Random Stuff

Allotment | Digging has begun

Saturday, March 27th, 2010 | Allotment, Environment, Money Saving | No Comments

Along with my little helper the digging has begun!

I’ve decided to dig it over bit by bit and plant as I go,. I think this year it will be a case of just getting stuff in the ground, and the I can start planning properly what I want to grow where. the first bit will be for the potatoes.

There are quite a few weeds growing, clumps of grass etc.. but it all seems to be pretty free and easy to pull up.  The strawberry’s need a weed and today I weeded around the raspberries and pruned off the dead wood.

For some reason the Raspberries seem to have been planted down one side of the allotment. This isn’t really very good, so I am planning on moving them so that they go across the allotment. I also have some Raspberries in the garden that I will be planning on moving over. I need to read up on the best time to do this, which I assume will be winter when the canes are dormant.

To the right of that picture are the strawberries and again they go down the plot rather than across, I have left them in place this year, but in winter I will move them so that they too go across the plot. My plan is to have three rows, due to strawberries having a productive life span of three years, which I can rotate and replace the old plants with the new runners.

Tags: Allotment, raspberry canes, strawberries, Strawberry

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