Random Stuff

Work in the garden

Monday, October 12th, 2009 | Environment, Gardening, Money Saving | No Comments

Well it’s Autumn now and all the summer fruit/veg are dying off so I decided that I would spend some time in the garden today and have a tidy up. Not to mention that the compost bin had come apart so I needed to get everything out of it and put it back together properly before putting the stuff back in. I think to make it secure I’ll have a go at it with the hot glue gun! So here’s what the garden looked like with all the plants dying off:

The befores

The befores

The old rasberry canes needed chopping back and the new ones tied in for next summer. I think I will look into getting a nice trellis to tie the canes into as it will look much nicer than the current bamboo canes and string! Will keep my eyes open over the coming months for reduced items that might be suitable.

The tomato plants were all pretty much dead so I picked the last few tomatoes and then dug them out of the hanging baskets. Two of the bucket ones looked to be getting a second lease of life so I just pruned them back and will see what happens. though it is getting a lot colder now. the other buckets have been pruned and are sitting waiting to be emptied somewhere! not sure where as I don’t really want to put them into the compost just in case there is and blight spores in the soil.

The strawberries are producing hundreds of runners and even though I’ve had two goes at pruning and given loads away on freecycle they are still coming! The cucumbers were finished so I’ve removed them and left the grow bag to dry out a bit before emptying into the compost bin.  The courgettes are still flowering and although I don’t think there will be any more fruit I decided to hold onto them a little longer to enjoy the flowers. Most of the other stuff just needed a tidy up and a re arrange to get the best out of the sunshine this time of year.

Grow bag drying out

Clearer decking

The sunny corner

In the third picture the black bags at the front are the leeks which will be over wintered.  My chilli plants at the back are still gong strong.. in fact so strong I don’t know what to do with all the chillies I’m getting! to the left are my 3 blueberry bushes, they are doing ok and there are signs of fresh shoot and leaves coming through so fingers crossed there will be a crop next year. I do need to find out if they will survive being outside over winter or if I need to bring them in.

I also have a few onions under the cotton easter tree which have started shooting again so I leave those to over winter as well.. there isn’t much too them to warrant pulling them up so if nothing comes of them it’s no big loss.  I still have a bunch of spring onions to lift as well and I think some of them will be used this week in meals.

So a much tidier garden and a fixed compost bin, just need to mow the grass now!

Finally, I have news that I have climbed the allotment waiting list and now reside at 19 on the north and 21 on the south lists. With November  the 1st being the rent year, things will hopefully mean I get a bit closer and possibly get offered a plot. Fingers crossed!

Tags: Allotment, Garden, grow, grow y, Grow your own

Meal plan w/c 04.07.09

Saturday, July 4th, 2009 | Cooking, Gardening, Meal plan, Money Saving, Vegetarian | No Comments

Well this weeks menu has been planned around harvesting foods from the garden… Though I’m not too sure how I’m going to get along with cook having cut my finger.

Saturday 04.07 – Left over Chilli Bean Tortillas
Sunday 05.07 – Out
Monday 06.07 – Chicken & Spring veg
Tuesday 08.07 – Catalonian Tortilla
Wednesday 09.07 – Chicken & Spinach pasta
Thursday 10.07 – Falafel pittas
Friday 11.07 – Chicken & Broccoli noodles

Tags: Chicken, Falafel, noodles, Spinach, Tortilla

mmmm Mange tout

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 | Gardening, Money Saving, Vegetarian | No Comments

Today I ate my first mange tout that I had grown all by my self.. well the little one did help a bit.

They didn’t make it indoors they were munched straight from the plant. It was only a small handful but would have been perfect in a stir fry for one.. but even yummier just as they were. Here’s hoping that there are many more to come!

mmmm first mange tout ready to nom

Potting on and planting out time

Monday, June 1st, 2009 | Environment, Gardening, Money Saving | No Comments

Well today was a busy one, the weather has been great and my veg has been growing really well so it was time to get things that had become too big for the mini green house planted out into their permanent positions. This involved buying a couple of grow bag trays from wilkinsons and a lot of re organizing and tidying up.

