seeds – Page 2 – Small Plot, Big Ideas

Early signs are encouraging

The rhubarb crowns that I planted in pots earlier are beginning to show signs of life although the fact that I originally planted one on its side probably didn’t help.

My excuse is that it wasn’t easy to figure out which way was “up” when I received the crowns through the post.

Luckily I had my doubts within a few days of the originally planting them and it was a quick thing to fix with hopefully no adverse effects on the growth and future cropping!

Although i planted both varieties in matching pots with the same compost, it’s the Stockbridge Arrow variety which is looking the best. Perhaps this is the result of using bubble wrap over that pot instead of the horticultural fleece which covered the pot with the Champagne variety?

Champagne rhubarb is not so promising (…yet)

These pictures really highlight the difference and if I wasn’t such an optimist I might have had thoughts of giving up on the Champagne variety.

However it’s still very early days and I’ve never grown rhubarb before so it makes more sense to keep an eye on it and let nature do what it does best.

They can be easily transported with us when we move house and I have no other use for those pots at the moment!

The cheap lettuce seeds I bought in the sales that were planted only last week are already showing promise which encouraged me to plant some more vegetable seeds this weekend. This even included some beetroot and peas in the garden veg beds which had been covered for a few weeks in preparation.

The cloches went straight back on again afterwards as well because the weather is unlikely to be in my favour just yet! I’m also choosing to ignore the fact that with any luck our house move will take place before these reach a suitable point for harvesting – the new owners can treat them as a house-warming present though.

I hope I don’t regret that in the future when I have too many plants and nowhere to put them. I can always give them away I suppose so watch this space in the coming weeks as there maybe a vegetable plant give away!

Just a few seeds planted

It was going to be a matter of principle for me this year to follow the general advice and wait patiently for the right time to start planting. I have read so many articles and books emphasising that it is better to wait one more week than to plant too early because it won’t affect the results too badly and planting too soon can be a big mistake.

At first this wasn’t too hard to do especially when we had a couple of spells with a few days of snow and some very low temperatures overnight. More recently it has been getting harder especially as I’m very aware that March is rapidly approaching – I happily choose to ignore the fact that I live in the North East, UK where spring comes a little later than most!

I had been doing so well but I eventually gave in to the temptation and opened some seed packets yesterday which I had bought over the last few weeks. We have had a few consecutive days of relatively good weather (for the time of year) plus I had prepared some seed trays which have been “warming up” in the house for the last few weeks.

This was only a very small sowing just to ease me in so only 1 tray has been used and no more than 10 of anything was planted. This first batch includes:

Onions from seed as I’ve only grown them from sets before
Beetroot because I’ve never tried growing that before
Squash because I’ve never tried it before (and I bought the seeds in a sale!)
Lettuce just because the seeds were cheap and I didn’t want to risk any other seeds yet

There’s not much to show for the effort yet of course but I’ve included a picture anyway and I feel more like spring is on the way at last.. (just until we get the Easter snow of course!)

I’m not impatient, I’m following the instructions!

It does seem a little early in the year but my excuse is that I’m just following the instructions that were included with the box I had delivered from Marshalls Seeds. It is a little annoying that after you complete your order online they will not send anything until the time is right but I can see some sense in this and it certainly stops me getting ahead of myself!

In fact I could develop a liking for this annual delivery event and I can imagine that over time it will become yet one more sign at the start of each year that Spring must be heading our way.

Chitting tray — Chitting potatoes using every available space

This year’s box contained some seed potatoes – Swift – and the included instructions for these were very specific that these should be opened and set out for chitting as soon as possible after arrival.

Apparently the seed potato crop suffered badly with last year’s wet weather and I get the impression that they are worried about rot. Who am I to argue with the specialists and they provide cardboard trays for free so I might as well get it done.

I’m sure that I ordered the same sized small bag of seed potatoes as last year but I definitely got more in the bag this time around – perhaps that is an indication of the smaller size available this year? It remains to be seen whether the smaller sizes this year will be slower to get started or will produce a reduced yield.

Also included in this order was my selection of seeds to try out this year. When ordering these I tried to find interesting varieties that wouldn’t take too long to reach maturity so that even if we manage to sell the house and move, we might stand a chance of eating something that we harvest from the garden!

There is nothing more on order now so unfortunately, apart from getting in some seed compost, the garden shopping is done for the moment. I just need some warmer weather and longer days so I can get started!

