Tag Archives: GYO

aubergine Analogue study 2014, chillies, Experimental Chillies and be;;s, Superhots 2014

Bumper leafy update

There is growth in the four tier blowaway. The danver carrots are starting to break through and become seedlings. Have yet to see any autumn king carrots. I have never had any success in germinating and propogating parsnips, and as you can see we have a handful of babies making an appearance. In comparison to the carrots, these have taken quite a while to come through. Not uncommon to the experiences of other people. Golden self blanching celery is also coming through. I appreciate that there are lots of seedlings in the pots. Alas, sowing them seed by seed is somewhat fiddly.

The chillies, bells and superhots are taking great strides. There is of course a variation across all of these given when they were all sown. Nigel, Pretty Purple, seranno, patio sizzle and hot thai are reasonable stout. Whereas as others, the hots and superhots, are actually quite slow growing. Early Jalapeño, Nigel, hot patio sizzle are starting to flower, which could actually be a sign of stress. All of these, are very, very thirsty. I observed that last year with the pretty purple rainbow chilli. Need a litre every other day, otherwise it would shed its leaves and flowers.

aubergines

Arise of the triffids, the first batch! These are of course the aubergines. Early long failed to make it. So we have tres hative de barbentane, diamond, dancer and black beauty. Very, very leaf, and velveteen. Suggests that they are quite delicate at the moment. The aim, is to have them planted into the poly tunnel with the chillies and bells at the end of May. Prior hardening off will be required.

In other news, marketmore, femspot and crystal lemon  cucumbers are germinating both in the four tier blowaway and the window sill. Hoping to sow runner beans and sunfloo’ers at some point. There will have to be rotation amongst the wendy house and four tier blowaway.No cabbages and brassicas yet. Though we did harvest some purple sprouting broccoli.

Squashes

Squashes 2014

2 Comments

The sun is out, the the wendy and poly are steaming warm, and I am still sore from planting potatoes. With today being the first of April, I thought I could rest a little and sow squashes and cucumbers.  We have a frost until the end of may, that leaves approximately eight weeks during which these seeds will hopefully germinate and are likely to become triffids.

For the moment I have now sown a ghostrider, I fancied something of a break. A few additional varieties of winter squash have been sown instead. No small pumpkins either, I wasn’t particularly enamoured by sweet dumpling. That’s not to say mama H won’t encourage me to sow one. Many of these are sprawling varieties. Last year, there was success with the Cobnut butternut squash being grown up bamboo canes, rather than out across the ground.

The runners and riders:

  • soleil
  • astia
  • patty pan
  • yellow scallop
  • cobnut
  • winter butternut
  • crown prince
  • gourd small
  • cornells bush delecta
  • white serpent
  • striato di naploli
  • tondo di picanza
  • little gem
  • bush baby marrow
  • crystal lemon
  • marketmore
  • fem spot

There are quite a few varieties, but I do have a tendency to sow a large number. Besides, not all of these may actually germinate. Half of these are to be observed on a warmish window sill, the others will be in a unheated prop in the four tier blowaway. The 4TB does actually get quite warm now that it is warming up a little. I take solace in the fact that the celeary and the carrots sown in there are just starting germinate. The hollow crown parsnips have yet to make an appearance.

Potatoes

More aloo sinking: spuds galore

4 Comments

Potato planting

Nearly at the end of the potato planting job. I think I might go slightly loopy if I see any more seed potatoes. That said, there are 20 Maris Piper tubers that remain to be sunk.

There have been two different techniques used to sink the spuds. Firstly, traditional potato trenches dug, seed potatos sunk with mounds built on top. Now, I don’t like digging, and I can’t make the mounds. Second, seed potatoes have been sunk in the same as bulbs would be, with a bulb planter. No mean feat, all in all, with horrible heavy clay that makes both of these techniques incredibly difficult and painful,

I really don’t like digging trenches,

Now, why do i have green grass on the mounds that were actually formed. I’m going to have issues earthing up, that’s why, and I can’t make proper mounds. At least the grass will break down as organic matter, and then hopefully protect the developing halums. Grass has been heaped onto the mounds, and might even help level out the dips and divots too.

