The Planting Out Continues

I'll just start shall I......

Thursday - with my rickety hot/ greenhouse still standing I decided it was time to plant out the sweet peppers and aubergines in their new home. Gave one of the aubergines to my neighbour with the strict instructions not to actually grow an aubergine if I didn't succeed :) I interplanted them with french marigolds to repel greenfly, a red curly basil, pot marigolds and coriander.

I also planted out the two cucumber plants and sowed two more seeds in situ. The plants weren't properly hardened off and I have been wrapping them in a fleece blanket each night but they are beginning to show signs of cold damage. I hope they pull through and that the seeds germinate, might even sow a couple more in the greenhouse as back up.

And now there is more space emerging in the greenhouse I have finally potted on my ochroes and moved them into the greenhouse (ignore the mess I'll sort it out, I promise). They were potted into a mixture of compost, rotted rabbit droppings and bedding with a generous dose of blood fish and bones. Then today I remembered I had a special mixture of rotted rabbit droppings and bedding rotting down further with some lawn clippings which I was to use to pot up the ochro, duh, haven't really got anywhere else to use it so it will have to be thrown back on the compost heap.

Friday was a dud day - zilch in the garden done.

Saturday (today) - I walked into my greenhouse and the ochro was sulking even though I was mindful to open the door before the sun became to intense. The plants were visibly suffering from the heat in the greenhouse so I pulled my finger out and sewed together the two net curtains I purchased in a charity house approx two weeks ago, leaving a gap for the window to go through which will allow me to open it easily. Then I draped it over the house and what a difference it has made, in the autumn it will simply go in the wash.

When that was done I sorted out any watering that needed doing and then cracked on with planting out or potting on of plants. So the remainder of annual salvia were planted out among the three brassicus beds. I also planted some borage and pot marigolds in and around the beans bed and pot marigold at the edge of the globe artichoke bed and brassicus bed.

I really hope vege plot should look pretty this year as I really stuck to my plan to get lots of flowers into and around the beds. I have also left most of the selfsown poppies, calendulas, nigella, fever few and others to just get on and do what they do best, that is look pretty.

The young globe artichoke plant was planted out in its final position. I prepared the soil with more rotted rabbit dropping and bedding with a another generous helping of BFB (really wish I had remembered about the forgotten bagged stuff) anyway hope it grows away beautifully.

At the edge of one of the beds which has perpetual spinach, chard, lettuce and spring onions already in it, I planted the five young red orach plants that grew from the ten seeds I sowed. These plants selfseed really well I'm told so I want them to do so into the brick path where in the future I could leave them to grow in the corners to look pretty as well as to have lazy grown food :)

Some coriander seedlings were also planted out into the corner of the tomato bed, again to encourage the seeds to fall into the brick footpath for easy/ lazy growing of the herb.

The sweetcorn experiment is off to a flying start with two seedlings emerging hopeful more will appear soon.

In between all the planting I got some weeding done and potted up the last of the brassicus seedlings which I'll plant out either tomorrow or Monday and I gave my surplus plants to my neighbour.

All in all got most things I wanted to do done and enjoyed being outdoors in the lovely sunny weather.

Take a look at what started to bloom today and the bees have already found it but I wasn't fast enough with the camera.

Time To Get Of My Laurels and Get Cracking.

I have finally started to plant out my brassicus plants yesterday. After building the last frame for netting I planted out my romenesco x 4, cabbages x 3, cauliflower x 3 in the smaller bed which will be interplanted with Chinese leaves plants when they are a little better and can handle a slug attack. In that bed I also planted a nasturtium, calendula, borage and a cornflower.

In the larger bed which already has my early pak choi and mizuna plants flourishing, I began to plant out the kale and early purple sprouting broccoli. I also planted out a nasturtium plant into that bed, when I was done the netting went over both beds to protect them against the cabbage white butterflies.

Yesterday I saw my first native ladybug for the season it was a 14 spot (I know it looks dead but it was only playing dead because I moved it out of the way of danger from my garden fork, it soon toddled off).

I also found when I was sieving the compost to add to the beds a very large wireworm which went to the birds.

Hee hee!! and check out this bumblebee who was enjoying the water aven flowers.

Today I woke up to a fairly wet landscape but the light rain stopped at about 08.00 leaving behind some sunshine and moderate winds.

