Patience is a virtue

For those that know me, they could tell you that I am not the most patient person in the world. It is a wonder then that I have taken to growing my own vegetables so readily as patience is definitely needed here!

Last year I didn't start growing things until late in the summer when I think it was warm enough for things to germinate and grow so easily it was all a doddle. I also grew lots of very quick growing crops such as lettuce and french beans.

This year with the addition of peas, broad beans, onions, garlic and lots more I am finding that many of these grow tantalisingly slow. Initially they are quite pleasing as they sprout their first shoots and put on some good growth quite quickly, but then it all slows down! My broad beans seem to be taking forever to grow higher and higher. The flowers came and I got really excited thinking that the beginning of pods would be soon behind (as with french beans), but nope, no sign yet. My peas have grown steadily and are now about 2 and a half feet high, yet are still just all leaves and no inklings of a pod in sight. I *think* I have the beginnings of baby strawberries - we will soon see, maybe its time to start giving them a good feed.

New sowings also seem to be taking an age to germinate and I am not sure why, I am doing nothing differently to usual. Although I did notice a few radishes and marigold seeds popped up last night, oh and one of my courgettes looks like it is about to poke through. My last of the ten seeds of spring onions I sowed also popped up out of nowhere, a full week behind its siblings! So, the vegetables are testing my patience right now, I don't ask for much, just a little show of the vegetables to come that's all.

At least the potatoes seems to be growing stupidly fast, no more earthing up to do in one sack so now its just wait for the flowers to appear before I can harvest them at last!

I am away for a few days now and trying to come up with the best way of making sure my plants do not suffer too much without my tender loving care. I think the tomatoes and chillies will be off to the bath to sit on a nice wet towel for a few nights whilst any pots still waiting to germinate will have a water and stay on the sunny windowsills. I can't imagine they would get too damaged being there for a few nights without supervision. I will give all of my plants outdoors a good water before leaving, luckily we are not due the hot sunny weather we have had lately as everything would have dried out in a day.

Fingers crossed, let's hope I don't come home to a disaster.

Spring is here!

After a few days of doing lots of weeding, planting, pruning, nurturing and cleaning in the garden I am currently sitting in at my garden table on the patio, cup of tea nearby and laptop on enjoying the results of all of my hard work. We have had a week of fantastic weather (23-26 degrees - in APRIL!!) and this has meant I have been able to get out and do things. Hard to imagine that it is still possible we may have frosts until early May but I MUST remember this and not plant things out too early. 

The good weather has meant that all plants have been able to go out during the day to enjoy the sun and warmth. After the scorching incident last week I have made sure that when in the blowaways the cover has either been off altogether or the door has been kept firmly open to ensure they do not get too hot and damaged. 

So first of all, a bit of emergency surgery was needed on my tomatoes, chilli and pepper plants. I picked off all of the worst affected leaves that would simply just continue to use energy from the plant for no reason, gave them a very good water and sprayed for a few days with epsom salts. The tomatoes seem to have recovered well but these were by far the biggest and strongest plants. However, my chillis and peppers have not faired quite so well and during my surgery I must admit I have got them all muddled up and I am no longer sure what I have left. I think I have 4 red pepper plants and 3 chilli plants. I guess the proof will be when the fruit appears. What I think are the red pepper plants look very healthy despite their trauma, whereas the chilli plants look like they could be destined for an early grave :-(

The basil, moneymaker tomato, lettuce (various), beetroot and marigold seeds sown in modules on 10.4.2011 have been thrown out as any that germinated were all burnt to a crisp in the same incident! Oops. 

So with the emergency surgery out of the way, weeding done, garden shed cleared out, patio scrubbed clean etc etc it was time for more sowing and caring for the plants I still have left. 

Tomatoes, Chillies and Peppers

All put out into the garden during the day in 23-26 degree temps and brought in at night until last night when I left them out at night too zipped up in the blowaway - no harm done, phew!

Toms, Chillies and Peppers in the blowaway without the cover

Close up of chillies(?)

Close up of red peppers (?)

Close up of tomatoes

Potatoes

All potatoes planted so far this season have now started sprouting with the first earlies actually having about 4 - 6 inches of growth. I earthed these up and gave them a good water with added feed as I am earthing them up with compost out of last years pots. 

I still had 6 seed potatoes of bambino main crop and now having an empty compost bag I decided to plant them in this!

A few vales emerald first earlies in a 12 inch pot as an experiment

The rest of the vales emerald first earlies in a potato growing sack

Charlotte potato first earlies in the council glass recycling bin

Bambino main crop potatoes in an ikea bag

The new potato corner

I created 'potato corner' in the garden, this part of the garden is out of the way down by the shed which is good as potato containers take up a lot of room and do not really give you anything attractive to look at. It gets a good amount of sun in the day though so they should grow well here. 

