Post-Frost Sowing and Growing.

Hello everybody, how are you all doing? It is ok not to be ok so hopefully help is there for when you might have a bit of a wobble; I know all about that but managing ok just now.

We are about to enter week eight of lockdown and here in Wales we are keeping to the #stayhomesavelives rule. Our lockdown will be reviewed in a weeks time. We're allowed to exercise outside for more than one hour a day and some garden centres are re-opening but not the one we use. All that is just fine by us; to be honest the only thing I had been lacking for outside was compost for the poly tunnel but we had a delivery plus our click and collect with feed for the chickens; could still do with a bit more for sowing and potting on but using some I put in a tyre for planting out which, in the meantime, I've decided not to do.

Talking of the poly tunnel I've got lots of jobs done since my last post; I've been sharing some progress on Instagram and Twitter but I like it when I can see before and after photos here; I hope you enjoy them along with my ramblings. Before my photos this is the cover of a book very kindly sent to me by the wonderful Rural and Rustic which is Maryline.

I do hope my tunnel looks close to something like this in the future. Maryline writes some beautifully insightful posts about nature, the seasons and all manner of lovely stuff on her social media accounts.

There was an incident where one of the lambs got in the tunnel as I'd failed to shut the door properly so..... I went charging down to the bottom of the garden howling like a banshee when I saw it just inside telling it to get out! When I apologised if he had heard my slightly blue language, my neighbour said he was quite impressed at my level of reserve! The damage could have been a lot worse and to guard against this happening again Jon has put up this cargo netting and it works a treat as I can comfortably have my back to the door without worry about intruders.

Something else new in the tunnel is my digital thermometer. Very excited to have this handy little tool; this was taken about 11am today, Sunday.

So from inside the tunnel I've made a little video; silent as a) I'm not keen on my voice when it is recorded and b) I don't know how to do it easily and for free. You can find that Tracy over at Our Smallholding Adventure has a great new YouTube channel so do try and find the time to take a look. Maybe I should ask her for some help - chic? 

Here goes.

A quick guide to go with it from left to right. We have Perpetual Spinach which I love in stir fry and salads, Rainbow Chard, a sorrel plant - a minor casualty of the sheep,

spring onions, beetroot then I've sown Snowball turnips followed by Wild Rocket. There is a gap, not sure what for yet, maybe an aubergine plant then you see the tomatoes; various varieties including Black Russian, Gardener's Delight, a yellow plum, Marmande and Maskotka; a couple of the plants were given to be by a friend. 

The dwarf beans in the corner are one of our most used things I grow so I have a good number of those before you get to the strawberry plants which are looking quite healthy 

- I moved a couple from a crate outside to fill the space. In the far corner I have two squash plants - one grown by me which is Butterbush meant for a container so thought it would be good space wise for indoors along with a Vegetable Spaghetti from the same tomato friend. 

Down the right hand side we have dwarf peas; I love dwarf varieties as I find them easier to take care of than towering wigwams, call me lazy but... I've planted three cucumbers - maybe a bit close but I'm just going with the flow in the tunnel being my first year; same thing could be said for the dwarf beans and tomatoes but what the heck! Another space just now followed by red and green lettuce which is something I manage to grow sooooo easily, inside or out, and there are a couple of rows of sown Mazur lettuce for another variety of salad leaves. 

There are leeks in trays not ready to go out yet-

never been successful with leeks so fingers crossed.

Kale is something I failed with last year but these plants I think will go in the bed of the poly house/gazebo when ready; love Kale, nobody else does really so that will be a freezer item.

Another of the minor casualties of the sheep incident was a couple of broccoli plants. These are not ready to plant out but will go in bed number 2, far left of the growing area, when they are a bigger.

Now to outside. During last week we had a couple of cold nights leading to some slight frost damage on my first early spuds.

I used some old hessian, coffee sacks to cover over and it was quite surprising the warmth I could feel underneath when I removed them. Growers of their own are breathing a sigh of relief, hopefully, that the colder weather is now over and I know lots of us are itching to get planting, inside and out.

