Summer blooms

During a brief dry spell between rain showers this afternoon, I managed to get a few shots of the latest flowers that have emerged over the past few days....

Sweet Pea ' Pip Tremewen'

Sweet pea 'Blue Velvet'

Purple-pod mange tout buds ready to open (Pea 'Ezethas Krombek Blau')

Calendula officinalis

Rainy days

The problem I am finding with all this recent rain is that the slugs and snails are out in force! I discovered four fat slugs in my coldframe this morning, one of which had greedily eaten one of my young courgette plants. I'm not entirely sure how they got in either. Coldframe security is going to have to be stepped up I think.

The forecast looks to be brigtening up towards the end of the week so I'll make sure I can spend a good few hours out in the garden, particularly to get the salad bed in order.

Indoors, the herbs are coming along well. The Basil 'Dark Opal' sown back in May is becoming much more developed now and smells beautiful. The other herbs are still at their seed leaf stage but looking good so far.

Seed trays in the nursery

Basil 'Dark Opal' getting noticably bigger by the day

Spuds in sacks

Yesterday I decided to investigate how the early potatoes were getting on as the book says to check once the plants begin to flower, which mine have. In doing this, I have discovered a flaw in the potato planters which I am growing them in. In order to get to the bottom of the sack to see if the spuds were big enough to harvest, the whole thing basically had to be emptied out in the end.

At first I tried to carefully removed the soil with a trowel into a trug as I wasn't sure exactly how far down the spuds might be. After removing about half of the soil there was still no sign. In the end I had to just empty the entire sack and it was still a job to find the potatoes in there.

The poor foliage of the potato plants has been a magnet for snails and we've moved them out from the back fence now as it just seemed to be a hidey hole for slugs and snails. I've trimmed off the really badly eaten stems and I just hope this doesn't affect the plants too much.

After all that, the potatoes are not fully developed yet and I have inadvertently sacrificed one sack worth of potatoes to discover this. Still, I have another planter of the same variety so we should still get to harvest something. Sometimes you just have to learn the hard way.

A day in the garden

Today has been warm and sunny and I have been able to spend a good few hours in the garden getting on with a few jobs.

The nursery is looking rather empty now that the cherry tomato and pepper plants have all be planted into large containers outside. The aubergines will also go outside later this week once they have been hardened off. As they are quite delicate and need warmth and humidity I'm planning to create a little greenhouse outdoors for them. More on that later in the week.

Other nursery news, the trays of various herb seeds given to me by Zada which were sown a few days ago are all coming up now I am pleased to see. I'm removing the lid during the day now that they have germinated but will keep the lid on overnight for a few days yet. The purple-leaved basil sown back at the start of May is starting to show more than seed leaves which is encouraging.

Out in the garden, I started a cuttings pot in the coldframe today to try and start off various things. So far I've taken a few cuttings of Fuschia 'Tom Thumb' and Lonicera nitida 'Baggesen's Gold' from small container grown specimens I have. I am hoping that take as they will be useful for the front garden. I've also taken some cuttings of Rosemary.

A small amount of space was made in the coldframe as the two trays of marigolds were taken out and planted in a row in front of the Tomato 'Tigerella'. This is a companion planting that I read about - apparently the marigolds attract pests away from the tomato plants.

Tiny yellow marigold flowers are now starting to emerge

The coldframe space was soon filled however and is now absolutely full for the moment. I've sown a length of drainpipe with a mix of wild rocket, mizuna and sorrel seeds, 12x Pea 'Ambassador' in a tray and 14x climbing French Bean 'Neckargold' in another couple of trays. The four courgette plants that I had in the nursery have been repotted into 9cm pots and put out in the coldframe in preparation for them to go in the ground once the broad beans come out. The two trays of calendula have grown quite a bit now though so these will be the next to come out of the coldframe and will be planted out along the edge of one of the beds.

A plump, fresh green bud emerging on one of the calendula

I still have some big jobs to do and I'm hoping that we have another dry day this week that I can spend outside in the garden. I desperately want to get the salad bed in order - this needs weeding, forking over and edging with copper tape before I can start sowing directly into it.

The broad beans need lifting as we have taken another harvest of beans and the plants are now looking rather sad after being struck down with the dreaded blackfly. A friend of ours who is a much more experienced veggie grower said that if the tips of the broad beans plants are pinched out once they begin to produce flowers, this is supposed to prevent blackfly. It was too late for our plants this year but I'll certainly give that a go next time.

The area where I plan to put the leeks also needs weeding and forking over. The potatoes I think should be ready to harvest so I need to get the masses of foliage under control to get at them. There is, as always, so much more seed sowing that I'd like to do too.

The first bright blue cornflower has opened and the wildlife seems to love it!

Grow Your Own: The Movie

On Saturday evening we went to see the film Grow Your Own at the Barbican Centre and we both really enjoyed it. It was a classic mix of light hearted comedy with the underlying sadness of the hardship experienced by those who were given a plot to help rehabilitate them following their recent traumas.

To give you an idea of what the film is about if you haven't already heard about it, here is an extract from the programme notes were we given at the Barbican about the film:


Inspired by a project in Liverpool that gives asylum seekers a chance to overcome their recent traumas through caring for an allotment, Grow Your Own is an uplifting comedy on the potential of multicultural Britain.

When recent immigrants are provided with plots on an allotment, its existing tenants, led by draconian ex-copper Big John, plot against the new arrivals. Will the old-timers and the new gardeners be able to find a way of living together?

Grow Your Own started out as a documentary project by screenwriter Carl Hunter and his partner Clare Heney. Their community-based production company was commissioned to make a short documentary about asylum seekers who'd been given allotment plots to help generate a sense of purpose and self-sufficiency by psychotherapist Margrit Ruegg. Gardening on the allotments gave the immigrants the confidence to open up and surmount the awful experiences they had endured.

