Penellype's 2016 Garden Diary

[Penellype]

Quite unintentionally today resembled an attempt to see how many different varieties I could eat in one day. I thought people might find this interesting, especially as I would regard this as a bit of an "in between seasons" time of year.

Lunch (salad)
Lettuce (cut and come again) Valmaine, Lollo Rossa, Relic.
Tomato Balconi yellow (several)
Pepper snackbite orange
Potato salad (Lady Christl)
White currant and blueberry crumble (using up last year's fruit from the freezer)

Tea (stir fry ish)
Onion Sturon stored from last year
More Lady C potatoes
Carrot Nantes Frubund
Turnip Oasis (2 very small ones)
French bean Purple Teepee (5)
Peas Half Pint, Douce Provence and Meteor
Tomato Balconi Red and Shirley
Strawberries Buddy (2), Honeoye (1) and Elsanta (3).

I make that 20 varieties in one day, only 3 of which were not from this year's crops!

[vixylix]

This little fella is either lost, looking for somewhere to pupate, or stuffed from eating too many aphids.

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What is it P?

[Ms-T]

Ladybird... I think.

[Penellype]

Its a ladybird larva I counted about 20 of them on the clematis today.

[vixylix]

ah wow! It doesnt look anything like a ladybird!!

[Penellype]

Indeed, but then a caterpillar doesn't look much like a butterfly either...

[Penellype]

Another experiment . This time it was with potato Lady Christl.

1. Planted 3 seed potatoes to 1 30 litre pot in mid February. Kept in the garage then put under a cloche at the end of March until the foliage was too tall. First shoots appeared mid April. Bucket harvested 22nd June for 0.9kg potatoes plus 2 rotten ones.

2. Planted 1 seed potato in each of the 4 18 litre pots that make up a Quadgrow vegetable planter, again in mid February. Kept in the garage then put outside on their base, covered with fleece in a somewhat shadier position than the bucket as I hadn't much choice due to the size of the planter (2ft square). First shoots appeared in early May. ONE pot (1 seed potato) harvested 27 June for 1.0kg of potatoes.

The bucket was watered every day, the quadgrow base was kept topped up with water. Both were fed at exactly the same times with the same mix of feed. The plants in the bucket were starting to show signs of blackleg when they were harvested, the ones in the quadgrow were not. Otherwise both still had plenty of green foliage.

I think this is fairly conclusive that the self watering Quadgrow pot has worked much better for potatoes than the bucket where I was repeatedly pouring water onto the stems in an attempt to keep the compost moist. The only downside is the initial cost of the planter, which is very much more expensive than the buckets! (I was lucky and got mine as a Christmas present).

As an aside, the best 30 litre bucket of Lady C grown in my friend's greenhouse yielded 1.2kg from 3 seed potatoes.

[craftymarie]

I had no idea what a quadgrow pot was. I found a very good explanation here with lots of photos and also how to set this system up: QuadGrow In Depth Review

It looks really good and especially for things that need a good supply of water like tomatoes. Bit pricey but could be very useful and especially for times when you are away on holiday.

I guess it is also possible to make a cheaper DIY version with a bucket of water and a long piece of wick/fabric poked through the pot at one end and the other secured in the water. Wouldn't look as nice but it would do the same kind of thing.

[Penellype]

I've tried a couple of ways of doing this with home made stuff, rather hampered by my total inability to use a drill. The hardest bit is finding a way of supporting the pot(s) on top of the reservoir. You need something strong enough to carry the weight, but with holes in to push the capillary matting through. If you have lidded recycling containers without holes in the bottom, these would make a decent reservoir and if you are able to drill holes in the lid you could easily create something similar. You would need to cover the watering hole or the tank would get full of mosquitos, and also drill a hole in one of the sides, near the top, to stop the tank overflowing.

A suggestion I have seen, if you are using this sort of thing in a greenhouse, is to bury the tank in the greenhouse border somewhat so that you don't lose the height it takes up.

[Penellype]

This weekend

At my friend's:
Harvested 2 buckets of Charlotte potatoes as the foliage had completely died down. Some nice potatoes but not as good a harvest as last year, probably because I used old compost with bfb added instead of new out of the bag.
Did something I don't normally do, which will be an interesting exercise. Replanted the buckets, using the same compost and some of last year's potato harvest (Charlotte again) that got left uneaten in a bag until they had started to sprout. Amazingly the chits were not too long, and they looked fine, so I planted them 3 to each bucket. It will be interesting to see what happens.
Potted up the last of the greenhouse tomato plants, a Shirley sideshoot which had been kept as insurance.
Assessed the slug damage - greenhouse tomatoes nibbled, 2 decapitated (bush varieties that will hopefully regrow). Runner beans shredded, including those I planted with copper rings round them. Cabbages shredded despite cheating and putting down slug pellets inside the popadome, where the hedgehogs can't go. Spring onions planted out last weekend shredded. Lettuce decimated. Courgettes pulling through valiantly (surrounded by slug gone and copper rings), celeriac just about holding its own in places, mulched with strulch. Potato foliage shredded. Peas, onions, tomatoes holding their own out there.
Did some more weeding.
Harvested a couple of cucumbers.

