So little time...

With a hefty workload of final college work to do for my final submissions over the next couple of weeks, sadly I have had little time to devote to the garden.

Still, we should be picking a good crop of broad beans in the next day or two and we have baby spinach ready to pick in the coldframe.

The potatoes have gone crazy and with the recent strong winds they did fall over a bit under their own weight. I can't see any flowers yet, but I wonder whether they are ready to harvest yet?

Today I have pinched out the top shoots of all the tomato plants as they are plenty tall enough now I think. They really need to be planted out quite soon but they might have to wait another week until I have all of my work submitted. I have so many herb and salad seeds that I want to sow too.

Another 10 days or so and I'll have a bit more time again. I hope the plants will all forgive me for neglecting them somewhat for a while...

One garden's mission for a healthy salad bed

My first attempt at starting off the salad bed was disasterously ruined by the dreaded slugs. I spent a good couple of hours one day preparing the soil and carefully sowing neat rows of lettuce, rocket, spinach, sorrel and calendula only for the slugs to rise from the soil each night to eat pretty much every little seedling that dared to germinate.

I managed to rescue a few spinach and calendula seedlings from the bed which are growing happily in the coldframe for the moment and I've sown more calendula, lettuce and rocket in the coldframe too.

Not to be put off, a battle plan has been drawn up and we are fighting back. Following the advice on Gardeners' World a few weeks ago, our salad bed was treated yesterday with nematodes. These are minute organisms which when watered into the soil, basically kill off the slugs hiding under the soil. We have to wait a week for the effects to take place, then it should be safe to use the salad bed again. For extra measure, a border of copper tape will be put around the edge of the raised bed to stop any slugs climbing in over the sides. The treatment provides 6 weeks of protection so we will need to keep treating the soil to keep them at bay.

Now I know the slugs provide food for other creatures, which is why we are only treating the smallest raised bed in this way in order to grow our salad in the ground. The organic slug repellent granules seem to be working well enough to protect the beans and the other veg hasn't been affected enough to need protection. So, we will see how it goes. We will need to treat the salad bed with a dose of nematodes every 6 weeks for full protection, which, if it is keeping the slugs from eating all our salad is worth the cost in my opinion.

Millions of tiny nematode organisms

In preparation for regaining the space in our salad bed, I have placed a small order for a few more packets of seed. The plan really is to have a lovely mix of salad leaves and herbs growing in amongst each other to provide a tasty mix of leaves for salad every day.

The new additions ordered are Italian Giant Parsley, Red Salad Bowl Lettuce, Bergamo Lettuce and chives. I will also be trying two new asian herbs Perilla and Japanese Vege from seeds that have kindly been offered to me by Zada. I'm looking forward to receiving these to add to the salad bed. Thanks Zada!

Warming up

It is a very toasty 20 degrees this morning out in the garden and it is absolutely glorious. I just wish I could spare the day to work in the garden rather than being stuck indoors. The recent rain has been great for the veg and our 100 litre water butt filled up in no time!

Still, it is a good day to begin hardening off the tomatoes. I've put them outside in a sunny spot and will do this for the next few days before planting them out.

6 Tomato 'Tigerella' and 4 Tomato 'Totem' (cherry)

The slug repellent granules seem to have been washed away a bit though after all this rain so I'll need to top these up. I can see that the broad beans, french beans and beetroot have been nibbled a bit. The beetroot has grown quite a bit over the last couple of weeks and is looking pretty good. I can't wait to harvest some sweet baby roots for a tasty salad!

Beetroot 'Bolivar' growing nicely

There are signs of life in the carrot containers - not as many have germinated as I would have liked but I am using up an older packet of seed which might be why. Still, I can easily sow a few more seeds in the gaps. These carrots will be picked when they are young to be eaten as whole baby carrots.

No need to thin them out at least!

The foliage on the potatoes is astonishing and seems to be on a mission to take over the garden! Its a good job they are in potato planters! The jerusalem artichokes are looking equally as healthy and are growing vigourously too. They must be at least a metre tall now. I am now impatiently waiting for flowers to appear amongst the potato foliage as an indication that we can have a poke in the soil to see if they are some tasty little potatoes to harvest...

From the back: Salad potatoes, jerusalem artichokes and shallots

Everything is coming along well in the coldframe too. I really do need to get the mange tout peas out in the ground so they can begin to cling to the climbing frame we have made for them. The leeks have gotten to a good pricking out size now too and are ready to be put in the ground. I'll them sow some more.

The spinach has grown a lot quicker than expected and could even be harvested as baby leaves. I'll sow a couple of rows in a length of drainpipe as soon as I can so we have plenty to harvest. We have a packet of nematodes now ready to treat the salad bed so we should be able to start planting into that in a couple of weeks time.

The two rows of mixed lettuce and rocket are coming up nicely too. We have been harvesting lettuce from our first crop and it is delicious. We have a wonderful pot of coriander now too.

In the coldframe: Mange tout peas, tagetes, calendula, spinach, leeks, lettuce and rocket

There are many jobs that I want to get done but I have so much other work to do for my final college submissions at the moment and with the preparations for starting up my design practice it is becoming very difficult to find the time.

I need to repot the courgettes in the nursery, plant out peas and leeks from the nursery, sow more seed, prepare the ground for the tomatoes, treat the salad bed with nematodes and a border of copper tape, make a lean to polythene 'greenhouse' for the aubergines... I'll stop the list there.