I mentioned the red and green lettuce before and I have it growing in my old sink along with spring onions. 

Again, I haven't had lots of luck with onions before but some of those sown as done as here using the Charles Dowding multi-sow method.

Blueberry plants, mediterranean herbs and more dwarf peas coming along nicely; the first lot hopefully for a good FIRST fruiting and harvest!

You can see to the left of this planter that I've put down cardboard and some mulch to keep the weeds at bay. Seems to be working and I'm trying to do this in as many areas of the garden as I can.

The onion and garlic bed, considering we had a bit of shaky start regarding the planting (the rain kept bringing the sets to the top), is doing well. However, the onion bulbs don't look that big just now but plenty of time for both them and the garlic.

I've been asking for help on Twitter this morning as I've had problems identifying if my parsnips are growing; I'm now certain which greenery were interlopers and which are the plants so may re-sow, thanks for the advice.

The two courgettes I've planted outside in bed two are one Tondo di Piacenza and a Goldena, seen here already with a couple of budding fruit!

I thought I'd share my not-too-often-flowering lilac bush as it was blowing beautifully in the breeze as I was walking around the garden this morning.

Right, I think I've rambled on enough and hope you've enjoyed my little tour.

I really hope my first year with the poly tunnel is somewhat of a success, but know I'll be learning along and just giving stuff a go! With the current situation the garden is such a wonderful place to escape to, in all weathers. I really hope in the future that I'll be able to provide more food for our family, leading to us not being so reliant on supermarkets as people have found themselves during the lockdown.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Warming Weather And More To Come?...

Hi!

The weather is definitely improving. (Hope my sunflowers grow this well!)

Even though in Wales we're still getting rain showers, of course, the mercury is still rising. 

No more so than in the conservatory which, you probably know, is standing in as my Poly House until such time as the storm damage to the latter is mended.

Outside I can see the tops of the first early spuds from the Poly House, such is the rate of growth just now. 

On the fruit patch the apple blossom and other fruit trees are flowering and the blackcurrant bushes and raspberry canes are coming on a pace, too. 

The rasps have re-seeded themselves in a couple of places, which I'm very pleased about, but I'll wait until they're a bit bigger then tidy them up with bamboo canes and string as I did with the biggest of them this morning. 

Ooh, today my neighbour who works at the local nursery brought me another rhubarb crown; I've planted this with the first one and I'm looking forward to having quite a sizeable patch eventually; just grateful that rhubarb is not too fussy where it grows as the area I've chosen is a bit stony but it doesn't seem to be bothering it.

The wild garlic is getting huge so I MUST do something with it very soon!

Today I've sown carrot seeds in the same bed as the parsnips and radishes. 

Whilst doing that I've, hopefully, sufficiently bunged up a hole where a mole or rabbit got through into the bed at the end of last year's growing season. Not that much damage was done then and hope to minimise it this year.

I also sowed some spinach beet, perpetual spinach, among the 2nd early spuds in the main patch; this is another of my efforts at a bit of mixed planting; it is described like this:

- A delicious spinach substitute but easier to grow. High yields of nutritious greens and resists bolting in Summer. 

I'm getting very excited about how things are coming on and feel really positive for the coming weeks and months. I'm sure the good weather forecast for the weekend will help towards us all catching up after a very poor start to Spring.

That's all for now with my ramblings.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Good Jobs!! Even With The Rain.

A little up-date on the sowing and growing - what else? We have had some much needed rain but still managing to get some work done outside.

On Friday I took a proper inventory of how many seedlings I have which will ultimately need moving to their final growing places; best case scenario of numbers, what they need to be in and where they will actually go/fit.

I decided to take the poorly performing salad leaves out of the Poly House drainpipe as they just didn't seem to thrive. The sink outside is fab for lettuces so think I'll try the leaves in there, too. 

Probably will try radishes inside as outside they don't seem to work for me.

