Potting On

A weekend away playing on the trains in North Yorkshire........





...... but got back home in time to plant out the tomatoes and a cucumber into their final spots in the courtyard - although it was in the dark by the time I'd finished, hence this particularly poor pic.

I used a mix of tomato grow bag and MPC - after some years of peat free growing, I'm afraid I've succumbed to the dark side as my results last year (despite feeding well) in particular were very disappointing.

Busy, busy....

The trouble with this time of the year is that I tend to go on holiday, and also have my work cut out with training for our town's flagship fundraising event, both of which coincides with the weather being ideal for everything green going bonkers and growing at a triffid-like rate.

That means that some parts of the plot at the Hill look like this:






However, after today's hard work, at least some of looks like this, with the potatoes popping up....










.....and this, with newly laid chippings on the paths (seedlings are a mix of carrot, leek, parsnip and weed - I hoed the weeds, but am anxious not to disturb the other stuff) - which is more like it.

I have the bean beds to knock into shape before I can plant out the runners and French beans which are growing nicely at home, ditto a bed for the brassica seedlings.






Talking of seedlings, the new tomato seed packets that I bought from Wilko and sowed on 21st April showed no sign of life after three weeks - so I gave up and bought some small plants from the Farmers Market on Friday.

As you might guess, the following day, the seeds popped up. Ain't nature great?

Sowing in pots #2

Due to the fact that I used rather aged seed when I sowed tomatoes, sweet peas, lettuce, brassicas and peppers last month, the success rate has not been what you might call phenomenal. In fact, although the lettuce and brassicas have all come good, only one batch of three lots of sweetpeas are up, and none of the tomatoes or peppers.

So I had a seed clearout (most were dated about 2010), and bought some fresh from Wilko.  The varieties might be a bit 'everyday', but at least they should actually grow.

Last night I sowed the new tomato seeds, climbing and dwarf beans, runner beans, squash and courgette.  Then I had a grand sweep up - amazing how far round a kitchen a bag of compost can get!

Sowing!

Had a morning out having a look round the 'posh' garden centre with mum and was treated to coffee and cake - hurrah! - then we buzzed off the the garden centre which actually has plants, and I bought my seed potatoes.

This evening, I've done my first sowing session. Every year I say I'll sow successionally, but never do - so it's this one, and the bean/pea/tender crops in about a month and that's it.

I now have pots of brassicas (cauli, cabbage, kale, broccoli) and tomatoes and peppers, and lettuce.

 I'm rather surprised that my little helpers didn't join in - they must be slipping, an 'interesting thing' generally brings them from rooms, if not floors away; even if the 'interesting thing' is being done silently or when they are flat-out asleep.

Autumn Produce

Having offloaded a couple of butternut squash and a couple of the smaller pumpkins (one to an ex-offender who came to the door selling household wares, although I am not sure if he actually wanted it), I am left with one large pumpkin to 'do something' with, and a big mixing bowl full of green tomatoes.

The pumpkin is still to be thought about, but the green tomatoes are now chutney.

I kept the cherry tomatoes to one side - they have been gradually ripening and afforded me a little taste of Summer each time I pop one in my mouth. Lovely.

....and then it was Autumn!

Y'see, that's the trouble with Summer on the plot.

There's so much going on that the blogging doesn't keep up with the action, and before you know it, those burgeoning seedlings are fully grown plants, cropping away like billy-o; and by the time everything is picked and in the freezer, and weeded, and planted out and tended .... well let's just say that something has to give.

So let's get back on the blogging bike with a picture of Autumn harvest - only the cherry tomatoes in the courtyard ripened this year - so the mixing bowl full of green tomatoes are waiting for me to turn them into green tomato chutney.

I've had mixed results with the Marshalls trial seeds which I was kindly sent earlier in the year - the courgette 'griller mix' was superb - my two plants grew a sensible number of sensible size courgettes on sensible sized well behaved plants.  Brill.

Although I haven't eaten any of the squash yet, the 'sweetmax' butternut squash have been good growers too - with four whopping fruit off the plant in this a cool Summer; and the pumpkin 'knucklehead' has produced well too, with two medium and one large fruit.

I had trouble with germinating the two beef tomato varieties - hence the chutney - but they look big and meaty nonetheless.

Overall, the varieties did well in the cool summer (particularly the butternut squash which I always thought needed a long hot summer) - with the courgettes definitely on the list for next year, if nothing else.

And for the foreseeable future, I will be mostly eating pumpkin...

Marshall's Trial Seeds and Potting On

I now have too many tomato plants - or I will have in a couple of weeks when all these seedlings have grown up a bit.

I have room for six buckets in the courtyard garden - i.e. six tomato plants - and I already have the baker's half dozen plants that my friend kindly gave me the other day when I thought that my germination was zero.  Now my germination is rate is 17 out of 18.

Two of these varieties are from the Marshall's seed trial, and I will pay particular attention to how these do.

