Go The Rocketeers! Post No.2

Hi! 

Here I am with the second post about the time spent with Kim at Green Rocket Courses.

In the afternoon, after our delicious lunch, we did a few practical things which I'll talk about but will also cover other things we had talked about in the morning and the afternoon.

A really good reason for growing in a poly tunnel (PT) is that you can extend your growing season but you can also grow things which will not necessarily grow in a greenhouse. Along with this a big part of Kim's philosophy is mixed-planting in the PT; she is a great advocate of mixing things up when it comes to planting; there are a number of reasons behind this way of doing things this way so here we go.

Why put all your hungry plants together when this means they will need loads of watering and also take all the goodness out of the soil/compost? Crop rotation is also not something you need to practice if you go down this route.

Plant your sprouting broccoli with your peas which are nitrogen fixers as we did here!

Nitrogen fixing plants contain symbiotic bacteria called Rhizobia within nodules in their root systems, producing nitrogen compounds that help the plant to grow and compete with other plants. When the plant dies, the fixed nitrogen is released, making it available to other plants and this helps fertilize the soil. Its always a good idea to leave what is left of your peas at the end of the harvest to rot down into the soil.

Why not mix up your herbs and salad leaves with your tomatoes, or plant your basil with your tomatoes when they go together so well in cooking why not when they are growing. This means you can go foraging in your patch for everything you need for a summer dish! You will also be able to grow a range of mediterranean herbs in your PT.

Here you can see a variety of plants all growing quite happily together - leek, strawberry, carrot and coriander.

Another fun part of mixed-planting is that if plants self-seed then you get a nice surprise for no work really!

Now there is no reason at all why you shouldn't try some of the hints and tips here even if you don't have a PT so why not give some of these things a go outside on your plot or in your green house?

Now part of the day we talked about something which Kim is very keen on and that is the no-dig approach to gardening,; this can be practised either in your PT or on your plot outside. I have written about this recently but the idea is that you cover over your soil, or a new area to make a growing patch, with cardboard as this will degrade. Then you cover that with your compost and you don't ever dig over the earth; if you do you disturb the earth then it is more likely to recover after being dug by producing weed growth. By continuing to mulch over the surface you will prevent the vast majority of any weeds from returning. 

If you take this approach it means there is a lot less work. If you are no-dig gardening outside then there may be some weeks or plants such as brambles or docks and woody plants which will need removing before you start.

(Just a tip, if you are using cardboard from large boxes it is worth is taking a bit of time to take off any sellotape or remove any staples.)

If you want to buy compost in bulk when setting out your PT it is wise to look online as the more you buy of anything will always be a bit cheaper; this goes for gravel, too, if you chose that for your pathways.

Ok this part of my post is some random things we talked about.

Should you use old seeds?
Try not to waste anything so older seeds will probably be slower to germinate but may still grow. Sprinkle the seeds in between other plants but put a marker to remind you they are older seeds so you know how they perform.

Carrot fly
Carrot fly are attracted to the actual smell of the carrot so it's a great idea to plant something with a strong or distinctive aroma close to it like garlic close to it or you could just try squashing something to deter it and leave it close by.

Slugs
One way to help cut down on the number of slugs getting in among your plants is to lay a piece of wood on the soil/compost. Slugs will always gravitate to underneath something so when you lift up the wood and find them you can just dispose of them as you wish away from the plants.

Cheat growing
It is more than acceptable to buy some things from the supermarket to grow in your PT. A great example is herb pots. If you buy a lovely, healthy looking basil plant how long does it last - not long. The reason being that if you take a look at the roots it is pot-bound so it can hardly breath let alone thrive. So, you can divide the plant into 3 or four parts and plant out and they will do much better. Basil does tend to do better in doors but if you have more than one you can keep one in the kitchen and the others elsewhere. 

- A great herb for over-wintering is parlsey and it self-seeds easily, too, so happy days!

Well, I do hope you have enjoyed my overview of Kim's Poly Tunnel course, but nothing compares to the real thing so son't forget to check out her website where you can find dates for up-coming courses this year. I had a fantastic time and I thoroughly recommend attending any of Kim's courses.

Go Rocketeers!!

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

(Apologies for the inconsistencies with typing - Blogger not playing ball I'm afraid but hope you still enjoy.)

Go The Rocketeers! Post No.1

Hello!

A slightly grey sky here in mid-Wales today but at least it isn't raining.

Yesterday it was raining as I made my way to what turned out to be a really wonderful day with fellow Rocketeers. Five of us were attending a Poly Tunnel Growing course with Kim of Green Rocket Courses; I have mentioned her on my blog recently.

