Sweetcorn and The Space Race

It's been a while since it happened, but the space problem has raised it's head again. Now, while I may be a fan of sci-fi and all things astronautical, I'm talking about space of a more earthly kind. Or a lack of space and earth to precise. I have just transplanted another 3 rows of Greyhound Cabbage, plus the same of Saladin Iceberg Lettuce. I have thinned out my Purple Sprouting but thrown the thinnings in the compost rather than transplanting them as I am just running out of available space to put things. It's always the same, the garden equivalent of eyes too big for my belly. I sow and grow far more than I can find room for. It is a perennial problem for me.

So, what have I done to help alleviate the situation? I have just bought 10 Celery plants and a pack of Beetroot seeds. Ok, the Celery have been planted in the trench between the rows of Asparagus , which saves space and helps with the eventual blanching process and the Beetroot was sown in gaps where the cabbages have been transplanted from but there are still more crops to go in before any come out. Anyway, I've been hoeing like a man possessed of late and it's showing signs of being worth the effort. Bindweed and marestail keep popping up only to face the chop and the constant starvation of photosynthesis should start weakening the roots soon. I spend over a week digging one bed, picking out every single root or stem of every type of weed I could find. Since then I haven't seen a single leaf pop up in that bed. The others I have rooted out as I've gone along and I'm chopping the remaining ones down as soon as they appear. With pernicious weeds such as Bindweed and Mare's tail, this multi-pronged attack is the only way to tackle things.
Back to the good stuff though, the successful space grabbing veg and fruit. The Strawberries are flowering wonderfully well and I have started spreading shredded paper around them, it's my green substitute for straw and it uses up the shreddings that would normally go in the compost. I damp it all down with the can before leaving it as it can get quite windy at the plot and I don't want to try and fetch it all back when it ends up in the brambles at the other end of the site!
The third sowing of Broad Beans has broken through the soil and there are a couple of Courgette seedlings alongside them. The red and white onion beds are going strong and. dare I risk say
ing it, with no bulbs having bolted yet. Likewise the Shallots, a favourite of the Head Chef and Bottle Washer as a pickling ingredient way beyond the humble silverskin onion. The Sweetcorn, raised in modules at home, have now been located in there final place in a block formation at the plot where they will, hopefully, bring me lots of sweet succulent cobs around August. Once again, they are in a block because they are wind pollenated and planting in rows risks huge disappointments if the wind blows from the wrong direction, a 3 out of 4 chance.
Blocks mean the crop has a much higher chance of successfully pollenating and producing those full yellow juicy cobs. The plants have both male and female flowers on each stalk, with the male being above the female. On a dry, still day the pollen may just fall to the female beneath but generally the wind carries the tiny grains from plant to plant.
My own personal success is with the Parsley. Tradition has it that whomever in the household can grow the Parsley runs the home. I know, it's my allotment and the wife doesn't grow anything there, but just being able to germinate it, without resorting to all sorts of special tricks such as boiling water or freezers, makes me proud.
My old mini(midi) greenhouse frame has had a new cover for this year, courtesy of my daughter's new bed. The mattress bag, polythene, makes a nice translucent covering for what doubles as a shelving unit during the winter. My tray of chillies in modules became the first tenants. I mentioned on Twitter that I am trialing all three growing conditions with chillies this year; House plant, Greenhouse and outdoors in the bed. I've grown in beds before and had some degree of success but I want big crops of nice hot red fruits.
As I have had more seedlings germinate from my Tomato seeds this year than normal, I will be popping some Marmande in with the chillies later. I know better than to mix cucumbers in with Tomatoes so I won't be making it a threesome.
The final row of maincrop potatoes, Rooster, are in. That's the back breaking done for another few months. Just need to get shifting on the Runner Beans and I'm almost there.