The film was infused with the compelling real-life stories of those they had met on the Liverpool allotment.


There is also an official website for the film growyourownthemovie.co.uk

I thought Grow Your Own was a funny, heart-warming film and I would highly recommend going to see it if you can.

Mixed leaf side salad

This evening we picked our first little mixed leaf side salad of the season to go with a quick pasta dish for dinner. Baby spinach leaf, wild rocket, sorrel and giant leaf parsley and it was absolutely delicious.

If everyone tasted some home grown salad leaves, the supermarkets would never sell a prepacked bag of salad again! I think everyone should grow their own salad leaves. Even if it is in a windowbox. The taste is unrivalled.

Seed sowing... finally!

It is such a great feeling to wake up in the morning knowing that you don't have to spend yet another day working your socks off towards a looming deadline! My final major piece of coursework was submitted yesterday and I cannot tell you how relieved I am that it is all finished and handed in on time.

So today, I finally had some time to sow some seeds! Firstly I transplanted the three tiny mint seedlings that I thought had keeled over along with the rest I had sown.... against all odds, these determined little seedlings have hung on for dear life. I've moved them into a new pot and they have gone out into the coldframe. I'll sow more seeds indoors and transfer any future seedlings into the same pot outside.

I've sown a little sushi tray each of the seeds kindly sent to me from Zada. These are garland chrysanthemum, ocimum basilicum (some form of basil) and vietnamese mint. These will all be started under cover to try to regulate the heat for them.

I've also sown a tray of chives and a further 6 modules of the purple-pod mange tout 'Ezethas Krombek Blau', all of which are out in the coldframe.

What's going on in the coldframe:

New additions today of the mint seedlings and trays of mange tout and chives just sown. Two trays of marigolds are now showing flower buds and will be planted around the tomatoes later in the week.

Some of the first spinach bolted and has started to have a go at setting seed so the pickable leaves will be part of a side salad this evening! Calendula are growing nicely and will be moved into either the salad bed or the tomatoes bed quite soon. A tray of leeks will be planted out in the onions bed later this week too.

A length of drainpipe with rocket and lettuce is also growing well in the coldframe conditions. The rocket tastes absolutely delicious - I can't resist munching on a leaf or two when I am out in the garden! I'll be able to get out in the garden again tomorrow late afternoon and I plan to sow two further lengths of drainpipe with a mix of salad leaves.

Signs of a looming harvest are present in the garden too....

The shallots have gone from being a single set to now splitting into four or five shallots. These should be ready to harvest in July once the leaves have turned yellow according to my veggie book

Little salad onions starting to develop (these are Onion 'Purplette')



The first potato flower in bloom....

Flowers in the garden

Here are a few photos taken yesterday as I took a break from the college work. It is so nice to see flowers emerging amongst the mass of green in the garden...

An inky, deep purple clematis growing from next door's garden and up into our viburnum on the other side of the fence - possibly a Clematis jackmanii?

More nasturtium flowers appearing.... some vivid orange-red, one just pale yellow and another...

...yellow flushed with a red throat - such beautifully decorative flowers

There are tiny buds forming on the cornflowers too

Free, fresh organic herbs

At the moment we are getting our weekly organic veg box from The Organic Delivery Company and for the past 3 weeks we have received a free organic potted herb with each box. It started with coriander (which I picked and froze as we already had our own pot of fresh coriander in the garden) and this was followed by large leaf parsley then a lovely pot of sage this week which has such a strong, distinctive scent.

As I haven't been able to sow many seeds yet for all the lovely herbs I am planning to grow, it is lovely to have some fresh herbs in the kitchen. I am planning to start planting any potted herbs that arrive with the weekly box into the salad bed which we can start to use as soon as the new roll of copper tape arrives so we can finish protecting the bed. The plan for the salad bed (which is roughly 1 metre square) is to grow a big mix of salad leaves, herbs and edible flowers all mixed together so that any handful picked includes a lovely range of mixed salad and herb leaves.

Peas and Beans

I needed to order another roll of copper tape as what we have isn't enough to go round the salad bed to help protect again slugs and snails. Whilst on the organic gardening catalogue website I couldn't resist getting a couple more packets of seeds.

The reason being that our dwarf french beans were a bit of a disaster really. I have to admit they were not great the first time I grew them last year either. Very thin, sickly looking plants once they got taller and produced very little flowers before being attacked by slugs and snails. I don't think they enjoyed being replanted from a tray in the coldframe into the ground. We pulled up the french bean plants at the weekend the climbing frame built for them has been moved into the tomatoes bed to provide support from the tigerella tomatoes.

So, I'm going to try climbing beans and also fresh peas to supplement the mange tout that I've already got going as the broad beans will be soon over and replaced by courgettes. I've ordered Neckargold climbing beans (thin yellow stringless pods) and Ambassador peas. Hopefully they will be much more successful than the dwarf french beans. I won't be growing them again next year I don't think.

A quick update in pictures

Only 4 days to go now until my final college submission goes in.... then its back into the garden! James did manage to do some work out in the garden over the weekend which was great so here is a bit of an update in pictures from the last few days...

The 6 tomato 'tigerella' plants went in the ground at the weekend

a dozen mange tout plants also went from the coldframe into the beans bed

Mixed rocket and salad bowl lettuce starting off in a length of drainpipe

Baby beetroot ready for harvesting

Flowers appearing amongst the potato foliage...

The first broad bean harvest which were delicious




Just this morning, the first nasturtium flower has opened with more buds appearing