Kim swapped the Lanes of Brighton for the hills of Wales and now runs courses on her wonderful smallholding where she is sharing her knowledge, experience, hints and tips with enthusiastic gardeners, be they novices or seasoned. I learnt so much, being a novice, and have lots of share so will be writing more than one post about the day. I may not manage to cover everything but do hope you find it both informative and interesting.

We stepped through this lovely gateway leading to Kim's garden.

The course was aimed at those looking to purchase a poly tunnel (PT) and how to get the most out of it. Kim has two including a brand spanking new one from First Tunnels which is 30 feet in length. We talked about everything from how large a tunnel you might need, planning inside and out and lots more.

The day began with tea, coffee and homemade muffins and we got started. We began talking about the actual siting of your PT and if you need any form of planning permission. In general if you are going to put it in an existing garden most people don't have to go through that process. You are best to take into account how close it is to the road and any neighbours and it shouldn't be more than 3 meters high if it is not for commercial use.Ideally it would be placed at the top of any incline for the benefit of drainage. Siting it north-south on the long side would give the best chance for sun exposure but you should also take into account exposure to wind if you are on a hill. Any company erecting your PT would be able to give you advice.

LAYOUT
When it comes to the layout this is entirely up to you. Raised beds can be made as high as you want, you would need a potting bench/staging and you might want seating; 

a PT can be a social area and being surrounded by your plants whilst planning your ideas with a brew is a lovely idea, I think.

You want to think about how you will get between the beds; gravel or slate on top of membrane where you are creating paths is a great option as this keeps weeds down and is a fairly cheap option for a relatively large space.

- Gravel laid outside of the PT is a great idea, too, as this prevents moss creeping up the sides of the structure and keeps the muddiness down outside so not bringing in too much.

You many also plan in space for a small pond. You can put an old container into a corner, add a few plants and stone etc and the water will encourage wildlife visitors to your PT whilst acting as a heat sink. Talking of heat, it is entirely up to you whether you decide to heat your PT at certain times of the year, try it and see if you think it makes a difference to the propagation or growing of your plants.

WATERING. 
Keeping your plants watered can be done by various means. Good old watering cans always work but if you have a large space to cover this will take some time. You could attach a hose to your water but and spray the plants but you could consider investing in a sprinkler system which is the most effective way as you can water for longer but less frequently whilst getting down to the roots.

VENTILATION
You will at times need to open the doors and/or vents of the PT. This is beneficial for reasons such a letting air circulate through and this can help with reducing blight if there is air flow. It might just be too hot! If you have the doors open you may want to ensure any free-ranging chickens, rabbits etc are not going to sneak in for a snack you may want to  think about some sort of barrier against the door way. It is an option to put netting over open windows but if you want the bees and other insects to fly through then just let them.

CLEANING
Now cleaning your PT is something you probably only need to do once a year; it is a bit of a faff so you might want to enlist the help of friends! A good way to clean it is to use an old duvet cover and with a to and fro motion this will clean the roof quite well then water and a sponge would work for the rest of the cover.

After a very interesting morning we stopped for a wonderful lunch of delicious homemade quiche, potato salad and lots of salad leaves and purple sprouting broccoli.

In my next post I'll talk about some practical things we learnt about in the afternoon.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Bits and Bobs Into The Weekend.

Yesterday the May issue of Grow Your Own magazine arrived through my door. I am so pleased I decided to subscribe to it as it's helped me a great deal since my journey of sowing and growing began. I love that you get help, tips, advice, offers and free stuff, like peas and beans this month!

Now, a good while ago GYO were asking for readers to submit gardening tips so I duly sent in mine and look what happened!

It's me having one of my letters published, again, so I will be very happily receiving £40 worth of vouchers by the end of the month to spend with Thompson and Morgan. I am ridiculously excited and it couldn't be a better time to buy things for the garden; I think first on the list will be my sweet potato slips but not sure what else just yet. Wish I could get paid to write stuff, that would be just fab.

Another exciting thing happening is that tomorrow I am going on a one-day poly tunnel course. Now I know I don't have a poly tunnel but it will still be a beneficial experience. Even more fab is that it is one of the courses run by the lovely Kim Stoddart at Green Rocket Courses here in beautiful Ceredigion whom I wrote about recently. I shall be setting off bright and early whilst Jon takes care of the boys for the day. I already have parental guilt piling up as I always feel I am skiving off my family duties when I get to do something on my own, but I'm getting round to the idea,  butI am on duty for Alfie's football tournament on Sunday morning.

In other news, yesterday was absolutely glorious here so once the Airbnb guests had gone, washing up done, washing on the line and a quick tidy up I put the boys to work on the leftovers from a fire we had recently; it needed shoveling to fill in a gap where Jon had been doing some building near the tractor shed. 

