Hot X Buntime

 

Easter is upon us and my shed building project is soaking up all my gardening time.  This is the current state of play. I have sown two rows of carrots and one of parsnips. Also a row of asparagus. It will be potatoes next.

My shorter term project is to bake HXB.  

Picking Up At The Plot

 I have been indulging my newfound interest in flowering plants and particularly wildflowers recently. Despite appearances I have been keeping up with the production of edibles too.  To bring the record up to date, here is a statement of the current state of play.

I went for alliums in a bigger way this year growing autumn and spring planted garlic as well as shallots and onions from seed. These were sown indoors in February .  The garlic has emerged and shallot and onion have been planted out on site yesterday and today. 

Broad beans sown in cells and planted out a month ago are now sitting pretty at the plot. 

Peas on the other hand have refused to be cajoled into germinating early. As a last resort I have started them sprouting in a jam jar in the kitchen and only "sown" them in cells after germination and exporting them to the greenhouse and then the plot.

Still on legumes I have sown 5 varieties of Dwarf French Bean into deep cells in the hope that the improved night temperatures will help them get started.

The greenhouse has been stuffed full each night with the paraffin heater lit on any night when the threat of frost is flagged up by the weatherman.  The main beneficiaries are flowers: Cosmos, Marigold, Lobelia, but also tomato, cucumber and pepper 

Tomatoes and Cucumber

Pepper Hungarian Hot Wax

I have attempted direct sowing at the allotment but tend to hedge my bets by using up remnant seed supplies (open packets from last year or out of date ones).  This way I don't get upset when they fail - although failure is also more likely as a result!  Parsnip, carrot, Swish chard have been experimented with in this way - and have all been resown recently..

Good Friday is a traditional potato planting day.  Easter Saturday and Sunday saw me getting all but the maincrop Rooster in. 

Potatoes in waiting

The patch allocated to potatoes in my rotational plan still had "spring" cabbages at one end and leeks at the other.  Now that's what I call bad planning! The leeks are going into the cookpot.

The ground for runner beans, celery and celeriac has been thoroughly prepped with plenty of buried organic matter.  The celery and celeriac have been growing on at home

Celery and Celeriac  - Can you tell which is which?

 but the runner beans have yet to be sown.  The courgettes squashes and sweetcorn haven't been sown either yet, but I have recently prepared a bed for them too.  My method is to bag all my weeds and trimmings in old black lined compost bags and leave them for a year or two to rot down in the hope that after another year buried underground any weed seeds will not be viable.  This keeps all the nutrients recycled on the site - all except the edible part of any crops.  

Weed suppression is something I take very seriously.  The best method is to have a crop growing but failing that deployment of weed suppressant fabric in the early part of the growing season saves hours of repetitive weeding.  As the sowing season progresses so the aesthetically unpleasing fabric gets rolled back. 

Brassicas tend to be at their best late in the growing year. None more so than purple sprouting broccoli which is currently in full production mode. 

 One again my lack of planning means the row of PSB plants is right in the middle of this year's carrot patch (under the fine mesh).  The PSB needs nets to keep the pigeons off while the carrots need fine netting to keep the carrot root fly off. so it is a bit of a logistic nightmare to cater for them both simultaneously.  As the early carrot sowing show no sign of germination yet perhaps there is no imminent prospect of running out of space just yet - the main crop carrots can wait until the PSB harvesting season is over.

This years brassicas and leeks are coming on at home in readiness for planting out. It iis going to be busy for the next month or two!

Early season brassicas

Leeks

 

Let's Get On With The Show

 

Looking at my recent posts you wouldn't think I was interested in gardening.  To dispel that, here is the current state of play.  As you can see these are outdoors during the daytime at least. Others have progressed from indoors to the protection of the greenhouse, newly vacated by hardier plants

Some other greenhouse crops are still in the dark on lower shelves of the greenhouse.  Once they sprout they will be turfed outside too.

I had not reckoned on the protracted period of cold nights when I started sowing, but so far there have been no frost victims

And in case you are wondering I decided to have a go at growing onions and shallots from seed as well as the usual leeks.  Early brassicas and some flowers (e,g, lobelia, marigolds and rudbeckia) also feature. After a long stint in the home nursery thank goodness I can soon move them on to the open garden, school and allotment. 