Garlic and Onions

These don't really need much care other than watering, however, I have noticed that cats have been digging up the soil so in need of some deterent I covered them up quickly with some of the pea netting I have left over, balances on some barbeque skewers (ha ha). It will do for now, I'll create something a bit sturdier when I can.

Oooohhh we just had a big clap of thunder then, and it seems to have gotten a lot darker - so much for my enjoying the garden after all my hard work. Inside I go!

My temporary cat deterent.

Rosemary and Thyme

Both are doing well and the Thyme is even flowering a little so they can't have been too disturbed being transplanted into their new home. I am desperate to use some as they smell so gorgeous but I think I'll hold off and give them another few weeks before I start to cut bits off.

Thyme

Close up of Thyme flowers

Rosemary

Radishes and Rocket

These are my attempt at getting a catch crop out of the top of my strawberry planters. All of the radishes have germinated and look to be growing quickly. The rocket has also germinated but these seem to be teeny tiny little seedlings so I am not sure how long these are really going to take to get to any sort of size where they can be eaten.

Radishes in a circle in the top of a strawberry planter

Close up of the radishes

Teeny tiny rocket poking up

Peas and Broad Beans

My peas and broad beans are both still growing well. The pea plants are now looking very strong and healthy at about 2 foot tall, I think they are supposed to grow to a maximum of 3 feet so hopefully it won't be too long until we start seeing some pea pods forming (I presume flowers come first??). 

My second sowing of peas in another planter have since sprouted and are about an inch tall. These are happily growing in the blowaway to keep the birds away with some egg shells surrounding them to deter any slugs/snails. I am also covering with a thin layer of fleece at night to keep any slugs/snails away during the nighttime.

2nd sowing of peas all sprouting nicely

1st sowing of peas looking strong and healthy

Broad Beans are still flowering nicely but no signs yet on the beginnings of any pods. These are also about 2 foot tall now. Looking nice and strong.

Broad Beans

Broad Beans still flowering nicely

I'll be giving both the peas and beans their weekly feed tomorrow as the energy in the compost will have been used up. 

Spring Onions

9 of the 10 seeds planted a few weeks ago have now germinated. These are in the blowaway with the 2nd sowing of peas to give them a little protection from attack of the slugs.

Tiny spring onions

Strawberries

Lots more flowers on my original strawberry plants in the trough. Looks like there may even be the beginnings of some tiny baby strawberries?

Baby strawberries?? With a tiny ant on an adventure

New Sowings

• 10 x spring onions in a row in the same pot at the first sowing
• 2 x morrisons flower buckets pots of Carotts (mini finger). Approx 13 in each pot to hoepfully give me some mini carrotts. 
• Second layer of wildflowers in the smaller pot I have to go alongside the first sowing in that pot a few weeks ago. Apparently doing a second sowing in the same pot a few weeks later ensures a longer flowering period. 
• 2 x courgettes in 3 inch pots - outdoors during the day whilst the temps are hot, indoors to germinate at night and will plant out when risk of frost has passed
• 8 x french beans (cobra) in 3 inch pots - outdoors during the day whilst the temps are hot, indoors to germinate at night and will plant out when risk of frost has passed
• 10 x beetroot (boltardy) in modules, will keep indoors until they have germinated and will then put in the blowaway
• 5 x lollo rossa (same treatment as beetroot)
• 5 x round lettuce (same treatment as beetroot)
• 5 x chartwell lettuce (same treatment as beetroot)
• 5 a Tomatoes (moneymaker) - keep indoors
• 5 x basil - keep indoors 
• 3 x annaheim chilli - keep indoors
• 20 x marigold seeds - keep indoors
• 10 x radishes (same treatment as beetroot)
• 10 x rocket (same treatment as beetroot)

All my new sowings

Hanging basket sprouting

Front of the house

My helper

Patio area all scrubbed clean with a bean planter waiting for its beans!

Wildflowers looking good

That's all for now. Hopefully the weather be will be nice enough for me to enjoy sitting in the garden for the next few days and enjoy all my hard work.

Tomato, Pepper and Chilli Disaster - It's been a scorcher!

I have just got home from work to find all of my tomato, chilli and pepper plants have been totally scorched / have shrivelled up in the heat today.

I put them into the blowaway (with door down but unzipped so it would flap around in the breeze) this morning before work, as I have done on any days where the temp was to be above 15 degrees. They all had a good water before I left, pots were heavy, I didn't think any would be at risk of drying out at all.

However, I think the temps have got even higher than expected today (about 25 degrees) and it must have got so hot in there. Some of the pots have dried up, some of the compost in pots is still moist. But ... the leaves are so damaged, some worse than others.

