Clearing the decks for spring I have to record that the cut and come again trays in the greenhouse and on the kitchen windowsill failed to deliver. They stalled at the microgreen size and proceeded no further. Whether it was cold, lack of nutrition or lack of sunlight is academic. The yield did not justify the effort
Another failure has been my attempt to overwinter broad beans at the plot. I thought my fleece tent would shelter them.
Maybe it did help, but some agency has still uprooted any plants that survived into the new year:
Move on please - Nothing to see here
A combination of frost action and mice I would guess. On the plus side my Malwina strawberries delivered to late for planting out look quite happy in their temporary greenhouse residence
Also getting greenhouse space are these violas
Holding on for spring is this bedraggled parsley plant
On the plus side too is the clamped carrots
Despite my best efforts we are only three quarters of the way through the crop. BTW I have added carrot cake to my limited baking repertoire.
One more admission. The pigeons discovered the purple sprouting broccoli was get attable through the net, and get at this one they did.
Skeletalised PSB
Fortunately one robust plant is taller than all the others and so they couldn't get at the shorter ones. Talk about taking one for the team!
This year I have been making an effort to grow what we eat lot of successfully. Three notable problematic crops have been carrots, coriander and parsley. Carrots were the subject of my last post. What about coriander and parsley? I grew both at home in old supermarket boxes (with holes drilled in the bottom). The coriander was a success - but short lived as they turned to seed as they always do in the garden, but maybe not quite so fast. A further sowing was dug up by some animal agency and never passed the germination stage. My hopes were still high for parsley, which looked healthy enough about 4 weeks ago (above). Half the box is flat leaf and half curled parsley. Sadly the whole crop has succumbed to a root rot of some kind (Fusarium?). I had started some light trimming, but then growth stopped, yellowing of leaves and stalks was followed by reddening/browning. So I pulled them up and examined the roots. Not a pretty sight!!!
The parsley in the raised beds also succumbed. It seems the recent wet weather is the immediate cause. Time to start again, using sterilised compost, lots of grit ensuring no waterlogging occurs under any circumstances. Of course parsley takes ages to germinate so I think I will pot out a supermaarket "living herb" pot. Ho Hum...
