MY FIRST VEGGIETABLE

After a really awful morning of wind and rain the sun decided to come out, and as I had today off work I decided to take and walk down and see what my veg was doing. I like that I don't watch it minute by minute, I have a lack of patience, well no, that's a lie, I just get excited easy and I couldn't bear to watch it day after day, that wouldn't work for me. Going down there intermittently for me is the best way, and you can really see how quickly things have grown.

TURNIPS

SWEDE

POTATOES, they are really going for it. I can't wait to dig them up :)

PEAS - only had three grow successfully, and they have little feelers all tangling aorund each other, so have erected a ltitle frame for them. (whilst humming a happy tune) Maybe 3 plants will be enough.

CARROTS

I don't know if I have done the right thing but they were all growing in clumps, becuse when I planted the seed it was very windy. So today I separated them out. I didn't have a lot of space for them all, but have done the best I can. I shope they don't die. I am in a carrot competition with my friend Gems.

MY FIRST VEGETABLE - A radish

Actually there were lots of radishes, would that make them radishi? I dug a few up, had everyone within a 50m radius try them whilst chanting, I grew that I did :)

Here's a closer look at my first ever home grown vegetable

Here's an even closer look, I grew that I did and was told by my auntie 'I buy radishes and I can tell you, that tastes like a radish'

I planted 12 sweetcorn today, might be a bit late, but so is summer, so I should be ok. I also planted a few tomato plants, but I know they'll grow.

SWEETCORN

Now I need to go and remind myself when things will be ready, I am stunned at the speed of them radishi(?) and my garlic seem to be pushing themselves out of the ground. Where's Gems when you need her? ....

Late Spring Update

I thought I'd post an update on my plot
Everything is growing just lovely, I am surprised at how quickly they have come up and how healthy and strong they look, even though I am no expert gardener, and don't pander to their every whim. I pop down about once a week, have a little weed, give them a little water, throw down a few slug pellets, sing them a song and that's about it.
Look at this pre-veg, just look at it:

Potatoes:

Radishes

Carrotts

Turnips

Peas

Swede

Onions

Garlic

I am now number 7 excited on a scale of 1 - 10. There is no sign of any slugs, snails, killer pillers, black fly, white fly or anything, But I won't count my chickens before my eggs have hatched ... hmm, chickens ...

Am I proving that anybody with a bit of mud can grow veg?

An update

Well what a beauuutiful Easter Sunday. I spent the day on my plot, and wait for it, I actually got Jack and his friend involved, with absolutely no bribes needed. I asked him this morning if he would mind helping me, expecting a 'ohh muum, but we're going out' but nope, I thought I mistakenly heard a 'ok mum'. So I quickly dropped everything and we shot off down there quick, before he changed his mind.
Bless them, they worked sooo hard. They dug up an patch of overgrown area that I had given up on, they mowed the lawn, weeded, helped me plant lots and watered. It was a really nice afternoon. It's not often I get to spend time with him.
So an update on the veggies, which I know you are eagerly awaiting.

Have planted in cold frame:

Red & green peppers - no sign of life yet
Cabbages, - started poking through 2 days ago
Sweetcorn - started poking through 2 days ago too
Strawberries - no sign of life
Tomatoes - no sign of life
Lettuce - zilch

In the plot are:
Potatoes - nothing
Carrots - not sure if weeds or carrots yet
Swede - Nowt
Turnips, yup, see photo below
Peas - hmm, maybe
Radishes - super growing
and my onions and garlic I'm so proud of, they look so green and lush


Me and my Jack


Turnips, how cute!


Lush onions and garlic, how I refrained from pulling one up I just don't know, I grew them I did :)

Aww, they had so much fun, away from the computer, briefly.

Come back soon, it's all getting a bit exciting!

Made a start

Well I've been busy today. First off I gots my cold frame, aren't I lucky to have such a clever Father in Law!

I went to the garden centre and bought some seed tray thingies and they fit in the frame perfectly, there's 160 little seedling trays there, and some larger black ones. I'm not sure what to start from seed and what to put straight in the plot, I'll figure that out tomorrow. I am going to do about 10 plantings of each thing a week, so I have a steady flow of veggies, that's called counting your chickens!
I also bought some grow bags, cos they always come in handy for something, I'll probably grow my tomatoes in them and my cabbages and lettuce, not sure yet, will figure that out tomorrow also. Take another look at the cold frame from a different angle, how cool is that!