I have decided as of today to forgo starting my sweet corn in pots and plan to sow them into the bed dedicated to them after they have chitted (I don't normally chit these seeds but thought it would work better if I put them into the soil once germination had started). So after soaking them for a few hours I then placed them onto some damp paper towel in a covered tray and left them in a warm place to begin germination. In the mean time I have prepared the bed they will be going into by mixing in some compost an BFB and covering with some plastic to keep the soil warm. As soon as the seeds begin to chit I will plant them out but will leave the plastic in place as a cloche till June month. Why have I decided to go down this way instead of the preferred method of 3" pot for three weeks then plant out first week of June, simple answer really: I'm tired of faffing with pots.

I would have like to have gotten some more done but life and the weekly washing got I the way ;) I hope to get a lot of jobs done tomorrow but more high winds are forecasted so I'll see if I could risk planting out the cold sensitive plants tomorrow.

A Simple Update

So Saturday after two days of rest from the garden chores I picked up where I left off and returned to the task of digging and preparing planting holes for the curcubits, etc. The ten remaining holes for the squashes and pumpkins took me all Saturday to do. Each pole represent a hole of which there is 14 in total.

Sunday morning saw me constructing a fenced barrier against fox cub damage to my vege plot see previous posting, the only thing is I did not have enough fencing to encompass the squash and pumpkin area, I hope the plants won't be to interfered with when I plant them out (so far they have left the cardboard alone). Later in the afternoon found me digging six more holes, this time two more for the tomatoes, three for courgettes and one for a patty pan summer squash.

The kid's spring flower pots and planters have been moved to a quiet area behind the greenhouse and their six old wellington boot planters which were sown with morning glories, sweet peas and nasturtiums have been put into their final place in front of the play house.

Monday I potted around planting out flowering plants into the flower bed. The garden looks filthy as we have been having some high winds which have dumped all the old dusty flowers and some young leaves of the surrounding oak trees into the garden, causing the place to look like it needs a good sweep.

Had hope to start planting out the squashes and tomatoes but with the high winds dropping the air temperature by a few degrees I though it would be wise to keep them in the greenhouse till the end of the week when the ground should be saturated by forcasted heavy showers and the winds should have also died down somewhat.

The thyme I under sowed the brassicus plants with have started to germinate.

Here are a couple pics taken on Monday:

Tuesday morning saw me at the museum with my youngest for story and craft activities but the afternoon found me cutting the lawn which was followed by its second dose of feed. I also got round to staking the taller plants in the flower and herb beds to prevent them from being flattened by any heavy rain that may fall.

Wednesday this morning showed evidence of rain fall during the early hours of the morning but it was not a lot. There has been a fine drizzle since 14.00 which i s getting heavy but very slowly. The garden could do with a good drink so hopefully the heavy showers do fall later this evening.

The turnips I was growing for winter harvesting will be ready way before then (the one in the photo is only the second biggest). I'll probably sow a fresh set to grow for those winter months.

About midday I happened to look out the window and was lucky to see my first sighting of swifts for the year :), there were about five of them but they didn't hang around and so I was not able to procure a video shot of them to show you.

I've been practicing with the camera in taking macro shots here a few taken today:

I'm Tuckered Out

So I've been at it now for a good couple of months and I think its caught up with me. I took myself to bed early last night and the night before and woke up this morning knackered. I mean I have no energy whatsoever to dedicate to the garden/ vege patch.

So I did a little crafting instead, I have been meaning to make a little sign to hang on the front door when I'm out back mainly for the post/ delivery man re packages, etc. The piccy on the left is what I normally used and the piccy underneath is what I worked on today and I'm quite pleased with the results.

Well after lunch I still dragged myself to the greenhouse and spent an hour pricking out lettuce and Chinese cabbage seedlings, I also watered a couple of stuff and well that's it for the day. Hopefully I'll have a little bit more energy and will be all gong ho!! tomorrow.

I'll just fill you in on what I did get up to the last two days.

Tuesday, well my abdomen is still killing me from the holes I dug on Monday and the Sunday, so I wimped out and transplanted my spring onions which involved sifting some homemade compost and adding it to the bed I planted the spring onions in. The french marigolds were also planted out into heir final spot on the edge of the tomato bed. I still had a half hour to kill so I bit the bullet and dug two holes for the cucumbers, OUCH!!!! Washboard tummy here I come.