Let's Go!

Beans awaiting release!

The weatherman advises that the risk of frost is past!  It's time to release those cramped plants from their night time confinement in the greenhouse. 20 cucurbits went off to the school garden today. More to the allotment over the weekend. Time to sow  the sweetcorn.  Time to reconfigure the greenhouse shelves for tomatoes and peppers and cucumber.  Also the last impediment to direct sowing has been removed. 

Cucurbits for the Allotment 

Dwarf French Beans and Italian Climbers (Barlotti)

Peas and leeks at the ready

Brassica seedlings 

A selection of flower seedlings itching to be released!

 The song should be "Happy Days Are Here Again" but I have gone for something more contemporary:

Plants on Lockdown

Peppers, tomatoes, courgettes, cucumbers and squash.

The greenhouse plants are growing on ...

More tomatoes, peppers, squash

...and I would dearly like to move them on...

Flowers seedlings, basil and celeriac (top right)

..but this weekend we are threatened with the possibility of a frost....

Flower seedlings and veg too

...so I am having to improvise with the overspill...

Mostly Hardy perennials 

... and bring some indoors for the night.

Flowers Lobelia, Cerastium, Lobelia, Tagetes

Once the seedlings move on I will have room to set out the tomatoes peppers and cucumbers in the vacated space.

At least I held off sowing the sweetcorn until now!

Welcome to the House of Fun

A peek inside my greenhouse on a sunny afternoon. 

 Flowers on one side

Tomatoes and chillies on the other

Chilli

Tomato

All the alliums and other hardy veg has been moved to the path outdoors.  And here is an unheated propagator with spring salads that  gets the lid popped back on at night.

Everything is labelled

Up above I am delighted with the progress of my basil seedlings!

Living in Scotland I might be a bit rash growing frost sensitive plants so early in the year.  The other side of the coin is that the short growing season means you have to make an early start to stand a chance of a harvest.  It looks like this year I have got away with it.  Tonight the temperature is set to drop to one or two degrees and I will be dragging everything I can fit into the greenhouse, shed and coal cellar for the last time.  (The greenhouse gets the benefit of a paraffin heater if  there is a threat of frost.) After that the minimum night temperature is set to be no lower than 4 degrees C until the end of the month.  I will, of course be checking the forecasters  don't change their prediction, but it looks like everything will left in the same place day and night hereafter. Just as well as there are more seedlings indoors under lights waiting to be pricked out.

Cucumbers at the back

Less worry - more fun.

Lights Camera Action!

This year I have deployed conventional light to stop my seedlings getting too leggy. It seems to be working for these annuals which currently have light but no extra heat. (The lights are located in our coal cellar).  New this year is a new LED light setup.  It is made up of small red and blue lights which explains the funny colour of these pics:

But it seems to work for tomatoes:

and peppers:

Outside in the (unheated) greenhouse  transplanted lobelia ...

...and other hardier plants...

Leeks

 ...have rapidly been moved on after tricking them into germinating indoors!

Broad Beans

It is always a juggling act finding protected space once seedlings require transplanting into bigger containers. The greenhouse is the last resort and offers shelter from wind and rain/hail/snow but is no protection from the cold. I have a paraffin heater at the ready and will be keeping a watchful eye out for any sub zero predicted overnight temperature once the non hardy plants take up residence.

Cabin Fever - The Musical

 It's raining so I thought I might update a state of play review that I did about a month ago In-cold-storage.  The greenhouse is bulging with plants waiting to be liberated. The forecast for the next three nights is 3 degrees C so it would be foolhardy to plant out.

Stage Left

Stage Right

Balcony

Outside the greenhouse there are plenty seedlings that would just love to be inside.  I cover these with propagator lids each night at dusk and remove them each morning.

Terracing

There's no lids to spare and some of the overwintered plants just have to tough it out.

Stands

Despite the cold temperatures the recent rain has seen a surge in the slug and snail population.  They quickly home in on these runner beans (and some dahlias suffered too). Reluctantly I have applied a sprinkling of (Organic Approved) slug pellets under each tray.