Tag Archives: horticulture

The Big Sunflower Project 2016, Uncategorized

Sowing Psychology Sunflowers 2015

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sunflowersseeds

It is that time of year again. I have sown sunflowers. Sunflowers are really simple to sow and grow, and offer bright splashes of colour when the growing season is in full spring. For the last few years I have been supporting the The Big Sunflower Project and also trying to get fellow educators involved in sowing sunflowers as stress busting activity.

As an exercise in mindfulness, sowing seeds, watching them grown, is something really important for me. I have experienced the positive and psychological effects of pottering around the plot, so spreading the word is something that I will always do. Sowing sunflowers is just the thing! This year I am sowing seeds that were saved from one of last years sunflowers. I remember to this day, mum decapitating it and waving it at me so that it could dried.

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The youtube version can be found here.

Sunflowers will grow quickly if they have optimum growing conditions. It is a little cold right now, the sun does seem to have disappeared for a bit. This may slow down seed germination, but I am as hopeful as ever. Sunflowers are also really good for wildlife when they have come to the end of their life; birds will eat the seeds and small insects will live in the stems that I tend to leave until Spring.

You can find out here about last year’s post about sowing Psychology Sunflowers.

tomatoes, Uncategorized

Potting up baby tomatoes 2016

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Only sown a week ago, tomato seeds have cracked, germinated and started to reach for the sky. There were a number of jiffy pellets used, and approximately eight different varieties sown and most of these have successfully come through. With the light levels still very low, and the temperatures low enough to produce snow; the seedlings were starting to get very leggy and demanded immediate potting up. In being gangly, the danger is that they get so tall, they stretch out and snap at the root to keel over. The stems become very spindly if they are left in the heated prop for too long, and most of the seedlings had in fact been fished out so that the lower heat levels might slow them down a little.

Having done the necessary school work for this week, I needed to pot them up. As ever, I have help in the shape of my mum.(Happy mothering Sunday, to all those Mum’s -and dads, grandma’s, uncles and aunties who might occupy that role-on Mama’s day). I was all set to pot up the plants, only for Mum to arrive and wave me out the way. I was having a small crisis in not having any newspaper to put across the floor, so we have had to improvise today.

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You can see the youtube version here.

I have lost count of how many seedlings there are. Suffice to say, there a quite a few. Tomatoes do grow rather quickly when they have optimum growing conditions. For now, I have potted the seedlings into 7cm pots. I-well, Mum has-potted them very deeply and right up to the seed leaves. All being well, this fragile stem-they turn purple when they are cold-will send out root hairs that will in turn anchor the plant into it’s soil and allow it it feed better.

At the moment, they do look very tiny and very small. All being well, these will start to become a little more robust and the true leaves will start to develop.They have interesting lacy quality that makes them instantly recognisable as being baby tomatoes.

ebook, paperback, petal'spottedpreserve, writing

#Plantpottales: The Global Gardening paperback!

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It would be amazing to get support other gardeners as we approach the new growing season here in the Northern Hemisphere. My own experiences have been documented both here on the blog and in the book.

‘Playing with Plant Pots: Tales from the allotment’ charts all of my discoveries, the positives and the pitfalls of growing my own fruit and vegetables on the allotment.

You can find the book in both paper back and in ebook forms. The links to the UK amazon and kindle sites are on the right hand side of the blog.

A reminder though, of where you might find the book:

 

The link for Barnes & Noble can be accessed here

Another thing that is really important to me, is supporting independent book stores Sadly, there isn’t one here in Birmingham, England! Or at least not one I can find anyway. I am determined to find one. That said, I am working with Serendipity Books and More in the US. At the moment, they are the only store in the USA that physically stocks and sells copies of the book plus some of the Petal’s Potted Preserve Merchandise.

So if you are in the US, would like to support not one by two small independent business and are trying to develop green fingers, why not check out the store without walls as developed by Serendipity Books and More.

