Mini order for seeds

Most of the remaining seeds that I need to get will be ordered in a couple of weeks or so, but there were just a few things I have ordered which need to either go in the ground quite soon or need sowing in February. These are:

Jerusalem Artichoke 'Fuseau' tubers
Shallot 'Longor' sets
Lettuce 'Amorina' seeds

Total: £9.48


James is hoping to take Wednesday off work to make up for him working most of the weekend, and is planning to get some of the digging done so that I can get the j. artichokes and shallots in the ground fairly soon.

I did learn a bit more about improving soil structure in one of my lectures today, which was useful and great timing for my own veggie garden project. It appears that we are right in planning to dig grit in at the subsoil level for drainage, then incorporating organic compost to the topsoil for nutrition and also to break up the soil. I'm thinking that we'll probably need to mulch with bark or something similar to retain moisture in the summer as we have a clay soil that may end up rock solid like an overcooked loaf of bread. Not ideal for getting water to poor veggie roots! Our not-as-sunny-as-we-would-like aspect might be a blessing if we get a real scorcher of a summer though.

My next mini-project to get started on (alongside the veggie garden and all my design project work for the course) is to work out a planting plan for our miniscule front garden. (Its not really a garden, just a thin patch of earth below our front window contained by a low brick wall to the front and currently taken up by a rather huge evergreen shrub that needs pruning back.)

I am still undecided in terms of colour. Our neighbour's front garden is separated from ours by a large fuschia and in summer it is dripping with bright pink and purple flowers. Our front door is a fantastic bright red. I have some ground space, a little wall space for a climber and three window sills to play with and I am thinking bold and bright would be wonderful. Although not strictly part of the veggie growing project, I might include a few pictures and details of what goes on out the front too. Especially as there is little room left for growing ornimentals in our back garden!

How not to store your seed potatoes

The seed potatoes arrived in netting bags in a box. So far so good. What I didn't realise was that I should have sorted out some sort of storage for them. When I went to open the bags to taken out some for chitting, some of the potatoes in the bag at the bottom of the box looked like they has a bit of moisture on them. Not good. Thankfully it appears that no real damage has been done and I have left the potatoes out on the table overnight on a layer of newspaper to allow those affected to dry off.

Pink Fir Apple seed potatoes on a bed of saturday's guardian

I'm guessing then that they need somewhere dark with more air circulation. We have inherited a wire veg rack that was in the cupboard when we moved in and we have yet to find a use for it. As we can only have 18 seed potatoes chitting right now (our 3 potato planters only take 6 each at a time) I need to be able to store the remainder before they are chitted for successional sowing. I am thinking that a cardboard tray lined with shredded paper might do the trick and I can use the wire veggie rack to put the trays on.

On the bright side, the roseval seed potatoes are happily chitting away out in the kitchen as this is the coldest room in the house. I'll have to move them out for a time each evening whilst cooking though.

Veggie Garden Plan for 2007

I've now finished putting together a plan for the raised beds layout, which makes me feel a bit more organised and also helps to work out when things are to be sown etc.

Unfortunately, although the weather is pretty much perfect today, James has had to go into work and so the digging has been delayed further. Hopefully there will be time to get started on one of them tomorrow. I'd like to get the back right bed done first so I can get some jerusalem artichoke tubers in quite soon. I've considered everyone's advice about their potential invasiveness, however I love them too much not to grow them! I shall just be vigilant when taking out the tubers at the end of the season and hope for the best!

I'm not sure if this is legible from the photo, so here is a listed version of my bed plans along with the varieties I have chosen to grow:-

Bed 1 - (Bottom Left)

- Tomato 'Tigerella' (A medium-size tomato with stripy skin)

- Basil and Tagetes (to border the tomatoes and help fend off the pests)

- Calendula (one of my edible flowers choices and the colours should work well with the toms)

- Spinach 'Whale'

- Wild Rocket

Bed 2 (Top Left)

- Mange Tout and French Beans (at the back to grow up homemade wigwams)

Mange Tout 'Ezethas Krombek Blauwschok'

Dwarf French Beans 'Tendergreen' (this is my second year growing these)

- Courgettes 'Nero di Milan'

- Leaf Beet 'Canary' (A yellow-stemmed variety, hence the name)

- Garlic Chives

Bed 3 - (Top Right)

- Jerusalem Artichoke 'Fuseau'

- Leeks (I've chosen an early and a late variety to try and prolong my leek harvesting)

I've chosen 'Pandora' (early) and 'Atlanta' (late)

- Shallots 'Longor' (a traditional french variety)

- Spring/Pickling Onions

I've chosen 'Purplette' which is a purple/red-skinned baby onion harvested as spring onions or left longer to form small bulbs for cooking and pickling and also 'White Lisbon Winter Hardy' again to try and prolong my picking season. White Lisbon is a standard spring onion.