A limited seed order for 2013

I have spent the last few weeks pondering which vegetables to plant this year whilst not wasting any time, effort or money on crops that we won’t see through to harvest if we manage to sell our house in the coming months.

Rather than spend the next few weeks repeatedly changing my mind, I decided to just go ahead and order a small selection of vegetable seeds for this year but I tried to focus on those which are ideally early planting and thus early harvesting. I will just have to accept that in the event we are lucky enough to sell fairly quickly that means some crops may be left for the new owners.

However all is not lost as I have a cunning plan to use various containers for some of the slower growing or longer term crops so that we can (in theory at least) take those with us.

Most of these will be started off under cover anyway – assuming I ever buy the replacement glass needed for the cold frame – but some may be planted out directly under cloches in the raised veg beds.

Potatoes

This year I have again gone for first early potatoes (Swift this time) which if the website is to be believed could be ready for harvest “in as little as 7 weeks from planting” – I have my doubts about this but I’ll be interested to see how it turns out.

The Thompson and Morgan potato growing guide has some great information, particularly the planting and spacing guide but also about the various problems when growing potatoes.

Peas

A variety called “Early Onward” which is (allegedly) a “heavy cropper, maturing some 10 days earlier than Onward“. I think that these are destined for one of the veg beds that are now covered with cloches but there’s still no guarantee that the weather will warm up quickly enough to suit my impatience!

The guide to pea growing on the Thompson and Morgan website is a handy reference but doesn’t specifically mention this variety so I’ll just make it up as I go along!

Beetroot

This will be my first attempt at beetroot but it was a special request so it’s worth a try. This is a variety called Boltardy which “is the perfect variety for early sowing“. This will most likely be planted up in a number of medium sized pots/troughs so that I can handle succession sowing to get a decent crop over a longer period while still keeping it slightly portable.

Carrots

A rather interesting looking variety called Purple Haze which can apparently be sown “under frames or cloches in February as soil starts to warm” and unsurprisingly this is a nice shade of purple! Apparently the taste is excellent but I may need to eat them with my eyes closed – after all I’ve always known carrots to be an orange colour!

Rhubarb

Finally I decided to take the plunge and try some rhubarb so I ordered a double pack with 1 crown of Stockbridge Arrow and 1 crown of Champagne. This is definitely one for a large (3ft?) tub which has nothing growing in it right now and I’m hoping that my calculations are good enough so I can fit both crowns in there with no adverse effects

There is a handy rhubarb growing guide on the Thompson and Morgan website which I found very useful and I’ll be going back over that when the delivery arrives

Left overs

There are also still some seeds left from last year – particularly the Nantes carrots and Apollo leeks – so assuming I can find any spare space they may get planted at some point. Unfortunately they aren’t as exciting as the new stuff I’ve just ordered so they’ll probably get forgotten but I’d hate to waste the space!

I can now spend the next week or two watching for the delivery man with my parcels… and waiting for warmer weather of course!

The end of year garden clean up

The weather has been kind around the end of December and so we managed a good couple of days work in the garden to end the year – to my untrained eyes at least it makes quite a noticeable difference. After all the wet weather and the lack of any decent chance recently for things to dry out I wasn’t sure when we started that anything constructive could be done though.

Luckily a little bit of weed control fabric and some strategically placed cloches seem to help bring things together on the veg beds at least. We are already starting to see some shoots coming through which I guess must be the snowdrops so I need to keep the chickens off those flower beds if I want to see them grow!

Now that the leeks are all harvested and eaten all 3 veg beds are now tucked up for a couple of months while I try to decide what to do next year.

And chickens really enjoy it when you dig over the compost heap, in this case I was redistributing the contents of the current compost heap and adding a little of the contents from an older heap to liven things up. I can’t help thinking that the chickens will have cleaned out any worms that I managed to transfer though so maybe the effort was wasted.

What to try in 2013?

We are still hoping to sell the house in the early part of this year so there aren’t any major plans for the veg beds but I can’t just leave them empty. Maybe a quick peek in the seed catalogues and some fancy planning with a calendar will throw up some ideas for vegetables that are happy with early planting and give a quick harvest? Of course there are always a few pots of various sizes dotted around which I could plant up and then if necessary take with us when we move so maybe all is not lost!

I’d better get off to study the catalogues and vegetable books but any suggestions or past experiences would be most appreciated…

Keeping on top of the Spring jobs

After another extended time away from home on business I know that there will be plenty of tasks waiting for me on my return. All of these will be in addition to the usual concerns about the contents of the vegetable beds and how they have coped in my absence.