Hints of Jasmine

The softer, warmer light of late spring into early summer has found me of late, wandering between allotment beds in the evening. It’s about then that the heat of the day has subsided and the madness of the daily grind is behind me, leaving me free to relax and tend to the emerging new life that peeks out from the soil at my feet. The fresh seedlings hold promises of crisp lettuce, juicy tomatoes and spicy radishes but then are as fragile as any new life and need tender care and gentle encouragement to not only survive but thrive. As well as hoeing carefully between the rows, regular watering is the key to success. Until the roots have established and developed a network of searching tips that draw up soil-locked moisture through the magical sounding process of osmosis, the plants are dependent on surface watering, either by rainfall or by our own hands, with a can or hose.
If you are able to provide watering, and not everyone is, then can I make a plea for the selection of a fine rose?
A rose in this instance, is the filter of sorts that regulates the flow of water from the can; much like a shower head does and, like a shower head, can come in a variety of flow speeds. Most, if not all manufacturers only supply the one basic rose with the can and then it’s quite often a poor choice.
If you can, try and buy a better quality one from a specialist outlet. A cheap rose that comes with the can is ok for heavy watering of established plants but is far too heavy for a fragile seedling. The last thing you should try to do is batter and drown a new seedling.
Once the seedlings have become plants, they can survive without our watering but ideally we want them to prosper not survive, so a good soaking if it hasn’t rained for a couple of days will help plump up the fruits and swell the vegetable roots. Remember, wind can be very drying as well as sun.
Anyway, back to the romantic imagery.
It’s a sure fire way to ease away the stress and strains of modern life, just wandering from bed to bed, border to border with a full watering can, dispensing life giving fluids to all your charges. The can dictates how fast the water flows, so it’s no use trying to rush about, you move at a slower pace, getting the job done eventually. The haste of the day slides away as you watch the water seep into the dry soil. If, like me, you have clay soil that can imitate house bricks, on a still day, if you listen very carefully, you can hear a soft hissing sound as the soil sucks the water up. If it is quiet enough for you to hear it, then relish the peace and tranquillity while you can for as much as responsibility and reward may drive the wheels of industry, the task of watching over all your young new shoots as the struggle for life dwarves the banality of the wage earning mundane day to day existence and that moment when you hold the world in a silent capsule of greenery and innocence disappears as fast as the water.
But beware the horrors of the garden, the disappointment that hides behind each glorious success. Nothing can compare to the soul destroying, plummeting feeling that engulfs you when you discover something evil has chewed the only leaves off your Lettuce or nibbled through the stem of your Swiss chard. Slug pellets work for me but I try to use those that claim to be child and pet friendly. That is somewhat an empty claim if you either keep molluscs as pets or you are a mother snail. Meanwhile other less sinister alternatives are available to try to limit the damage of the slimy enemy, including stale beer, mashed bran or crushed egg shells. I have neither the time nor patience to dry and finely crush egg shells and I have yet to leave a beer unfinished so I find pellets, organic and friendly, the best option for me. The only bran I see is at breakfast and the jury is out as to whether it would be tastier for the slugs than it is for me.
When you have finished the watering, hoeing between the developed rows and tying in any loose climbers, it’s hard to resist leaning on your hoe and looking smug and satisfied with yourself. Enjoy that moment, take a picture while the plot looks tidy and fresh and all in order, because overnight the weeds will double in number, the seedlings will no doubt collapse or be eaten and the shorn grass paths will adopt the guise of some African high grass plain with a sward that could hide a battalion of tanks. Good soil for growing plants is good soil for all plants, wanted or not, friend or foe and weed or selected specimen and your grassy footpath is a mass of individual plants and creeping low shrubs that thrive on abuse and neglect.
Then, as the last good light disappears behind the house tops and the cold of night starts to descend, it’s good to stroll back home and settle in with a long cold beer and a comfortable sofa, after all, there is plenty of stress and struggle to come tomorrow before you can get back to the sanctuary of the soil. Maybe stroll out, if you have one, to the patio at home and take it the beauty of the suburban landscape you have created.
There, the gentle rising warmth of the late evening sun in the garden helps release the scents of the garden, the soft tones of the Evening Primrose and the spice of the Madonna Lilies mingle with hints of summer Jasmine, if the stench of paraffin soaked barbeques hasn’t wafted over the fence. The gentle trickle of water from a fountain playing on the surface of the pond helps to wash away the tensions of the office and the drive home, while a nice cold glass of something will quench the thirst that you share with your plants.
Summer lasts too short a time and, although autumn brings with it the russet shades of leaves and orange and yellows that mimic the bonfires, it will too soon be time to clear away the remains of the salad crops, start digging over the beds and borders and prepare the garden and plot for it's winter sleep. Until then, let's just reveal in the glory that we have.