Bed 4 - (Bottom Right)

- Carrots 'Chantenay' and 'Yellowstone' for a mix of colours. (I grew chantenay last year in a container and they worked really well. I'll be growing some carrots in the ground and some in a container this year)

- Parsley 'Forest Green'

- Kale 'Nero di Toscano' (Hopefully this will give us something to eat in the winter months)

- Mizuna

- Sorrel 'Buckler leaved'

Container Veggies

To make the most of the sun on the patio by the house, most of the sun-loving veg will be container grown to maximise their exposure to the sun. These are:-

- Tomato 'Totem' (A cherry tom variety which I grew last year. We had 4 plants in a large pot and we had a bumper crop!)

- Beetroot 'Bolivar' (Some to be picked as baby beets and I'll leave a few to get to a mature size)

- Aubergine 'Little Finger' (Produces baby aubergines up to 15cm long)

- Mixed salad leaves such as 'Red and Green Salad Bowl' (If there are gaps appearing in the beds, I may fill these will some cut and come again lettuce also

- Herbs: Coriander and mint are definites. (No doubt I'll end up growing quite a lot of herbs in pots though!)

There will also be container-grown chantenay and yellowstone carrots and all of my salad potatoes will be grow in special potato planters at the back of the plot. I am growing two varieties 'Roseval' and 'Pink Fir Apple'.

I am still working out a plan for the back end of the year as to whether we will grow much. We don't get the sun in the winter months, which I think will restrict most things. We'll have a few things on the go such as kale, jersulalem artichokes and mizuna and I'll probably have a go at overwintering a few things under cloches to see what happens. So, we will see.

I'm also planning to grow nasturtiums along one boundary fence as a climber to add to my edible flowers selection. I was hoping to make space for a small cut flowers bed but we are tight for space and for this year, I feel that I should use as much for veggies as I can. I'll have to be content with a cut flower container 'bed' instead this year!

My frosty wish has been granted

The weather is now behaving more like it should and we are actually having a glimmer of frost early in the mornings.

I did say I was looking forward to this weather and I do absolutely love it. Yes, I know it is cold, bitterly cold at times, but you can't beat crisp, cold winter days when the sky is bright blue and the grass and leaves shimmer with frost and dew. I love each season as much as the next really. That said, I am particularly looking forward to spring this year, when the work in the veggie garden can really get going and summer when we can hopefully eat plenty of home grown fresh produce.

Just because I like to be in the habit of adding photos to this blog, here is a picture of this mornings frost on the garlic pots and one of the soon-to-be raised beds...

The Lunar Experiment

When ordering a couple of books for studying purposes the other day (I have quite the library of garden design, plants, pruning, pests and general horticultural science books steadily growing due to my current training) I decided to invest also in a guide to moon planting/biodynamics as I'm keen to try this with our new crops.

I decided on 'Gardening and Planting by the Moon 2007' by Nick Kollerstrom, which is an explanatory guide including a 15-month daily planting calendar. The books actually arrived today and I had a brief look at the moon planting book whilst having some lunch. Once I've had a better read I'll be able to write more about it in future entries.

(Funnily enough, my previous entry mentioning biodynamics (and the first time it has been mentioned in the blog) was picked up by somebody in New Zealand who has made a documentary on the biodynamic revolution in India and emailed me the link to their website.)

Taken from their website, here is a brief explanation of the film:

'How to Save The World' exposes globalization and the mantra of infinite growth in a finite world for what it really is: an environmental and human disaster.

But across India marginal farmers are fighting back. By reviving biodynamics an arcane form of agriculture, they are saving their poisoned lands and exposing the bio-colonialism of multinational corporations. 'How to Save The World' tells their story through the teachings of an elderly New Zealander many are calling the new Gandhi.

~ Taken from www.howtosavetheworld.co.nz ~

Let it snow...!

Now I know we were forecast some more traditionally wintry weather this week, but I wasn't expecting actual snow that sticks to things! Not where we live anyway!

So you can imagine the joy this morning of waking up and looking out of our kitchen door to this...

There looked like a good couple of inches on the ground. I just love the smell in the air after a snowfall, so fresh and crisp.

Sadly, the forecast for the next few days does not show any more snow - however, it is forecast to be bright and sunny this weekend, which is perfect to get started on the digging!

