A visit to the nursery

The paper pots are still going a bit fuzzy after a while so I have decided that they are good for growing individual seedlings like tomatoes and aubergines but for multiple seed sowing of smaller seeds (mizuna, leeks etc) it is better to sow in a shallow tray. I've been saving any trays that we get in the veggie box (mushroom trays are particularly useful) and also our fresh fish comes on polystyrene trays which we wash thoroughly allow to dry well and they hold about an inch of potting compost. I'm using them for the first time to start of the tagetes and they are working well. I just make plenty of holes in the bottom of the tray. Occasionally we have biscuits which come in a tray inside the packet, these also make good seed trays!

Today I have transferred my leeks into one tray as the paper pots were decidedly fuzzy and I had to put fresh newspaper down in the trays anyway. I've never seen a leek seedling before so I'm finding it fascinating to see how they grow. They sort of start doubled over then straighten up. When repotting them I couldn't believe how strong they smell at such an early stage. A really strong distinct leek smell which was just amazing. I've sown another dozen leek atlanta today too. They are a late leek for harvesting next winter. Pandora is my early leek for the summer/autumn.

Leeks 'Atlanta' and 'Pandora'

Thankfully I seem to be having a bit more success with starting off some mizuna. I cautiously only did 3 pots with a few seeds in each and I have been trying to make sure they are not drying out as that seemed to be the problem before. I have also moved them to a 'cooler' shelf of the nursery which isn't in the full sunlight and heat all day.

Mizuna - still going strong

The outcome of my tagete sowing experiment (one tray of scattered seeds and one tray of seeds sown on edge) is that there seems to be no difference at all in the germination rate. I'll definitely stick with the scattering method from now on. A lot quicker and a lot less tedious!

The french beans are looking great, really strong and healthy and growing at a staggering rate (as per my previous entry and photos.) 17 of the 20 seeds sown have come up so far which is very pleasing.

French beans - Wonderful deep green leaves emerge and unfold from the seed pod

The tallest bean almost as tall as my watering bottle

Shooting Beans

It is amazing just how quickly new bean shoots grow. We were so amazed that we went one step further in this observation and set up a camera on a tripod to take photos over a 24 hour period to see just how much the grow in this amount of time. The results are amazing. The shoots pretty much doubled in size in just one day.

There are 19 photos in total so I have created a side-blog to house these. Here are the first and final photos though to show just how much they have grown and changed.

If you want to see the full sequence of photos - take a look at the Shooting Beans Photo Mini-Blog

More seed sowing

A bit more seed sowing this afternoon:

Indoors:

I've sown 9 plugs of climbing nasturtiums for some (hopefully) early flowering action. I'll sow some outdoors directly in a couple of weeks.

Outdoors:

The old packet of Cornflower seeds that I came across have been sown between the jerusalem artichokes and shallots for a bit of colour. I have no idea how many will actually germinate but they are better off in the ground than in the packet!

I've also sown a packet of Onion 'Purplette' in amongst and a row in front of the shallots. Some Beetroot 'Bolivar' have been sown in a square container and I've also sown some coriander seeds in a small container.

The weather is forecast to be warm and sunny tomorrow too so I'll make the most of it and do some more sowing. I'd like to get the calendula and some of the leafy veg sown directly into the ground (spinach etc.) The front garden also needs some attention - pruning, lifting, dividing etc.

Weekend Gardening

More seeds sown indoors this weekend and the nursery has been upgraded to a larger size to fit everything in. Our front room is now doubling up as a greenhouse for starting off seedlings - I am sure this is a familiar sight in homes across the land!


So, an update. Seeds sown on Saturday 24th:

Starting off under cover:

9 plugs of Chilli 'Newmex Twilight' (2 seeds per plug)
9 plugs of Red Pepper 'Toreador' (2 seeds per plug)
1 tray of Mint

Starting off without cover:

2 trays of Tagetes 'Golden Gem'

(The seeds were a shape that I had not seen before, sort of dart-like. As a bit of an experiment I have sown 1 tray with the seeds carefully placed in the soil on edge and the other tray I have just scattered the seeds. It will be interesting to see if there is any difference in germination.)


Seeds sown on Sunday 25th:

12x Sweet Pea 'Pip Tremewen'
12x Sweet Pea 'Blue Velvet'

(The sweet pea seeds were soaked overnight in warm water before sowing as instructed on the packet.)

Other tasks on Sunday:

The Lettuce 'Amorina' seedlings (sown 24th Feb) have been transplanted into a larger trough container now and I will be hardening them off for a couple of days before putting them out in the cold frame.

12 chitted Pink Fir Apple seed potatoes and 6 chitted Roseval seed potatoes have been planted out in potato planters outside.


