What a Sow and Sow - February.

Hello there, before I begin here is my usual greeting at the start of all my posts, just incase this is your first visit, so best wishes to everybody as we are once again in lockdown and hope you are coping well physically and mentally.

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Right it's January 18th today and, as is the norm, I'm not getting up to much outside in the garden. Having said that I have begun some work in the polytunnel which is adding fresh compost in a couple of places. I also gave my compost 'daleks' a bit of a turning but if you have seen my recent super professional, 🤣 ,YouTube video you'll know I explained my plan of making two compost bays out of pallets. I really would like to get these made as soon as possible; Jon has access to as many pallets as we need so we can hopefully get this done by the beginning of next month.

Ok, seeds. These are the things we like to eat and that I hope to grow this year!

I may sow some Early Nantes carrots in the polytunnel in a container this month. However next month will begin the main sowing dates. As I said in my last post I'll be following advice from Charles Dowding and my polytunnel book; I've decided to keep sowing, keep sowing this year to make sure I have no gaps in the polytunnel or outside in the beds. I'm sometimes worried about wasting seeds but I often put things outside the front door in our egg house for people to help themselves to and hopefully I'll still be able to do that again should I still have some spare seedlings. During the first lockdown I enjoyed swapping lots of things, including plants, via our community Facebook page. 

Right February will begin with the following: (MS stands for multi-sow)

Turnips (MS) Purple Top Milan, the classic variety.

Spring Onions (MS) Ishikura, a mild flavoured bunching variety.

Khol Rabi Delicacy Purple tasting similar to stems of broccoli which I love in soups or stir fry.

Cabbage Greyhound, an early variety with pointy heads to harvest  from June/July.

Cauliflower All The Year Round, such a versatile seed.

Broccoli Matsuri F1 which is a compact variety, may be easier to protect from pests.

Aubergines Black Beauty which I'm trying really hard with as never been successful and so want my own ratatouille!

Salad leaves of various sorts, whatever takes my fancy really and these will go direct into the polytunnel near the door again so they don't get to hot.

Peppers including a Romano red one and one called Etiuda Orange, possibly a third that I may have ordered - more of that later.

Basil Red Leaved which is so very tasty and Sweet Green as it never fails.

I have some herbs in pots in the polytunnel ready to plant out when the weather is right.

Tomatoes are something I'm determined to keep improving on after last year's better efforts - 

Maskotka a bush variety to grow in pots, some outside and in the polytunnel.

ILDI F1 a lovely, small yellow plum type needing some support.

Marmande which are a large, fleshy, late maturing bush variety.

Big Mama Plum Large are good for soups, sauce and salsa - these I hope to have a go at bottling if I get enough!

Tumbling Toms which are not frost hardy so will be in hanging containers in the polytunnel.

Maghrebi are a fleshy, blight resistant variety.

Should be something to suit everybody out of that little lot.

In pots, not sure of the name but red, I have 60 sets in the poly house. Of those 20 are looking good but not so sure about the others. Here comes the order issues, I received an email the other day saying my order of Vulcan Spring planting onions are on their way! I don't remember ordering them but they may be a replacement as I've had a few issues with orders recently! Some space will have to be found for them along with something else. My seed spud order came but only half of it was right. I expected a 1st and 2nd early order but got the first and then some maincrop ones. I'd decided not to grow the latter as I just don't have room for the plants when they get to the full size and they are the only things I really like to rotate and that doesn't work well for me - where they'll go I don't know, probably growing bags as I do luckily have some of those in the poly house.

The MS items are the only things I will have tried this method with so far along with the leeks I'm still harvesting and we're really enjoying those in soups and pies just now.

Still on the subject of orders, I have coming in the next month or two Rhubarb crowns of  Temperley, an early harvesting variety and I'm also very excited about establishing an asparagus bed so have three crowns of Mondeo variety arriving in March - work to be done on the bed for those.

Flower wise I'll sow some marigolds to pop in between the tomatoes plus they look pretty. I have annuals outside the poly house and various perenials and others in the planters outside the Airbnb rooms.(Funny describing them as such seeing as we're not intending to take any guests throughout 2021.)

So that is my plan for February so far, quite a lot of work but I'm really looking forward to it. The weather here in Wales is quite wet and miz right now and I'm only inclined to get outside if the sun is shining a little bit, guilting me to get my wellies on and so something! I love it when I get out there, though, and here's why.

I'll keep you up to date when I get started but would also love to know if you are growing something for the first time and how you get on with it.

Bye for now, 

Lou.xx

 

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

Progress, Plants and People

Hello.

It has been over two weeks since my last post - sounds like I'm at confession!! so settle down with a brew as this may take a while!