Here is a brief run-down…

Vegetable beds

After the range of planting that I did a couple of weeks ago I’m hoping to see signs of progress from some if not all of them.

The seed potatoes have been under cloches so they should have been well protected from any frosts recently. Unfortunately the cloches will also have kept the rain off too so I;ll need to check that.

It is much the same for the carrot seedlings I planted out but these are a fast growing variety so I suspect I will see more progress with those.

The onion sets got planted out in a bit of a rush and as a result all I had left to cover them was some netting. Hopefully even that has been some help to keep the worst of the weather off them while they get established.

Planting Out

By this time the French Marigold seedlings will probably be a little too big for their current home and desperate to get out into the real world.

I have great hopes for these mainly for the companion planting benefits however they are also one of the few plants that I am growing from seed this year specifically just for the flowers. Unfortunately I don’t have such high hopes for success with the old poppy and foxglove seeds which I sowed after finding them in a corner of the garage.

The leek seedlings in toilet roll tubes seem to have taken ages but I suspect that is down to my impatience more than any inherent weakness on their part. If my calculations are correct then the first batch should be about ready for planting out. I just hope I left enough room for them when planting out the carrots a few weeks ago but if not then some leeks will just have to suffer a temporary home until the (early harvesting) carrots have gone.

Construction work

The work to reroute the guttering on the garage was completed (fairly roughly) last time but I need to adjust the slope to get a proper flow and finish off the supports as well.

Of course I still need to get the water-butt to use with this but that’s just a minor detail really! It’s just a shame that I’ve missed an opportunity with all the wet weather at home over the last 2 weeks. Never mind I’m fairly confident that the North East of England is not likely to suffer a drought just yet.

Rearranging things

There are always plenty of other (non-vegetable) jobs to get done though and one of them will to rearrange some other plants that have managed to spread their way around the garden.

As usual we have a lot of self seeded Campanula and they will mostly be left where they are this year. However I will clear out some of them in an effort to create the illusion of a few select areas rather than having them all over the whole garden.

I think the time has come to leave the Bluebells alone after many years of removing them from certain areas. This year I got the impression that they looked a little more under control so I think they deserve to break.

It may not be the right time but I think we have a Philadelphus in need of some tidying up. There was an ill-advised attempt at pruning a couple of years ago which didn’t go well – no names of course but it wasn’t me!

If I remember I may add a post with a picture of the Bay tree before I tackle it as we have left this for many years now. What used to a be a fairly well-trimmed but large standard-style tree is now getting out of control and needs a firm disciplinary hand.

At this point I should make it clear that I’m no expert with plant names but I always use these names for the plants in question so if I’m wrong then at least I’m consistent!

Back from the short break and so much to do

Finally we’re back home after a few days away in Devon and in particular a very informative visit to Hidden Valley Pigs – a great smallholding introduction course despite the worst the Exmoor weather could throw at us. The whole area is such a lovely part of the country but it’s just so far away from the North East of England.

Amazingly it seems that the chickens and all seedlings have survived both my absence and the slightly limited supervision of No3 daughter. Even the garlic I planted only two weeks ago is already starting to make an appearance above ground, no doubt greatly encouraged by the recent good weather and the persistent drizzle which now greets us on our arrival back home.

It was a pleasant surprise to find my copy of Reading The Rocks had already come in the post courtesy of North Pennines AONB. It looks to be a fascinating read and loaded with interesting facts but I’ll post a full update on the book after I’ve had a chance to read it properly.

The weekend has all the makings of a damp one but hopefully that won’t hold me back as there are so many tasks I need to get on with. Things like planting out the first early potatoes (under cloches maybe?), installing a second water butt, some minor adjustments to the chicken setup, possibly planting some leek and carrot seedlings out then of course some more seeds can get planted in seed trays if I can make some space… All that plus there are a few of our own fresh eggs to get eaten along with the tasty sausages and bacon we made while at Hidden Valley Pigs!

A busy but enjoyable weekend

With the lovely weather that we had last weekend (along with most of the country) there was some good progress made in the “Small Plot”. Although this obviously meant a corresponding lack of progress with the blog updates!

Lawns are overrated

The new chickens are having a bigger impact as time goes on with the most visible change being that part of the lawn has been replaced by wood chip. This will hopefully improve the overall appearance of that area and reduce the workload when cleaning up after them.

Compost bin made from old turf As a result we had lots of unwanted turf (although much of it was moss if I’m honest) so after a bit of creative thinking the result is a new compost bin at the back of the garden!