 

serenditpy

Serendipity books and more: Plant Pot tales

chillies, Experimental Chillies and be;;s, Uncategorized

Chillies 2016: Emergent seedlings

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Devil’s rib
Jalapeno’s

The difference a heated propagator makes. It didn’t take long post transfer to have seedlings. Okay, so the jalapeños had started to crack already; but having the extra heat has certainly improved matters. Both rounds of chillies are sat in the heated propagator so all can be observed and germinators fished out.

Over the last two days, with one jalapeño being  welcomed into the world it was followed by three other pellets. They are very weak and baby like; very fragile looking. I have taken them out of the heated propagator now and positioned them on a window sill where it is relatively  warm and there is an acceptable amount of light. I will keep monitoring them as it is still rather cold and these could easily shrivel up and die because of that.

Not only have the jalapeños germinated, one single solitary devil’s rib has also cracked through its seed case to come alive. This is a new one for me, and I have high hopes for it. Then again, I have high hopes for all the chillies! These are the first come through, and I will be watching carefully to see what others start to germinate. And trust me, I might be watching them patiently; but I do get a bursts of commentary from Mum the minute anything green exists the seed case and unfurls itself from the white pocket.

overwintering alliums, Uncategorized

Sinking Garlic Round three @TheGarlicFarm

Waiting garlic
all the little cloves

With the weather being relatively mild, I have taken the opportunity to sink a third batch of Garlic. What you see above is the rather abundant crop from last year, and the foliage that the autumn planted garlic had sent up before Christmas.

The varieties that have been dibbed in are as follows:

  • Lautrec Wight
  • Early Purple wight
  • Solent Wight
  • Tuscany Wight

I had taken the decision to sink some more as it felt like I didn’t have as many cloves sunk as in previous years. This batch like the first batch sown in Autumn has been placed into raised beds. There is an additional batch that is open ground further up the plot to offer something of a a contrast. All of the garlic sown will get used, it is not as though there will spare unwanted garlic in the kitchen. I am sure that of the varieties sunk, some are old favourites and others are very new to the plot. Some of the varieties are quite mild, creamy cloves that you might need a few of on a dish. Others are thick cloves, very pungent and not necessarily needed in a great quantity. I do like the purple and pinked skinned ones though, these seem to have some character.

In my observations, garlic does take time to get going. This was often a cause for concern for me in the past, as I would worry that the cloves had  been sunk and didn’t appear to be doing anything at surface. What I hadn’t considered that below the surface the cloves were sending out roots and establishing a system to anchor themselves in and gain nutrients. Over the autumn months, slowly but surely the green foliage started to rise and poke through the soil. These are my observations with autumn planted garlic, I have only previously sown spring garlic once before. Even then, the open ground in which it was sunk was entirely boggy and not particularly conducive at that time to the garlic. I have waited to try again, and kept in line with previous experiences by planting into raised beds.

For me, having raised beds has been very useful. Cloves are still planted deep enough, with a hole made by a dibber and the tip only just being visible. Drainage is improved and there is reduction in the likelihood of water pooling around the clove, collecting and causing the seed to rot. That said, cloves of garlic do appear to be fairly resilient, and the garlic sunk into open ground is only a matter of weeks behind that sat in the raised beds. The foliage is present and correct, just a little shorter. If it is difficult to have raised beds, I see no reason why garlic can’t be sown in containers. In fact, the first time that I grew onions and shallots; they were sown into and grown in containers.

Uncategorized

Blueberry Sinking

There were two blueberry bushes on the plot. These were darrow, blue jay and blue crop There had been three, but the third one (Blue crop) had failed to thrive. Today I have replaced the third dead bush with a bush of the same variety.

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You can also see the You tube Video is here

I do like having blueberries on the plot. They are a relatively trouble free, despite not being on the plot for very long. I have three bushes in three pots, and the soil is specifically acidic for them. To be perfectly honest, given how much it has rained I have not had to water them with saved rain water. I do wonder how acidic the soil in the containers is, and will have to look into that at some point. There was a small maiden crop last year, a pleasant surprise, as I wasn’t expecting the young bushes to produce masses. They did flower and they bore fruit for quite some time.