Things have been pretty busy recently in all aspects here on our little homestead.

You may see in my left side bar the latest of our Airbnb listings. We are so very excited to finally have this available. The progress of the project was great fun when putting it together because of the theme and we absolutely love it. It isn't like the other two rooms we have as people book those last minute for a night away or a couple of days when the weather is good. Because this new listing is a self-catering unit I think we have to be a little more patient for bookings; we expect people to come and stay with us for a few days which obviously needs a little more planning on their part but are optimistic for a good season once we get some reviews in.

Talking of reviews, we've had fab great reviews from all the guests over the last two weeks; we were busy in the run up to and over the Bank Holiday of the year which was fantastic.

Now, the garden. My little patch of paradise is coming along very nicely thanks very much. Due to the wet and warm weather we've been having recently it seems all the plans are getting what they need.

This is the main patch with the maincrop spuds; (they're actually a bit bigger than this now)

obviously I'm having a bit of a potato panic due to there being so much foliage - praying (back to the confession theme) the spuds themselves come out ok especially after last year's dis-ar-ster dhaling!!

I have to admit that these seem to be doing better than the early ones...

In the background you may have seen the onions..

which I'm chuffed with; they are looking so healthy and I'll be keeping an eye on the tops dying back in the coming weeks ready to take them up, hopefully when they can dry out in the sunshine.

As usual I've planted quite a few courgette plants! This is the first of two outside which are currently flowering very nicely.

Yesterday I took the peas up out of the poly house ready to plant two cucumber and a squash plant. I harvested the last few peas - the plants I had in there gave me almost 1.5 lb of peas which are in the freezer. I have more plants in bed three and the one outside the poly house so hope to get another couple of lbs. I had a nice little harvest to take indoors.

The sweet peas are growing really well, I'm cutting them regularly and I just love the fragrance, 

here are some with one of the front door roses, eeek I love them!

Salad leaves are having their best year yet; I think I've finally got the successional sowing of these figured out. Yay, go me!

The turnips are one things that didn't do well with the wet and warm weather; they had all pretty much gone to seed so I picked one and gave the chooks a treat of the leaves. I've already sown some more in with the cabbages and will probably re-sow the bed.

The cabbages have been a real revelation. These were overwintered in the deceased greenhouse and planted out in about February. These were only about five and some were sold or eaten as Spring greens, some given away and we are still eating them now - just two left. Nothing nibbled them, they have grown really healthily so I think I'll go for them again.

I was given some begonias and trailing plants so I bought hanging baskets to make up for the rooms. I'm quite pleased withe them for my first effort.

Something else not quite so welcome but here due to the wet and warm weather were the weeds. This is the far end of the growing area where the weeds had consumed everything...

and then Jon strimmed it for me...

and NOW you can see the planter I'll be using for the outside tomatoes - I love a before and after photo!

I have two fruit trees and two blackcurrant bushes towards the back as well as the raspberry buses which run alongside veg patch 3 (2nd early spuds on the very right). I'm very grateful the ground elder hasn't spread from near the poly house and if we do our best to keep on top of the weeds and grass it should be ok. Because the far right hand side of patch 3 is stony with lots of tree roots I'd love to see if I can use the area to grow borage.

Ok, I've rambled on enough I think and anyway its lunch time.

Bye for now.

Lou.x

A Busy Sow And Sow!

Hello and bore da!

This is what I've been up to over the last few days. 

On Friday I re-sowed mixed Sweet Peppers and Sweet Romano peppers. the first lot really didn't seem to do anything so the new lot are in the conservatory still but covered over with a plastic bag; we'll see how they get on.

Sunday was great as I was in the poly house (PH) at about 9.30am making the best of things before it possibly rained and I set about getting a few jobs done inside and out. In my RAF surplus flying suit I was good to go but when you need a pee it's a bit of a bugger so in I went, twice(it's my age) and also put on another pair of socks as my feet were cold!

First I needed to cover over the veg beds, again, whilst taking up the odd weed; sooo bored of this wind.

I sowed my first tomatoes, three varieties - Cuor di Bue, Outdoor Girl and Yellow Delight. The PH was 20 degrees, as was my homemade propagator but need to increase that some how.

So I have some in there and some just on the bench to see if they germinate ok or if they need to go onto the window of the kitchen or conservatory - just about the extent of any trial work I do!

Getting a few things on the poly house benches now! 

I then set about sowing Kale Curly Dwarf outside in the bed with the shallots which is at the back of the (PH); I love Kale, managed to grow a bit last year so hoping to do better this time.

In a recent post I said I was trying to grow more flowers, well today I sowed some of the newly bought Nigella Persian Jewels in a terracotta pot in the PH. They grow to about 
45 cms so not sure now that will work out but we'll see!

I had two fruit trees which in a word died, doing nothing, so I've taken those out. The fruit area is definitely something which needs looking at; it is very, very overgrown.

You may remember Jon built me three new raised beds some time ago.

and these, too, have stayed covered over for a while; I decided to sow some turnips in one of them; turnips are another thing I love, sliced thinly and fried with garlic. Nomnom!

Because of the rain I had my youngest help by filling up the watering cans and bottles for the PH and he moved the wheelbarrow back where it belongs after being used to move logs and kindling. 

I've got quite a few strawberry plants to pot on; there are the 12 from my Thompson & Morgan bargain fruit bundle still in the small middle pot but the others are looking quite healthy; the drainpipe with strawbs in is now outside resting on the raised bed just outside the PH.

I don't think I've shared my seed potato plans for this year.

Swift and Charlotte earlies...

then maincrop Cara are all sitting in the conservatory.

I plan on growing most of them in open ground this year but there will be the odd growing bag, too, I'm sure.

Also on Sunday, Jon was managing to work on the fencing for the bird enclosures, thanks to a break in the weather, but he was still out there in the rain at times - he is very tenacious!

After the fox attack on both the chickens and ducks we  he is raising the height of the fencing. This means, of course, that the gates will be taller, too. (The tree seat came in useful as an extra support!)

Here is the gate into the ducks, love it...

and the one for the chicken area will be the same; this means we can let the chooks free-range at times without letting the ducks out; still a bit to do but a great job to get started on.

We are all very excited about getting the birds again.🐔

Today, Tuesday, I've been outside and potted on the two blueberry plants which also came in my T & M fruit bargain bundle. Does anybody else feel like ericaceous compost is like gold dust and shouldn't be wasted or is it just me?

Ok, that is it for me, finally got this done. I shared this on Twitter yesterday but what the heck. I got round to a bit of baking and for tea made a beef and spud pie in my skillet, in the oven for the first time, and was really quite pleased with the result.

And finally, I received in the post yesterday some new crochet hooks thanks to inspiration from Emma over at Farmer's Wife And Mummy and SueArcher6 over on Twitter. I've tried in the past as I sooo want to be able to do just simple projects. I'm going to give it another go today with the help of an internet tutorial.

Right that's it I think.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx

Garden Bits and Bobs.

Good morning.

Last evening I stood in the Poly House and thought to myself "I am soooo content right now." I was so happy to be there doing what I was doing. This was me, crocks, socks and shorts - not the best look!

The recent much needed rain has really brought things on in the sowing and growing department and I'm loving it. After the slow start to Spring we really seem to be catching up, apart from my tomatoes which are quite a bit behind last year but we're getting there. I have begun potting them on and have put some of the Sweet Aperitif variety in their last growing place with stakes ready for when they hopefully shoot up!

In the fruit patch, still slightly overgrown but getting to that! I'm really confident of a good harvest of soft fruit this year from the blackcurrants and blueberries as you can see here. No point showing the raspberry bushes as they are beasts!

As you may have seen in my last post I have cancelled one of my Twitter accounts. Before I did this I was really lucky to win a pair of gorgeous gardening gloves in a competition run between the RHS and a company called Gold Leaf gloves. Look!

When coming in the cellar back door the other day I saw this! A nest in the corner of one of the nooks. There are four eggs being looked after by a Robin; she happily sits on them even though I go in and out of the door quite frequently it doesn't seem to bother her at all.

I have picked some of the wild garlic, including flowers, and put it in stir fries and on salads; its been yummy.

I am doing my best to get the pesto made very soon as it is already dying back and I don't want to lose all of it. I really hope to be harvesting the first of our salad leaves very soon; as you can see they are looking great.

This is a mixed living lettuce I bought last week; I've planted them out before and they've grown really well so I thought I'd add this into the mix!

I was earthing up the Arran Pilot first early spuds the other day and look what I accidentally brought up! They will be properly ready for harvest quite soon so look forward to crossing that item off my shopping list along with salad leaves.

I'm chuffed to bits with how the main patch is coming on. The sweet peas on the end of the frame are coming on a pace, as are the climbing peas...

and spuds are looking great (see further down the post), I have red and green lettuce in there, too, and the spinach beet is peeking through although I'm not quite sure what it'll look like when ready to harvest!

 The dwarf beans seem to be catching up with the season....

as does the kale, beetroot and turnips in the small bed.

Jon tasted one of the first strawberries yesterday and I'm hopeful for a small but good crop on the two plants.

Right, that is my catch up for now. Visitors coming today and a few jobs to get done. Watered outside, chooks fed and washer on already so just to have breakfast now and crack on.

Bye for now.

Lou.xx