He also made me a beautiful wooden wheelbarrow last year, I didn't get a chance to do anything with it, but this year I am going to plant my strawberries in it, I have always done well with my strawberries. But before I plant them I am going to have to buy some netting or something, as this wheelbarrow full of earth would be a favourite with the cats!

It's much larger than it looks in the photo, it measures about 3 x 4 feet.

And I bought some seeds:

Peas
Lettuce
carrots
Turnips
Swede
Radish
Peppers
Cabbage
and strawberries

Half of these were a Christmas gift from my bestest friend Gems so I will have to make sure I do her proud.

I also bought some potato seeds, Nadine (recomended by Gems) I was going to plant them tomorrow, but believe it or not the weather forecast for a week away is snow, even though it has been 16 degrees today, only in the UK could we have such diverse weather conditions. So I am going to hold on till next week and see how the land lies!

I took a walk down to check out the onions and garlic, and the smell as you approach the area is delicious, I can almost taste them. I do hope they are growing nicely under there.

Tomorrow I am going to plant up some seedlings.

Shoots n roots

Well I have dug another two up, one garlic and one onion:

I have had a bit of a read up and silly me, during the shorter daylight days the energy goes in to the leaves and roots, and as the days get long it switches to the bulbs, they wont be ready to pull up until June/July, I'm such a donut. Those shoots 'n' roots sure do look pretty damn healthy to me though, and they smell delicious.


These are my onions, there seems to be lots of weird and wonderful things growing in between them, I'm going to go sort that out later on



and this is the garlic.



Patience is most certainly a virtue.

The beginning

It is indeed the time to start sewing my seeds. Today I will be trying to talk my father in law in to building me the biggest coldframe you ever did see, so that I can sew my seeds. I am also going down to my mini allotmant to pull up another onion. I pulled one up in December to see what was happening and there was nothing on the end of it, only a few small roots. So three possibilities, either someone was playing a trick on me and pulled up all my onions and planted spring onions in their place, they just did not grow or I happened to pull up a bulb that just happened to not grow.
Will be back later with a report.

That's shallot!

My Onions now stand at 6 inches tall. That's all, for now.

Rootin shootin

I have shoots, they started shooting through at the weekend and are now a few inches high. I was told today that I don't really have to worry about manuring the earth this year as it is virgin soil, meaning nothing has been grown in it before. Next year it will need to have a good mulch over.

If they're looking this good in ten days, what they gonna be like next year!

These are the onions, look at them will you, go on, look at them, good eh!

Not that I'm too excited, that would be sad wouldn't it? Whoop whoop whoop whoop

Nothing to report

There is no more news from the veggie site at the moment as there is nothing to do, apart from wait, and wait. Keith has not yet started on the cold frame, nothing has started to grow yet, well it wouldn't have would it! I hope to go down at the weekend and plant another few rows of garlic and onions. I will have a weed and a light water maybe. The exciting bit will start in the spring, that's when all seeds and sets an plants will go in, then it should get exciting :o)

Watered

Very special update - Jack watered my onion and garlic sets yesterday ...

How does your garlic grow - Part deux

What a glooorious day. I went down t'plot, and I raked it all over again. Ooh the earth is so gorgeous. Why does everybody have an obsession with gloves, I keep getting asked that. No, I don't wear gloves, I love to feel the earth between my fingers. How can you gently pick up a 'lil caterpillar and put it to one side (I hear Gem's screeches of kill it, kill it) when you have a mamby pamby pair of gloves on. I cut all my nails down to stubs for this task. Dedication. There's no grass or no weeds coming through, at all, I must have done such a good job first time round. I filtered out anything odd looking, stones, cat poops, caterpillars, and raked it all over smooth. I then dug a bit of a trough and filled it with compost improver, don't ask me why, it might help, and I then planted my onion thingies, and my garlic thingies, about 5" apart, 3 rows of each. The green sticks indicate the end of each 3 rows. I have saved half a packet of which I shall plant in about 3 - 4 weeks time. It's rotation you see, I don't want 400 onions in one month, I need to spread it all out. (here's hoping). I did break sticks and put printed tags on them, courtesy of a superb plastic tag making machine that my uncle has, and these will label what I have planted and where. I didn't need to put dates on the labels cos I'm keeping record in here. Up there for thinking, down there for dancing. So next job is planting the rest of the packets in about a month's time.

