March 2012 Blog Posts (94)

The warm weather over the last few days, has thrown us all into a seed-sowing frenzy, me included.  I have planted out one batch of peas in containers and have a second lot in the greenhouse just coming through, carrots, beetroot and parsnips have been sown in the ground and cloched over, to be on the safe side.  Now though, the weather has turned slightly colder, so I expect things will slow down a little.  If you are interested in what varieties I have sown, pop over to…

Had 2 attempts at growing carrots up the farm last year, zero success, probably because it had been unworked clay soil, so have set another row this season to see if we have any change, now the ground has been fed and tilled. A while back, D.T. Brown sent me a free sample of Parsnip Duchess F1 (50 seeds) Exhibition range. I didn't think they would do any good, so they went to the back of the seed box, anyways following Colins method, looks like a solution, so this morning the 50 seeds are…

Sowed:- Purple Cape Caulie, Cabbage Primo, Cabbage Celtic, Giant Cabbage.

That's it, I've got all of this years spuds planted so now all I can do is wait and pray for decent weather. I'm a couple of weeks earlier than usual but I couldn't let all that sunshine go to waste. With 118 planted in an assortment of containers in the greenhouse and dotted all over the garden my major task is going to be keeping them supplied with water if we get any long dry spells. Methinks I need a couple of extra water butts.…

Mounded up, the main crop spuds, then set up the sprinkler and let it soak the spuds for a couple of hours. We then got on with weeding the onion raised bed, very, very carefuly, we have had accidents with onion hoes in the past. Trimmed the grass paths, then washed the car, and with hosepipe rinsed it. All crops got a good dousing while we was at it, very little to do up there now could do with another plot!!!!! Ordered some scaffold boards of one of my mates, they should get delivered on…

It’s the warmest and driest spring in recent memory!

All the seeds I sowed managed to come up including the heat loving cucumber and chilli. Cucumbers have 3 leaves now, and the Chilli has 3 pairs of leaves each, which is remarkable to me. Last year I waited and waited for them to come up in vain; I also have 5 tiny upright chilli called firecrackers. I bought them last summer but almost forgot them. When I came to sow them a week ago, I felt cheated by my purchase, it only…

My Aloe Vera plant hasn't been looking too good lately, but I noticed the other day that there was three new shoots coming off the plant, which I carefully re-potted over the weekend, hopefully these will survive. I mixed the old soil from the plant with some of the vegetable compost, which will hopefully give them a little feed to encourage some growth.…

On our allotment site we have 7 or 8 vacant, 5 pole plots and a 0 waiting list, there are at least 2 more becoming vacant that I know off, one being next door to me. New tenancies start on 1st April, so after much pondering I e'mailed the buereaucrats this am. asking whether I might take on Plot 10a. Have gained a reply saying "No. only one 5 plot per household" Now in the past, a husband could have a 10 pole plot and er indoors another 10 pole, last year friends of mine gained 2 X 5 pole…

Hiya folks!

Hope you have all been enjoying the fabulous sunshine!!?? We've had it great here in NE Scotland for the past few days, but we have cloud rolling in, the wind has got up and it's a bit cooler today. A great day for doing a bit more digging. Hubby and I put up his new shed over the last weekend, man, it's BIG. Not as big as the one that was here when we moved in, but at 8ft x 8ft(ish) it's still a biggie!! Right slap-bang in the middle:…

Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun, I did that today. Loads of bodies up the lotties, so a fair amount of chanking was accomplished

Put in 39 King Teds and 10 Congo potato tubers, this seasons spud crop is now interred....

Inspected all plantings after yesterdays frost and 1 caulie looks a bit dodgy, but like Sammantha says "you take a risk" so shall set another couple tomorrow. No sign of any peas as yet, but set another row of semi-chitted hurst green shaft.…

good week down on plot 58 lots of jobs done and the potato trial is under way and i managed to get the Camera out for the first time this year and got some good snapsRead more...

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Just a few photos and a short update on my blog here

At this time of year I always find it difficult to decide whether summer has started or whether it's a false start. For the last two years the months of Spring only seem to mark the few weeks when blossom and daffodils bloom. Otherwise the weather has the heat and dryness of summer, the sky is it's beautiful sunny blue and the only cloud on the horizon is the upcoming hosepipe ban starting in April. So I've taken the plunge with our tomatoes ...…

Repotted the 2 gherkins (they are going to be big) and 4 tobacco seedlings. Then on Sammantha Smiths advice set cumin, corriander, basil, oregano, spinach dominant (heritage), french marigolds, all in trays, then 24 nasturtium, 24 sweet pea, fields of fire (heritage) and 1 red brussel in individual pots. Put a load of peas in to soak, and then up the farm, on the section where the PSB had been, (prior to the massacre), I  have sweet william planted to the front of that bed, so amongst that…

Sunday was a beautiful day, so I took the opportunity to re-pot some of the vegetables I have on the windowsill at home. Most of these had now grown to a good handling size, so they were easy to transport to their new pots. Soil wise, as I still have a whole bag of the Grow Your Own Vegetable Compost, which contains 6 months of feed, I mixed this with some of the water crystals I have and filled up the 20cm pots I bought last year with the mixture.



For the Tomato varieties,…

It was a little chilly and also a little rainy on Saturday, but I managed to pop onto the balcony and re-pot a few of my vegetables from the mini-greenhouse, which have been overwintering for a few months now and the Sweet Pea plants, which I've been growing in doors.



Last weekend I bought a new large pot with a lovely red flower design on it, which I filled with…

Grow your own weekend at Wisley.....

RHS have advised that this event will be held later in the season in future years !!!

Well, we got to see the vegie plot that gardeners world used to be filmed at, 25 poles of finely tilled earth, with some rhubarb crowns stuck in a small bed. Then there were 2 muppets, armed with a bulb planter demonstrating how to inter a potato tuber...The NVS had a stall in the glasshouse where children could fill a pot with compost and plonk a runner…

Carrots

Due the the good weather, the carrots I sowed are doing very well

I have now even thinned them out which hopefully, should get them moving even more

I have designed a frame covered with enviromesh to prevent the carrot fly

See more…

At last I've finally made a start on my new half plot allotment!

Over the last few days, we have put in some brussel noissete seedlings, couple of giant cabbage, spinach, caulie and calabrese. Today, because it was so nice, and I had no jobs to do up the farm, had to dream one up in order to leave the penthouse, so against my sagacity, put 10 kestrel, 10 charlotte and 10 blue salad in, whilst wearing shorts. The chicks go crazy.........