I may be helping with the final planting for one of the show gardens at the Chelsea Flower Show this weekend too - very exciting to be involved in the run up to the show opening next week... no wonder I have no time to work in my own garden though!

Book Review: How Does Your Garden Grow

If you are familiar with the author Chris Beardshaw from his television work, you will appreciate when I say that his voice resounds through the words on each page of this, his latest book. His pure passion for plants and gardening is prevalent throughout the book and really does help to keep the reader interested in the subject matter.

'How Does Your Garden Grow' essentially walks through the basics of botany without straying from the gardener's viewpoint. Whether starting plants fresh from seed or creating new plants from old through cuttings, the processes are explained concisely and without becoming overly complex.

The book systematically takes you from the inner workings of seed germination and the role and workings of roots, stems, leaves, flowers and fruits to nature's way of designing plants for any situation, how to understand and work with the soil, pest and disease defence and good gardening practice to help acheive a healthy, thriving garden.

The level of botanical information appears to be aimed at an audience with very little prior knowledge of the subject but are without doubt avid gardeners with a keen interest in plants. Simple sketch diagrams and clear photographic images provide a useful visual aid to help digest the scientific facts and a useful A-Z glossary at the back covers the main botanical terms used in the book. A clear layout and beautful plant photography gives the book an almost coffee table book feel whilst remaining an informative reference source.

I would certainly recommend this book to anyone who has struggled to digest the volume of botanical facts present in the RHS Certificate in Horticulture course as I have. Reading this book before tackling the course content would be very beneficial and hopefully make the dry presentation of the botanical facts and information in the RHS course material much more bearable and much less daunting.

Reading 'How Does Your Garden Grow' would help any keen gardener to fully appreciate how their garden works and in turn help them to get the most out of their garden. I would definitely recommend this book for an informative, yet interesting read and as a useful reference source for any keen gardener's bookshelf.




RRP: £20 (Published by Dorling Kindersley - ISBN 9781405316675)

Speedy germination

I was rather surprised to see that the Basil 'Dark Opal' that I had sown in the mini sushi propagator has already germinated! The packet said 14-21 days and these seeds germinated in just 4 days. I'm guessing that the growing conditions in this little covered tray are ideal for germinating basil...

Speedy basil seedlings

A heavy down pour of rain yesterday followed by brilliant sunshine seems to have done wonders for the veggie garden. Everything seems to be standing proud after the generous watering and many things seem to have put on noticable growth.

Yesterday, James earthed up the 3 sacks of potatoes which are now full to the top. The jerusalem artichokes are a good half a metre high now and the smaller beetroot and salad onions have all put on noticable growth. The forecast for the week is rain every day which is ideal for the garden. We have our water butt fixed up to the downpipe now so we will finally be able to harvest rain water for the dry spells.

The broad beans are flowering well and I spotted the first bean pod appearing this morning. Flowers are also appearing on the dwarf french beans.

The first broad bean pod appearing

This weekend we ate our first produce from the veggie garden, some 'amorina' lettuce. It was just lovely being able to just go a few feet from the kitchen door with a bowl to pick fresh salad leaves. It will be even better when we have smooth, waxy potatoes, tangy onions and juicy tomatoes warmed by the sun to create delicious home grown summer salads...

Perfect Propagator

Yesterday afternoon I transplanted my 3 Pepper 'Toreador' into 7cm pots and sowed a further 9 Pea 'Ezethas Krombek Blau' (a purple pod variety of mange tout.)

I also decided to start off some of the Basil 'Dark Opal' seeds that came free this month with Grow Your Own magazine. The packet said to start them off with a bit of heat so I am trialing a new recycled 'propagator' which started life as a sushi box. These are the boxes that takeaway sushi is packaged in from Pret a Manger (other food outlets are available) and they are perfect for a mini propagator. The clear lid fits snugly on the top and it is an ideal size for the nursery (approx 15cm x 10cm.) It even has space down the side which was once used to house a little carton of soy sauce, now is a handy place to put the plant label!

Through the eyes of a gardener, everything is considered as potential recyclable goods for the garden!

Born survivors

I am very pleased to see that the upside down courgette seems to be doing ok now that it has been turned the right way up. The other one looks to be pushing through the soil now too so I am hoping they will both be ok. It just goes to show that if you put a seed in soil and give in light and water it will do its best to grow, even if starts life upside down!

A born survivor - it has managed to keep growing and push its seed pod off the seed leaves

A few tiny mint seedlings seem to be hanging on too, even though most has gone over. I'll prick these out when they are just a bit bigger into a pot and sow some seeds in the pot with them to be grown outdoors.

Free Seeds

One thing I hadn't anticipated when I took out a subscription to 'Grow Your Own' magazine was the amount of free seeds that come with the magazine. It seems that a packet comes with pretty much each issue as far as I can see.

It's a bit of a bonus really as it means that you end up with seeds for something you might not have thought to grow. One packet that came was for Tomato 'Gardener's Delight' which I was particularly pleased with as I have heard good reports that they are a good variety to grow. I'm saving this packet for next year though as I am already up to my eyes in tomato plants!

With the packet of Carrot 'Autumn King' I'm thinking of having a go at overwintering a crop of carrots as the packet says that this variety can be left in ground in winter without splitting.

The packet with the latest issue which arrived today is Basil 'Dark Opal' - a purple leaved variety. I'm planning to try and grow various herbs in pots so I'll definitely be giving this one a go.