I also moved the sunflowers, which were in a small trough, into the bed with the cabbages and broccoli - may sound weird but there are only four of them; at the same time I realised there is a bit of room between said brassicas so I have also moved the spinach there, too. Bit of a squeeze but I'm sure all with be well.

The trough that was freed up from moving the spinach meant I could put the rest of the Dwarf Beans in so that was another good job. 

Beef toms were potted on and both Butternut Squash and Courgettes are coming on with good, strong leaves so potted on both of those, too.

Whilst in the brassica bed I did a bit of weeding and also in the main bed and potato tyres. Talking of spuds my Sweet Potatoes, not spuds I know, arrived yesterday so can't wait to get those in!

And look at these beauties! They are the salad blues kindly given to me by Tracy over at Our Smallholding Adventure. Don't forget to pop over and see what great stuff her gang are doing down on The Farm.

I've also planted my last five Maris Piper spuds in a spare compost bag, putting them outside along with the ones from the Poly House and the planter of carrots.

You know when there is that elephant in the room, that job you have been putting off? Well I finally go round to emptying the food caddy I had put a remedy in for the broccoli last year - didn't work. It had been lurking near the compost bins but no more. Yay!

These are the bunch of containers I bought at the weekend to go with the ones I already have including a large pot for the lime tree offer I ordered; I hope it will thrive in this. 

Yesterday Jon delivered the chicken house, with the help of some pals, to school and just has to put the fencing in now; he included a glass panel so the children can see the hens.

Also we have sold the ride on mower through a Facebook smallholding page, it IS the devil in my opinion, so probably won't use that again; the money will go in our holibobs pot. After work today he is fetching a pig ark that is going for free so we'll keep that until we need it in summer. Bring on the porkers.

On a family note I received the dates for what is going on at school from now for the next nine weeks or so until the boys break up for summer; residential trips to Cardiff, sports day, school fete etc.

I came across this article the other day -Embracing Life On The Homestead. It is a good read and I especially like the bit about dirt under nails. I often find myself coming in from the garden to put my bread on its next prove; I can get confused about whether I should be kneading the weeds or weeding the bread!

Right this post has been a real pain as have been having probs with my photo downloads so will leave it before anything else go wrong!

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

BBQ, Brakes and Boy What a View!

Friday afternoon saw a change to the meal plan as the weather was soooo nice we threw together a few things for a bbq and outdoor eating just had to be done. Yum!

On Saturday we were around the house with Jon starting on the job of changing the brakes on his car and we need to pop to Aber for a certain tool he needed.

I did some jobs in the garden including planting out some of the sugar snap peas in the sweetcorn patch and sowed more, too. I also added a few rocket seeds to fill in the gaps in my salad leaf drainpipe in the Poly House. And talking of lettuces I am so pleased with my efforts this year as last year they were very poor. Almost ready to use and I have a good more growing in the sink so we should be able to have them regularly soon. Eeeek!

On Sunday we had a quick lunch and then went into Aber as it was such a glorious day. We had decided to climb Constitutional Hill from where you can look down on the beach. Personally I wasn't looking forward to the climb very much but in the end it was fab, with the reward of an ice cream for all at the top. What a view!

We walked down, too, instead of taking the cable car.

On the way back to the car the boys tried to find their way through a maze!

Today we are blessed with yet another glorious day. Jon fixed up the hosepipe to the garage inside tap for me as I had to fill the water butts and all my bottles and water cans. 

So pleased to report that FINALLY my sweet corn is making progress and the few carrots I sowed in the Poy House are also doing very well; hope the ones outside do as well.

The spinach that was very small on April 21 is big enough for me to have picked a little - that will be for my tea tonight, probably just a garnish!

Lastly to report, my first attempt at growing basil is great and my summer cabbages are doing better than I could imagine. I am keeping a close eye on slugs on these and the broccoli but all well so far.

 

There, I think I am all caught up. A few jobs to do now before the boys are home from school no doubt in need of a cold drink and a snack.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx