12 Apr - Toms Planted Out

Today started off a bit foggy and cold. I was at the plot just before 07.00 letting the hens out and noticed a nice image of a neighbours fruit tree appearing through the fog with weak sunlight behind. The sun eventually burned off the fog and the day went on to be sunny and bright.

Having looked at the tomatoes I noticed that there are flowers forming on some of the plants already and that the stems are really sturdy. So, I have decided to plant them into the bottomless pots in the greenhouse which I have already filled with compost. I've also filled a couple of extra pots too. This year's tomatoes have been great so far; they have developed well and I'm hoping for a good crop. There are five beefsteak Marmande and five Alicante plants.

At the plot I got busy planting out the Dwarf French beans, variety Nautica. I'm still unsure as to why I sowed them so early, they should be sown this month not last month. Anyway, they are getting a bit too big for their cells so I've planted them out using plastic bottles as cloches taken from the broad beans I planted out last week. Let's hope they survive the cold nights, not too many frosty ones at the moment but we still could have some for some weeks yet.

The last thing today was the sowing of the Sweet Candle carrots. Once again I've used a bar to create around 26 holes which I've filled with a compost and sand mixture. A few seeds are sown on top of each and are covered with the same mixture. I need to have a think about how to protect them from carrot fly this year before they germinate.

That's it for this quick update. I'll finish this post with a shot I took a few days ago of plum tree blossom; I'm hoping for a good crop this year as I had nothing at all last season. Bye for now.

09 Apr - Early Month Update

It's all go in the greenhouse at the moment with the cabbages, peppers, lettuce, leeks, sprouts, kale and spinach all coming on well since being transplanted into individual pots or cells. All of them have 'true' leaves now, including the slow growing sweet peppers.

The tomato plants have been potted on for a second time and in a few weeks will be planted out into their final positions in the greenhouse. I've already chopped the bottoms out of eight large pots to create plastic rings which have been sunk into the greenhouse soil. Each ring has had fresh compost placed into it and the tomatoes will be planted into these. The idea has been inspired by those rings that you can buy to place into growbags to provide extra growing depth.

I'm hardening off the dwarf French beans at the moment by taking them out of the greenhouse during the day to get used of the temperatures. Likewise I've a few nasturtiums to provide colour in the garden hardening off too though it will be sometime yet before I'm confident enough of the weather to plant them out. (Pic - dwarf French bean 'Nautica' hardening off).

On the plot things initially looked a bit static but, on closer inspection, there are developments here too. The Sturon onions planted out as sets in my 23 March 2016 post are just starting to put out green shoots, not all of them, but a lot. It won't be long before the rest follow. The garlic cloves I popped in at the same time have really sprung into life. I was quite surprised to see how developed they were. (Pic - garlic springing up out of the soil). 

On the 31st March I planted out my Bunyards Exhibition broad beans but I covered them with plastic bottles as a mini cloches as I hadn't had chance to harden them off properly. I've taken the bottles off today as they are growing on well. It's just a matter of keeping the slugs and black-fly at bay. I've also put in the first row of Hurst Green-shaft peas, the start of successional showing.

The Gladiator F1 parsnips have also been sown direct on the plot using the 'bar' method once again. I've created three rows of seven sowing spots and each has been given a good sprinkle of seed which will eventually be thinned down to one per position.

That's it for now, bye.