Here are a few more photos - I took these first thing this morning and I am so glad as it had all gone by the time I got back home this afternoon. It was just typical that the day it snowed was a day that I had to go into college - I'd have loved to spend an hour outside with my camera and the snow!

Magical!

Snow caught on the wisteria above the kitchen door

(and dripping on my head as I look out!)

Snow covered hebe and rosemary

Sticks and string marks the spot

This weekend saw the beginnings of some actual work on our little patch of earth. We haven't got as far as actually digging the beds yet, however they have now been marked out as per a more accurate plan I drew up, and yesterday the turf was lifted off the bed areas. At least it looks like the bare bones of a veggie garden now!

String and canes marking out the beds and spaces for paths

After marking out the beds with string and canes, we both had a good walk around our designated 'paths' to see how they felt and make sure we can access all areas of the beds from the edges. It was great to see how to size of the beds looked on the ground.

The following day, the turf was lifted in the bed areas. Again, weather permitting, actually double-digging the beds adding in organic matter and also improving drainage at the subsoil level should hopefully get done next weekend.

Looking very pleased with myself just after we finished marking out

Manpower - James gets stuck into lifting the turf

Moon Planting - Does it make a difference?

Earlier in the week I finally got around to booking the Dr Hauschka Body Treatment that I received a gift voucher for back in summer for my birthday. I went yesterday afternoon and it was heaven. 90 minutes of pure relaxation. Now I'm not just rubbing it in that I had a bit of pampering and I'm sure you are wondering what on earth this has to do with the garden!

Well, the therapist for the treatment explained at the beginning about the connection between the moon and our life force. A (slightly reduced) description of the body treatment from the website says "The treatment works with the lymphatic system to open the body to its own life forces helping to support, harmonise and strengthen this force within us as a dynamic approach to preventative healthcare."

Now I don't know much at all about life forces but I certainly feel different after the treatment and it has got me thinking. I'll be reading up on it at some point for myself, but it reminded me of biodynamic cycle growing for veg, where the moon's cycle sort of dictates what should be planted when etc. I'll look into a bit over the next week or so and my plan is perhaps to split my planting into two and grow one lot just by sowing and planting in the normal way and the other lot grown using the biodynamic chart and see if there is any difference. So, lets see what the results are after the growing seasons!

Signs of life in the garden

After a cosy night tucked away in the safety and shelter of the shed away from yesterday's strong winds, the garlic shoots were moved back outside again and I thought this was a good opportunity to take a few more snaps of their progress.

When I get back from town later, I am hoping to make some time to get some of the seed potatoes ready in trays for chitting. The weather forecast for the weekend still looks promising so fingers crossed we can get the digging done too!

New garlic shoots - the first new life in my garden this year

So we might get a winter after all...

There is an article on BBC News Online today titled 'Britain braced for heavy storms'. It appears that strong winds and heavy rain are forecast for tomorrow (with snow for the colder regions and Scotland etc) followed by a drop in temperatures after the weekend.

As I am thankfully no longer a london rush-hour commuter, this type of news doesn't affect me in terms of transport disruption. Aside from concern for my containers in the garden blowing over and having to tie down our bikes etc, I am really quite pleased that we might see some actual winter weather as the cold temperatures will do great things for my london clay soil! Looking at the forecast the rain is supposed to stop by Sunday giving us a day to get the beds dug. London always seems to stay a couple of degrees warmer than the rest of the country though. We have a weird, polluted city micro-climate.


An extract from the BBC News Online article:

"Friday should be calmer", he [John Hammond from the BBC Weather Centre] added, "but the following week could see the country in the grip of a cold snap." Despite an unusually mild start to January, he warned that temperatures are likely to plummet beyond the weekend. He added: "Next week will be the first real taste of winter for most of us. There is a possibility of snow and temperatures will be struggling to rise above freezing."

Hmmm, isn't that what the weather is supposed to be like in January?

Our weather isn't a patch on what parts of the US and eastern Canada are going through right now. A friend in Toronto emailed a couple of weeks ago and mentioned that it was as mild there as it was here in the UK. I'm sure they are now knee-deep in freezing snow again.

Let the sowing and chitting begin!

The doorbell rang this afternoon and what has arrived... the first batch of seeds! What with the compost arriving yesterday and now my first seeds order being delivered, it feels like this project has really started now.

Two bags of seed potatoes and 3 packets of seed

Now I can get on with chitting some of the seed potatoes and sow some Tomato 'Tigerella'. The Aubergine 'Little Fingers' can be sown indoors in a couple of weeks and I'll start off some early beetroot in a few weeks too. All of these will be container grown.