At home:
Potato experiment as above.
Harvested the last of the very early Meteor peas from their bucket and replaced them with the 5 osteospermums that won't fit on the fence.
Potted up some lettuces and a couple of tomato sideshoots that had rooted in a glass of water..
Sowed some carrot Flyaway in the Quadgrow pot that housed the harvested potatoes (another experiment).
Put nets over more of the strawberries.
Tied in the outdoor tomatoes.
Weeding and deadheading.
Harvested loads of peas, strawberries, some wild strawberries, carrots, a few french beans and some orange peppers.
One of the pepper plants that I overwintered suddenly wilted and died. I have no idea why, but the fruit were nearly ripe so I ate them.

The tomato plants on the sitting room windowsill are producing so much fruit that they are becoming a nightmare to keep upright. I had to stop writing this and tie one of them to the window handle to stop it falling over. I think this is due to trying to grow 3 trusses instead of 2 on the plants that spent a long time under the growlights and therefore came out with nice short stems between the flowers. Tricky to rig up stable supports on a bay windowsill with only 3 litre pots to anchor canes in.

[Penellype]

Had a good walk round the garden with the camera this morning. Quite pleased with the way things are shaping up despite the grotty weather. My shady area near the garage is looking quite pretty:



I keep thinking I must get some wall baskets for that bare garage wall (which faces due north) but the need to use the dreaded drill always stops me.

More photos in the calendar thread http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ml#post1462469

[Penellype]

Quite a decent weekend.

At my friend's:
Potted up and generally pampered my latest acquisition - a sweet potato plant I found at the garden centre while looking for something completely different.
Major slug hunt, including moving the bricks that are supporting the runner bean pole. The first brick yielded 4 large slugs, the 2nd revealed another, being eaten by a toad. I replaced the brick carefully and left him to it.
Harvested the 2 buckets of Lady C potatoes that had been dug up and replanted once already as the foliage had died down completely. The first, previously harvested on 28th May, yielded 0.15kg of small new potatoes to add to the previous 0.85kg. The 2nd bucket, previously harvested very early (7th May) yielded 0.75kg on top of the 0.2kg I took out earlier. Both buckets had 3 seed potatoes. Happy with this result.
Noted that the slugs had eaten the 2nd lot of runner bean plants even though I surrounded them with copper rings. They are also slowly making inroads into the celeriac, which I protected with strulch. However the test patch of celeriac, without the strulch, has gone completely.
Did lots more weeding.
Harvested strawberries and cucumbers from the greenhouse.

At home
Finished off the early peas and removed them to make room for the next lot which are ready to plant (tomorrow's job).
Potted up a calabrese plant that is going to my friend's, which I would normally take at its current size (6 leaves) but which I would rather grow until it is big enough to withstand the slug onslaught.
Harvested a 2nd pot of Lady C potatoes from the quadgrow. Unlike the previous pot, this yielded only 0.45kg from 2 small seed potatoes. There were some very small ones, so I replanted the haulms in a bucket, but I don't hold out much hope for anything spectacular. I think the difference may have been caused by user error here - the pieces of capillary matting are quite hard to push through the holes in the base when the pot is full, and I did start these off in the garage without the base at first, so I think 2 of the pots may well have been struggling for water (one of them definitely kept drying out).
Sowed swede seeds in the pot vacated by the potatoes.
Finished eating the turnip Oasis. These were grown in almost total shade and sown rather too thickly, meaning most of them bolted, but I did get about 10 marble sized turnips. This pot is waiting for a late sowing of carrot Marion for overwintering.
Cut the hedge along the back of the garden - a major undertaking as it requires moving all of the pots that live along the path. Always relieved to have got that out of the way.
Also harvested carrots from the first outdoor sowing, lettuces (rather slug damaged), a few baby spinach leaves from a late spring sowing, loads of strawberries, loads of indoor tomatoes, a few french beans, the first courgette (very small) and the first of the spring sown peppers (snackbite red).

[Penellype]

Somewhat frustrating week, and not just because of the weather!