I think the variety that cropped the most was Darrow, and the fruit were large plump and juicy fruits. All of which are still in the freezer as I work out what to do with them next.

chillies, Experimental Chillies and be;;s, Uncategorized

Chillies 2016: Phase one

The festivities are over, the vast majority of people are going back to work. I have had an extra week, and some of it has been spent reflecting upon the start of the new growing season. In all honesty, I have been feeling a little behind and the allotment mojo has taken something of a nose dive. I usually have chillies sown after Boxing day, and this wasn’t the case.

list
setting up
labelled up

Given last years rather disappointing crop, I am reviewing the seeds that I will  be sowing. This has resulted in more than one sowing of seeds. Today I have found some jiffy pellets, and sown the first batch of seeds. Cayennes are the notable absentee from the list, but these will hopefully be sown in the second phase.

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If you can’t access the video above the you tube video cane be view here.

 

In the first phase we have:

  • Orange habanero
  • Devils rib
  • Trinity
  • Coffee bean
  • Scotch bonnet yellow
  • Hot patio Sizzle
  • Hungarian Hot Wax
  • Jalapeño

Some of these have been sown before, others are new experiments. Chillies are not entirely easy to grow. I have found that the hotter the chilli, the lower the chance of germination. Also, serious chilli heads will also use heat and light lamps to germinate. I don’t tend to use the heated propagator any more, as the seedlings that I ended up with were rather spindly and inclined to fall over. I have had greater levels of success with a cold propagator being placed upon a warm window sill.

Seeds were sown into moistened jiffy pellets which were sat in a gravel tray. I used warmish water, rather than cold; as this just make the for cold damp conditions that are not the best of seeds that are hard to crack open anyway. The gravel trays were then placed into a large foodbag, I would have done the same with pots, and then a transparent lid was placed firmly on top.

Hopefully there will be another sowing in a few weeks, and purple haze will feature.

chillies, Experimental Chillies and be;;s, Taking stock, Uncategorized

Tail end of 2015

As 2015 draws to a close, I guess it’s time to take stock of how the year is ending. I will save the proper review of the year for another post; but having visited yesterday; it struck me just how different the plot looks now compared to the height of summer.

From the back, towards the front
from the front, from the right
front straight down towards the back
slightly gothic looking sunflwers

Above, we have a view of the plot from yesterday. Something of a dreary and really very drab landscape. I did a spot of pottering yesterday, as there were a few things that needed tidying. Sadly, I had to take up two threes. The rochester peach and the sylvia cherry trees have both died a death. In the case of the peach tree, it had not even formed a root system, and didn’t take much digging out. I have yet to consider my victoria plum tree. Looking in a rather sad state, this is a tree that has rather confused me. The tree flowered, having formed foliage in the spring. There was lovely blossom. However, as time went on; the foliage turned copper; much like it was all aflame and started to die off. The one or two fruit on the tree didn’t last very long either. My plan was to dig it up as it is most likely diseased; I just didn’t get that far yesterday. Glad tidings however, a belated santa claus session means that I will be replacing both the peach and cherry tree, and looking at another Victoria Plum.

Another cause for much sadness were the full season raspberries. These have had little or no success this year. The raspberries that I did manage to harvest were actually from slightly confused autumn canes. The full season canes are going to be replaced, thankfully the supplier was very understanding. This will happen next year now, as I have pulled up the cane that again were very twiggy and no bigger than they had been when they were first planted. I am not going to blame my clay soil as this doesn’t appear to bother the other things on the plot.

avenues of roses #2
avenue of roses
scar;et emperor runner beans
sunflowers!

You can see between the two galleries the difference that a few months can make. Only yesterday did I finally take down the bean frames and tidy up the now very much ex-sunflowers. I say tidy up the sunflowers, as I haven’t taken them down. I have left them in situ, least of all because they will naturally bio-degrade. They are probably still helping support the wildlife, if not being eaten; the now very skeletal flowers are probably playing host and home to critters. Tidying up was necessary, as it was all looking a bit post-apocalyptic and very mad max and the thunderdome.