A flying visit

Standing in the kitchen a little while ago making a mid-morning cup of tea, I was really pleased to see two small birds in the viburnum and one hopped along to the new bird feeder to have a peck at the peanuts.

I took a photo from inside, which is poor quality but you can just about see the little bird on the perch posing for the camera. I quietly opened the back door to try and get a little closer but they had moved away and it was also raining outside a lot harder than I realised! Hopefully when the weather is a little brighter, I'll manage to get some better pictures.

A little doorstep surprise...

I arrived home from lectures this afternoon to 150 litres of organic compost waiting for me on my doorstep!

Ok, I might be making it sound a little bit more dramatic than it actually was. For a start, it was neatly contained in 3 large bags rather than a large open pile of the stuff, but it was still a surprise nevertheless (Deliveries are not often left on doorsteps here in London.) It was also a little unexpected as I didn't think it would arrive until the end of the week!

150 litres of organic garden compost

Hopefully our only purchase as we are currently

making our own homemade compost for future years

Very exciting though as we can now get the beds plotted out and double-dug this weekend, weather permitting. This does mean that I now have to get a move on finalising the plot layout.

As our plot is partially shaded, veg needing plenty of sun will be container grown in the sunniest area so they can be rotated easily (we managed to ripen our tomatoes last year by turning the container 90 degrees each day.) I am planning tomatoes, beetroot and baby aubergines as my sun worshippers. The potato planters will also be in a relatively sunny spot. The rest of the plot is a bit limited in terms of what we could grow as it will not have sun all day, just two bursts of direct sunlight in a day. To be honest, this year is a real trial and error exercise to see what will grow and what won't. Next year I may be sending off various packets of seeds to my veggie growing friends for their sunnier plots!

I have also picked up a small paper shredder today to follow through one of my new years resolutions. Any paper/documents etc that are not longer needed will be shredded and used as part of the paper layers for the compost rather than it all going in the recycling bin. This way I can save some of the weeks newspaper to make seedling pots (I'll be using a wooden paper potter to make our own biodegradable pots.)

Wild bird cafe

Today I finally got around to putting the new bird feeder out in the garden. I bought some wild bird peanuts from the garden centre last week as per the feeder instructions and these are supposed to be a nice snack for various small wild birds. It is hung in the mature viburnum in the corner of the garden, which I've seen little birds perched in before. I'll be keeping an eye out for any visitors over the next few days!

Garlic shoots

Looking out of the kitchen door earlier today I briefly glanced at the garlic containers, not expecting to see anything and, after a closer peer realised that I was looking at new shoots! In a moment of pure excitement I hurried outside to take a closer look and a few snaps. (I did have a bit of trouble getting my camera to focus on the shoots as they are so tiny...)

I planted 14 cloves on 15th December and today I counted 11 shoots that have appeared so I am very pleased (even more so as I thought the squirrels might have ruined my garlic-growing attempts by constanting digging them up.)

One or two have a lovely fresh green shoot that has emerged from the white outer layer, the others I hope are not far behind.

Pic 1 - One of the still encased shoots

Pic 2 - One of the green shoots emerging

Monday 15th Jan additional post:

Yesterday James found one of my garlic cloves next to the back fence and popped it back in the pot as it had a shoot (those pesky squirrels!) so the shoot count is now officially 12!

A veggie book not to be missed!

I recently bought a copy of 'Grow your own vegetables' by Joy Larkcom and it is absolutely invaluable. Paperback novel size, it is crammed full of information which is easy to understand and very clearly written. I would highly recommend it to any new veggie grower and I'm sure it would be a very useful reference book for those with more experience. It was only £5.99 on Amazon.co.uk which is a very reasonable price.

I have been going through the vegetable directory in the book double-checking my choices of veg to try and grow checking to see if my plot conditions are suitable. I have made a few changes too, taken out a couple of things that wouldn't get enough sun and added in a few more things that I hadn't considered before (jerusalem artichoke and kohl rabi to name a couple.)

There is lots of information on soil preparation too, which is really helpful. I feel much more confident about how to approach double-digging our soil now!

Organic peat-free garden compost

The ethos for our veggie growing is that it is fresh, organic produce. Free from chemicals and with zero food miles. All seeds to be sown are organic and I have been investigating where to get organic garden compost to dig into our new beds. I came across many companies who could provide suitable organic matter, however the minimum orders were clearly to suit the larger land owners.

