Posted on Apr 02, 2009 under Uncategorized |
It’s been the month for planting little seeds!!!
About 3 weeks ago, I started off with broad beans and peas. I was a bit lazy and put 2 seeds in each hole. Interestingly, the peas didn’t mind this so much, but the broad beans didn’t take to it too well at all. In any case, I soon sorted them out into degradable peat pots, and they thrived. I’m going to start hardening them off in my yard at home soon. I think this will help also, as there seems to be some mould building up around some of the plant roots. I also planted a bunch of tomato seeds. They are STILL seedlings, so I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong or if they really take that long…
Today I planted 30 sprout seeds, as requested by Alsie, a sprout fan! I’ve also put in 16 pepper seeds (they cost £3 for 16 seeds!!!!). I tried to separate out some of the tomato seedlings, but they’re still too delicate, really. SO I planted a few more seeds in individual pots to see if they prefer that.
What else can I plant? I’ve got runner beans and dwarf beans to come, and also some squash plants, but I found them a bit tricky to harden off last year, so I might leave it till it’s a bit warmer.
I wonder how much my flatmates are loving all my seedlings?! Nice to see signs of life, but when it comes with soil everywhere, it’s not as ideal!!!
Posted on Oct 16, 2008 under Uncategorized |
To buy plants in season – for the lazy of us!
http://www.organicplants.co.uk/
Posted on May 26, 2008 under Uncategorized |
I put off the allotmenting this weekend, but it made no difference in the end. Showers ahoy!
I visited a friend yesterday and discussed allotments with her, her hubby, and his Dad! Lots of expertise! Also gifted courgette, tomato, climbing bean and cabbage plants!
So, amid the rain, I pinched off the tops of the broad bean plants. This is to get rid of the nice juicy plants which attract the black-fly. (Should be done when plants start to flower.) Indeed, a few of the plants did have black-fly nestling there, so I squished ‘em good! I was going to wind the runners around the canes, but I have a horrible feeling that they’re not going to recover from last weekend’s frost. I guess we’ll see. Not much happening to them anyway, apart from grim-looking-ness.
I put the squash (including my pumpkins) and tomato (mine and the gifted, much bigger, ones) plants in the greenhouse, where I hope to harden them off. This is a process of allowing them to acclimitise to the cold, wind etc, and get tougher stems, gradually. I think that the absence of this hardening off might have been the death of the butternut squash plants a few weeks ago…
I planted out the pea plants, new broad beans, new runner beans and climbing bean plant in the raised bed. Fingers crossed. It’s windy as well as wet today!
And finally (as John Craven would say) I piled up soil round my jerusalem artichokes. I don’t know if they needed it, it seems to be an optional phase, but I thought I’d give it a go. I was pretty wet through by now, so it wasn’t much fun!
Loukik and I have some pretty exciting news in the offing, so watch this space!
Other tips I’ve picked up:
- cabbages like alkaline soil, so I’ve obtained some univeral pH indicator paper.
- grass cuttings act as a good mulch for things like beans – water well underneath before putting it down.
- tomatoes will benefit from having their side shoots (not the flowers though!) nipped off during growth.
- marigolds are good at putting off nasty pests, especially near tomatoes. I’ll build this into the plans.
- lavender (named from the Latin – to wash) also scares away pests, and borage attracts them away from other things!