Garden Chatter

It's been the first day of the year where I've been able to get out into the garden and do quite a bit. The weather's been cold, but sunny as well.

 

 

First I pruned our three apple trees quite harshly (I believe you have to be like that with them), then harvested our last kale and cabbages, in order to prepare that ground for potatoes.

 

I wanted to mix in a high potash feed, but couldn't find one in the shops and couldn't be bothered to look any harder! I found Fish, Blood and Bone, which is good, so I've mixed that in. The potatoes should go in tomorrow - I know it's very, very early, but I'm using Rocket potatoes (which are great for extremely early planting), and I'm going to cover it with fleece, so we'll see how we get on.

Hi, it's only the end of January and I've found a couple of things to sow!! Hooray! It seems like such a long time now since last sowing anything!

 

I've sown both Onion Kelsae & the Oxheart Cabbage Greyhound (someone suggested it can be sown this early, so we'll see what happens, eh).

 

I've sown both the Onions and Cabbages into small pots, with a thin layer of compost on the top, and put them on a sunny windowsill. We don't have a propagator at home, so it'll be interesting to see whether or not they germinate. There's a few seeds to each pot, so they've got a good chance.

 

I'd love to know other people's growing methods, what do you think?

As we approach the end of January, let's look forward to the successes of the next growing season and learn from the success and failures of the last: I, for example, won't be using planters to grow potatoes, having found the crop successful but enough compost difficult to come by - and we won't be growing roots in planters as they become waterlogged too quickly! I will, however, continue lots of other techniques - eg. buying pepper plants in and growing them in containers in a sunny position. This gave us our best crop of peppers ever, and I have added a link just in case you wish to do the same!

 

I'd love you to share all your successes and failures here too, so we can all learn from them.

Hi,

 

Just to let you know what's happening in the garden at home:

 

Lesson for next year - preserve more produce from summer! From having a glut of veggies we're now struggling. We've had some carrots, brussels sprouts, cabbages, onions and squashes, but that's little in comparison to the heights of summer of course. As for what's still to come, the marrows in the shed should last a little longer; the brussels sprouts plants are still forming buttons; we've two varieties of leeks in - one that's earlier and one that should follow-on; we've parsnips that may be ready for harvest soon, as well as celeriac. So we will have some things to harvest soon, but it can be a struggle, can't it!

 

I'd love to hear what you're growing in the garden at the moment, so why not leave your comments.

OK, here goes...

 

This morning, mum harvested (from the garden) 2 red bell peppers, about 20-30 cherry tomatoes, 1 courgette, plus