I dug this up in the garden today!

Potato Planting Rambling

The February question has shown its face again! Every February I can guarantee someone will ask me if they really do have to chit their potatoes? I was always told by my allotment peers to just chit my first earlies. This I did, and always had good crops. So why gamble, it works so I'll stick with it, I thought. But you always think you know better!

A couple of years ago I took it upon myself to chit not only first, but also second and main-crop. After all, if you buy them all together, by main-crop planting time you might find they chitted themselves in the bag anyway. I also started my earlies off in 4inch pots of compost. Why not get a head start by planting a potato that has already started growing in the greenhouse or good coldframe? I half filled the pot and pushed the potato into the compost. After a couple of weeks the potato roots well into the pot just as any plant would and starts to grow typical potato top growth. At this point I top up the 4inch pot, up to the top with compost. After another week you can then plant out as usual, knowing you are a month ahead of the game.

I always grow my first earlies in large 60litre plastic plant pots. I do this for a couple of reasons. Firstly, earlies are always at the risk of frost damage. Secondly, it allows me to maximise my growing space. I can grow potatoes on concrete this way!

The fact they are in a pot means I can bring them into the greenhouse when the weather is looking frosty. With just 6inches of compost in the bottom I can plant in my pre-started potato plants. As the growth increases I add more growing media, to just below the leaf tops, until the pot is full.

Now, when it comes to topping up, I must confess this is where I am inconsistent. I usually mix a bit of home compost with some weed-free garden soil, or some finely crumbled old horse manure and soil mixed. I've just always done it. No science involved! Just my way.

For planting second earlies and main-crop, I plant in the usual rows. I do have my own tried and tested way though! The entire potato plot is dug over in late winter/early spring, incorporating growmore and chicken manure pellets at the recommended rate. When it comes to planting the seed potato, I dig a small planting hole, 6inches round by 10 inches deep. Then I put a good handful of compost or manure in the bottom and place the potato on it and cover with soil. Job done, until earthing up is required.

See, there's more than one way to grow a spud!

Just wanted to mention varieties. Because of good results year on year, and good storing properties, I always grow Rocket(1st early), Charlotte(2nd early), Picasso(Main) and Rooster(RedMain). I would like to suggest you grow some Charlotte for mains too, they grow large enough for roasting/baking if you leave them in! This year I have traded with a friend to get some Swift and Cara to try also. (Coloured pots in photo denotes the different varieties. Again, just my way!)

Lighter nights and seedlings

Now that the evenings are staying lighter for an extra hour or so, I have become more enthusiastic in my garden plans. My enthusiasm has inspired my little 2yr old who has beaten me to the first emerging seedling of the year (beaten at my own game godammit!). I have planned my sowing better this year too. Sweet peas are now well on their way, ready for pinching out at about 3 inches for bushier growth. Planted in my usual loo roll tubes, I can plant tube into ground, so as not to disturb roots. This is a method I have used for years now for all my peas, beans and sweetcorn. Broad beans, loo roll tube planted, are being hardened off now ready for planting out.

My normal sweet pea planting, up a few canes somewhere, will also be moved to the bean row this year. This will encourage some more bumble bee activity, thus getting some extra set on my runner beans too. My onion and shallot sets (usual Setton, Red Baron and Golden Gourmet) are shooting well in the coldframe. I start them into 20 &12 cells to get a head start. This method also stops the birds pulling up the sets, as the root-ball holds them in the ground stronger. Brassicas and Leeks are all at pricking out point too. It has been a busy few weeks at Blackgates! Ground is all dug ready for the off, manure added where required.

I have also sown some Parsnip into 20cells. This is part of a trial I decided to do, to overcome irregular germination in ground sown Parsnips. By doing them into cells, I can put them into the propagator to germinate. Hopefully they will transplant to final growing place ok. Time will tell!

I spent most of Sunday undoing the poor landscaping that had been done on the garden. The previous owner had a unhealthy desire for Conifers, Heathers, trellis and gravel (as in picture). Low maintenance they called it, no maintenance more like. Jungle look and no lawn! All along side a tarmac drive for a couple of caravans and a lorry! Not enough controlled horticulture for my liking.

We are planning a 'micro orchard' as I like to call it, with chickens running about beneath the tree canopy. Some vegetable garden has to be sacrificed to enable this, but it just means I will have to plan my crop successions better.

Off now to ponder Greenhouse catalogues.

Good for mind, body and wallet.

I’ve been banging on for years at how great gardening is. My friends groan at me sometimes. A few people listen, most don’t I guess. It’s the plus points that people miss that saddens me. Ok, so we get pretty flowers and provide habitat for wildlife in a concrete suburbia. We grow our own fruit and vegetables and have a great outdoor entertainment area. But what else you ask?

We all seem to either love or hate gardening. But the bonus plus points to it are missed, even by the ones that love it.

All winter, echoes of “I’m so cold” and “I need to get to the gym” ring alongside “I’m skint” and ”gas bills gone up again”. Well, gardening answers some of it! Ten minutes digging a vegetable patch, in even the coldest of temperatures, will have you peeling off those layers of clothing due to the unbearable heat your body is generating. Then, when you get back into the house, the last thing you will want is the heating on! You will be glowing like a beacon and happy to sit and cool off.

So here we have my big missed plus to gardening. You just prepared some ground ready for growing vegetables, with just pence invested in seed. The pounds you will save in grocery shopping eh? You have less demand on your central heating as you get used to ‘real cold’ and are happy to have the house a few degrees lower. Gym membership becomes something your friends waste their money on trying to get ‘abs’, and your digging generated leaner physique.