The biggest priority was the Courgettes and Cucumbers at they were getting far to big for their seed trays and the courgettes have started to flower! The grow bags I had said that I would be able to fit 3 plant per bag, so wanting to keep them off the ground away from the slugs I wandered off to Wilkinsons to get a couple of grow bag trays.

I popped the trays up on a couple of bricks and put a layer of gravel in the bottom, to help with drainage and water absorption. I cut 6 holes in the bottom of the grow bags so that water could easily be absorbed then flipped them over and placed them on the gravel. This was so the bags could be watered from the bottom up as courgettes and cucumbers don’t like their stems getting wet.

Courgettes

I rigged up a string trellis for the cucumbers as they like to climb, I’m hoping they will be happy. Some of the courgette plants already have signs of fruit, so fingers crossed the planting out wont upset them.

Cucumbers

My tumbling tomatoes have also started to flower so it was time to get them into something more permanent. I got some wall hanging baskets/troughs from my Dad which I lined with old compost bags and re potted three tumbling toms in each basket. I still had another 4 tumbling tomatoes so I put these in 30cm traditional hanging baskets.. two per basket. Just need brackets and a suitable place to hang them now!

Tumbling Tomatoes

Other things in the garden are coming along nicely.. the potatoes have had their final earthing up, the garlic is still growing well. Herbs are starting to come into their own now as well… seems I definitely over watered before.

One of the 4 blueberry bushes has definitely died and has now been removed. The other 3 are doing ok, not sure how much they should have grown seeing as they were pretty much just stick when I got them. here’s hoping they are using energy to get a good root system established.

Potatoes, carrots, blueberries, herbs & garlic

The strawberries are doing well and there is plenty of fruit on them, I’m a little worried about watering now there is fruit as they don’t seen to take up much water from the bottom… but I don’t want to water from the top as it’s not good for the fruit to sit on wet soil. I think I will get some straw to put around them hopefully they wont rot then. I’ll also need to think about putting some netting over them as a couple are starting to turn red and I’m sure it wont be long before the birds take a fancy to them!

Strawberries

Raspberries are coming along well. Even the one that I though was a duff has shooted now! so that’s all of them with some greenery, a few with flowers and some with the makings of raspberries as well.

The wooden bamboo skewers are there to act as a cat deterrent.. next doors cat was using the raspberry bed as a toilet but the skewers seem to have done the trick.. only to temporarily move the cat toilet to another bed under the cotton easter bush…

Raspberries coming into their own

The bed under the cotton easter bush where we planted the left over onion bulbs. Well next doors cat continued to use it as a toilet and was digging up the onions so… I searched through a load of old computer magazines that were due to be sorted and recycled as part of the de clutter simplifying process and found a load of trial internet CDs – cat problem I am pleased to say is now resolved and a bit of de cluttering done to boot!

Onions and the cat deterrant

The onions are doing very well now so we will have more than just two red and two white onions!

The last big update was 10th may where I  sowed some more seeds, here’s what’s going on with those seeds today:

• Re potted Peppers in to individual pots – growing well
• Re potted Leeks into the trough the peppers were in.. and sowed some more in a new trough – new ones are coming through
• Sowed some sweet pepper seeds – A couple have come up, the ones from the wilkos half price bag are doing well.
• Sowed another 4 sweet corns – they seem to be very hard to cultivate.. but I have the seeds so will keep going! All the seeds rotted not sure it’s worth trying again as space it getting limited now and I do have a few doing ok, but need to be re potted
• Planted more rocket.. The other rocket was coming to the end so I have allowed it to bolt and flower, hopefully with the intention of getting some more seed! – doing well despite a fall from the mini green house, I have separated into two batches now.
• Trying again with the lettuce! – Haven”t attempted third time lucky!
• Sowed some of the beetroot seeds from the free dig in seed pack I received – beetroot, hmmm all have come up but I’m sure I didn’t plant that many!
• Also sowed the squash from dig in – sowed 3 squash and two have poked their heads up
• Sowed Broccoli - doing well after a fall from the mini green house, but I’m not sure what I’m going to do with them!

The honeydew melon seeds the little one and I planted back on the 5th May are still doing nothing, I’m leaving them in situ however, just incase they take a long time to germinate!

