Penellype's 2016 Garden Diary

[Penellype]

I don't know if Desiree are more frost tolerant. There are 2 other buckets of Charlotte in the growhouse and they are fine, and last year I grew Charlotte outdoors with very little protection at all from an early stage without trouble. Its a bit of a puzzle really.

[Penellype]

Rather mixed weather making gardening quite difficult over the bank holiday.

At my friend's (Saturday):
Potted up some lettuce seedlings into individual pots.
Wandered round and checked to see if the seeds had germinated: leeks - no, carrots - no, parsnips - no. Too cold, no doubt.
Pulled out some weeds, but soon decided it was too cold for hanging about outside.
(Sunday):
Took some kohlrabi seedlings and the weakest of the tomato plants to the greenhouse now that the weather is supposed to be warmer.
Noticed the Sarpo Mira potatoes are showing above their compost in the greenhouse.
Finalized positions for later greenhouse plantings of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and melons.

At home:
Spent most of the weekend finishing cleaning out the garage. The dust is so fine that everything gets covered in it again fairly quickly, but having removed about a pint jug full of the stuff into a plastic bag, I feel like I have made some progress.
Potted up a strawberry runner (Buddy) that I thought had died in its small pot, but has sprouted leaves.
Sowed courgettes (Green Bush, Goldmine and Piccolo), cucumber Cucino, kohl rabi and 4 types of lettuce. Also replacements for the odd Sungold, Legend and Mountain Magic tomatoes that didn't germinate from the first sowing.
Moved the french beans to the landing windowsill to make room for tomatoes under the grow lights.
Moved the first 2 pots of carrots outside into the growhouse (these have been in the house).
Moved the Desiree potatoes onto the raised bed as they were getting too big for their cloche, replaced them with a bucket of Sarpo Mira.
Weeded the onions.
Noticed the parsnips, mispoona, komatsuna and lettuces are germinating.
Did a bit more jiggling of plans and feeling a little more confident that I can fit everything in now, although currently the runner beans are giving slight cause for concern. I'll think of something!

[Bigmallly]

You do exhaust me Pene..................

[Penellype]

You do exhaust me Pene..................

Ha!

I thought people might be interested in what is ready to harvest now and what I have coming along.

Ready to harvest - outside:
Brokali
Carrot Marion
Chinese celery
Corn salad
Herbs - Oregano, Chives, Mitsuba Mashimori
Leeks - Albana, Oarsman at home, Musselburgh at my friend's
Mizuna (baby leaf)
Namenia (baby leaf)
Parsnips at my friend's
PSB
Spinach - Giant Winter (nearly finished), Amazon, Red Vein (baby leaf)
Spring cabbage Spring Hero
Spring onion Ramrod (3)

Ready to harvest - indoors:
Chervil
Komatsuna (baby leaves)
Lettuce mix (baby leaves)
Mibuna (baby leaves)
Mispoona (baby leaves)
Mizuna (baby leaves)

Growing on outdoors:
Apple James Grieve
Blackcurrant Ben Sarek (if it produces any fruit - new bush and no sign of flowers yet)
Blueberry - Bluecrop, Dixie
Cabbage Hispi
Calendula
Carrot - Eskimo, Marion, Nantes Frubund
Garlic chives
Gooseberry Captivator
Komatsuna
Leek - Albana, Oarsman
Lettuce Salad Bowl mix
Mispoona
Onion Sturon
Pak Choi
Parsley (overwintered and not looking happy)
Parsnip Hollow Crown
Peas - Meteor, Douce Provence, Hurst Greenshaft
Potato - Lady Christl, Charlotte, Desiree, Sarpo Mira
Spinach Amazon, Red Vein
Strawberries - Buddy, Elsanta, Marshmello, Malwina, Honeoye, Everbearer, Vibrant
White currant White Versailles
Wild strawberries

Yet to germinate outdoors:
Carrot - Nantes 2 and Autumn King at my friend's
Leek Musselburgh at my friend's
Lettuce Emerald Oak, mixed leaves, Lollo Rossa, Relic
Parsnip Hollow Crown at my friend's
Turnip Oasis

Growing on indoors:
Beetroot Boltardy (in my friend's greenhouse)
Cabbage Hispi
Calabrese Sakura
Celeriac Monarch
Cucumber Cucino
French bean Purple Teepee
Kohlrabi Azure Star (in my friend's greenhouse)
Lettuce mix (in my friend's greenhouse)
Lettuce Valmaine
Pea Hurst Greenshaft
Pepper snackbite red, orange and yellow
Red cabbage Kalibos (in my friend's greenhouse)
Spring onion Ramrod (in my friend's greenhouse)
Tomato Shirley, Balconi red and yellow, Belle, Ferline, Garden Pearl, Legend, Mountain Magic, Roma, Sungold

Yet to germinate indoors:
Beetroot Boltardy
Cabbage Duncan
Courgette Green Bush, Goldmine, Piccolo
Cucumber Cucino
Kohlrabi Azure Star
Tomato Legend, Mountain Magic, Sungold

Plenty left to sow this month - more cucumbers, runner and french beans, more carrots, broccoli, brokali, melons, more peas, more spinach. After that I will have to start thinking about autumn salads and things to overwinter.