Easter Funday

Didn't get much chance to spend a lot of time at the plot this last few days, despite the fact that the time has been available.
It was the weather you see.
I was off work on Thursday, as is my want, as it was my day off. I work in retail therefore working Saturday is a necessity, so a midweek sojourn is the not only the norm, but also a useful chance to visit the plot.
As it was, this being a religious holiday, I chose to take the Friday and Monday off and make a long, if slightly stuttered, weekend of things. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a bible clutching church going idol botherer but, like most who fill in forms as 'C of E' because they can't commit to atheism, I am happy to take advantage of the proffered sanctioned day of rest. My dedication to Saturday furniture sales meant that I could only take two days off, work one, then take the other two. Well, two days off in lovely sunny weather would have been great but then the weather didn't play along. Thursday was grey becoming wet and grey , Friday wasn't much of an improvement but I managed a couple of hours Thursday and returned after work on Saturday to stand beside a blazing bonfire for three hours. I managed to plant out the healthiest of my sweetcorn plants and the asparagus crowns I'd been given on the Friday between showers.
Sadly amongst the newcomers, there have also been a few casualties. The two butternut plants I raised from seeds saved out of a Tesco squash look to have been slugged nearer to death than the economy. A few of the newly emerged seedlings sown in situ at the plot are also Absent Without Leave. The Kale surprisingly one of the worst sufferers.
I don't mind losing a few plants as I've never been a huge fan of it but I do hate losing a battle with the pests regardless of the crop. I'm not sure which pest it was but I think I know where it came from. The edging boards on the beds are a boon for keeping the soil in and raising the temperature a little but they do provide a handy hiding place. The seedlings nearest those boards are always the ones to succumb first. I need to pay particular attention to trimming back the grass that grows along side and any detritus that gathers at the edges. If I can collect some copper strips or buy copper paste to smear on the top of the boards then it might help deter old Mr Slimy Slug but I need to think of something ridiculously cunning to stop the flea beetle or whatever flying or crawling beastie causing this damage.
Ah well, managed another hour or so at the plot today, Sunday, during which I started to clear a 1 metre square of top grass , which I then covered with the old sprouting stems and topped off with the upturned turves. I plan to build a stack of upturned turves as I clear other parts of the plot left 'fallow' for a little bit too long. The idea is that stacked upturned turf decomposes to become a lovely substance called loam, the basis of soil based compost mixes.
I did it last year on a small scale and, a few bindweed roots aside, it went very successfully. I now plan to recycle my top covering of weeds this way. You see, I wasn't just letting things get a bit untidy, I was secretly planning ahead and growing my loam!
Back at the ranch, the tomato seedlings and baby peppers are healthy enough but don't seem to be moving along very quickly. The slugs have hunted down and wiped out all but one of the butternut plants at home too.
The leeks are not getting any larger so I think it's time for more potting on. I know leeks get transplanted out on the plot eventually but these need to be bigger before they reach their final soil.
Tomorrow I plan to do great things, clear a plot wide stretch to take the maincrop potatoes, use the turf for the loam stack and maybe fill the runner bean trench with manure and compost. As I say, that's what I plan, the weather may decide otherwise.

Googleriffic, or am I twitterfied?

OK, I've not been on the special sauce and the medication isn't wearing off. The title relates to some new online blogging toys I've recently discovered.You'll notice I now have a twitter feed. That means I can make comments elsewhere and they get fed automatically to the blog, updating in seconds. It's a great way of keeping things lively for anyone reading the blog.
If I spot a new seed variety or find something has happened this morning but doesn't warrant a full blog, I can feed it through from twitter.
Twitter is a way of just making short burst comments in real time.
It makes the reading a little more personal if you like, and hopefully my reader(s) will!
Google has tools which can increase or improve the visibility of your blog to search engines(the things that help people find stuff online), and I applied those today.