The broad beans were a little damaged by recent strong winds, however our emergency covering with a clear polythene sheet seemed to have given them a good amount of protection from frost and wind. The cover has been taken off now and they are looking happy enough.

I still have more seed sowing to catch up on outdoors. The seed sowing for the moon planting experiment has also been delayed due to the recent hefty college workloads. I should be ok sowing the tomatoes in the next few days when the right element day comes around but time is ticking along.

We are having to cover any empty bed space (which is most of it at the moment) with a covering of wire mesh or the clear polythene sheeting to stop a local cat using the soil as a litter tray. We have contemplated getting a cat repellent sensor which emits a high pitch noise to keep it away from the veggie garden, or perhaps just a load of twigs stuck vertically out of the soil might prevent it from walking all over the beds.

Pests are a new thing for us as we didn't have a problem gardening on our 3rd floor deck in the old flat! We have already had to remove the bird feeder which had wild bird peanuts in from the tree as the squirrels were wrecking the bird feeder and stealing the nuts. I am considering just getting bird fat ball things instead. The next battle I am sure will be with the slugs and snails.... copper tape at the ready...

RHS Grow Your Own Crop Planner

The RHS Grow Your Own e-newsletter arrived in my email inbox this afternoon and included a link to a crop growing planner. It is pretty basic but quite handy to have the basic information to hand on one sheet. If you do not subscribe to the RHS e-newsletter, click here for a link to their veg planner. I'll be printing it out and putting it next to my garden calendar in the kitchen.


Tonight sees the return of Gardeners' World back at Berryfields. A great programme, I miss it when they stop filming for the winter.

Bottle feeding the seedlings

After the mould incident, I have made a new watering device to be able to water seedlings in the paper pots more accurately. A small hole made in the top of a plastic drink bottle, which when you hold it upright you can either let the water drip or squeeze the bottle to squirt water into the pot without drenching the whole thing. It works really quite well, I am pretty pleased with it.

Branding unintentional - any squeezable plastic bottle would obviously work just as well!

A simple device with dual watering technique - a slow drip or a direct squirt!

The watering can in the sky

Is it just me or is the weather behaving in a pretty strange way. One minute it is bright blue skies and blinding sunshine, the next is proper snowfall, which abruptly returns to the bright blue skies again in the blink of an eye. When I looked out of the window at the end of lectures today it was steadily snowing, literally a minute later when I got outside it was beautifully clear and sunny. I think the sky is playing games.

I was pleased to find a reply from Baxter Storey in my email inbox this afternoon in response to my query about whether the used coffee grounds James picked up in the cafe in the building where he works were organic (see previous post Free used coffee grounds for the garden - Thur 8th March.) I'm still non the wiser as the reply was to speak to the catering manager of that particular cafe to find out, but I was pleased to get a reply nonetheless. I'll ask James to check with them tomorrow.

Only 2 days to go until I finish the spring term and can actually get on with some serious seed sowing and other gardening delights! Roll on Thursday.

Paper pots... the honeymoon is over

I love the idea of paper pots for sowing seeds for various reasons. Today however, nature decided to rebel in the nursery and I wasn't pleased to discover the unwelcome signs of mould this morning when I went to give everything their morning drink of water. The sad mizuna which despite my optimism have definitely given up and keeled over had been invaded by some sort of fungi overnight. A closer nursery inspection revealed that the outside of a number of the other pots had the beginnings of a white furry thing going on.

After much deliberation and serious discussion as to what might be the main cause (including at one point getting out the pests and diseases book to try to identify the fungi style growth) a conclusion was made that the pots and paper underneath is just not drying out properly therefore creating an idea breeding ground for things that we don't want to be growing in the nursery.

The offending mould in its various forms

Action had to be taken as a matter of urgency to rescue the seedlings before the infestation spread any further. The infested mizuna pots have been disposed of along with the old paper lining the trays. New paper pots were made (using just one strip of paper as I suspect my doubling-up method may have contributed to the pots not drying out properly...?) and the strongest aubergine and tomato seedlings transplated in their own fresh pots.


I have changed my watering technique too as the little seedling water can we have is a bit fierce and shoots out quite a lot of water. Instead, the classic thumb-over-the-end technique has been adopted. Slower but it stops water going everywhere. I am going to make my own watering device using a plastic bottle with a couple of small holes in the lid which should have the same effect as the thumb-over-the-end technique.