What on earth do I do? This is the first time I have grown these, I was so pleased with my progress, had given them lots of care and it seems like one hot day has wiped them out. It's so frustrating. The blowaways would have been in sun from about 10am until 3pm so maybe I need to move them to a shadier area when temperatures get this hot? I really don't know. At the moment I think there are a few plants which are done for, but hopefully the others I can just pick off the worst leaves and hope they recover? I have given them all a good water now. Any advice appreciated.

Oh, all other tiny seedlings which were just poking through (Basil, Marigolds, Beetroot etc) have also been frazzled. Some new sowing needed in the coming days now!

Red chilli close up

Another red chilli close up

Last red chilli close up

Tomato plant 7

Red Chillis

Red Peppers

Red Pepper - definitely a goner :-(

Red peppers close up

Tomato plant 1

Tomato plant 2

Tomato plant 3

Tomato plant 4

Tomato plant 5

Tomato plant 6

It's Thyme to pot on (again)

Ok so the pun in the title is a little lame, but it had to be done. Being another lovely sunny afternoon I got out into the garden again for a few hours today. 

Tomatoes, Chillies and Peppers

Last week I noticed my tomatoes and some of my peppers and chillies were beginning to look a little yellow. After asking some advice from more knowledgeable people than I on the excellent grow your own forum I came up with a plan. First of all, looking at the bottom of all of my pots I could see that most of the plants had a root or two poking out and therefore were ready for potting on. Maybe giving them some more room and fresh compost would help to green them up again! So I potted on as follows:

• Three tomato plants from 5 inch to 6 inch pots and four from 4 inch to 5 inch pots
• Two red chilli plants from 3.5 inch to 5 inch pots and three from 3 inch to 4 inch pots
• 1 red pepper plant from 3 inch to 5 inch pots, four from 3 inch to 3.5 inch pots and two from 3 inch to 4 inch pots

Once potted up I watered them in with water with added miracle grow all purpose food. It has now been 8 weeks since they were first sown so a good dose of food is needed as I think there will be very little (if any) nutrients left in the compost now. I will continue to feed once a week from now and then switch to Tomatorite food once the fruit begins to set.  As it was suny all were left in the blowaway in the sun for a few hours and then brought indoors. Once indoors I thought it wouldn't hurt to give them a spritz of water (with added epsom salts) on the leaves just in case the yellowing issue is a magnesium deficiency. I guess we will wait and see.

Lots of potting on to do

Roots of one of my tomato plants - definitely ready for a bigger home. Into a bigger pot it went.

All the toms, chillies and peppers brought inside once the temperature began to drop in the garden. Looking a little droopy in their new pots. Hopefully they will perk up later.

Rosemary and Thyme

The herb garden begins! After a trip to the garden centre this morning we bought ourselves a Rosemary and Thyme plant (being our favourite and most used herbs). I hope to gets lots more herbs on the go too, but want to grow some others from seed, I just couldn't wait that long to have some to pick so a few bought plants it is. They smell AMAZING! Coming in 5 inch pots but more than ready to move into a bigger home I potted them on into 10 inch pots and watered them in with the same miracle grow water. I'll give them a good few weeks to get comfortable before I dare to pick any off. 

Thyme and Rosemary in their small pots bought from the garden centre this morning. With the size of pot they went into on the right. Gravel in the bottom for drainage.

Roots of the rosemary plant. Definitely ready for a bigger home. I hope it settles in well.

Rosemary and Thyme in their new pots. Now lets wait and see if they grow.

A few other updates. Potatoes in the potato sack are still sprouting nicely but no movement in the others yet. Two of my basil seeds and two of the Moneymaker tomato seeds sown in modules have sprouted in the last day or two. Along with the rocket seeds planted in the strawberry planter. All other seeds sown last weekend are a no show so far. 

Tiny rocket leaves poking out.

Flowers, Flowers, Flowers

My first proper strawberry flower :-)

By the looks of this lots more will be on the way soon.

Gorgeous broad bean flowers

My 'The Bride' Anenomies are sprouting in my hanging basket. Can't wait to see the flowers.

Wildflowers really coming along now.

With some fairly good temperatures predicted for this week (15 - 20 degrees during the day) I plan to get everything outdoors in the blowaways for the day to get some good light/sun and toughen up ready for planting out permanently soon. Night time temperatures are still predicted at less than 10 degree's so no staying out at night for anything other than the recently sown broad beans and peas for now.



I may sow some French Beans tomorrow as these should be OK to plant out in the planter soon. Maybe I'll leave it another week though. I don't really have the room in the house to shelter any more fragile seedlings at the moment. That reminds me, I really must look up what the last frost date for my area is. I hope its soon. I really need my windowsills back!