Everything else is doing well!

3rd time lucky maybe?

Sunday, May 17th, 2009 | Environment, Gardening, Money Saving | No Comments

The first lot of lettuce I sowed didn’t come to anything… I waited ages and nothing, so I binned it.

Last week I started off another set of lettuce this time I popped it in the airing cupboard to try and give it a head start as the previous lot I had left outside then brought back inside thinking it was too cold to germinate. I checked on it a couple of days in and a few seeds had germinated and started to show through. I then totally forgot about then until today…. I have failed again, the poor seedlings were so desperate for some light they have become extremely leggy and look like cress! Maybe it will be 3rd time lucky.. good job you get about 500 seeds to a pack.

Leggy Lettuce

I’m not sure if this is now a lost cause and I should bin and start again or if they can be used the same way as cress or sprouts as they have turned out similar to sprouting things.

Tags: lettuce, Sprouting

busy today… new turf as well!

Sunday, May 10th, 2009 | Environment, Gardening | No Comments

As well as all the planting and sowing I got done today I also went to B&Q and got some turf to finish of the garden.

You may recall from an earlier post that I had an non de script area near the house that was originally half gravel and half paving slabs:

Before

The slabs were freecycled and the ground dug over, ready for either seeding or turfing:

After

In the end I opted for turf as with having a little one about seed was going to be fighting a very hard battle to get established… and little ones love water, meaning I can more easily get the little one interested in looking after the turf by allocating the job of watering… I do however realise that I will be lucky if the turf does actually get watered… usually the water goes everywhere except where it’s needed!

So the turf has been laid and watered in, the forecast for the week looks favourable for the turf. Plenty of rain and warm temps with intermittent sunshine.

New turf

Fingers crossed it will take and grow in well with the rest of the lawn.

Tags: grass, Turf

Another day in the garden

Sunday, May 10th, 2009 | Environment, Gardening, Money Saving | No Comments

Yes another day, this time re potting and sowing a few things that I had been meaning to do for some time!

• Re potted Peppers in to individual pots
• Re potted Leeks into the trough the peppers were in.. and sowed some more in a new trough
• Sowed some sweet pepper seeds
• Sowed another 4 sweet corns – they seem to be very hard to cultivate.. but I have the seeds so will keep going!
• Planted more rocket.. The other rocket was coming to the end so I have allowed it to bolt and flower, hopefully with the intention of getting some more seed!
• Trying again with the lettuce!
• Sowed some of the beetroot seeds from the free dig in seed pack I received
• Also sowed the squash from dig in
• Sowed Broccoli

I’ve not planted any more carrots or tomatoes. I still have the Lollo Rosso Lettuce which I think I will try out a bit later. Going to give the parsnips a miss this year. Finally not sure about the Aubergine… space is now lacking considerably, especially as I will need to re pot the tomato plants very soon!

Progress so far:

Oh almost forgot… Still had lots of red and white onions left over, I didn’t think they would survive to next year so the little one and I just planted them randomly in the flower bed (not that there are any flowers in there!) also hoping the onions would put next doors cat off using it as a toilet!

Tags: Garden, Grow your own

Desiree Potatoes (Main Crop), Peppers & Basil

Saturday, May 9th, 2009 | Environment, Gardening, Money Saving | No Comments

Well the first and second earlies are doing very well so today I earthed them up to encourage a bigger crop.

I managed to get the main crop planted up as well.. I am a bit late and the potatoes have been chitting for ages but fingers crossed they will be ok!

Before Earthing up

Before Earthing up

During the week I was in Wilkinsons and spotted some seed bags being sold off half price. The kind where everything you need bar water is in the bag, at £1.50 a bag I thought I’d give them a go. I purchased a Basil bag.. my attempts so far with basil have not been too successful, besides I love basil so can never have too much.. green pesto here I come if I’m successful with this little lot. I also got a pepper bag… sweet bell peppers as opposed to chill peppers. All very easy to do… fingers crossed!

