Missing book

Seems I've been neglecting both my blogs and my garden lately. Well, I could be forgiven for not gardening, what with the snow and rain and general unpleasantness out there. Not so sure I have such a good excuse for not blogging, however...

So, time for a catch up. This whole week hasn't really seen me accomplish much really. I've ordered a few more seeds (white pumpkins, summer savory and uh... one other thing I forget) from Seeds-by-Size. I bought a huge bag of seed compost and lots of peat pots. James has brought home stacks of trays (the plastic kind that hold eighteen or so 3" pots), as well as bags and bags of pots. But apart from that, I've done no real gardening.

Now this is going to sound really stupid... but the main reason I've not done anything else is that I've lost my Gardening by the Moon book. I don't want to sow anything until I find it and can make sure it's a fruit day for the tomatoes or a root day for the carrots... how stupid is that? I grew stuff perfectly well before I found that book. And if I sowed all my tomatoes and aubergines tomorrow, and it turned out to be a leaf day, I'm sure they'd not suffer for it.

My OCD is obviously getting worse. lol.

But I really do need to get some stuff sown and growing. I can feel everything starting to wake up. So tomorrow I'm going to sow a few each of tomatoes, aubergines, onions, spinach and chilli peppers in peat pots and put them on my windowsill. And I'll make a note of what I've sown and when (like I always do), and then sow a few more in two or three days time... and we'll see, shall we, if sowing dates make any difference.

Assuming I can find the ruddy book...

More seeds

Yes, yes, I know, you read that title right. A few more packets of seeds arrived today. But I only ordered 5 packets, from Dobies, and I was most chuffed to receive three free packets of flower seeds with them! I ordered:

Brussells Sprouts - Red Delicious (yes, a red sprout!)
Carrot - Rainbow (a heinous F1, I must confess, that mixes white, yellow, orange, red and purple carrots. It's the only F1 I will be sowing this year, but I shall let a handful flower and seed next year. And will therefore grow my own collection of coloured carrots. :)
Fennel - Zefa Fino (a bulbing fennel, for my Mom who loves the stuff)
Onion - Brown Pickling (self explanatory, for DH who loves pickled onions)
Onion - Red Baron (red onions, again for DH)

And I've had an idea of growing a few extra plants to sell on eBay. I spent a while last summer bidding on plants, winning some and watching others go for silly money. So, this year, I'm deliberately sowing some seeds in the little peat pots and will sell them on when a few inches high (or up to 6" for brassicas & leeks) via eBay. And see if I can't make a few pennies to help my seed buying habit along. :)

Been a digging sort of day

Have had lots of quality garden time today, as the weather co-operated well. Tidied up the left hand veggie beds, cleared out the green house and turned over the two raised beds at the back of the garden. The smaller of the two I've made into a proper square foot garden bed, (except it's 4 squares by 5, instead of the traditional 4x4). I even put a bit of string across it and planted a few seeds.

My back is killing me, but I feel really good. lol

And the bestest bed of all is my new Square Foot bed. :) Last year it held a mix of roots and nasturtiums and the like. This year, it's going to have all sorts planted in it. In fact, today I sowed some mesclun salad mix, two squares of spinach, onions and early carrots. I have no idea if it's too early, but what the hell... if they don't come up in a couple of weeks, I'll just plant some more seed. And if they do, I'll throw a bit of horti-fleece over the top and have a home grown salad for my birthday.

Bed in foreground was built using a heap of old kerb stones we found in the garden. Last year it had potatoes in it, so this year, following traditional rotation, it's having roots - namely parsnips and pickling onions. :)

Four veggie beds (these are behind the greenhouse - note the bucket in the last pic). The scruffy bit with the two spades sticking out will be bed number 5. At the top you can just see the breeze block square where the greenhouse is going to be moved too (had a terrible urge to write Inshallah, but won't). And from the top the beds will contain - early potatoes, early maincrop spuds, broad beans & peas (already partially planted!), courgettes & beans, and late maincrop spuds.

Dug all the crap out of the greenhouse beds too - nice and easy as the soil was fairly dry. Saved a few self-seeded rocket plants, some chard and a few chives. Bit of green at the back is an English marigold, surviving in spite of not being watered all winter! Must be a bit of moisture coming in through the broken pane you can just see at the back centre.

The centre bed - still with lettuces from last summer. Can't remember the variety, but I think I'll be planting a few more this year! Not sure whether this patch is going to be grassed over or turned into two Square Foot bed.

More seeds!!!

Yippee - a friend sent me a selection of Wal-Mart's finest offering from the US. I now have:

Cantaloupe - Gold Mine
Watermelon - Crimson Sweet
Squash - Black Beauty Zucchini
Squash - Waltham Butternut
Squash - Yellow Summer Crookneck
Pepper - Cubanelle
Pepper - California Wonder
Mesclun Salad Mix
Spinach - Bloomsdale Long Standing (x2)
Beans - Bush, Blue Lake Tenderlake (x2)
Cucumber - Armenian Yard Long
Peas - Sugar Snap
Beet - Detroit Dark Red
Radish - Cherry Belle
Radish - Sparkler
Sweetcorn - Silver Queen (hybrid - eek!)
Onion - Sweet Spanish Yellow Utah Jumbo
Pumpkin - Jack O'Lantern

Maybe I'll design my square foot garden around these varieties...