I have just asked Keith if he wouldn't mind making me a cold frame, and to my absolute surprise he said he would. I have a huuuge sheet of perspex in a frame, long story, don't ask, all he needs to throw together is some sort of base, made with some sort of wood, which I have already managed to pillage, and hinge the perspex lid to it. Sorted. The reason for the cold frame is to nuture the seedlings and harden them, they have a much better chance of growing strong and healthy once put in the earth, do you think, maybe? I am hoping it will look something like this

Hmm, the perspex is about the same size as this, I'll print this out and leave it lying around, he's usually pretty good with his tools.

How does your garden grow ...

08 October 2008

How does your garden grow ...

Well to be truthful I haven't done anyting on my plot since the last posting, apart from lug the 4 bags of compost improver down there, and place my garlic and onions neatly in the corner, waiting for planting. The weather has been attrocious, I mean nasty, really nasty. The forecast is good today, so if it does turn out sunny I am going to try and speed ahead with my work at home and sort the garlic trough out. I may do a bit of weeding, and finish off the rest of the digging over. As it has been raining for a few days it should be nice and soft. Fingers crossed for a warmer day. It seems I am not an all weather gardener.

Gem's Tips of the Month

Gem's Tips - Simple advice from one who knows:

Plant nasturtiums in between lettuces, killer pillers (caterpillers) will be attracted to them instead of your lovely crop. And check under all the leaves regularly for eggs and squish them all. Miss the eggs, you can lose all your crop overnight.

Put sticks or twigs at the end of each row and label with what you have planted, if you're going as crazy as me with the veg you will forget what you planted!

Sew seeds like lettuce every three weeks so you have an all summer crop

Get a dibber, I don't know what for yet, I didn't ask

Save yoghurt pots and inside of loo roles for planting seeds, if you are lucky enough to have a partner/husband/friend to make you a cold frame then the toilet roll insides can be cut down, filled with compost, seeds can be planted and they can be kept safe and sound in the cold frame until frost has passed, and then planted straight out in the garden, cardboard 'n' all!

How does your garlic grow ...

29th September 2008

How does your garlic grow ...

Well yesterday I bought 4 bags of compost for a tenner. And a bag of fertiliser pellet thingies. A big box. I was assured by the shop assistant that this would be fine for growing my garlic in. I was going to go dig up the rest of the weeds today but it's raining, I'm not sure it's possible to do gardening in the rain??

I will go and clean up my wooden trough, and if the rain eases I will plant the garlic, which I bought as well, not just plain old supermarket garlic, proper garlic, from the garden centre and I will choose my onion plot, cos I also bought some onion sets, proper onion sets, wter growing ones, from the garden centre. There is 50 each pack, for £1.99, 50 onions for £1.99, is that good? I find myself comparing the cost of his project to the cost of value veg from the shops, but it's not all about the cost is it, it's about taste, the joy of living from the earth, the satisfaction and of course saving the pla

OCTOBER CALENDER

I'll try and make this as straightforward as possible, remember, I haven't really got any idea about what I am doing. Click on each heading to read info on how to get started, I have chosen the information that I have personally found easiest to understand, in other words info that has omitted the PH balance of soil, the temperature of the soil, the specific nutrients of the soil etc etc blah blah, I can't be doing with all that, I wanna plant and go ......

OCTOBER - WEEK 1

Plant Garlic - (I'm doing this in a wooden trough)

Fertilisation & Crop rotation - I may have to go and find a bag of farm animal poo, I wanted to avoid it but it seems my veggies will need it. For years I have passed these bags of manure on the side of county roads, for sale, for a few bob, when driving through the countryside (not for pleasure, it's the only way to get to the shopping centre) and wondered who on earth would want to buy them, now I understand, it's going to help my garden grow. After some research it seems a bit of a dig in with the manure, and then a few weeks before sewing or planting I need to use a fertiliser. All veggies have different needs. I think I should be ok using a general purpose fertiliser, maybe something like this! Only a few quid, nice and easy (ha!) This Link should make things clearer. I guess the important thing is planning, sketch a plan of where each veggie is going, and prepare that area of soil accordingly.

OCTOBER - WEEK 2

Just potter about I guess, tidy up, weed, have a dig over.