Wednesday found me filling the holes I dug for the cucumbers and erecting their support, a rose arch. The area under the arch was prepared with more sifted compost and I then planted out my onion seedlings.

After the afternoon school run I proceeded to dig and full four more holes, these are for my squashes and pumpkins.

Overall I have 10 more holes to dig for the above plants plus 4 more for the tomatoes and another 4 for the summer squashes and courgettes combined.

Well that's it for now, here are a few photos I took over the last three days, hope you enjoy them.

Aching Abdominal Muscles

Well today was another productive day, though I started later than I planned to I still achieved all I wanted.

I dug nine more pits today which were half filled with more rotted small mammal droppings and their bedding. And boy does my abdominal muscles hurt now from this exercise (who needs a gym). These holes are for my aubergines and sweet pepper plants I just need to construct a plastic windbreak for them which should help keep the temperatures around them warmer especially at night.

I also worked in the greenhouse pricking out my early sprouting broccoli seedlings and potting up the romenesco, cauliflower and kale plants into their degradable pots. I have continued to under sow the plants with thyme seeds to create a living deterrent against the cabbage root fly.

The weather was not as cheery as it has been, there was a lot more cloud cover and even a little cold at times so I welcomed both the digging and after the work in the greenhouse helped to keep me warm.

Well that's it for today, I'll leave you with this picture of dandelion fluff, doesn't the red tips of the sepals offset against the fluffy seeds look exquisite!

Kella the Builder

Another glorious sunny and warm day, yah!!!

I finished erecting the rest of my wigwams for the legume bed, it might be a little cramped but since I added lots of kitchen waste to the soil in the form of trenches I'm not worried about the plants running out of nutrition and the shredded paper in the trenches should aid with water retention. The only thing is air circulation, if it turns out to be a wet summer the plants may suffer with mold if everything stays to damp but if the summer is a dry one they should be OK, here's praying for a great summer as predicted by the MET.

The next structure I built today was one of two planned frames for netting my brassicus plants against the cabbage white butterflies lying eggs on my plants. I just have to drape the netting over it.

The last structure I began construction on was my outside covered tomato bed (see my posting in A4A on its use in 2008, if you scroll down I describe further on how I constructed it). This time I dug individual pits and half filled them with a mixture rotted small mammal bedding, droppings and lawn clippings from last year, I then sunk my bamboo posts into the ground to a depth o 12". I was able to do eight of the twelve poles, the last four will be done when I have cleared the rest of the bed of last years perpetual spinach and this years early radishes.

Other jobs that got done was the potting up of a couple more of my cabbage seedlings into coir pots. On the surface of the soil I under sowed the seedlings with a few thyme seeds each, which should germinate and according to some thoughts out there it should help to prevent cabbage root fly (I assume the strong smell of the thyme should confuse the fly). At best it would look pretty when in flower and attract beneficial insects like bees to help pollinate other crops and maybe hover flies who would leave their young behind to hoover up pests off the brassicus plants.

The rest of the summer savory plants were planted out in the legume bed now that the poles are in place.

On the germination front, the parsley, runner beans, french climbing beans and the borlotti beans have begun to germinate.

Went into the greenhouse this morning and was greeted by an open flower of a ....??? (can't remember the name will check again tomorrow and edit it in) squash and not a mature male flower in sight:(, so I have removed the flower and the immature fruit to prevent the plant from wasting energy. I think I will have to plant out my squash and pumpkins earlier than the third week of May like I previously planned. Will most likely start to prepare their planting holes tomorrow with the aim to plant out by next weekend. Will probably fleece and cloche the plants for a short period to help acclimatise them further.

The poor collard doves were worried endlessly as the girls joined me in the garden today for quite long periods. My eldest also found another broken egg in the grass, it must have fallen during the night as I only saw one when investigated this morning after she left the nest when I entered the garden. Hopefully it will still be in the nest tomorrow morning.

This lovely iris was blooming, it is one of a few plants that have survived the garden's makeover. Now that all the heavy digging and weeding is practically over some of missed tubers since last summer have begun to reemerge but this year is the first year any have flowered. I'm quite pleased as I thought they were long gone.

Also I saw this very pretty moth first by the flower beds then was later able to get a photo of it by the herb bed, it was very flighty so the picture doesn't do it justice. I just identified it as a Pyrausta purpuralis.