May 22nd 2016 Growth spurts

Taking a break because there are some hefty  showers winging their way across from above.  It rained quite heavily yesterday and we shouldn’t really be working the soil but with limited time, what can you do?  The old gardening tips used to suggest  that you use duck boards across the bare earth, to  spread your weight as you walk across and try to access the rows.  Or you can do what I did, allow yourself no more than two footholds in the soil.

It’s getting towards the end of May and I haven’t sown the brassicas yet.  Help!  Once the old strawberry bed had been dug over, I’ve sown a row of long radishes, leeks, purple sprouting  and  curly kale.  The beetroot had a sow by date  of last year so not sure how successful the germination of those seeds will be.  Are  beetroot varieties related to parsnips? the seeds look similar and I know old parsnip  seeds give disappointing germination rate results.

The ‘sown in the greenhouse’  carrots and beetroot look okay. The carrot rows look slightly happier than the beetroot seedlings but I can see new growth appearing from those.

Then there’s the  french beans I  transplanted after starting off in the greenhouse.  One tray had been sitting just outside the greenhouse for a week  and a slurry of slugs had begun to munch their way through them.  I am trying to keep an eye on slug  damage now they are in the veg patch  but with all the recent rain, they are bound to sneak out when I am not looking

peas at the front, then climbing french beans (I hope – oops,didn’t label them clearly enough).

Another transplanting experiment was with the kidney beans. These were my own seed  and began germinating in the greenhouse well enough, until one day I noticed some bare patches in the  tray, and swollen kidney bean seeds with their first green growth munched off at the soil surface!  Aggghhhhhh.  I’ve rescued about 8 of them which should be enough plants for two people and they are now in the garden, awaiting poles to climb up.

there are a few slug nibbled holes I know but  they’ve survived so far.  The wall behind seems to harbour a whole army of slugs and snails.

And finally the courgette plants.  These germinated well in the greenhouse and made good progress after repotting them in the chicken manure rich compost.  Every year, when I plant them out into the garden, they seem to falter on their growth for a couple of weeks. These look okay though, perhaps because there has been less direct sun and heat, only  damp cloudy conditions?

May 7th 2016 -Old Mixed seed experiment – result!

Remember those old seeds I cleared out of the bottom of my seed box,most years out of date?

Well after germinating them in cold February on the chilly windowsill, then dumping them in the greenhouse beds, these are the results.

It seemed most of the seeds were a mix of different types of radishes.  previous attempts to grow these were thwarted by slugs and/or drought.  There were also  carrots, the variety of which I know not, the odd parsnip..

A pretty  plump yellow radish.Sliced in a salad that  was good to eat. Some have have grown so large that  they have entangled themselves with the carrots.

 

Early May Bank Holiday Weekend

Still below average temperatures outside.

Lots going on in the greenhouse though and maybe more  successful than last year.

In March, whilst clearing out my seed box, I ended up with a large handful of random seeds rattling around the box bottom.   Unwilling to throw them away (of unknown age), I scattered them onto a dampened cotton wool wad,stuck it on the window ledge and waited to see what would happen.

well quite a lot happened as you can see, but not sure what they all are!  I suspect some of them are radish seeds, small rounded hard shiny seeds.

Early Spring

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