Kestrel, king edwards, international kidney, maris piper and red duke of york have now been sunk. I was starting to worry about how much space there was, but it might be okay. At least half the plot, in terms of open ground is concerned with potatoes. This is a sinking of spuds on a grand scale, much bigger volume than I have ever attempted. So this could be a fairly moderate success, or a complete, and abject failure.

overwintering alliums, project othello, Taking stock

Sturdy shallots, garlic going well

Assorted Garlic cloves were planted through cardboard last autumn, With a dry spell, they aren’t looking too bad. A little wind burned, but otherwise reasonable. I expect that these will hopefully get some height and width with as the spring weather approaches. Certainly looks encouraging as the weather settles. That said, March comes in like a lion, and out like a lamb.

Shallots were the bedfellows of the garlic, and occupy a number of the beds on project othello. It is only now, that the green shoots are visible, with a lack of puddles. Like the garlic, these were sown through cardboard that has so far worked reasonably well.

Sunderland Kale occupies the same bed as Mama H’s spinach and chard. Her next mission is to separate out the spinach plants. Her verdict on the Kale that it looked very nice, There is hope for it yet. I do wonder what it tastes like. It doesn’t have the wrinkly leaves that I expected. There are stalks in the raised bed that belong to nero di toscano, it will be interesting to see if that makes a return.

Strawberries exist on the plot. I don’t know what variety they are, only that there were given to me by a plot neighbour. These have to be rehomed to elsewhere on the plot, as this bed needs replenishing. The level has sunk quite a bit, and was home to courgettes and marrows last year.

A quarter of the plot has been dug over today. Mama h is planning on digging over the rest to see what the heavy clay is up to. To be honest, that means digging woodchip into part of it, as it currently sits on black plastic bags. Hopefully the digging in of the woodchip counts as organic matter.

Yes, these videos were made surreptitiously without Mama H finding out. Hence the quiet David Attenborough tones in talking.

Preparation

Diggin’ the dirt-making a start

With the dry weather today, and the sunshine, it made sense to go down to the plot and make a start on the preparation jobs. Since there is a stack of potatoes waiting to be sank, the plot is also in dire need of being dug over.  This was the job that Mama H volunteered herself for, besides, she actually likes digging, I do not. So Mama H, took up the magic spade and fork to dig over the heavy clay. It has dried out considerably, and Mama H was able to slice through it quite quickly with the spade and fork. Occasionally, she would smash the clods with the spade, and hurl lumps of weed passed my head as i walked past with the wheel barrow.

IMG_3200

 

My job, was to start filling up the raised beds with leaf mold and organic waste. In time, the plan is to top off the raised beds with MPC. Many of the beds have sunk after last year so need replenishing.

IMG_3201

There are five builders bags and two black bags full of leaves. These two beds were filled with leaves that haven’t fully decayed. This shouldn’t really be a problem. I had a similar situation last year, and in covering them with MPC, producing a bumper crop of courgettes and marrows as they decayed. That specific courgette bed, does need replenishing. However, it contains strawberry plants that had been nestled in between the squashes that will be rehomed and repositioned so that it can be.

Have managed to fill four beds today, there are a few more to fill. The beds that still have soil in them, will benefit from weeding over. There are patches of grass that have come through.

 

Experimental Chillies and be;;s

California wonder sweet pepper

20140313-080200 pm.jpg

Having sunk lots of hot peppers, I had neglected to sink sweet peppers. An emergency sowing was sunk on that realisation. Six seeds were sank into yogurt pots and placed upon a window sill. I didn’t put these into the heated prop as it was full. And you can tell the difference. That which comes out of the heated prop, is usually a thin wiry seedling. These have a much thicker seedling and look far more robust. These are staying in the window sill. I have added a few more bits of dirt, to help bolster the seedlings. I wouldn’t want them to keel over know. I think there is there a fourth seedling in there ready to sprout. The seed case has visibly cracked.

tomatoes

Tiddler tomatoes 2014

4 Comments

20140226-082008 am.jpg

This years tomato babies are only just starting to get their proper leaves. Some of them are a little bit taller than expected; didn’t quite pot them up as well as I could have. Also they are stretching towards the light a bit. I am debating putting them into the 4TB; mainly as it is still quite cold at night. Should I then cover them with a fleece and leave them to it?