O.K.,the technical bit is over and it's time for the dirty finger stuff.
Let's start with some pretty pictures.
The early Broad Beans, which the half broom handle I used as a marker tells me where sown in November '08 are now strapping great plants standing about a foot high (that's 30cm in new money) and the second sowings are starting to break the soil next to the Peas. I want to be able to finish cropping each sowing just before the next is ready, so none get too tough waiting and there isn't a hungry gap between crops. It also means my work colleague who loves them but spends a lot of time abroad, won't miss her bag full again this year!
I mentioned on another site (facebook) that I had emptied my dalek of compost to spread on the beds just the other day. I was almost bowled over by the speed of a comment from my Australian gardening friend,who wanted to know where she could buy a used Dalek for her garden, as she is a huge Doctor Who fan! I had to explain that the name was just a nod towards the odd shaped design and we don't use old tv props as garden furniture or composters. She was a touch disappointed so I told her that you can buy 'new' Daleks built by and for the fans, but I don't think they would be happy to see them filled with old stable manure and kitchen scraps.
I sowed a row of old courgette seed I had saved from one of my very large marrows from last year, looking to get not only a large marrow this year but some good sized but tasty courgettes too. I know that the squash (Cucurbit) family are highly promiscuous but I like to have a gamble and see what turns up. I did before when I grew my first pumpkins and and saved the marrow seeds. The crop from those seeds varied from normal large marrows to a round or pear shaped pot sized marrow hybrid which developed a gourd like hardened skin if left. Odd but fun. If I get a nice shaped and tasty but medium sized marrow then I'll be happy. Too large is no good in the kitchen and the long shape isn't easy to use stuffed as it won't stand on end easily.
No sign of growth from the early potatoes yet but lots of other seed have germinated. I have Turnips and Spring greens, Kale and lettuce up. Excitingly for me, I also have managed to germinate a full row of carrot seed for once.
I have started putting up the supports for some climbing crops, French and Runner beans and ,for a change, climbing squashes. I salvaged some old lattice fence panels from home and tied them together. The three sides are pretty solid and I sowed some seeds underneath and wrapped some net curtain around to make a short term semi cloche affair before the proper intended crops get planted out there. The seeds I sowed came up within a week so the nets gave enough protection from the wind to help.
My tyre stack gave me my first meal of rhubarb this year, a nice if small crumble made from the forced sticks. It's the first real attempt I've made at forcing rhubarb and I am very pleased with the results so I'm afraid I am going to upset some of the other site users and keep a few tyres on the plot for future use.
The autumn sown purple sprouting has been hitting the kitchen for a few days now and I was pleasantly surprised to see the autumn sown Cauli isn't far behind now. I love a nice Cauliflower Cheese and I don't mind if the curds are single serving size as I am looking after my weight now. I'm not sure whether the cheese sauce will be more than an occasional treat though.
Anyway, I know I'll enjoy it. My usual trick of watering the soil minutes before a dark rain cloud appears worked again today but it stayed dry. That spelled success for a friend of mine who asked me to help sort out her walled yard garden. We had just finished putting down some glyphosate weed killer when the skies turned grey and threatening for the second time. Despite my ability to turn into a rainmaker whenever I grasp the handle of a watering can, it kept at bay at least until dark, as I write and that was long enough for the chemical to be absorbed.
The seeds I sowed this last week on the windowsill at home germinated in record speed and are now outside in the mini house that faces south. I don't want them to become all tender and leggy so put them out as soon as they broke the surface. I know that flies against convention but I am willing to risk failure in order to find progress. We are quite protected here and the nights are staying mild so I think I'll be OK.
Judging by the other blogs I read, I am amongst the new breed of gardeners. They who buy seed and plants online, source information via the web and, after spending a day on the plot in the sun, spend the evening blogging the day's events to share with the world. It would seem the garden tool new gardeners want most now isn't a type of hoe or seed drill but a laptop computer.
Good Gardening !

