Our Vegetable Patch

My carrots and parsnips have grown all squify. I’m pretty sure this is because of the way I propagated them in the greenhouse. I started the carrots, if you remember, by sowing them into lengths of guttering full of compost. Waiting for them to grow and then, when the time was right, simply sliding the entire crop out of the half pipe and into a shallow trench in the raised bed. I noticed then that the roots of these young carrots were surprisingly long and had probably already reached the bottom of the guttering. These young roots were then naturally forced sideways. I sort of assumed that this would sort itself out one I put them in the ground. But I’m not so sure now.

The problem may have been made worse by the fact that I had also created a shallow trench of nice soft compost sitting above what was much harder and very stony ground.
I should mention that the guttering system worked well for other crops, especially pick and come again salads. The system also worked for my brasicas like cabbage and broccoli. But now that I’ve also learnt to space these out much more and to sow less seeds the advantage of being able to quickly slide out lots of densely packed seedlings is negated.

But for me at least using guttering it’s a definite no no for root vegetables. I’m still keen to start things off in the greenhouse however, so I guess I’ll just have to use root trainers and transplant each seedling individually.

I’ve taken some more pictures of the vegetable garden so as to compare them with the ones I took back in June.

I thought it might be fun to keep a record of the development of two pumpkin plants grown by Lowri and Seren. We chose ‘Jack of all Trades’. No idea why, except the packet said they were ‘perfect for Halloween carvings’ which is something else we can look forward to. I’ll try and write a post every now and again detailing their progress. Soon the 7th of June two seeds were placed in 11cm pots filled with standard compost. Then covered with half a lemonade bottle which is an idea I saw on the telly and placed on the kitchen windowsill.

There now outside being ‘hardened off’, still with their lemonade bottle covers. I’ll plant them out properly next week some time.

I promised to post some more pictures of the vegetable plot. So here they are.

We had some unusual weather conditions last week. There was a a realy strong wind blowing in from the North-East. It played havock with my vetgetable beds unfortunetly. My newly constructed hazel climbing frame was completely blown away together with most of the french beans that were just begining to cling to it. I’ve also got greenfly on my parsnips. Nowhere else, just the parsnips. So if anybody out there has some tips on how to get rid of them I’d love to hear from you. Organic methods only naturally.

The rest of the vegetables are doing quite well. We’ve been eating a lot of the lettuce and rocket. And the tomatoes have just started producing tine little green fruit which is very exiting for a first timer like me. I’ll try and take some photo’s and post them on here in the next couple of days.

I finally pulled myself together and thinned out my seedlings. Leaving only the lucky ones which happened to be the 6″ apart dictated on the seed packet. I suspect I should have done this weeks ago. The packet clearly stipulated, ‘pick out the weaker seedlings’. But they all looked so healthy to me, surely they all deserved a chance. But with a heavy heart the deed has now been done.

I’ve also had a go at putting a small selection of the spinach, and lettuce out into the raised beds just to see how they fare.

Things haven’t gone well this week. Another stray sheep has eaten all my budding strawberries. They’re quite clinical in their munching. Not a single fruit or flower is left. A sharp frost has affected some of my seedlings, I guess I might have to think about running some power to the greenhouse for next year. And on top of all that I dropped a tray of plants when moving them yesterday. Young aubergine plants and compost all over the place. Nightmare!

The greenhouse is looking quite green at the moment. Louise was getting a little fed up of my propagator on the kitchen windowsill so I’ve now transplanted most of my seedlings into individual pots in the greenhouse. They include aubergines, chilly peppers, sweet peppers, sprouts and tomatoes. The only ones who suffered from this are the cucumbers. They drooped a bit after transplanting, but my new bible ‘The Vegetable and Heb Expert’ did warn me that might happen. I’ve also learnt to favor Thompson & Morgan for seeds. All their seeds seem to sprout without exception which also means I need to learn to sow a little more thinly in future.

I can wait no longer. Despite the continuing cold weather I’ve decided to plant my first ever vegetable seeds. I’m going for the traditional sprouts and tomatoes as well as some chilly peppers and sweet peppers. Because i like them as much as anything. I’ve bought some seeding compost, which I feel a little guilty about, as I’m trying to be as self sufficient as possible. But my home made compost just didn’t look fine and crumbly enough. So the ‘root training’ box bought for my at Christmas (not quite the Playstation3 I was hopeing for) is now pride of place on the kitchen window sill. I can almost taste those sprouts already.

Another project I’ve started over the winter is an attempt at growing some of our own vegetables. To this end I’ve built two raised beds using some old scaffolding planks nailed together with a baton at each corner. I persuaded the JCB driver working on my parent’s house to clear the topsoil from a small patch of field next to the house before placing the frames in place. I backfilled them with some of the cleared topsoil before covering the surrounding ground with some local slate chippings. Which I think looks really nice. I think my biggest problem will be keeping the sheep out if I ever get anything to grow.