next so it’s difficult to organise. Although I might just have a couple over a few Sundays and advertise locally. I’ve also been toying with the idea of setting up my own garden services business. Watch this space!
I’ve now transplanted all my tomato seedlings, there’s more than I thought! They all pretty much protested the move, despite a soak in a dilute organic seaweed feed. These are the heritage varieties Golden Sunrise, Black Russian, Outdoor Girl and Craigella which all seemed to like being in a propagator on the windowsill, if possibly a little leggy. Maybe I might consider a grow light next season.
transplanted seedings protesting the move
This will be their first night in the greenhouse, fingers crossed they like it! I did sow a few extra seeds so that I have plenty of contingency for losing some due to pests etc. I have already given some as gifts, veggie plants make a great housewarming present.
tomato seedlings starting to perk up again in the greenhouse
The greenhouse is getting a little full now as I am keeping things high up until the slug pubs do their job. I have two types of trap, but they both have cider in them, mainly because its leftover from our recent BBQ and I’m not a fan of it. It’s working a little, but I did notice one slug had a drink and escaped. The coriander seems to be recovering ok although I am wondering if I need to buy some real ale instead… just for gardening purposes of course!
I’m not sure when the tomatoes might be big enough and strong enough to withstand the slugs – I need to research!
There is a bunch of ants that want to make the greenhouse home, they had a dose of hot water to get them to move on, it’s not entirely worked. I had a look at something like this, perhaps this might be needed if they’re still there next month.
On Saturday I sowed some more peas and beans for successive crops, they are in propagators in the greenhouse, the blog is showing me that these took 10-11 days to germinate, so just over a week to go. I want them a certain size before I risk a full frontal slug attack in the beds!
I think that my flower seeds were eaten by the slugs, so I have re-sown those today.
A little sunshine today warranted digging in compost to the beds and planting the pink French garlic. As I understand it, these cloves will be a deterrent to cats (and any mice that might be in the vicinity) and a few spare cloves in the greenhouse given a squeeze now and then should deter white fly. Three huge bulbs managed to supply 45 cloves, the fattest of which I’ve planted for growing in the veggie beds, the smaller ones in the flower beds to try to deter cats, if good garlic comes of this, ah well! There’s some more to be planted, but they can wait a while until the next bed is ready to start being filled.
I’ve had to plant them at the front of the beds as they shouldn’t be grown too close to peas and beans as they stunt their growth. Peas and beans will eventually be grown up the fences on these beds, with outdoor variety tomatoes hung from the fence posts. The garlic is however good for a lot of the other plants I am growing, as would several of the herbs I am growing.
overnight cat poo prevention
More cat protection was required as previous efforts were ineffective, we have very acrobatic cats in Waddesdon! Hopefully the above will mean I no longer have to dig carefully.
On sunny days I have been taking my seedlings outside, partially to let them make the most of the sun and partially to start the hardening off process. There was another visitor to the garden today; a Small Tortoiseshell butterfly, unfortunately by the time I’d popped into the house to find my phone to take a picture, it had gone.
I’ve started to get rather low on potting compost, so yesterday went to 4 or 5 different places in Aylesbury to find some organic compost and tomato feed, I was really surprised to not find any. The last place I bought some (Waddesdon Plant Centre) has since closed. In the end a trip to Haddenham Garden Centre did the job, finding 50 litre bags of multipurpose at £5.99 or on offer; 3 for 2 – bargain! It’s peat free too, even better, peat should be left in its natural habitat supporting our native wildlife.
organic compost
We picked up some grow bags for the mini greenhouse too, which meant I had a perfect reason to get the greenhouse ship-shape and stop using it as storage!
items previously stored in the greenhouse
Grow bags in greenhouse
It’s a bit of a squeeze for the grow bags on the side, but I figure the tomato roots won’t mind what shape they grow into.
It gave me an opportunity to water everything and reorganise the pots that had been in the beds and inspect everything.
Here the pea and chard seedlings are starting to sprout:
various pea varieties on left, centre to right, swiss chard, bright lights
compostapots
The pots in the beds are going much slower than I hoped so I have decided to bring them into the greenhouse for now. The catnep is showing a couple of germinated seeds and the mallow is germinating. The wild primrose isn’t doing anything as yet.
This is how I have laid everything out until the tomatoes and cucumbers need to go in:
full greenhouse
The broad beans aren’t doing anything, so hopefully some greenhouse time will give them a chance to get going. The coriander is just sprouting, the time in the greenhouse appears to have done it some good.
These are the cucumber seedlings, just starting to get their first pair of true leaves, it’ll be time to pot them up soon! I tried leaving the lid off them the other day, they didn’t much like it, I think the small amount of wind we had was stripping them of their water as they went papery thin and a little droopy, fortunately another watering and quick replacement of the lid had them recovering in 20 minutes.
The same with tomato maskotka, the first true leaves are starting to grow so they’ll need potting in the next few days.
The Hungarian wax chilli plants are coming up nicely, they’ll stay in the propagator a while yet tho.
My mutant marigolds are doing as well as the regular ones, nothing to report there.