That is, once Barbara has devoured the book. :-D

There be seeds in that thar soil...

Oh yay, planting in earnest has started. :) I'm such a happy bunny.

A few days ago I put in a couple of rows of broad beans and some very early (and maybe over-optimistic) peas.

And today, I've already sown some onions in modules, just some seed I saved from a supermarket onion. I threw a half onion on the compost heap last spring, and it sprouted 4 flower spikes.

So I moved it and let it do it's own thing, and saved about 200 seed from it last autumn. I've got a couple of other kinds of onion to sow, both Italian varieties. I've also ordered some red onion seed and pickling seed from Dobies, and have 75 sets of Stuttgart Giant to plant out too.

Will leave those till next root planting day... oh yes, did I say I was going to follow the Planting by the Moon book again? I got such fabulous results last year, it's worth the effort of planning ahead for planting. I'll also do a few 'test' sowings of stuff, just for the scientific aspect. lol

Poo Ramble

Yes, as promised, the poo ramble.

What is it about gardeners, and other folk of a rural and/or agricultural bent, that makes us so fascinated with manure?

On Thursday, I loaded the small people into the Disco, with a packed lunch, and set off for the allotments. There, I borrowed a dinky little trailer from Bob (I have found that there is always a Bob or a John or a George at allotments, that have anything you could possibly wish for, and they'll always be happy to lend it to you if you stay and chat a while).

The trailer was so small I didn't even bother with a light board or number plate on it - you could see both on the back of my truck quite clearly. In fact, I couldn't even see the trailer in my wing mirrors when driving. The only things that stopped me from wondering if the thing had bounced off into the hedgerow were the two bits of box-section steel tubing sticking up from the two front corners. And boy, did they bounce.

A few miles down the road, opposite Lou's house is a field that's had horses on for 7 years. Do you have any idea of the amount of poo 4 horses can generate in 7 years? :) And during the past 7 years, all the straw from the stable and droppings that had been poop-scooped from the field had been piled in a corner and left to get on with whatever it is that manure does when you're not looking.

And what it does is turn itself into the most lovely dark brown crumbly soil improver and grower-of-maginificent-vegetables you ever did see. First, I handed out the packed lunches to the offspring strapped in the back of the truck (there was no way I was letting my three out in a field with a stack of manure that high!). Once they were contentedly munching, I three quarters filled that little trailer. I really couldn't dig much more out that day, as my back was starting to give. Lou, bless her, had brought me out a cup of tea half way through, so we returned the cup, had a chat and I got her recipe for the most divine museli-rice crispie-date & honey flapjack every.

Then back at the lottie, I emptied the trailer into the manure box in the corner that every plot seems to have. And do you know, that 3/4 filled trailer just about filled the box to the top.

Well, of course, I knew it would. :)

An old friend... thought I'd put a picture of her here. :)

The Disco at the Allotment... totally superfluous photograph, but I like it. The girls were using her as a climbing frame whilst DH and I had a good dig. We managed to get almost half the plot (albeit a half plot) dug over in a couple of hours, thanks to the super azada.

Azada day

Oh joy - finally got to give the new azada a work out. It's great!

Not quite the tool I thought it was, but that's not in a bad way. I'm clearing some really over grown bed in the garden (haven't had chance to get up to the lottie yet). They're covered in long, matted grass, and the azada just slices through it. Using a fork to dig it all up would be a nightmare, and hard work on one's back, but you justlife the azada, whilst standing upright, and let it fall back into the grass using its own weight and momentum. Brill! And once it's neatly mown all the rank vegetation off, you can hack chunks of compacted soil up with it, with half the effort of using a fork.

I had to use the fork a bit along the edge of the fence, for digging out some couch grass. That is the one draw back of the azada, is that it does chop stuff. Don't think the worms like it that much.

However, I have now turned over a good 50% of my side veggie bed. Have also spent the last couple of evenings sorting out a sowing plan and rotation. Got little plans all drawn up for the lottie and the garden. Will scan them in at some point. Still, the beds for the early spuds and broad beans are dug over. I now just need to find my big tape measure and break the side bed up into 5 sections. Then we need to move the greenhouse, build the third raised bed, dig up the worn out shrubs in the bed in the middle of the lawn, turf it, move the compost heaps and put a shed up there, etc etc etc

Not to mention the work that needs doing up the lottie. I had some willing helpers yesterday as well, but the weather was too miserable. :( Barbara, E and R came round to play, but we ended up doing baking and stuff, so that's blogged over on Mud & Mischief.

Now all I need to do is figure out why this camera isn't uploading pics...