Tags: Basil, Desiree, Grow your own, peppers, potatoes

Fruits of my labour

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 | Environment, Gardening, Money Saving | No Comments

Well I am pleased to report that things are going well, my last garden update had me talking about my:

Rocket, I’ve been eating it and very nice it is too, need to get some more planted up though to keep the harvesting continued.

Spring onions, are doing very well as are the shallots, red and white onions, I will be planting out some more onions in the ground I think this time… and will also put some more spring onion in pots too.

Strawberries will be staying put as they are now in flower, I’m feeding them with tomato feed once a week to help them on a bit.. fingers crossed the slugs wont get to them in the pots!

Strawberries

Raspberry canes have really come along well, all except one which isn’t doing anything just yet!

Glen Rosa Rasberry Cane not doing much

I’m a little confused what to do with the others as most are supposed to be summer fruiting as such I’m supposed to cut the old cane down once the new canes come through, but some of the canes have new growth on them with flower buds appearing!

Glen Ample Raspberry cane

Glen Prossen Raspberry cane

Raspberry canes starting to flower

Joan J on the left and an unknown variety on the right starting to flower

Blueberry bushes, as I suspected in the last up date I have lost one, the other has pulled through but is still very much touch and go. The other two are coming on really well, though I doubt if there will be any fruit this year as they are so young.

Courgettes and cucumbers are still going strong, they will need to be replanted soon so I will have to give some thought to what I’m going to do with them. Not sure if I’ll go the grow bag route yet or not.

Courgettes and Cucumber doinf well

Carrots are also growing well, need to get some more planted up otherwise it will be a very small crop, still first year so I’m not expecting much!

Carrots doing well

Sweetcorn, more drama and more lost seedlings.. need to get another couple going. I’m not sure if I’m over watering but the peat pots have lots of black mould on them, this hasn’t happened with the tomatoes which are in the same kind of post.

Sweetcorn seedings on the left and three of the little ones sunflowers on the right

Tumbling Tomatoes have been re potted in peat pots, and are now looking very healthy. I re potted them up to the seed leaves so hopefully they will grow nice and strong. I’ve found what I think is a good deal on plastic lined wicker baskets so I’ll get some of those possibly at the weekend ready to plant on.

Tumbling Tomatoes

Moneymaker Tomatoes are doing nicely in the peat pots and at the end of the month when threats of frost have passed I’ll get them planted out in to either post or grow bags.

Money Maker Tomatoes

Cayenne peppers are growing well, but a little slow compared to the tomatoes that were planted at the same time. Definitely thinking it’s a bit cold for them out side so I may pop then in individual pots and bring them back inside

Cayenne Peppers

Mange Tout is doing well, climbing up the supports. I was going to set another lot going but I have decided to just have the one lot of 4 this year and see how we go.

I planted out some Dwarf French beans on the 19th April and they are now just coming through.

I also planted out my Foremost Early potatoes and my Nadine second earlies on the 19th/20th April. I still have to plant out my main crop, fingers crossed I’ll get them planted tomorrow.

Some of the out door herbs are starting to do well… little water is best it seems! The Chives have thickened up nicely. The indoor herbs are also coming along good, the parsley is starting to look like proper parsley.

Leeks need re potting I think, but I will need to have a read up on that and what to do with them. Will also need to sow some more I think as there are not many, not all the seeds germinated.

The old Gooseberry bush is coming along nicely, the new is not doing so good just yet. It has been attacked by the dreaded sawfly larvae eating the leaves. I was prepared this year and have kept an eye on it so managed to get the larvae before totally stripping the bush as they had done in previous years to the old bush. Did find a few eaten leave on the old bush too a couple of days later but again hopefully my continuous checking will keep damage to a minimum. I got some bamboo canes that I have used with some netting to help protect the bushes.

Gooseberry bushes netted up

We had some Yellow Honeydew melon the other week so the little one an I saved some seeds and planted them, I doubt they will grow but you never know!