Lavendar seedlings are just starting to sprout – if you look ever so closely!I read the labels of some cat repellant in the garden centre the other day (not organic) but the active ingredient in quite a few was garlic… so that and the persistent acrobatics of the local felines has swung my decision to grow garlic! This bag has 3 massive bulbs in it, each clove of which should result in a bulb. These were 25% off too and they have a lovely pink skin which I rather like. I’m going to have to do a little research as they don’t actually tell you when to plant them.
This morning I had to break the ice in the bird bath, proving that it’s still a little too cold overnight for a lot of my seedlings, I’ve those that like the warm inside in propagators or terracotta pots in the case of my herbs, but today I have sown a few outdoor seeds in propagators ready to sit in the greenhouse.
I decided to plant seedlings indoors rather than catching a chill outdoors, but still had one or two jobs in the cold!
When I am working I obviously stick my wellies on but I have to say a little trip to open up the greenhouse and check on things I often wear my bright red flip-flops bought in Asia. I happen to keep them handy near the door at the moment and every time I put them on it does remind me of crossing a threshold when living in Asia, sliding them on or off in one movement often without stopping, each end every time I smile.
Another reminder of Asia; I stumbled across a large frog in the garden, turns out she is a Common Frog, and a welcome sign the garden is doing well, I hope she eats as many slugs as she finds!
A quick internet search suggests that my coriander seed now residing in the greenhouse should really have gone outdoors in April so that may be why it’s not sprouting yet. Ah well, it either grows or it doesn’t. I’ve sown quite a few sweet peas, pea ‘Lincoln’, sugar snap, pea early onwards in propagators in the greenhouse, unfortunately it’s too early for beans just yet. Wild strawberry seeds are also in a propagator, as is swiss chard. I am a little naughty in planting the chard just yet, it’s a few weeks early, but I had some spare cells in the tray and a few seeds to risk. And I am impatient.
I took a chance and sowed night-scented stock seeds directly into the front of the flower beds, mainly because if a flower isn’t going to be edible or medicinal the it need to smell good. everything that needs it had a water and the empty beds had some organic fertiliser added.
Indoors, next to the maskotka and the cucumber I added some peppers I forgot yesterday; Hungarian Wax, they have the curious characteristic in that they are sweet when young and get fiery when left on the plant. In another propagator there are a few lavender seeds and some french marigolds, again, a little early but I had the room and there are more seeds if they don’t take. I’m growing these to act as a companion plant for the tomatoes, cucumber and peppers.
I’ve completed my seeding for the next few weeks, so now the hardest part happens…. waiting!
Obviously not a gardening post, but there is a tenuous link in that there are microflora and microfauna involved… and it grows… and needs feeding and watering. Plus there’s a permaculture/sustainable living angle here!
I’ve been growing my own sourdough bread starter culture since the bad storms hitting the UK started last year, the night our neighbours’ fences suffered. The first part of the recipe asked for the bread to be left outside for an hour or so. Hence it’s original reference as Waddesdon Storm bread. Over time the name Boris stuck, I’ve no real idea why.
He started off in a 2l Kilner jar but he did like to escape occasionally, now Boris resides in a 3l Kilner jar in the cupboard (although he camps in the fridge if we go away). I’ve made a multitude of types of bread from pizza bases to focaccia to seeded batch to farmhouse split tin to rye bread and more. I have to say it is rather tasty!
I first ate sourdough bread that my Nanna made years ago and would often help her, thinking back, she used a sour milk or buttermilk as her starter, but I went a bit more traditional with my starter, it’s literally just flour and water, using time and natural yeasts and lactobacilli from the air. I used stoneground rye flour in the first mix but over time any regular bread flour will do. It’s great fun to play with the different ratios of flours and flavourings for different results.
I’ve done a fair amount of reading up since last year. Playing with the water levels, or the temperature you store the starter at, or even the interval in between feeds all affect the equilibrium of the bacteria and yeast and therefore the rise and taste.
Apparently sourdough bread is healthier than that made using commercial baker’s yeast, it’s easier to digest, more nutritious and I have to say there is a depth of flavour that rivals the farmers markets artisan breads I’ve paid a lot of money for in the past. There’s the added bonus that I can make two large loaves from a 1.5kg bag of good quality bread flour (starting at 80p) so the price of a loaf starts at 40p, but more if you use organic flour. If you can find a local flour supplier rather than a supermarket do go for it, it’ll cost more, but no-where near as much as an off the shelf loaf would.
As much as a bread machine may be handy and even Cameron uses one, they’re very expensive and take all the fun out of it, they stop you getting to know your dough and the result just isn’t in the same league anyway. Sourdough isn’t suited to a bread machine so don’t risk it. It takes a lot longer to make a sourdough bread loaf, but it’s not harder, and you don’t knead it any longer than making regular bread, you just have to plan ahead.
There’s many recipes to get you started out there, I found a Jamie Oliver one that worked for me as a starting point, there’s even one currently printed on the back of a certain brand’s bag of bread flour. Have a play, try out different techniques – have fun with your food!
Green Garden Gate Waddesdon 