Since it’s the start of the season
It’s here! This seasons must have accessory. Courtesy of @loldeantimber; a personalised trug for trips to the plot. As you can see it has already been put to good use. Very very happy!
Monthly Archives: April 2015
#NABLOPOMO: Spinach and Chard
Ma rather likes rescuing spinach and chard, and here we have it. The Spinach is rescued, and we have found some chard for her to plug in. It’s a bit hard to resist, when she waves the tray at you, says your name and does that wide eyed thing that only mums do. She has been somewhat worried over the last few days, that the rain might bring the slugs and slimers out to kill the new plugs. For the moment, they are still there. My on concern, is that she planted them into open ground and this is going to make them very vulnerable on a plot where open ground isn’t necessarily a good place to be if you are a new plant.
I don’t mind spinach and chard myself, it’s a reliable crop that makes for interesting onion bhajis and pasta bakes. Along with cauliflowers and cabbages, spinach and chard make their way into the ‘Indian’ Food that ma cooks. The spinach that she has rescued, she tells me that it’s perpetual spinach. In her eyes, this is proper spinach. Mainly because it has large, broad leaves with quite a thin spine. This makes for me leaf, and less stalk. The other time of spinach that Ma is hoping to get onto the plot, is Mustard Greens. I need to look into getting the seeds what ma calls proper, proper indian saag. What she really wants, is that yellow flowered stuff that farmers sow on an industrial scale on their fields as a green manure.
Chard is a good substitute, and seems to also do well when left to it’s own devices. Not sure what variety we have here, but I do remember having both Vulcan Chard and also bright lights chard. The former, has lovely bright red stalks, with the latter having stalks that can be bright yellow at times. What I don’t have at the moment is Kale, but there are a few cabbages knocking around.
#NABLOPOMO: Spud Sinking Saturday 2015
Finally. The spuds have been looking at me for some time. Calling at me, to be sunk on the plot. Today, is Good Friday, and I like other folks on the plot, were going to sink spuds today. Off I went, with compost-trundled along in the wheelbarrow-bags of seed spuds and hand tools. There were also some ear phones and maroon5’s V on shuffle. I was on a mission.
First thing first, I had to fill a few of the beds with MPC. Much of the soil that they had been filled with had sunk after last season’s growth. Also some of the beds had been filled with leaf mold, and this had to be topped off for this year.
This years varieties:
- Red Duke of York: First earlies
- Kestral: Second earlies
- Lady Balfour: main crop
- Pink Fir Apple: Salad
- International Kidney: Salad
In February, I had sunk Red Duke of York potatoes in the poly tunnel. A tad early, yes, and with the clay that the poly is sat on; have taken a while to get through.
You have to squint a little, but you can see the red and green of the red duke of potato just starting to come through. I was starting to lose faith with these things, especially with the clay. Yes, I know there is a weed and algae. It does get warm in there, especially as Spring attempts to arrive. Will pass the hoe across to aerate the soil and get rid of the algae. Spotted a couple of shoots, but not many. Hopefully, a few more will come through before I put tomatoes and chillies in there.
Next time, I should perhaps scale down on the salad seed potatoes. I underestimated the amount of international kidney and pink fir apple seeds and also the space I had available to put them into. Will probably see those knobbly critters in my sleep. Plus, no one told me about the rather funny shapes and form that pink fir apple seeds take.
There is further experimentation, in that some of the raised beds contained soil topped off with leaf mold. The seeds potatoes were sunk deep into that soil, with the leaf mold already sitting on top. This was then topped off with MPC. Remains to be seen as to this will be a success or I will end up with scabby potatoes. Raised beds are the only way that I can cultivate any form of edible potato. Last years open ground experiment indicated that the heavy clay, wet weather and slug population were going to annihilate anything that was put into it.
Sinking potatoes has taken a chunk out of the number of raised beds being used this year. I have two that already occupied by garlic. I also have to keep one free for Ma’s fenugreek-She will not be best pleased, if she doesn’t have somewhere for her fenugreek. There are not four beds left, 1mx1m in size. Not an awful lot of room for all those squashes to be sown. There are however two other beds, open ground where I am plotting to have running beans. I have tried squashes in open ground and the results weren’t good.
#NABLOPOMO: Chillies chugging along
NABLOPOMO would be fairly replete if I didn’t mention the chillies. Let’s face it, they have had a lot of blog space dedicated to them as we experienced inclement elements out doors.
We have a number of chillies this year, largely habaneros. These were sown very late December and very early january. All in yogurt pots, sat on a warm window sill, covered with a food bag. These were then eagerly,slowly, observed, and have been pampered ever since. For now, we have a number of leafy specimens. There have been tantrums, when the odd one has crinkled up dehydrated.
The list:
- Dorset Naga
- Purple Haze
- orange habanero
- chocolate habanero
- aji limo
- hungarian hot wax
- serrrano
- pettie belle
- apricot
- pumpkin
- bellaforma
The one thing that I was surprised by, flowers. The cayennes and the purple haze have already started to produce little flower buds, with the plant’s themselves being quite diminutive. Suggesting, that they are a bit happy. None of the plants are in the final pot yet, and it’s still a little cold at night for them to be in the poly tunnel where they are eventually going to reside.
Potting them up,will cause them discomfort, and slow down their growth. Not really a problem, as it would be useful if they were bigger and a tad more robust before they are put into their final position. At least if they are bigger leafier, more robust, they have more of a chance in being able to defend themselves. I would say that they are probably one pot away from the final pot. The final pot, is likely to be one of those black morrison’s flower buckets. Dad has already been kind enough to have drilled drainage holes through the bottom. Those I believe are big enough for the root system to be developed and constrained enough at the same time. Though I might think about the plants getting a little taller, having them acclimatise gradually to night time temps in the poly, pot them into the black buckets and watch the plants grow into the buckets that way.
The habaneros are still quite small, in comparison to the hungarian hot wax and cayennes. The hungarian hot wax and cayenne are comparatively faster growing, so that accounts for some of the difference. This, I suspect, also translates to flavour.
#NABLOPOMO: Garlic growing good
#NABLOPOMO April 201 starts today and the theme is Grow. Seems fairly apt for a blog that centers on growing your own fruit and vegetables.
Garlic, this is something of an update. I have a number of varieties that are currently growing. These are::
- Early Purple wight
- Lautrec Wight
- Elephant garlic
- Provence Wight
Other than the odd weed, the garlic seems to be doing okay. The green shoots appear to be strong and robust. With he wind of the last 24 hours, they are probably little wind scorched today.
This crop was sunk in the autumn last year. Here in England, sowing garlic happens-in my experience-from about October onwards, and then can also be done during the following spring months. In my experience, I have found that sowing garlic in October, and in raised beds, is a more effective, and produces a reliable crop. In comparison, sowing into open ground, and I have heavy clay, has not been as effective. They require little maintenance, and are pretty much left to their own devices.
In years passed, I have sunk a lot of garlic. Mostly to see which varieties produce the most bulbous, most garlick-y of bulbs. We use a lot garlic in Ma’s kitchen, most of her cooking has garlic in it, so it is always used. I think I even have a large jar of pickled garlic, somewhere in Ma’s pantry. There are of course, also a number of health benefits associated with it.
The seed garlic that I have sown, is from The Garlic Farm on the isle of wight. I know that some growers do tend to use the sprouting garlic that they may have lurking in the back of their cupboards. I’m not sure if this is a good way cultivation, since I have never done that. Some of the garlic that we buy in the supermarkets is better suite to different climates and is commercially produced.
horticultural 'obbit 