Debating this morning as to whether I should modularise running beans and broadies. All too eager….

overwintering alliums, Taking stock, weather woes

Ebb and flow

Over the last few days, there has been a brief window of respite from the deluge of rain that the British Isles has been experiencing. The volume of precipitation has reduced some what, and the sun-yes, the sun-has even made an an appearance or two. With that, the puddles have started to dissipate! woo-hoo!

The plot is still damp, yes, there has been alot of water. But the puddles that had been there have in fact gone. I can see clearly low the dips, and a few of the onions and shallots that were planted in the late autumn. A few of the flooded parts have sent up a few shoots, but not many. Shallots are only just sending up clumps of shoots.  One of my site neighbours does believe that the onions, shallots and garlic will recover. Her logic being that the plot has been under a foot of water before, and the onions et cetra still came off. We shall see!

The garlic doesn’t seem to be doing too badly, a little wind burned, but still there. The red onions are most likely a write off. As are the broad beans that were sown. Both of these could be resown, but this drying up of ground does present me with the opportunity to perhaps sink potatoes there instead. Broadbeans could be sown else where further down on the plot, rather than on the project othello section. Have never had much success with spuds in open ground, so this could be the plausible window to do so. At least now, Ma doesn’t have to have any broadbeans. It is now easier to see where wig wams could also be positioned. Once the plot gets drier, I can assess all the seven open ground beds on project othello.

The doom and gloom is lifting, the whole plot seems lighter, and there were even some crocuses come through. As well what looked like daffodils and tulips.

Preparation, Taking stock

Thinking out aloud

2 Comments

In this gap, with the wind hurling its weight around and the potential to start sowing; I find myself speculating what I might grow. All plots are different, I know I would say that mine is stuck in its own little universe with its own microcosm. The site I am on, varies as to who has success with what. Plot 2 spends a lot of time under water when we have rain, and the open grown is heavy clay. This means that some things work and some just don’t.

With lots of raised beds on the lower half of the plot; this helps overcome
Some of the flooding issues. The top half-project othello-is largely open ground and the dips in the topography are flooded. Dips, which were where onions have been sunk.

Whilst there are early sowings of window sill babies, I have turned my attention to what happens next. A majority of the raised beds have sunk and need refilling. That is what the leaf mold will be used for. There are seed potatoes that need to be sunk. Might experiment with both open ground and raised beds. Beans would be the next thing. Both runner beans and climbing French beans to be grown up wig wams. Usually these are modularised in March. I would also like to retry celery and cauliflowers. I had some purple cauliflower seeds to try. I did try these before, a classroom experiment that didn’t come off as they got too leggy and keeled over. Have yet to do carrots properly. There is also fennel to consider; didn’t quite get the hang of it last year. Cucumbers were an interesting foray. With crystal lemon and marketmore being the only ones working. Might well be a polytunnel job. Another experiment might be the sweet crimson watermelon in the polytunnel.

Sweetcorn was curious. Did only end up with eight plants surviving. Not sure if I fancy trying that again. Was debating modularised cabbages in the vein as cauliflowers.

All these potential experiments. But will the Wendy, 4TB and poly cope?

aubergine Analogue study 2014, chillies, Experimental Chillies and be;;s, Superhots 2014

Potting up progress

7 Comments

20140222-110152 am.jpg

Have realised that the windowsill babies are getting on a bit. Some of the seedlings have started to grow past their baby leaves, albeit a little slowly. The aubergines have been growing quite quickly compared to the chillies. Thought I might as well pot everything on.

Seedlings are still a little small; but it is still very early. Perhaps won’t have more accelerated growth til later. I have for the moment removed the foodbag cloches. Just hope things don’t got pair shaped!