More seed sowing

Over the last couple of days the peas that were sown indoors have started to come up, as well as the rocket seeds. It doesn't matter how long you have been gardening, the sight of a new seedling pushing through the soil is always exciting!

Some of last minute packets of seed that arrived a few days ago have also been sown today, a little bit later than I would have liked but that is just the way of things... In lengths of guttering out in the coldframe I've sown some green sprouting calabrese and some beetroot. Last year I started off beetroot in this way then carefully planted out each seedling in a raised bed and they did really quite well.

Over the next few months we will be doing a fair amount of work on the garden, laying a little terrace using new railway sleepers and making long planters from the same material which will be filled with shade loving plants to fill the shady side return in our garden. James has been busy putting up fern screening to screen the fencing in our garden which is an effort to soften the boundaries so that they don't take away any attention from the plants.

Although this is all a little disconnected with growing veg, it is really important to us to have the garden feeling more inviting so it is something I want to share here on the blog. As and when things are finished, I'll post a few photos.

Peas

After a failed first sewing of peas outdoors (slugs... again) I managed to get a load more seeds sown yesterday in pots indoors. Once the shoots are large enough to handle and transplant, I'll harden them off briefly then get them in the ground.

I'm growing 4 types of climbing peas/beans this year and have sown seeds for:

Pea 'Ambassador' (A pea-pod type pea)
Pea 'Ezethas Krombek Blau' (A purple mange tout)
Runner Bean ' Scarlet Emperor' (Apparently a traditional variety, not red though as the name suggests)
French Bean 'Neckar Gold' (Skinny, stringless and yellow in colour)

I also managed to sow some wild rocket seed and some mint seed and also repotted my greek basil seedlings which are looking pretty good so far and even though they are tiny, they still give off the most amazingly strong basil scent!

Very pleased to have got all of this sowing underway with my recent stretch of immobility. Now I just need to slug-proof the raised beds ready to plant out!

The (organic) slug battle plan

Most of our veggies this year will be grown either in the two raised beds or in pots. This does make life a little bit easier when it comes to creating a fortress to keep out the dreaded slugs.

I tried nematodes last year which definitely seemed to help and in the end I managed to raise a good crop of salad without it all being decimated by slugs so this will be part of my slug defence strategy this year. Gardeners' World a few weeks ago were showing their attempts at protecting veg crops by using a variety of things including used coffee granules and beer traps I think.

It seems the only way to try and guarantee a fairly decent defence is to go with a multi thronged approach. So, my plan is this:

NEMATODES: I have ordered a 12-week treatment pack of nematodes for the raised beds. This kills the slugs and baby slugs that are beneath the soil to stop them rising up at night and eating everything.

COPPER TAPE: The top outer edge of the raised beds and any pots have a double-thick (so around 2 inch) band of copper tape. The really long slugs can actually bend over one thickness of the tape and climb over... I've witnessed this.

COMFREY LEAVES: This is a new one for me. I've read that slugs can't get enough of comfrey leaves and will make a beeline for them. I'm currently growing some comfrey plants which initially I got as I want to make an organic liquid fertilizer using the leaves, however apparently, if you pick of a handful of leaves and leave these on the ground in the same place every night for say a week, the slugs will keep going back there. After a few nights, I'll add a couple of beer traps there too and try and capture as many as possible. Then, you have to go out after dark and basically shovel up all of the slugs munching on the comfrey leaves and dispose of them.

BEER TRAPS: I'll be putting a beer trap in each raised bed too as an extra measure as I've heard that these can be pretty effective. If you are not familiar with these, they are basically a sunken pot filled with beer which attracts the slugs. I'll be cutting off the bottom of the plastic milk cartons to make these then sinking them down in the soil enough for slugs to get in.

Although all of these methods are organic, there is an argument for whether killing slugs is organic I guess. My thought on this is that I am only using these methods in small areas of the garden to protect my veggie crops. Slugs are a massive problem and it is either them or my crops!

Finally some dry, sunny weather!

I've been pretty immobile over the last couple of weeks with a lumbar back sprain and only now starting to be able to move around without a huge amount of pain... typical that this happened just as we start to see some decent weather, and so far I haven't been able to do anything useful in the garden in the lovely sunshine!

That said, there are bits and pieces going on regardless of my lack of intervention so I thought a quick update might be a good idea.

The potatoes were earthed up last weekend (thankfully James can still do these necessary little jobs!) and with the sun and rain combination of the past few weeks they are growing well and due another earthing up this weekend.

Flowers have appeared on the Blackcurrent 'Ben Sarek' which is pretty exciting! I've never grown any kind of fruit from a bush before...

The garlic shoots are looking nice and healthy and I'd really like to move them into the raised bed with the shallots to give the bulbs a chance to fatten up... this will have to wait though until my back is better enough for kneeling down etc..

We bought a couple of lovely willow obelisks last week and I am planning to use these for our peas. I have two types of peas sown and these are starting to shoot up from their guttering seed tray. These are the purple mange tout that I grew last year (Ezethas Krombek Blau) and a podded pea that I haven't tried before (Pea Ambassador.) Both of these should be ready to harvest around the same time I think.

I repotted my cherry tomatoes just before I injured my back so they are growing quite well in their bigger pots. I have 3 'Gardener's Delight' and 3 'Sub Arctic Plenty' which I think should be a good amount of plants. It is so easy to get carried away and grow too many tomato plants and they do take a bit of care and attention so I've tried to be a bit more strict with my numbers this year.

My bare root comfrey plants have also arrived and with James help these were put in a large pot for the time being and are already beginning to shoot up quickly. I'm still deciding where to put them so the pot is a temporary home really.

I did sow some seeds for my cuttings garden, however it seems that the slugs have been feasting on any new shoots so these have been a bit of a failure. I'm going to try sowing some more in a tray indoors and keep them safe from slugs until they have put on a little bit of growth then plant them out.... damn slugs, every year I have such a battle with the greedy little blighters!

Tomorrow, I have plans for some serious seed sowing. I need James to fill up trays and pots with compost for me as I can't lift a damn thing at the moment (all very frustrating) however, I can sit and sow the seeds myself. So, the plan is to sow some Rocket (our absolute favourite salad leaf), sweet peas, climbing nasturtiums, Onion 'Paris Silverskin' (a small onion for stews, pickling etc), runner beans, french beans and beetroot. I also need to repot the greek basil seedlings that have shot up with all of the recent sunshine. Always so much to do!