RETURNING TO BLOG AFTER A LAY OFF

Well gardeners it has been a long time since i was last on the blog so i thought i must do something about it . First o all i would like to say that i hope of you that read my blog has had good performances  with your own gardens and especialy those that do showing of veg.  Providing my health does not deteriate any more  i am hoping to have a go myself so we will have to wait and see how it goes.

GARDEN UPDATE

Hello all gardeners, it has been a while since i last blogged and it was because  have not been to well and my disability had stopped me from doing most things . Any how i have been lucky to have had a good crop of tomatoes such as shirley -sweet million  and alicanti. To be honest with you  they grew better than i expected seeing that my wife and son were looking after them while i was in hospital for 4 weeks. I am afraid the runner beans were not to good at all because the slugs and snails took control so they were a disaster. Now as to the onions believe it or not they have come on wonderful and should have them about 4-5lbs in weight so i will not be complaining. I have said many times about the feeding of onions and i have not changed my routine now for many years and i still get good results and my way is very simple. first of all i only grow them out in the garden in pots and not in the green house. I do understand that you do have to put up with all the different elements  which can cause damage but that is what gardening is all about. The first thing i do when they are ready for the pots is to put polythene under the pot so that when they get watered it does not go straight into the ground and will always keep the soil-compost moist in other words they wont dry out. We now come to the feeding  system when the plants have been in there growing position for 2 weeks i start to feed them  lightly with seaweed extract once a week  for one month.  when the month is up i feed cempack no 2   every 3 weeks  but in between i give them  water from my horse manure tub. That about it for now but i will be back..       

NEW SEED HAS ARRIVED FOR 2016 (MORE TO COME)

As the heading says some of the seeds that i ordered have arrived so i will be sowing some of them this week end. My first ones to sow will be the onions and as most gardeners will know they will need to be sown early to get a  descent size one. This year i am looking to get one around 6-8lbs in   weight  which will be fine for entering the veg shows later in the year. This year i am a little in front as to getting my mixes ready for sowing so i can say that is a good job done. At the end of last year my sons took me to ware i get my compost from and purchased what i needed for this year  and by the looks of it i have saved a couple of pounds by doing that. The onions that i will be growing this year are  Robinsons Mammoth and  Giant russian i will also sow a few Kelsae seeds which i had left over from last year and if they are successful in turning into plants will give them to my daughter who likes to grow veg as well. That is all for now the next blogg will be on the 10-1-2016

The Start of another year 2016

Now that's a new year started, I am hoping that I will have a better season on the garden then last year. The problem I had last year was mainly due to bad health, for example breathing, walking and bending, but I must say I am a little better now. I am hoping to blog fairly often in the future on how I am  progressing with growing toms, onions, runner beans and a few different sorts of flowers. In the past I have not put a lot of images on my blog so I will improve on that.This is only a shot blog just to start 2016 off. So I would like to wish all the bloggers a good season.

UP DATE ON THIS YEARS GROWING 2015

Not been on the blogg for about 4 months so i thought i would give an update on how tings have been progressing.  First of all the toms that i have grown have done really well and are now producing a lot off fruit. The one that i am very pleased with is called NIMBUS F1 which was sent to me by dtbrown as a trial packet. I must say  that i am very impressed with the results and i think it could do well in shows. The only thing that might be against it is that it does have slight ribs on them but it would be worth having a go to see what results would be.  The second one i grew was shirley and that has grown very well and again they have slight ribs in them as well. There is very little difference in size and the circumference are almost the same nice and round but with that little rib. The third one i grew was the old favorite  gardeners delight and that one never seems to fail as it always has an abundant of fruit. The final one was Sungold f1 ,this one i grew last year and i was so impressed with it even my wife asked me to grow it mainly because of its sweetness.

On to the onions, I must first say that that this year i am with out any doubt 2 months behind in growing and again it is all down to my medical condition which up to now i have been put into hospital on 3 occasions this year and i am only glad to think that my wife and son has done well for me to have got to the growing stage ware i am now. Any how the onions this year are the showmaster strain from marshalls and up to this day they are 15 inches in circumference  so i will still feed and let them grow for another 8 weeks and by then they should not be to bad a size .the other onion i grew was Russian onion from seed and i was pleased to get them to germinate so quick they are about 5inches in circumference so i will grow them earlier next year all being well.


RUNNER BEANS
This year i have tried 2 sorts and i must say that up to now i am not to pleased with the  results.
They are firestorm   and moonlight. I do realize that this has not been a good year for beans and quite a few gardeners that i know has said the same. We do have to take into account the weather and as all will know has not been to good but i am afraid there is little we can do about it.
Well this all for now will update later on.

A CHANGE IN THE WEATHER AGAIN SO BACK IN THE GREEN HOUSE

When ever i say the weather is going to get better it always goes the other way so what do you do  say nothing is best. Any way i received the rest of the seeds today that i ordered from DT BROWN and i must say they were very quick with there delivery. Apart from my order they sent me trial seeds of tomatoes called nimbus fi so i will get them sewn tomorrow and see how they progress and give a feed back.

Now that the beans have arrived i will get 46 3inch pots ready to fill with compost so i can plant the seed when ready. As you all will know they dont take very long to show there growth.
My son took me out today for a ride and we went to a place called  WATTS  STORE  and i purchased 3 bags of horse manure/compost for £5-00 which was not to bad. My reason for getting them is that i will mix it with my compost for the onion buckets, mind you there will be other adds to it so i can get good growth.
I think i have said at some stage i dont grow onions in the green house as much as i would like to but i do give what ever i grow out side the best care that i can give. The biggest problem we get is making sure as much as possible to keep them clear from onion fly and  butterflies. There is one thing i do keep my eye on and that is making sure they dont get onion rot which most will know can be caused by to much water.
Will close now and give update later on.  

THE WEATHER SHOULD GET BETTER FROM NOW ON

What a .lovely 3 days of weather we have had here in pontypool. It has been that good myself and my son have done more than we thought we would do, we got the bean sections all done ready to put the canes up which does not take long  and just to let you all know that in the first row i will be planting the bean called FIRESTORM. In the seconed row i will be  growing beans called MOONLIGHT. I have not grown these before so it will be interesting to see the results. By the side of the beans i will be growing  my onions in buckets which will be a total  of 18 and the name of them is a onion that i grew a long time ago called showmaster and i did get good results. The reason why i am growing them is that i was to late in sowing any onion seed  so i ordered the showmaster plants. Perhaps i should not have said it was to late to grow onion seed but if you want to grow big onions for shows you do have to sew the seed early to give them a good 22-24 weeks growth. after saying that my son let us try and see how a few late sown onion seed will turn out so we planted about a dozen i will give an update on them at a later date. I have changed my mind as to which tomatoes i am going to grow and decided to have a go with SHIRLEY-AND SWEET100 FI and a few old the old faithful GARDENERS DELIGHT. As to the carrots i will be growing long red intermediate in pipes which are 5ft long and 6 inches wide these will not be for showing but just to see i can get them longer than the last ones i grew which were 4ft-2inches long. The stump carrots i am going to grow is the sweet candle  and they will be grown by the side of the onions. It is getting late now so i will close and give more info later on.