All good fun

[Penellype]

More potatoes:



These are the first of the Lady Christl (0.2kg, about 7oz) planted in my friend's greenhouse in January. I was expecting these to be small, and they are, the largest being about the size of an egg.

This is one of my experiments this year. What I have done is carefully turn out the bucket (3 seed potatoes) onto a sheet and pick out the biggest of the potatoes that I could see. I then replanted the rest in the bucket, watered it well and put it back in the greenhouse. There were a large number of marble sized potatoes visible so I am hoping these will continue to grow and give me a 2nd crop from this bucket.

I haven't grown Lady C before - last year I grew Rocket as first earlies, so I was interested to taste them. They are absolutely gorgeous, much, much nicer than the rather tasteless Rocket.

[Penellype]

Scorching hot weekend - astonishing for May.

At my friend's:
Took calabrese, celeriac and one of last year's pepper plants to the greenhouse to make room at home.
Harvested some Lady C new potatoes - see previous post.
Rearranged the buckets of potatoes in the greenhouse so I could put in one of the gro-beds and planted the 3 biggest Shirley tomatoes. One of these is the seedling that was yellow and sick looking, which has now taken off and is 2ft high with flowers opening. The other 2 are sideshoots which I potted up in March. The gro bed is inside a tomato house so has an extra layer of protection for when it gets colder.
Planted out the Hurst Greenshaft peas and sowed another 15 pots of peas - Terrain this time.
Planted out the red cabbage, kohl rabi and calabrese that was getting too hot in the greenhouse under the popadome. One of the calabrese had been decapitated by the following morning
Pollinated the strawberries which are flowering in the greenhouse.
Did some weeding.

At home:
Noticed that most of the replacement tomatoes, lettuces, komatsuna, mispoona, parsnips, beetroot and one courgette have germinated.
Removed the cloche protection form the 4 pots of carrots in the carrot cage as all have now germinated.
Sowed another bucket of carrots.
Potted up one of the pepper seedlings which is flowering and moved it to its final position on the landing windowsill.
Potted up 12 begonias that arrived in the post and rearranged one of the plastic growhouses currently housing potatoes to accommodate them on a shelf.
Tied in the clematis, which is growing like mad.
Mowed the lawns.
Lots of deadheading.
Harvested the last of the winter spinach (has done ok eventually), spring sown spinach, overwintered carrots, leeks, brokali, broccoli, mizuna, namenia, corn salad, lettuce and various other small salad leaves.
Noticed that the broccoli is determined to flower despite being cut every day.
The Charlotte potatoes that were damaged by frost are recovering slowly
Noticed that 2 strawberry flowers were open on my new Elsanta plants, but on closer inspection these had black centres (they are not far from the frost damaged potatoes). I am surprised that they were damaged before opening, and I hope the other flowers are not the same

[Containergardener]

So busy !
Sorry to hear about the strawberry plants, I hope they are ok.

[Containergardener]

I've got some of those teepee beans to try, I won't sow too many incase I'm overrun with even more beans.

[Penellype]

So busy !
Sorry to hear about the strawberry plants, I hope they are ok.

So do I! Another couple of flowers are opening today and they are also black in the middle. I'll just have to wait and see.

[Penellype]

I've got some of those teepee beans to try, I won't sow too many incase I'm overrun with even more beans.

Funny you should mention the beans



These 3 plants were sown in March in a 2 litre pot and grown under lights then on a south facing windowsill. I will be eating the first few beans for tea tonight

[Containergardener]

Aww poor strawberries

Oh beans, wow I'm jealous mmmmm

[craftymarie]

The beans look amazing. I can't believe they are ready for eating already. Very inspiring

[Penellype]

Thanks for the kind comments. I love trying to get things to produce earlier than they "should" because I don't buy any veg at all from the shops so I a bit of variety is very welcome. These dwarf beans are small enough (just) to allow me to grow a few on the windowsill.

[Penellype]

Update on the strawberries.

The Elsanta plants, which are the ones on the shelf in the flowerbed (in the sun) have produced several more flowers with black middles. A few flowers are starting to open on the Marshmello and Buddy, both of which were in the shade, also on shelves, near the fruit cage. These do not have black middles. I think it is no coincidence that the damaged strawberries are next door to the damaged Charlotte potatoes and I can only conclude that this part of the garden was colder than the rest. It is rather more open and away from brick walls which might radiate some heat so that is possible.



The plants look healthy otherwise.

[Penellype]

A quick wander round the house...

I posted a picture of my sitting room windowsill not long ago, so I'm leaving that as i'm only allowed 5 photos.

The downstairs grow light garden:



Mostly courgettes just germinated, one big cucumber that is desperate to go out, and a few scrag ends of salads.

The upstairs grow light garden:



Tomatoes just potted on today.

The upstairs grow lights:



Peppers (need potting on), tomatoes, lettuces and mispoona.

The spare room windowsill:



I could only fit half of this in the photo. Balconi tomatoes, lettuces (nearly finished) and mizuna.

The landing windowsill:



The beans are on the left, then 2 of last year's snackbite orange peppers with developing fruits, snackbite red and snackbite yellow both this year's seedlings, with flowers. For some reason there is a thick growth of moss on the capillary matting, but I don't think its doing any harm.