Harvesting

I know that it is spring. Everyone is sowing seeds and tending their new precious plants through the initial few weeks. So why am I talking about harvesting? Have I lost it completely?


Well last year when I sowed and tended to my brussel sprout seedlings and my celeriac I had great expectations of the food that I would be eating. Today I finally dug out both of these crops ( need the ground back). Oh and the size of the bounty can only leave you reeling with total admiration for my efforts. I knew it would be bad. In fact had left them in the ground with some blind hope that even through the winter they would show some change or some improvement. It was not to be.

I have harvested a handful of sprouts from stalks that would barely make a suitable walking stick for a cat.


I have produced celeriac the size of a golf ball.


Does all this disappointment put me off? Not a bit I have already sown some brussel sprout seeds. And yes I will sow celeriac again; it will be the third year of trying but imagine what it will taste like when I finally get there. That is the great thing about gardening every year you can start again, as this year will be different. Grow well little seeds enjoy the grow house.

just like magic

It never fails to amaze me when those little seeds you sow burst into life. Look what I-spied on the window sill today.

Started sowing

I can hold off no longer, I just have to start sowing. Indoors of course. The window sill is about to be put back into use (still a little too early to get the grow house up and running, wait till next month I keep reminding myself). I have some sweet peas in big pots hoping to kick them off for a good early display.

Owen helped me to sow some tomatos (gartenperle & striped) and some cabbage (hispi).

The new growing season has started.

When I get a moment and the weather is with me I have parsnip, spinach and broad beans to sow in the ground this month. Today is a dank, grey and foggy day not really encouraging for allotment visits. So I'm off to think about potatoes and the Guardian has an article about growing them today. I'm waiting for the potato order to come in to the allotment association ( I know I ordered international kidney and something else but what else?). I also made a spontaneous purchase of edzell blue potatoes, like a magpie I just home into the shiny things displayed on the shop shelves.

seedy sunday

This was my haul from this years seedy Sunday event I was very restrained. Now just to put the date in my diary for next year!

Seedy Sunday

Today was seedy sunday in Trumpington, nr Cambridge. I have never been to a seed swap before and wasn't too sure what happened at them. The problem with not having many plants outlive the munching army of slugs is that we ate anything we had, rather than let it go on to produce seed that I could save and swap. What I didn't know was that I could swap unused and part used packets of seed at the event.

I turned up empty handed, despite this I left with plenty of seeds to plant. There were heritage seeds for sale and the heritage seed libary also had seeds available, I took some packets in exchange for donation.

What I have to plant are salmon flowered peas, a pea called 'poppet', dwarf french beans 'emperor of russia' and some climbing french beans 'jack edwards' from the heritage seed libary. I then got some kohl rabi 'purple vienna' and asparagus pea from Thomas Etty seeds. (All of which might become slug fodder, but if I am lucky I can save some seed for next year, I'll need to look into how to do this).

I also discovered that there is a community orchard that runs activities such as moth trapping.

Beetroot

A little bit of funky art for a Sunday - perhaps not to everybody's taste but it killed a little time while it was raining this afternoon to take a couple of macro shots of the one and only beetroot. Yes my first non raspberry produce from the patch (not enough for Matron's trugblog I think). Some photoshop fun has been included.

We managed a family visit to the patch today the boys picked raspberries apart from the sleeping one. I planted out some celeriac seedlings who are on their second life as they were knocked off the windowsill when very small. John scooped them back into the pot and I held out little hope for them but they are quite strong now. They still have to meet the slugs! I planted them where the butternut squash were as there is now none of nine, hopefully the slugs are full in that vicinity. We all sowed carrot and Kale seed where the broad beans had been then the rain really set in and it was time to go.

We had a choice of doing open gardens or open studios this afternoon, we took the drier option, which might explain the picture.

Son's Schedules

Sometimes you know that you are on to a loser when the day starts in certain ways and especially on a Monday morning. A grizzly baby is not likely to want to visit the patch for a long stint of work. I thought I'd got his pattern sorted so that I could juggle my garden and photography activities and then he throws me wobbler and I now will have to rethink my strategies. This morning by the time he settled it was too close to the time that I need to pick up the older son from school to make any meaningful progress. Annoyingly I'd left the border fork in the storage box at the weekend so I couldn't even tinker with the front garden.

Not to be completly defeated I checked over my new purchases from the weekend, I bought some young chinese cabbage and pak choi plants only three of each but thought I would try them to see how they do at the patch. I am now the proud owner of a tent like cold frame which I am going to install at the patch for propogating the competition marrows and hardening off other some of my window sill seedlings. It appears that I'm planning to get much more serious than I thought I would for growing the marrows.

I love the plant labels that are featured on 'My Tiny Plot' a designer touch for the allotment, so much so that when I happened upon some wooden plant labels in Sainsburys on Saturday I had to have them. I thought I also could make some snazzy labels of my own, if only for the show marrows! So it's time to get painting.

Well today I planted some broad beans in pots at home, as the ones I planted a while ago at the allotment haven't appeared hopefully at least I will have some replacements or at best a sucession crop. I also re sowed celeriac after the accident. My new seeds for sowing today were sweetcorn and dwarf beans.

On top of this I took some photographs of the fluffy pink cherry blossom in the garden today which I will upload to the photostream soon. So, it has to be said that the day wasn't a complete loss and the weather looks ok for most of the week so I should get something done soon.

Artichokes

This weeks weather is hopeless, I think I will be digging snow not earth at the weekend if the forecast is true. So the best thing I can do is dream about what I can grow in the summer. It was as I was dreaming that artichoke seeds popped up as being offered on freecycle. So I am awaiting there arrival through a SAE in the next few days. The range of things that freecycle seems to provide is vast and varied so you need to check in frequently as you never know. If the seeds do grow the globes will be both interesting to eat or to leave as flower heads for prettying up the patch. I also would love to do some macro photography of the flower heads so I'm excited all around.
I'm off to find my thermals now!

Window sill

Today winter bit back a little with a sprinkle of snow grains and my enthusiasm for digging the patch stopped rapidly. I much preferred to look at my newly emerging mange tout on the window sill whilst holding a hot cup of tea. The potatoes are currently chitting and the peas in the black tubes are still waiting to emerge but their are signs of activity in the compost.