I got some free seed packets from the BBC’s Dig in campaign, which included: Early Nantes Carrots, Boltardy Beetroot, Gardeners Delight Tomatoes, Hunter Butternut Squash and Lollo Rosso Lettuce. So I’ll be planting these out hopefully this week along with the parsnips, broccoli, Shirley F1 tomatoes, plum Roma tomatoes, Aubergine, Mixed lettuce and sweet peppers

Outside fruit and veg

You can see the Raspberry bed at the front of the decking, then from left to right you can see the Mange Tout, Herb pot, First black trough – Garlic & Spring Onion, Second black trough – Shallotts, red onions and white onions, 4 black buckets Blueberry bushes. Then in the black bags are the first early and second early potatoes. alomg the fence are the little ones sunflowers.

Vegetable gardening highs and lows so far

Monday, April 6th, 2009 | Environment, Gardening, Life, Money Saving | No Comments

So my last veg garden post was telling you of my rotten garlic, onions and my newly planted lettuce..

Well the lettuce never came to anything.. maybe another case of being too wet, but today it was scrapped, It had plenty of time but nothing. So I will start again after easter.  The rocket is still coming along well and I think some leaves are ready to cut – I’m planning on a cut and come again harvest, but will plant out another batch after easter as well.

The spring onions I talked of planting within the garlic are now showing through, I planted them directly in the troughs. The replacement red onion is popping it’s head out, and the others are coming along well – it wont be a bumper crop as I’ve only planted 4 shallots, 2 red and 2 white onions, but it’s a start!

The Strawberries are doing well in their pots, i’m not 100% sure if I will leave them there or plant them else where. I had planed on buying some plants specially for hanging baskets, not sure on that one now – though in this house you can never have too many strawberries!

The raspberry canes and blueberry bushes are half going good and half not so good, some of the raspberry canes are coming along really well the others are not showing much life.  Same with the blueberries, I think I may have lost two of them. Still not to worry if I have as I can just get a couple more of a different variety.

Things that I seem to have forgotten to post about…

I have 4 courgette seedlings doing extremely well, 6 cucumber seedlings doing very well. I have planted up some carrots in a Morrisons bucket, will need to plant some more as there wont be many otherwise.

The sweetcorn has been a bit of a challenge, we (me and the little one) planted 9 seeds, we are planing a 3×3 grid, in peat pots. Initially 4 came up well but I broke one, they are very fragile. I did leave it in place to see if it would recover but no luck.  The others weren’t doing much… maybe it wasn’t warm enough for them in the house.  So I decided to take a look.. 4 had rotted and one didn’t even have a seed in it.. well not that I could find. So more drowning I think! Still it’s all new and I’m learning. Then I broke another seedling So with the broken ones and the rotted one I planted up some fresh seeds, this time I covered with cling film and put them in the airing cupboard. I now have 7 seedlings doing well and 2 that I’m waiting on to germinate.

I planted up my tumbling tomatoes… not many seeds in the packet, I was surprised! They are doing well but slightly leggy. The first true leaves are just starting to come through so I’ll get them re-potted up in to peat pots and bury them up to the first leaves to make them stronger. Need to get my Hanging baskets sorted out for them.

My money maker tomatoes that I saved from the little one, and the new ones I planted to replace the pulled out ones have also been re potted in to peat pots and are doing really well. I have 5 in total.

I also have some Shirley F1 and some plum Roma tomatoes that I think I’ll plant as well

The peppers are a little stagnant just now and I think it maybe due to the fact I have them out in the mini green house all the time… possibly too cold out there. I need to get some more pepper seeds under way after easter as well.

I also planted some leeks which have just started to pop through as well.

The mange tout I doing great, Mum gave me a spiral tower which is a perfect fit for the tub they are in so that will give them some support while growing. After easter I will set off another tub of 4 to keep me going and may get a nice lot to freeze.

I’ve also had another go at the herbs, keeping them inside and sparsely watered so finger crossed this time will be better!

Still to plant are the parsnips, dwarf french beans, broccoli, Shirley F1 tomatoes, plum Roma tomatoes, Aubergine, lettuce, peppers and more mange tout!

Tags: Aubergine, blueberry bushes, broccoli, courgette, cucumber, dwarf french beans, Grow your own, herbs, leeks, lettuce, mange tout, money maker tomatoes, parsnips, peppers, raspberry canes, Roma tomatoes, Shirley F1 tomatoes, strawberries, sweetcorn, tumbling tomatoes, Vegetable garden