I've had good germination from their courgette, and two varieties of squash too; and the cabbage - however, I've only had two of the 'brokali' come up out of six modules with a couple of seeds in each module.

I had a grand potting on session last night - the courgettes need a bit more room each for a couple of weeks before planting out, and I won't have room for the brassicas for a while yet, so they all moved up a pot size for the time being.

Back to the plot at the weekend* for more bean planting out, and bed prep for the tender crops - and then Domino cat can have his bench back!

*But not on Sunday, when the streets of our town are closed off and I join 6,999 others belting round the borough and the adjoining largest urban park in Europe.  'We're fundraisers - everyone gets a finishers medal - it's not a race!' goes the official line. Not a race? Yeah, right.

Plant Sale, Poor Service and Planting Out

The weekend was very busy with activity at the Hill - we had our Spring plant sale on Saturday and Sunday lunchtimes (the clubhouse open for beer and sandwiches both days too - hurrah!).  The idea was that if you sow a few more that you usually do, the extras could be sold with the proceeds going to allotment funds.

With this in mind, when I did my big sow-fest in April, I also went through all of the outrageously out-of-date seed packets from the seed swap, and sowed 12 types of brassicas thickly in strips of modules (8 of these germinated, 4 types were duds), and half a dozen trays of 'everything else' including herb seeds to make up mixed 'living salad' tubs.

I took those along the the sale which was well attended on both days, and couldn't resist a cherry tomato, cucumber (I must have overlooked these and haven't sown any this year) and a tray of dianthus which I plan to plant out at the front of the plot.

With so many people around I didn't get as much done as I had hoped to on the plot on Saturday just pulling this armful of rhubarb, and a meal of asparagus - not least because on a return visit to the Hill at tea time the car broke down.

Vantage Toyota World had the car in for a recall in the week and managed to release it back to me with the alternator unplugged.  The car was jump-started easily enough (thank you, nice man in Sainsbury's car park), but of course the battery was not recharging as I drove and indeed became more and more flat until an excitement-filled few minutes when the battery was so out of juice that the power steering failed as I was driving.

Ten points to the RAC who had the world's easiest car fix by plugging the alternator back in; minus several hundred points to Vantage Toyota whose slapdash actions could easily have been far more catastrophic than the cross customer with a wasted evening.

I went back on Sunday to put up the pea wigwams, plant out peas, sweetpeas and broad beans, which look fantastic - instant allotment!  However, I couldn't take photos as my phone ran out of juice.

Not a good weekend for batteries, all in all!

Normal Service Has Resumed

Yes, I was so organised.  Yes, I was so on top of everything.  Yes, I went away on holiday.  And yes, I now harbour the National Collection of dandelions on my plot at the Hill. Boo.

However, apart from the weeds, the rhubarb is also flourishing; the strawberries have flowers and I have cut half a dozen asparagus spears. Hurrah!

I set about whacking it all back into shape on Saturday late afternoon, and made some headway with weeding dandelions and the willowherb out of the paths, and trying to end up with all the cleavers in the compost bin and not wearing it home.  Not for nothing is is called the Velcro plant.

I saw Reg-next-plot at the clubhouse when I nipped in for a beer afterwards, and he offered me some onion seedlings, if I would like to go round and pick them up.

Once I'd collected the 30 seedlings in little pots on Sunday morning, I went straight to the Hill to plant them out.  They look robust and fizzing with life whilst standing proud in the pots; and like weedy slips of grass when planted out.  I do hope that they survive!

The good news is that all the seeds that I put in during my sow-fest before I went away are all up and raring to go - apart from a complete absence of tomatoes. Not sure why that is, and given that two of the varieties are from my trail of Marshall's seeds, I am a bit concerned as I have no spare seed.

I'll get the broad beans and peas of the bench at home and planted out at the weekend, something that will please Domino cat no end.

He says that it's a bit of a squash at the far right of the bench - look closely - and he would prefer not to have to share!

Marshalls Trial Seeds and Other Seed Sowing

To tell the truth, I'm a little unnerved about being organised this year.  I went to the Hill last weekend and had a wander around, spotting what might be parsnips germinating, and weeded out a few dandelions in the asparagus bed, but that was all.

Perhaps it has all kicked off now though - I had an email through from Marshalls asking me if I would like to trial some of their new seed varieties and blog about my experiences, and last week the seeds came through the post.

I only sow carrots and parsnips direct at the Hill - if the seeds do germinate down there, they have to contend with weeds as slugs, so it always seems to be a better bet to get everything sown here at home in the courtyard garden.

So I have a giant mid-April seed sowing-fest, and at the weekend I turned the kitchen into a potting shed.








The Marshalls seed varieties are interesting - a couple of squash, a pumpkin, a courgette; a couple of tomato varieties, and a couple of brassicas.

The packets are colour co-ordinated by family, with a description and sowing instructions on the front.............






........... and no. of seeds (not many!) and best before date on the back.

I'll see how I get on with them.