It almost certainly needs a few air holes poked in the sides to make sure of a decent air flow but we have nothing to put in there yet so no rush. Having said that, judging by the rate the chickens are filling up the current compost bin it won’t be long before this is pressed into action.

Seedling progress

French marigold seedlings The marigolds (for companion planting) are coming along very well at the moment and seem to have suffered no ill effects as a result of the lack of attention on my part. It’s not always easy juggling time away for business every so often but it looks like I got away with it this time at least!

There has also been some promising signs from the leeks (and carrots) in the cardboard toilet roll tubes. Overall it looks like I’m getting about an 85%-90% germination rate which is very gratifying but I’m not sure I can actually take any credit for that.

As a comparison I have just planted some more carrot seeds in a standard seed tray to see how that goes and so that I have some more seedlings to plant out when harvesting the first batch.

I got some left over garlic for planting from my sister recently so that also went into the garden in a couple of key spots. I even had some left to plant in a tub to leave near the chickens as I read somewhere that growing garlic helps to mask the scent from predators. I don’t put much faith in that but it doesn’t hurt to try it.

Recycle and reuse

Several years ago I bought a metal-framed cold frame – originally to help when taking cuttings – but as seems quite common the glass was too thin and easily broken. As a result it was left in a corner and underutilized but after replacing some of the glass with perspex a couple of years ago I had better luck.
This weekend I had the brain wave to bring it back into service by using some clear plastic (actually the packaging for the cloches and netting I bought recently) in place of the remaining missing bits of glass. It looks a little ramshackle but looks like it will work so I immediately filled it up!
Hopefully I haven’t overdone it now but if I have I’m sure I can find a home for the spare plants…

A weekend off but can I really spare the time?

This weekend will be a non-garden zone and will be devoted to other more pressing tasks such as an Open University assignment which must be submitted by Monday. With luck (and some hard work) it should not interfere with a trip to Stamford Bridge for the FA Cup match on Sunday.

I know that I should be grateful and really should make the most of this “free” weekend away from the garden. However I can’t seem to shake the feeling that I’m missing an opportunity to get a head start before spring really kicks in.

As usual there are plenty of other jobs that I could get on with like the front garden which needs a good tidy up and some sensible pruning on the bigger shrubs. I know that some of these still wouldn’t get dealt with even if I had been around this weekend but it’s the thought that counts.

I’m also fairly sure that I could plant out the first batch of seed potatoes that have been chitting away happily for the last few weeks. I’m sure they will survive one more week of chitting before I get to plant them out.

There is a lovely looking tray of marigold seedlings which were coming on nicely too. These are French Marigolds that are intended for my initial attempts at companion planting because they kill nematodes and deter whiteflies. I’m not too clear what a nematode is just yet or why I would want to kill it but I plan to find out soon! I’ve also noted from the previous link that I shouldn’t plant marigolds next to bean plants (although they don’t say why).

I’m also hoping that the cheap plastic mini greenhouse I bought recently will help to reduce water loss and give decent protection for the seedlings. I have also implemented a “semi-automatic watering system” while I am not around but I’m not sure that she will remember!

Maybe this delay will actually be of some benefit by stopping me planting things out too soon! I have to keep reminding myself that snow at Easter is not uncommon and being in the North East means that spring is slower to arrive than other parts of the country.

New mini greenhouse

Mini greenhouse from the local pound shop Sometimes you find a bargain and sometimes the bargain finds you. I quickly popped in to the local pound shop on Saturday to see if they had anything that might help if I decide to grow runner beans. (they didn’t really).

While in there I spotted this handy three shelf mini greenhouse with zip fronted plastic cover. It was only £10 so I thought I’d give it a try, especially as I know that there is only limited window sill space in my garage.

At that price you probably can’t go wrong and it’s much sturdier than I expected for the money. Even the plastic and zip front looks like it will last a least 2 or 3 years…

I think I can probably live with the prospect that they are on sale elsewhere at a lower price but I doubt that is possible!

Earlier I happened to stumble across what seems to be almost exactly the same product at the Thompson & Morgan website. I was very happy to note that it was priced a little higher than the £10 I paid for mine. Having said that I wouldn’t be surprised to find that this Mini Greenhouse from Thompson & Morgan was a better quality product which would explain the higher price.

UPDATE: The range at Thompson & Morgan seems to have changed since this was first posted so I’ve updated the links above as necessary.