Having a space between Christmas and New Years is good opportunity to reflect and sort through your seed stash. In the past, just after Boxing day; I would sow my chillies. I haven’t got that far yet! I have however, sorted the seeds from one seed box to the work in progress seedbox. Can’t remember what I did with my Cayenne seeds- I bought a fresh packet!-but I do have something of  a vast and diverse range anyway. Have yet to get any compost though, I was going positively twitchy at not having any; so will remedy that in the coming week or so. In my experience, I have used an electric propagator and also used an unheated windowsill one. I think I am now leaning towards the latter, not just because of how mild it is. That method has produced healthier, more robust seedlings in the past and been effective for cultivation.

The floral seed box from Loldeantimber
The current stash in the box

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

petal'spottedpreserve, Uncategorized

#12days of Christmas #petalspottedpreserve

Microfibre Petal Tea Towel £4.50
Petal Apron £13
Petal Mug £7
Petal Canvas Bag £4.50

With the 12 days of Christmas now underway, remember you can still can get lots of Petal’s Potted Preserve goodies. Whilst they may not be delivered by Santa Claus, the goodies are still available. 12 days of Christmas does go up to and including the 6th of January. The day that the three wise men got to deliver their own special gifts.

You can find full details on the page titled “petal’s merchandise’.

There is also a competition being carried out by the lovely Michael Perry; Petal will be participating. More details to follow!

 

Taking stock, Uncategorized

The autumn/winter slump

avenue of roses
the arch

Summer feels really far away. both looking back on the growing season and the next growing season. So much so,  my current feeling is as though I have somewhat hit a slump. The weather has not helped, it has been wet, windy and wild; but this is not unusual as we arrive at the tail end of the year.  This has been compounded somewhat by real life being wonderfully busy. School work, Petal, and training on a Saturday for a helpline, have all meant that the allotment has been somewhat on the back burner. Attending a Christmas Fair last week with a whole host of Petal goodies (see the merchandise page) was also an interesting experience. Interesting in that there were a lot of learning points! Overall, the last twelve weeks have been incredibly busy, and now is the time to take a moment and slow down a little. It was harder this year, to write the NABLOPOMO posts as well. I have always enjoyed writing these, but this year this was a little more difficult than I had anticipated.

I guess what I really need to do, is to stop. Pause, and take stock of what is going on with my universe. Don’t worry, I am not about to abandon the plot and blog. No plans to that all. What I need is a rest, and to be honest, the plot is usually part of that process. I have in the past, taken a moment during school work Sunday or marking coursework; to take a walk down to the plot and potter.

The pottering would then involve doing  a few things here and there and refreshing that way. The frequency of doing that, has be somewhat reduced lately. And I can feel it, in being slight zoned out and tired. Though colouring has helped!  I have a number of gardening themed colouring books that I have been using and they have somewhat reduced the allotment withdrawal symptoms. You do find yourself looking at the pictures and thinking about what the drawings might look like if they were really on your allotment plot.

Here we are in the Advent period. The garlic is all in, the poly tunnel has been tidied in a fashion. The grapevines could probably benefit from some structural engineering, and be defoliate. The roses and raspberries will also need pruning. I have yet to window shop trees. My peach and cherry trees failed to do anything on the plot, and I would like to replace them so that they sit alongside the other trees on the plot. There are certainly jobs to do, there is a maze of strawberry runners to untangle!

Having miserable weather really does make going to the allotment harder. As I leave, I am told to not bring in any mud, for one. It will take small steps to get back into the swing of things. Christmas and the festive period is the optimum time to relax, take stock and try to refocus with the new year.

This also means that with the days after Christmas, I shall sow chillies. This is the pattern that I have had for a couple of years now. So I will select the seeds that I want, and make a decision about next years experiments. The new growing season will arrive very quickly.

Here’s to getting back to the plot, and making the most of the down time.