I took the opportunity of sowing a few more seeds too whilst I had my potting kit out. The nursery now has:

5 aubergine 'little finger', 5 tomato 'totem' and 6 tomato 'tigerella' seedlings (transplated into their own pots)

3 pots of mizuna (now a bit of an experiment to see if I can actually raise seedlings after my first failed attempt)

6 pots of leek 'atlanta' and 6 pots of leek 'pandora'

1 tray of garlic chives

2 trays of tendergreen dwarf french beans (10 seeds per tray)

Nursery residents

The trays are recycled packaging containers essentially with a few drainage holes made in them. The beans have been sown in two trays that our mushrooms are packed in from the weekly veggie box and the garlic chives are in a plastic tray that started out life as the tray in a packet of biscuits. I have a box in the cupboard which is now full to the brim with trays, yoghurt pots, milk cartons (all washed of course) and various other recyclables that I can use for the veggie garden as cloches, seed trays etc.

At last, some green to look at!

Yesterday the broad bean plants given to us were planted out and a higher wire mesh cover had to be put over to protect the shallots as they are now sprouting nicely and needed more head room (slight problem with squirrels digging everything up.) It is great to have something green in the ground finally! James put up a willow screen around the compost bin too so it is not so in your face when sitting outside and forked over the emply beds again which has dried out a bit. We'll cover these now to warm up the soil for planting out.

Edible Gift: Broad Beans

Yesterday, true to his word a friend of ours brought over a large tray of very strong and healthy looking young broad beans plants he has grown. They are temporarily in the cold frame until we get time to plant them out at the weekend. All going well, we should be picking the first beans in just 6 weeks or so. They will be replaced in the summer once they have gone over with courgette plants. It is great to have something to go in the ground and fill some space.

I've decided on two varieties of sweet pea to grow up the back fence for a bit of decoration and to have something nice for cut flowers indoors. I've got seeds for 'Pip Tremewen', a rich purple colour and 'Blue Velvet' which is a wonderful inky deep purple-blue. They work nicely with my flowering theme of oranges and purples/blues that will give us fantastic bursts of bright colour amongst all the leafy greens. I'll also have blue cornflowers, bright orange calendula, orange/yellow tagetes and a mix of orange/red/yellow climbing nasturtiums. I can't wait for summer when the garden is full of colours, fruits, leaves...

Not so happy mizuna

All the seedlings in the nursery are looking lovely and healthy... apart from the mizuna. It was absolutely fine until yesterday morning when I went to water everything and all the mizuna had sort of shrivelled up. I've no idea what is wrong with them. I suspect they need more water than the others perhaps? It looks like it is only the seed leaves that have flopped, is this what they normally do? I am hesitant to just write them off as some do have a pretty healthy looking first proper leaf. I'll give them some more time and see how they get on and sow my next batch too.

Not so happy looking mizuna seedlings...

Everything else has come up now. The lettuce 'amorina' is looking good and some of the leaves are beginning to show a hint of red now (Amorina is a Lollo Rossa type with intense, deep, red leaves.) I think they need to go outside in the cold frame soon and they look like they will quickly outgrow their paper pots. I think they may need thinning a little too before they go in a larger trough outside. I'll try to put less seeds per paper pot for future sowings.

Lettuce 'Amorina' - 16 days from sowing seeds

Other seed sowing etc really needs to be done quite soon, however at the moment finding the time is a bit tricky as I have a design project submission due a week tomorrow and as I was laid low with a bad cold for almost a week, I am now a bit behind. As of a week on wednesday I'll be on term break for a few weeks though and I can turn my attention to the garden properly.

Tomato 'Tigerella' seedling

The tomatoes are coming along well and showing signs of their first proper leaves and the aubergines have also germinated well without being covered. I think the warmth from sun coming through the windows gave enough heat for them.

Aubergine 'Little Finger' seedlings

Et voila... four raised beds!

We have finally finished the construction of the raised beds and the soil contained in them has been lovingly double-dug by James with improved drainage and lovely organic compost for a nutrients boost. The forecast is for dry weather over the next few days so the idea now is to let the topsoil dry out a bit then cover the empty beds to warm up the soil before planting out.

The cold frame has had a clean up and is now sitting on the first of the ground cover sheeting that we've put down. It still needs to be fixed down properly but its a start. Next job is to cut sheeting to size to line the paths around the beds and we'll be covering them with bark too. The cold frame will have a layer of gravel spread out inside it to help any pots in their drain nicely.

We finally got around to pruning the huge viburnum in the corner of the garden too and took what seemed like a third of the branches out! It needed a good going over and looks much better.

The larger branches removed have been stripped of side shoots and bent into curves using the sides of the new beds to hold them in shape in an attempt to make them stay this shape. We can then use them when we want to create cloches over areas of the beds. The stronger, straight-ish smaller stems have also been kept to use as little plant supports for young plants when they need a bit of help. Waste not, want not and all that. The rest of the cuttings will be picked up by the local council as green waste and recycled/composted by them.

Simple pleasures

Seeing a new shoot emerging is such a magical thing. Witnessing the beginning of a little plant coming to life, especially from a seed that you have sown is wonderful and I always feel very protective of them.