So there we have it. Gardening can bless us with lower grocery bills, a healthier lifestyle, and a much fatter wallet. Not to mention the eco benefit of the ‘lower carbon footprint’ thingy due to saving food miles and gas energy.

I have had this on my mind for weeks now. It’s not my imagination running away with me. It’s a fact that I just wanted to put across to make a point. So many people miss understand the ways gardening can have a positive effect on life. Not to mention the pride it gives. Gardening, good for mind, body and wallet!!!

Still here. Been busy. Still busy!!

Shame on me. It has been twelve months since my last blog post. My initial idea of a post each week failed on a grand scale. Therefore, I am left with the need to update a whole years progress. I must dedicate one night a week to blog!

First failure was getting a lawn down! I ended up so busy at work my spare time required me to concentrate on growing things. Food and flowers dominated my year. My love hate relationship with bedding plants turned into a love love one! The garden was transformed with ease (I’m thinking here I should learn to input a photo onto blog). Zinnias, Cosmos, Petunia, Marigold, Verbena, Lobelia in all colours and sizes transformed the drab extremities of the garden, as well as the rockery I created.

A full complement of typical allotment veg managed to bless the vegetable patch too. I filled my allotment at the old house with potatoes saving the new veg patch at Blackgates for the brassicas, beans, onions, squashes, sweetcorn, pea, celery, lettuce, leeks and greenhouses with tomatoes, peppers and cucumber. The soft fruit harvest was bountiful too. Black, red and white currants. Strawberries, raspberries and gooseberries to name most. The apple trees were generous; the pear had great blossom but failed to be pollinated (more pear bought this year).

The garden is to get 12 new fruit trees planted this year, plum, apple and pear. I need to lose some vegetable garden to do this so will keep the allotment on as well. Not the intention but my little boy loves picking and eating fruit so have to plant more trees! I intend to fence off the orchard area and let some chickens roam underneath the trees.

Off to try and figure out my seed sowing plan now. Nearly seventy packets to wade through! Seed compost mixed, pots cleaned and ready to go. Dahlias started and on their way. So all in all, off to a good start.
Take care, and make the most of that room outside.

P.s. The compost tumbler was not as good as I had hoped. Will stick to traditional method.

The Revolution....and dull days

Well, the weather has been pretty wet and miserable again for the past few days. It seems to have done nothing but rain, or snow, since we moved to Blackgates and the weather continues to dampen my enthusiasm, along with the long dark nights!

Sunday marked the beginning of the compost revolution. I built a compost tumbler! I have always managed to make a large quantity of compost using the traditional method. Pallets nailed together in a square and just fill as the waste is produced, but this tumbler method claims to do in two weeks what a traditional heap does in six months…….we’ll see what happens. The tumbler (basically a fancy metal barrel on a stand) is rotated every day so as to mix the mixture. I have still followed my composting method of good ratio’s of nitrogen and carbon. For those looking confused now I’ll explain.

Plant material still green is the nitrogen part; the brown material is generally the carbon part (wood). If you find you have a shortage of carbon rich material, newspaper is a good substitute, especially in summer when you have an amount of grass clippings to compost. This paper prevents the sticky mess produced by too much grass in a compost heap. Once you have mastered the ratios just add the material as you garden, mix it in to the existing heap material a little, water it so it’s not too dry and cover it to keep the heat in (old carpet is good). It’s the heat that does the work. If nothing else, I’m great at composting.

The apple tree’s had a prune on Sunday. I really need to prune the plums but it’s too early yet, as the risk of silver leaf is still an issue due to cold and damp weather. The soft fruit is also due a good prune, as is the peach I have in the greenhouse. The peach needs a prune when spring arrives as I want to train it into a fan. However it’s a feathered whip at present so it will look pretty sad after I begin the process of training the fan. This will involve cutting it back to two opposing lateral stems about a foot from the base of the tree. Six foot to one foot in one cut with the loppers, bless it!

The miserable weather has given me time to think about the garden design and layout though. It’s going to be amazing I can tell you!

I do have an unhealthy love affair with this 'minds eye' of mine!
Take care, and make the most of that room outside.

So, a first Blog.

I really did think this would be easy! After all, my mind is so full of things to write and share with others. But where do you start?

So, I figured a feed on my days activities, however interesting would be a good method. This would serve me as a 'diary log' for looking back on my year and would also help others by either learning from my mistakes or sharing my successes. I expect as I get more used to Blogging I might change my format but for now I'll just stick to something simple and try to update every few days.

Today was the first day in 2010 that I felt spring is not that far away. There is a smell in the air that I seem to pick up on, the smell of growth? The Iris and Narcissus are an inch out of the ground or pot, making that important mental picture of the display seem more real. It's no longer in my minds eye, it real now! I have started to get the Dahlias ready for starting into growth and have purchased the seeds for this garden year. Its all in gear now for a great year.

Looking forward, I have a great deal of design work to do at Blackgates. There is good mature planting to work around but the garden as it stands is just not me. It needs my design eye casting over it and more flow to the garden. There is a big lack of herbaceous border due to the previous owner prefering the gravel look. This also means the lawn was removed. A garden without lawn just isn't a garden to me. Lawns are less maintenance than gravel. If you have ever weeded 50 square metres of gravel you will be nodding with me on this! Therefore, the lawn situation needs immediate consideration.

Anyway, I feel like I'm babbling on a bit now so I'll leave it at that for my first Blog. I hope the weather is kind to me tomorrow!
Take care, and make the most of that room outside.