Finally, through the About Organics website, I have found a supplier of organic peat-free garden compost at a very reasonable price. AHS Direct have a 3x 50L bag package of organic compost for £14.99 with free delivery.

The beds are due to be marked out in the next week or so, then, once the turf has been carefully lifted, comes the lovely job of double-digging the proposed bed areas. This is where James (BuddingVeggieGrower'sMate) will come into his own... with a spade and a fork! (I know he is secretly quite looking forward to it - I don't think he quite realises how much hard work it might be though...) We can then let the soil settle and rest until we begin planting out in the spring.

A (very basic) layout plan!

I spent a good couple of hours this afternoon armed with my organic gardening encyclopedia, a big mug of tea and the tin of quality streets given to us at christmas to put together a rough layout plan. Soil and growing conditions, what veg is in the same family as what other veg, sun, less sun.... it has all (I think) been taken into consideration. Ok, so it needs a bit of work but you've got to start somewhere right?

Once I'm back at the gardening school on Monday (second term and I can't wait to go back - I'm pretty sure a younger me would have never said that when facing a new term at school...) I'll have my drawing board etc set up again so I'll draw up a more accurate plan then. (Unfortunately, I cannot get to it at the moment as the study is covered in a huge dust sheet with wood and tools everywhere whilst the new shelves and computer work area are being built.)

A (very rough) plan...

The first seeds order...

Finally, I have a list of what we will have a go at growing for our first year. A small order was made yesterday evening for the 'earlies' that we need to sow now or in the next 4-8 weeks. I've ordered:

Salad Potato 'Pink Fir Apple'
Salad Potato 'Roseval'
Tomato 'Tigerella' seeds
Beetroot 'Detroit 2 Bolivar' seeds
Aubergine 'Little Fingers' seeds

Total: £19.43


A perk of being a member of Garden Organic is a 10% discount when purchasing from the Organic Gardening Catalogue. Rather handy now that I have a whole veggie garden worth of seed etc to get!

I discovered yesterday that we need to get going on chitting the potatoes before they are planted (I've been saving a few egg boxes for this) and the Tomato 'Tigerella' seeds can be started off pretty early too. I have a little bit of previous tomato-growing experience under my belt now, and this years plan is to try and get a steady supply of tomatoes rather than gluts.

We will be growing our potatos in reusable potato planters (like a giant black sack I think) and as I will have 3, one might be used for carrots as these were pretty successful in a container last year. This depends on how big the planters are when they arrive as we got a decent crop of carrots from a large wooden container last year.

The postman also delivered a parcel this morning that I have been waiting for containing our new compost stirrer, a roll of copper tape to help the attempt to deter slugs and a small wooden bird feeder. Our next door neighbour is very successful in attracting many small birds to her garden with feeders and water etc so fingers crossed the little birds will be pleased with our offerings too!

I've got that new shoes feeling...

I had to include a picture of my fab new gardening clogs received at Christmas! I also received a proper dibber with measuring markings on, and following a visit to the Grosvenor Garden Centre whilst in North Wales I have a new lovely fleecy bodywarmer. So now at least I'll look the part!

Gardening lives on BBC2!

There is a new series starting this Friday (5th Jan) in the usual Gardeners' World slot on BBC2 called 'Grow your own veg!' Fantastic timing for us and if it is any good, hopefully we'll get some useful advice from it. Once this series has finished we'll be in the wonderful season of spring and Gardeners' World will be back with us, hurray!

Earlier in 2006 there was a great series on the BBC called 'The Big Dig', which followed two allotment sites, one in Wales and one in London. We absolutely loved it, however sadly there are no signs of another series.

Merry New Year!

After returning yesterday from an extended stay in the peaceful north wales countryside for christmas and new year, I was a little disgruntled to see that the local squirrels had tried yet again to dig up my garlic. I think a protective covering of wire mesh might be needed.

Ground preparation plans are due to be made over the next few days. I've pretty much decided now on four 1mx1m square raised beds with room either side of our patch for containers for potatoes, carrots etc and for the cold frame, compost bin etc.

The next job then is to come up with a final list of what we will (attempt to) grow this year and get on with ordering the necessary seeds etc. All very exciting. The weather is still unbelievably mild for the time of the year. It doesn't seem like we've really had any proper winter at all. The London forecast for the next few days shows a minimum temperature of 10 degrees during the day and only going down to around 6 degrees at night. I read in the news today that experts are predicting another unbelievably hot year for the UK. No surprises there then. Its a good job we've invested in a decent size water butt. That said, it remains to be seen whether we'll actually get enough rain to fill it!

Measurements, seeds I already have from last year and my beloved books...