Little green shoots

Don't panic, I may be involved with the local business groups but I'm not about to get political. The only little green shoots I'm interested in here are those on my fruit trees and bushes. The rhubarb is beyond shoots now, having been shut up in inside a pile of old tyres to force it grow lean and pink and sweet. Forced rhubarb is delicious but you need to rest the plant for a season or two after doing it. We had a nice, small, but nice rhubarb crumble for dessert last week. I can safely say, it's worth the effort!
All you need to do is find a nice mature root of rhubarb that has been growing happily for at least one year. Then , about February or early march, after giving it a good feed and a big pile of stable manure before putting a cover of some sort over the crown. You need a cover such as a pile of four or five car tyres or an old dustbin. The lack of light plus the warmth from the manure makes the new shoots reach up for any small spec of light and lack of light means the stems don't get such a deep red colour like plants grown in open ground do. The lack of chlorophyll means the plant produces more sugars and less starch, giving a less acid taste when cooked.
The rest of the plot has leapt into life with the warmer weather and increasing daylight. The seeds from the last couple of weeks are almost all through the soil now. Carrots , Chard and Turnips are well on the way, Oriental Radish, Kale, Iceberg Lettuce and Spring cabbage are all following along nicely and the Raspberry canes have new shoots at the bases too. The Blackberry has been wound around the old bed frame support since December and now is covered in shoots and fresh leaf, as are the black and red currants.
I still have a large selection of seedlings at home, in and just outside the mini house I keep in our south facing front garden, although two of the Butternut Squash plants have since gone to my Mothers garden and two more have been planted out on the plot.
I only sowed a few seeds of Purple sprouting, Spring Cabbage and Sweet Dumpling only a week or less ago but the brassicas are up already. I think the heat from the south facing windowsill may be too much as they are leggier than I'd like. I may move the propagator to a back room instead.
I won't be sowing anything else this week, at least not until I can prepare more soil but the successional sowing of Broad Beans has come up just as the first sowing is reaching about six inches high. That would fit in nicely with the plan to have a crop of follow on beans just as the first sets are exhausted. On the same note, I have now planted out my second early potato seed, in two trenches to follow on from the first earlies I planted some weeks before. The maincrop will follow in another week or so, depending on the weather and how much time I get on the soil.
It's looking to be a very mild, even hot summer this year, hopefully continuing into the early autumn and extending the season for the later plants such as the squashes to ripen. The main failing point for a lot of first time growers is that they don't ripen the fruits or don't plant early enough to allow ripening. Many will grow the fruits to a good size but then cut them from the vine and try to store them, only to find they rot quickly. Again, ripening is the key. Leaving the fruits in a good sunny spot for a few days while the skins dry and take on a nutty, golden hue is vital if you want to store the squash over winter. There are two main types of squash however, the summer and winter or storing squash and the summer squashes don't keep for long but have a softer skin which can be left on for cooking and eating. Because of this they don't need to be dried and ripened but can be cut and eaten within minutes. If you think of courgettes as summer squash and butternut with their hard skins as winter squash, you will see the difference.
My editor at the local newspaper called me out of the blue last week with a rather unexpected question. Her unusual enquiry involved chiropractics and the spring rush of activity. It would seem that there has been a rash of complaints from people queueing up to see the doctor because they all dashed out at the first sign of good weather and started clearing the garden of rubbish, digging the borders and pruning the hedges. All this enthusiasm is great but what few people remembered is that while the garden was lying dormant and the tools were growing rusty over the winter, your muscles were also out of action and your joints were seizing up. The sudden demands on muscles that haven't been exercised for a couple or more months plays havoc and before long, stiff backs and sore muscles are the order of the day.
My advice was that gardening is like any other exercise and we should all warm up before tackling the task. A few good stretches for the back and legs will help defend you against too many problems when digging and planting. A few warm up bends for the knees and back again before sowing in the soil and before moving heavy pots or bags of compost will be a wise precaution and don't forget to warm up before your start reaching out with the shears or hedge clippers.
A little preparation such as we do with seed beds and planting holes, is never time wasted in the long term. Prepare your body and you'll enjoy the gardening after you finish as well as during the work!