The plan was to harvest the 2 remaining pots of Lady C potatoes in the quadgrow planter and use the pots to plant 2 late planted tomato armpits (Mountain Magic, so hopefully blight proof). Unfortunately first of all I noticed that the paper bag of potatoes I'd already harvested and put in the kitchen was starting to smell, and I found one of the potatoes had gone rotten. I was hoping I had removed any damaged ones and that these would keep a week or 2, but I had to wash them and use them quickly. I hadn't finished eating those when I noticed that one of the plants in the last bucket of Lady C (which I was hoping to keep for big potatoes later) was showing signs of blackleg. I harvested these straight away and one potato was already rotting. There were some nice sized ones which I cooked, mashed and put in the freezer, but it was frustrating as there was still plenty of greenery on the 2 apparently healthy plants. The quadgrow plants are fine and the tomatoes are having to wait.
Growing lettuces outside is always challenging at this time of year (aphids, caterpillars etc) and I thought I had defeated them by using the salad planter that had done so well with the spinach earlier in the year and covering it with fine insect mesh. However by the time I cut the hedge on Monday it was clear that the aphids had got in anyway and the slugs were making a meal of my lettuces despite the planter having copper tape round it. Strangely the slugs seem much less keen on Lollo Rossa than the other varieties (Salad Bowl and Relic), but Lollo Rossa is also my least favourite of the 3. Time for a re-think.
Despite my best efforts to remove mildewed leaves from my courgettes in the cold frame, the mildew is spreading. There is one more female flower which I hope will grow, but I don't hold out much hope for these. I have some runner beans waiting in the wings to use the space if necessary.
Better news is that the swedes and carrot Flyaway that I sowed in the quadgrow have germinated. I sowed the last lot of carrots (Marion) for overwintering in the pot vacated by the turnips earlier this week. Also potted on some winter cabbages and removed the self sown nasturtiums that were starting to smother the bush tomatoes.

Today is wet, which is why I am at the computer and not in my friend's garden. I did go down there earlier and planted out a late courgette in the hotbed, with a ring of copper tape and a mulch of strulch in the (probably vain) hope of deterring the slugs. Also fed the tomatoes and cucumbers and harvested a cucumber for lunch. These are Cucino, the first time I have grown this all-female variety. They are vastly easier and more productive than last year's variety, Vega, which needs pollinating.

The biggest frustration and time-waster this week has nothing to do with gardening. Having been pestered for the best part of a year to update my computer to Windows 10, and realizing that the free upgrade offer finishes on 29th July, I decided to give it a go. I started downloading it at 5.30pm on Wednesday, thinking that it might take a few hours but should be done by the time I went to bed. It wasn't. I left the computer on all night and it was still downloading at 7.30am. At 9am on Thursday it said the update had failed. I clicked on Try Again, and left it. At 9.30am Friday it failed again. I daren't try and do it again as it has already used half of my monthly download allowance!

[craftymarie]

Oh dear I grew Lollo Rossa last year, not my choice but my daughter brought a load of seedlings home from her school garden club. They grew very well as the slugs left them alone but they're not my favourite lettuce and the frilly leaves are a haven for all kinds of insects so I spent ages washing them.

Windows 10 upgraded fine on my computer although it took hours. My husband was unable to download it on his laptop because there was an incompatibility with some of his drivers. Perhaps if you look up windows 10 and the make of your computer online, there may be some comments relating to issues other people are having or have had?

To be honest, I had Windows 7 before which I was perfectly happy with. I don't see a big change with 10 but it does all work OK so that's all I really care about. I need my computer because I work online but I don't need it to do anything particularly fancy just Word, Spreadsheets and Internet. I try and do most of my work when the weather is bad or in the evenings. It doesn't cut into gardening time then

[Penellype]

A better day today, although not completely dry.

At my friend's:
Harvested the last bucket of Lady C potatoes for 0.9kg. These have been a bit disappointing after last year when I was getting 1-2kg per bucket from various varieties of potatoes. I think last year was a very good potato year and this year is less so. Its not just the first earlies that are not as good (I am comparing Lady C with Rocket, which may not be a fair comparison), the Charlotte have done less well than they did last year too.
Planted the last courgette plant in the bucket freed up by the potatoes. Protected it with a copper ring. Yesterday's plant has survived the night in the hotbed, undamaged so far.
Decided to throw away a piece of weed suppressant fabric that I have been meaning to put down on one of the paths between the beds - it is full of holes from last year's cabbages and is acting as an up market slug hotel. Further slug hunts under bricks and stones revealed plenty of slugs plus the resident toad, so I built him a little toad house of stones as I think he might have been living under the piece of fabric that I threw away.
Did some weeding and fed and watered all the plants in the greenhouse.

At home:
2 decent sized broccoli plants to pot up, requiring another round of musical chairs.
Harvested a bucket of Charlotte potatoes (1kg) as all the foliage had died down. No sign of blackleg on these, thankfully, so they should be fine to store in paper bags in the garage. Moved a 2nd bucket next to the wormery, leaving one of the raised beds unoccupied.
Moved 2 buckets of Desiree from the end raised bed onto the vacant one (the end one is only half full of compost).
Removed 3 resident snails.
Put the 2 buckets for the broccoli into the half full raised bed and constructed a net cover over a frame that fits over the bed using veggiemesh and clothes pegs. I needed to use this bed otherwise the plants would quickly get too tall for the net.
Planted up the 2 broccoli plants remembering to put copper rings round the stems. These can stay here over winter - I've grown PSB against this north facing wall successfully before. The reason for planting in buckets rather than directly into the raised bed is that I always find that the PSB is in the way when I want to use the space for something else, and it is never finished much before late May. At least with the buckets I can move it around if I need to.