OCTOBER - WEEK 3

Winter onions - I have read on many sites that onion sets (baby onions bought from garden centre etc) can be planted from August onwards. I have prepared the soil, it seems onions do not need the manure bit, so when preparing the soil in the first week of october my onion section was just fertilised using a packet of fertilising thingy from the garden centre (you can tell I am experienced)

OCTOBER CALENDER

I'll try and make this as straightforward as possible, remember, I haven't really got any idea about what I am doing. Click on each heading to read info on how to get started, I have chosen the information that I have personally found easiest to understand, in other words info that has omitted the PH balance of soil, the temperature of the soil, the specific nutrients of the soil etc etc blah blah, I can't be doing with all that, I wanna plant and go ......

OCTOBER - WEEK 1

Plant Garlic - (I'm doing this in a wooden trough)

Fertilisation & Crop rotation - I may have to go and find a bag of farm animal poo, I wanted to avoid it but it seems my veggies will need it. For years I have passed these bags of manure on the side of county roads, for sale, for a few bob, when driving through the countryside (not for pleasure, it's the only way to get to the shopping centre) and wondered who on earth would want to buy them, now I understand, it's going to help my garden grow. After some research it seems a bit of a dig in with the manure, and then a few weeks before sewing or planting I need to use a fertiliser. All veggies have different needs. I think I should be ok using a general purpose fertiliser, maybe something like this! Only a few quid, nice and easy (ha!) This Link should make things clearer. I guess the important thing is planning, sketch a plan of where each veggie is going, and prepare that area of soil accordingly.

OCTOBER - WEEK 2

Just potter about I guess, tidy up, weed, have a dig over.

OCTOBER - WEEK 3

Winter onions - I have read on many sites that onion sets (baby onions bought from garden centre etc) can be planted from August onwards. Click here for more info on planting. I have prepared the soil, it seems onions do not need the manure bit, so when preparing the soil in the first week of october my onion section was just fertilised.

September 28th 2008

Today I have started to prepare the earth, the first dig over. It's a back breaking job, lots of well established weeds & roots. I have managed to do about 4/5 of it, but due to having two severley torn 'hang' nails, as the grass got thicker and tougher I could not pull it out as it was catching on the broken nails (typical woman)

I have now come home and cut all my nails down to nothing, I must be serious, my hands look like a man's, my neatly manicured beautiful long nails are no more, all in the duty of doing what one must to save the planet.

As far as my research has gone I have figured out the earth needs to be turned over as much as possible, and all weeds must be banished. It must then be fertilised, the best fertiliser being farm manure. So I will spend the next couple of motnhs turning, weeding and fertilising. The earth itself is actually very nice, I am surprised, it feels rich, it looks rich, it's not chalky, it isn't clay like, which I thought it might be being so close to the sea, I don't know why. I am observing where the most sunlight is and where the most shade is, and when i get to the point of deciding what is to be planted where I guess I should have to take that in to consideration.

Not a bad job for a couple of hours work!



Useful Site for Preperation info

SEPTEMBER 27th 2008

This is my 16.5' x 4.5' plot, good huh. It's not getting an amazing amount of sunlight but I can only try!

Grow your own

Hello, my name is Lynn (otherwise known as sparkx) and I am 37 years old. I am a wife and mother of two boys and live right beside the seaside in the southeast of England.

With the growing recession and rising costs of food I have decided to take the plunge and grow my own fruit, vegetables and maybe the odd flower or two, as best I can. I have absolutely no idea about how to grow vegetables, I have no lush green garden, only a square decked area.

My first hurdle was to find a plot. Allotments in this area have a 10 year waiting list, and I'm not sure I could handle an allotment, all I need is a small area of which to have a play. After asking around the family I was offered a small peice of my uncle's garden, approximately 16.5' x 4.5', just perfect enough for me to manage. Next hurdle is to find out where on earth to start, how to prepare, what to grow and how to maintain, and of course with little or no expense, else it would defeat the object.

I hope to enoucrage my children and maybe their friends to get involved. On first mention they show absolutely no interest whatsoever, all the hard work and prepeartions will be done by me. I am curious to see whether as time goes on and things start to grow they will start to take an interest, here's hoping. If they don't help grow it then they won't help eat it ...

So here goes, the beginning of what will hopefully be a long term, easy to manage, beautifully tasty crop of food. It may be that everything gets eaten by slugs, it may be that there is not enough sunlight, the birds eat everything, ot it may be that I end up with the most brilliant crop of foods, only time will tell.

I hope you enjoy the adventure as much as I do, and most of all I hope it might inspire you to have a go :o) (Or if it fails miserably it will make you feel better about not trying it)

The dates in the menu are not consequetive days.