Today, with the sun shining it definitely feels more like spring, and I was very excited to see that the shallots are beginning to sprout and I can see 2 aubergine shoots emerging in the nursery pots too.

Today or tomorrow, I'll make some time to make a load more paper pots and get sowing another batch of seeds indoors. Leeks, french beans, garlic chives, basil and tagetes I think. Outdoors I want to get some lettuce and beetroot sown in pots too. I discovered an old packet of 'Blue Ball' Cornflour seeds this morning that I think I got free some time ago. I'm thinking I might sow some in a row in front of where the jerusalem artichoke are for a bit of colour.

I will be sowing a few things like chillies and peppers too to take up to my brother's next month. He has two balconies, one with sun pretty much all day and ideal for things like chillies, which he also likes to cook with. I'm also going to take some of my tomatoes plants and will start off some salad leaves for him too as the balcony off his kitchen is only in the sun in the morning so is ideal for rocket, lettuce and herbs that sort of thing.

Sprouting shallots (still under their protective layer of wire mesh)

I spy an aubergine shoot

The nursery basking in the sun and greening up nicely

Free used coffee grounds for the garden

Yesterday James brought home a packet of free used coffee grounds from the cafe in the building where he works. They are offering bags of used coffee grounds in biodegradable bags for free for people to use as a garden fertiliser. The cafe is run by a catering company called Baxter Storey who 'cater for a sustainable future' to quote their tagline.

From my brief look at their website this morning they seem to be true to their word with news of their head office in Reading being certified carbon neutral at the end of last year, they are registered with the Fairtrade Foundation as traders of Fairtrade products and take environmental concerns into consideration in many other areas (for example with use of packaging, biodegradable cups/plates, replacing plastic cutlery with wooden equivalents from sustainable sources, having all waste cooking oil from their kitchens converted into bio-red diesel, using bio diesel fueled refridgerated vans... the list does go on.)

One thing I really wanted to find out though was if the coffee used in their cafes is certified organic. I did find information that they work with a company called First Choice Coffee which have a commitment to social and ecological business practices, but I couldn't see that the coffee supplied to the Baxter Storey cafes is definitely certified organic (First Choice do supply organic fairtrade coffee amongst other things looking at their website, so Baxter Storey may well use it.) I have filled in their online enquiry form to ask about this and so I'll just have to wait now for a reply to know if the used coffee grounds are organically grown and can go in our compost bin.

Veggie patch progress

It seems like every inch of our garden is currently covered in dirt. The rain seems to wash it everywhere and it is trampled all over the place on the bottom on wellies, trugs and anything else moved around out there.

As the rain has stopped for a day or two, I thought I'd take a few general update photos...

3 of the 4 raised beds now finished with one (back right) actually home to jerusalem artichokes and shallots (covered with wire mesh to stop the local wildlife digging all the shallot sets up)

The final bed has been started on and needs grit to be dug into the subsoil before we can replace the topsoil mixed with fresh compost.

The garlic is coming along nicely with strong shoots about 10cm high. I am intrigued to see what emerges as I've never seen garlic grown before.

We are starting to see a lot more direct sun during the day now, which is encouraging seeing as we are only at the start of March and in the winter we don't get anything.

Yesterday I sent over some chitted seed potatoes, carrot seeds and some shallot sets that I haven't got enough room for to a friend of ours who is also into growing stuff. I was told when James got back that we are likely to be repaid with some well hardened off broad bean plants that are going to be dropped around next week.

I love being able to share with others when it comes to gardening and growing. We have various plants in the garden which started life as tiny cuttings from James's parent's garden and given to us. I guess that is one of the main reasons why I am retraining in garden design, so I can help others to make the most of their own garden space.

Hurray, tomato shoots

Today 7 of the 8 Tomato 'Totem' seeds sown have germinated, and so far I can see 4 of the 8 Tomato 'Tigerella' seeds have germinated too. These have taken 10 days in an open tray by a sunny window.

Unfortunately the rest of my seed sowing has been delayed as I've been holed up in bed for the last few days with a horrid head cold. Not much fun at all. Still feeling pretty rubbish today so I'd imagine seed sowing will be put off until the end of the week now. On the bright side, 3 of the 4 raised beds are now complete with the final one started on so the veggie patch is nearly ready, hurray. Things would have been completed sooner if it wasn't for the rain we've been having. Can't complain though, in the south we need all the rainwater we can get!

Seedlings

Yesterday evening I arrived home to the wonderful sight of our first little seedling shoots poking their heads out. It looks like pretty much all of the lettuce and mizuna seeds have germinated, taking just a few days (they were sown on saturday afternoon.)

Tiny seedlings enjoying the warmth and sunlight of the south-facing windows