I then got round to tidying out the shallow sink where I grow lettuce and spring onions, sowing Kale seeds in the old cold frame, Basil seeds for the kitchen window and coriander and flat leaf parsley in the herb loo and sink! I also took out some poorly performing onions from one of the tyres; it was a waste of space for so few and I'm going to possibly put Marketmore cucumbers in there instead - I've never grown them outside so we'll see how we get on.

I had a quick look at the fruit patch; bushes, canes and trees are mostly looking really healthy with lots of shoots so chuffed about that. 

Ok, I think I better get going as probably going food shopping in an hour or so and need to tidy up the breakfast things.

Hope everybody has a lovely weekend and can't wait to report back after my exciting day tomorrow.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Kim Stoddart - Doing It Her Way, and Yours..

Continuing on from talking about reading copies of Country Smallholder magazine I have been reading written articles, and some online, by Kim Stoddart; I've been aware of her work for sometime as she is based here in wonderful Wales.

As part of my quest to include more interesting posts on my blog, Kim has kindly agreed to let me include one of her online posts here. Should you not know Kim she is an advocate of a bit of guerrilla gardening, as I like to describe it, and I love it! I have trouble sometimes deciding if I should go a bit rogue when sowing and growing and Kim gives you the confidence to do just that. She encourages you to be a bit of a maverick, go with the flow, try something different and even throw away the rule book at times to just do it YOUR way.

Kim has really made me think that I don't have to follow the crowd and be more open to her ideas, and those of others too, who go about things in a different way. (She also blogs about lots of other interesting and important things including her autistic son who benefits from a life outdoors.)

So down to blog business. Kim has provided me with a great post for this time of the year, about growing on from supermarket veg! I really hope you enjoy this guest post, learn more about Kim and her really interesting way of going about her gardening and perhaps be inspired to try something new for yourself. Here we go, my first guest post - over to you Kim.

THE BEST GARDENING CHEATS - SUPERMARKET VEG

I'm all for growing pretty much everything from seed, or taking cuttings wherever i can but sometimes I'll slip a cheeky cheat or two into the gardening mix. Now is actually a great time to undertake some growing adventures with leftover materials from your weekly food shop.

Of course conventional advice often dictates that this produce cannot and should not really be used, ever. The mere suggestion to some might well illicit some self-assured headshaking and a rather sharp intake of breath, but don’t listen because I’m here to tell you it can be done and it’s actually a really rather …fun thing to do.

There’s a huge amount of room for experimentation here and because there’s such a direct link with the food you buy, it’s a great way of getting children and big kids everywhere interested in a spot of grow your own.

Here are just a few of the easiest ideas for this time of year:

Herb pots

Some herbs can be rather fiddly to grow from seed (such as parsley) and shop-bought herb pots can be easily grown on once you have harvested some of their leaves. You’ll have to be relatively quick and rescue the plants from their painfully confided quarters. Do so by very gently dividing the root ball into several small clumps and plant them out into a spacious helping of potting compost. In return you’ll get many plants for a minimum amount of effort.

Spuds and garlic

Come spring it’s common to find a few potatoes that have started sprouting in a dark corner somewhere and which will have turned spongy and not especially edible as a result. If you have a few like this why not plant them out?  Just be aware that organic produce is preferable as it’s less likely to have been sprayed with growth inhibitors (which are used to provide a maximum shelf life).

Likewise with garlic, which is so easy to grow. Just select the plumpest looking cloves and tubers to plant out.

Sprouting shoots

You don’t need to buy small (often expensive) packets of special sprouting seeds – just work with what you happen to have in your food cupboard. Dried chick peas, lentils, sunflower seeds, fenugreek and mung beans are among those that you can use to create delicious sprouting shoots at any time of the year.

Simply soak the peas and beans overnight in water and then keep them in a spouting box or jam jar. Rinse them daily till they start to shoot. They are delicious in salad and highly nutritious.

Otherwise, have some fun experimenting

Once you’ve tried this you’ll never look at your shopping basket the same way again.

I’ve just covered some of the easiest options when in fact there is a whole world of growing on potential at your disposal. A stroll around any ethnic food shop will have your head whirling with exciting possibilities and enable you to bag yourself interesting varieties of seed or propagation material which otherwise may have been hard to obtain.

Just remember fresh is always best and you want to avoid using anything in brine, that’s been frozen or heat treated in any way. Ditto any hybrids (F1) produce. Otherwise go for the plump and ripest-looking produce and see where it takes you...

Kim is a columnist for a range of gardening publications including Grow Your Own and Country Smallholding magazines. She also writes for the Guardian and runs a range of grow your own and smallholding courses from her smallholding in gorgeous Ceredigion, West Wales. Visit www.greenrocketcourses.com

So I hope you have enjoyed my first guest post.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx