THIS YEAR IS COMING TO THE END

Yes this season for growing is about to come to an end and i suspect that a lot of gardeners will be looking at what they have achieved and what they have not.I think i said in my last blogg that it has not bean a very good year at all for growing and that in its self can be heart breaking especially when they had big hopes for shows in 2012. Mind you some gardeners did have good results and i take my hat to them as they must have really worked hard to get good results. I  have spoken to a few gardeners and they have said that the problem they were getting was in the early part of the season when we were not having the heat that was required from the sun. owing to this they found that they had to use electric or gas fires in there green houses for young seedlings. All being well  in 2013  i will be using double insulation to make sure that i have better results than in 2012.  I have said that because of illness i did not have a good year in 2012 but i do not intend to dwell on that and that a good friend of mind is going to give help when i want it.(that is what friends are for).Just a well done to a few of the gardeners that i know, smithy veg, john martin, paul bastow, darren blick, dan, richard walton as matter of fact to all gardeners.

GETTING READY FOR THE WINTER

As the title says  i am now getting everything sorted out before we have the bad weather. I must say that because it has been a bad growing season this year i really do not have a lot to do. My green houses has been sorted out  and i will start to decide what i am going to grow for next year. Now that my health  is deteriorating i do have to think very carefully about what i can do so i think i will be acting on the info that i have gathered from all my gardening friends in which some cases seems much easier than what i have always done. As a lot would have read in one of my bloggs i have always gown a lot of carrots in pop bottles but i do have to admit it is now out of the question because of the bending and breathing. Any how i still have a few months to go before i make a finale decision. Update to follow.

NICE TO BE BACK ON THE BLOGG

As the title says it is nice to be back on the blogg. I am hoping to catch up with what has been going on and also see how people have got on with  growing this year  and how they got on with showing. I have noticed that a lot of people have not had a good year in growing this year and i think it is because of the weather we have been having. Having said that i do know that a lot of gardeners do grow alot of there veg for shows in big green houses which do have some sort of heating which does make a bigg difference. As to my gardenig year i am sorry to say it has been a disaster mainly bcause of ill health and also that i was let down badly by a very big company who failed to provide me with onion plants which i ordered last october. Because of this ionly managed to grow a few stutgart. Re to runner beans again i had a bad  year as others have had.  Now as to tomatoes i have had a good year especially with  one called SUN GOLD which i will grow again next year. the other one i grew was shirley which is very good to. I have heard that some people were having  end  rot in there tomatoes well all i can  say is that they need to feed calcium and if possable use a solution of soot  desolved in water and feed every 2 weeks. Well this all for now  look out for more.

THIS PHOTO BELONGS TO THE LAST BLOGG

Pease include this photo inthe last write up in the last blog

A MISERABLE SITE THAT WILL TURN BRIGHT

Yes it sure do look grim right now but it wont belong before we will be able to get a few plants in the ground to bring it to life. But what we realy want is for the ground to warm up and pray we dont get a few nights of frost which will put every thing back and possibly kill a lot of plants. As i have said in one of my bloggs i very rarely put any flower plants in the garden untill the fist of june because of the fear of frost. I have this week end bought a dozen panzies which is a fairly hardy plant so i dont think i will have a problem with them so i will be planting them on the next fine day.It was not intention to by any panzies but while i was just going to have a look there was a dear old lady who had already had a basket of six in her hand and she said to me are these ok , i had a look at them and i said to her must not have these as they were infested with earwigs  and all the crowns were mated with ants, because of what i had found i went and seen the manager and pointed this out to him and he said he was sorry about it and that she could pick any 2 baskets of plants she would like and only pay for one so it just goes to show you must have a good look at what you are buying. She said that she was very greatfull for what i did and thank me so that in its self made me feel good  A part from the look of the back garden here is a photo of the type of nursery box i use for my very young plant to mature  and as you can see it is made out out of insulation board and it is covered with  perspect sheeting. More info to follow  shortly.

PHOTO UPDATE AND INFO

Had a good few hours in the garden today  and also spent an hour transplanting flower plants to a bigger size pot before they eventually go into the ground on the first week of june. I have never put flower plants in any earlier than june mainly because of the fear of frost. As you will see in  the photos i have two  different types of onions growing  in the polly tunnel  ,the ones in the black buckets are ailsae and the ones in the green buckets are unwins exhabition.  These were sown in the first week of january so they have not done to bad  they are now begining to bulb up so it is going to be interesting to see how they do. I have not grown them in the polly tunnell before so i  will be able to compare them will my other onion plants which is SHOWMASTER from marshalls and they will  go into the  black buckets which is already in position in the garden. I am a bit dissapointed as they have not yet arrived.  I gave them a ring and they said i would have them by the seconed week of april. I myslef would rather have the sets that they used to sell but i understand from them that they do not do the showmaster set any more. As to the carrots you will see that the long carrots have now grown to about one inch  which is in the blue tubes. I am having a bit of a problem with the stump ones and i can only put it down to the fact that what ever they have coated them with is stopping them from germinating i did not have this problem last year and based on that i will make sure i dont have those carrot seed again.

CAULIFLOWER-ONIONS.-SWEET PEPPERS

Just a few more pictures of how things are progressing here in pontypool and there is no doubt that the fine weather we have been having certainly has made its mark.I think most gardeners will agree that when we do have nice weather it not only makes you feel good  it plays a tremendous part in the growth of all young plants.
I had a nice suprise on monday when my brother in law arrived with 8 bags of horse manure which was about 8yrs old. He told me that it is from his horses which he has had for many years and that when he decided to move there stable he came across a load of manure which was at the back so he new that i was after some and that is how i got my surprise.

The photos i have posted are   AILSAE  ONIONS--DT BROWN ONIONS --SWEET PEPPERS--CAULIFLOWER. The onions i have grown are seeds from DT BROWN and the ailsae are seeds from a bulb which i put to seed in 2010. You will also see a couple of sweet pepper plants  which is the first time i have grown them.I have another 10 seeds sown so i will see how they progress in the next couple of days when i will expect to see some germination. Apart from what i have just mentioned i have also got 4 different type of toms which are now coming on nicely.

PHOTOS AT LAST

At last i have managed to get a few photos to post  on the blogg but i must warn you all that i am not a good one for taking pictures. First of all i think all gardeners will have taken advantage of the lovely weather that we have been having and have noticed what a difference it has made to the growth of the plants.It will certainly cheer up every one that is growing for showing.  I have noticed that a few people have not had a good start to the season and also they are a bit behind due to having a few problems with there early planting, mind you people have been having problems for years and now that people are trying to beat one another in shows they will have these problems all the time especially when you grow in the out of season. What i mean by that is growing veg in the winter ie (onions) for size.I myself have always had good results in the onion field by growing them out doors and have quite a few around the 6lb mark but i am going to try a few in the polly tunnel this year so it is going to be very interesting to see the results come september. CAN ANY ONE TELL ME WHO GREW THE LARGEST ONION  INCLUDING WEIGHT THAT WAS GROWN OUT IN THE OPEN GARDEN?   As the title says here are the photos .The buckets in the photos are for my onions and you will also see the pop bottles that i grow my stump carrots in. Also you can see the tubes for my long carrots. Will post more photos later on.

CHECKING PLANT PROGRESS AND INFO GATHERED

As the title says i have been going through all my plants  that have grown from seed and sorted out the ones that  are a bit slow in growing and put them in a different and warmer place.As you will all know you do get a few seeds that take a little while to grow but at the end of the day they will catch up .I was very pleased with the onions and noticed that they have grown about 2" within about 4 days so it does go to show that heat is vital to young plants wether they are veg or flowers. Although i have not grown them before i have some sweet peppers which are now 2" high  and i think i will be able to repot them next week end. Before i forget  i will be having my camera back on tuesday with out fail so i will be posting some photos during the week i hope.
I went to the secret garden nurseries to day for an hour out and who should be there with his stall was CLIVE CHAPPELL( known as taffy tattie) and he was telling me that a person in scotland known AS  JACK DUNNETT was the man who bred the KESTAL  and other types of potatos. I also spoke to him about long carrots and he told me that although he does not grow them now he gave me some very valuable info re to keeping the mixture moist for the growing of long carrots. This also applies to parsnips  All in all i found that the info i got from him was very interesting and i will certainly put it to use when needed and for the future.  

HOW QUICK SEEDLINGS GROW WITH CARE

Today has been a day for checking  all my seeds that i had sown about 20 days ago and i must say that they have nearly all germinated and have turned into some very nice young plants. The seeds that i thought i would have had a problem with was the sweet peppers but to my surprise they have all germinated and are looking very strong. It has proved to me that i done the right thing by making a nursery box out of fibre glass insulation board  which holds the heat in and also  provides light from above. I must say that at the moment i have been having trouble with my camera so i am hoping to have it back on saturday so that i can post a few photos  for all to see. The other plants that are coming along ok are some early sown  tomato seeds  and i think i will be able to repot them this week end into 3inch pots . I am hoping that by next wednesday my cabbage seed will arrive so that i can get them started, i have ordered kilaxy cabbage and clapton cauliflower. When these seeds germinate and are big enough to handle  they will be grown in 16ltr buckets so that is going to be interesting for me as i have not grown them in buckets before. Going on to manure,  i would like to say that for many years i  like most gardeners  use horse manure for there gardens and always get good results but i do have to say that if there is any one who has a health problem which  stops them from turning the manure  in to the ground  try a bag of 6x and you will be surprised at the results. With 6x you dont have to use bucketfuls, but only handfuls. I used it last year and although i did not achieve much in the garden , i did notice is that i did not get any knat fungi or any other insect around the bottom of my oinions- beens  and tomatos. The 6x comes completely clean and sterilized which it tells you on the bag. I know it is around £11-00 a bag but as far as i am concerned it is well worth the money and time. TRY IT IT IS VERY STRONG. You can also use a liquid feed with it if you wish to.

SOWING THIS YEARS FLOWER SEEDS

Because it has been a lovely day i took advantage of  it and started to sow the flower seeds. As i have said in one of my bloggs i do sow certain seeds a bit earlier than most. the ones i have sown today are
3x20  CELS of GODETIAS
3X20 CELS OF ASTERS
3X20 CELS OF DAHLIAS
3X20 CELS LIVINGSTONE DAISIES
2X20 CELS OF AFRICAN MARRIGOLDS
I have already sown the lobelia seeds a week ago and they are on the window sill. the rest of the seeds will be sown at a later date. I also checked my chrysanthemum cuttings which i took of last years stools and they are also looking good.
Changing the  subject a little bit , i have been offered 2 big wooden boxes today the size being 4ftx2ftx2ft6" so i am hoping to use them for stump carrots.These boxes are brand new and all i will have to do is to treat them for the weather as they will be out  in the open. Going on to onions i found that my latest sowing are now producing there secondary leaves and are looking really good so i will be giving them a little tonic just to boost them on a bit. I must say that they have not had the treatment of 24hrs lighting so i am not expecting them to be anything like the size of  dan unsworth or even paul bastows but at the end of the day they will be suitable for shows providing all goes well. up date later on.

JUST ABOUT FINISHED

As the title says i have just about come to the end of finishing my mix for the carrots and parsnips. It has been fairly hard work this year with the mixing and i have to put it down to my bad health which since last easter i have got to use a breathing  machine. Any how i do not intend to dwell on it but  just keep going as long as i can.I have noticed a lot of gardeners are really concentrating on there shallots this year. I my self wont be growing any this year in the ground as i am limited to space but i will try a few in a couple of buckets and see how we get on.  Re to the parsnips, i will be growing Duches fi and i have read that they are good to cook and also suitable for showing so again it is going to be trial and error as i have very little experience with them.

                                                          FLOWER  TIME
Now i have almost sorted my veg out for this year i will be now start sowing flower seed as i do have quite a few different sorts to deal with . As usual every year we wonder what kind of summer we are going to have and because of not knowing i myself always start a little bit early. It is not a problem growing  the seed it is when you have to prick out  and find space for them to grow on before planting them out in the garden. What i am going to do is to make a triple shelf stand with cover  big enough to take about 400 young plants of mixed flowers and have them facing  south by the side of one of my small green houses. Obvious this wont take place untill late march -early april which by then we should start to get some good weather.
Finaly my ailsae  onions are now coming on great, these are the ones i grew from a bulb in 2009.I am not expecting to have huge ones this year but as long as i know they will grow to a decent size i can try for big ones next year.

CARROT MIX WITH KILN DRIED SAND

Not being able to get silver sand for carrot mix  i bought a bag of kiln dried sand and done a few mixes  today and i was very pleased with the texture. Know doubt  this is going to be trial and error this year as it will be completely different to what i used last year . I am hoping that with another ingredient added i might get some very good long carrots which will be grown in pipes and  I will also use the same mix with my stump carrots which i will grow in pop bottles. Some gardeners say you should not grow them in the same place every year because of getting disease. In some way i do believe that to be the case but i think that if your ground has been treated with a disinfectant of some sort it should be ok. For many years now i have always grown my onions in the ground  and the next year it would be in buckets and i have not really had a problem. As to the carrots they have always been grown in  pop bottles in the same spot with new compost  and not soil and the results have always been good. The results at the end of the growing year is going to be interesting especially if i do well at a few shows.

KILN DRIED SAND

Having heard so much about using silver sand for certain mixes i went to different  builders merchants  and believe it or not i could not get any at all,but i did managed to fine some kiln dried sand in an unusual out let so i thought to my self i will give it a try.I was  choked when they told me the price of it  which was £4-00 a bag but there if you need it you got to pay for it. The question i now ask is what quantity do you use in the mixes for carrots? Last year i used a  mix containing just sieved compost  bone meal and water gel and really speaking they did not turn out to bad but i dont think they would have been good enough for showing.  As every one will be  suffering with this spell of cold weather there will be a lot of gardeners who will start to worry about there plants(onions)  and trying to keep the frost out of there green houses. As i said in one of my bloggs i use a lot of news paper on top of  fleece to make sure  that the frost does not do to much damage if any. I understand from the weather reports that the cold spell is here for while.  

sieving compost for carrots and info

Had a lovely relaxing day today  in the green house sieving compost for  the long carrot mix. The compost  i am using this year is vitax with q4 which is what i used last year and found it to be very good. As most will know gardeners do use different types and uses the one which suits them and have had good results. Today i sieved 150ltrs and got another 75ltrs to do so i will be doing that during the week coming.I have said in one of my bloggs that i think i will be changing my mix this year( i dont mean compost) because i dont think i quite had the right mix for a good structured carrot. I will use the same mix for the stump carrots as well so i am hoping to do a bit better this year but we will see. Just a word on growing seeds early, it is obvious that you can not grow seeds if you have not got the equipment to do so but on the other hand you can purchase a small propagator which you can put on a window sill. (with permission from your partner). I have done this myself this year  although i do have a small heated propagator in my small green house for onion seeds. The seeds i have in my unheated propagator are my flower seeds such as petunias- lobelia-begonia which are the very fine seed and they do need the right temperature which you get in the house and also the day light. Every thing i have said is based on normal growing and not for showing so i must say you can grow seeds early on a small scale.      

POP BOTTLES

We are all getting ready  for the growing season so today i started to get all my pop bottles ready for my stump carrots. Altogether i have  40 bottles which have now been washed  with a mild disinfectant and then washed again so they are now ready.In one of my old posts there is a photo of the stump carrots which i grew last year and i thought they were not to bad. What i will be doing this year is to alter the mix as i think i did not have it quite right so it is going to be very interesting to see the results. I am hoping to enter a few in shows this year as well as long carrots which will be grown in pipes. No doubt there will be people who would not grow carrots in pop bottles so i would say to them what is the difference in growing stump carrots in pop bottles  and long carrots in pipes. You do have to remember that some people do not have a big garden but it does not mean that you cannot grow veg in pop bottles ware you can get good results. Another reason why i grow in pop bottles is because i know that what they will be grown in will be clean compost and soil (sieved). To change the subject a little it is awful to think that we are not going to see smithyveg blogg any more as i found it very interesting  and i also learnt a lot  especially re to showing methods. I wish him all the best and hope that he will blogg again some time in the future.

FLOWER SEEDS

I thought i would start the day by sowing a couple of different type of seeds today. Some people will say it is a bit to early to sow flower seeds, i realy dont believe that because if you are going to grow very small seeds such as PETUNIAS-- BEGONIAS--LOBELIA  they take a little longer to germinate unless you have a heating system. I do have a heated propagator but it is only a small one which is now being used for some of my veg seeds. To over come the heating problem i do like a lot of other people do and use the window sill (with the permission of the wife of course ). The seeds i have mentioned above are the ones that i have had in the fridge for three weeks. You might ask why i put them in the fridge, well you can say that i am making the seeds think it is partly summer when they are sown as well as being laid on warm compost and covered  with a very very light dusting of vermiculite.I am thinking of purchasing a soil warming cable because i am in the middle of making a plant nursery and it would be very handy. Will give an update later on.  

OWN SEEDS HAVE GERMINATED

On the 11-1-12  there was 15 ailsae seeds sown from a bulb which i put to seed in 2009 and on the 17-1-12 they had all germinated. I was very pleased with the result of germination because they were only put on a window sill. Mind you they did have plenty of light and also the sunshine when we did have it. I have decided not to grow any more onions as i do have enough now for this season coming and that includes the showmaster plants coming from marshalls. I did say in one of my previous bloggs that i will be posting photos but because i am still not to sure how to do it my grand daughter is coming to help me.Now that i have a little heat in my potting green house i have started to get my mixtures ready for the carrots and parsnips. I do think i mght do well this year with long carrots based on the info i was given from smithyveg re to the strain of  carrot seed. At this very moment i am still not to sure which parsnips to grow for lenght but i do have a few more weeks to decide or to be given some info on which type to get. Now that all the veg is sorted out i will start to sow some flower seed that do need to be sown about now especially the very small seed such as begonia, petunia, lobelia. I have had the  flower seeds in the fridge now for about 3 weeks so in a weeks time when the propagator is partly free i will start to sow. I have already took cuttings from my xanth stools and they seem to be ok, i cant see any that looks a bit down so lets keep our fingers crossed. What we really need now is some mild weather so the temperature can go up a bit which will do wonders for growing.  

CHRYSANTHEMUM--GERANIUM CUTTINGS

What with it being a cold day i thought i would start by spending a couple of hours in the green house  and start taking cuttings from last years chrysanthemum stools and potting them up in 3" pots. The ones i have done are called BILLY BELL--JOHN WINFIELD--SARA LOUISE. It was last year when i purchased these and i did have a decent show but as i have said i was not in the best of health and they did not get the attention they should have had. I had the plants from  babyface who is well into chrysanthemums so i am hoping i will be able to give him a good report this year providing  everything goes ok. I still have to take more cuttings from the other ones i have but they are not quite ready yet. As to the geraniuns  i have a few cuttings already potted up but i thought i would do a few more.Some people might say i might be a bit late with them  but again we all have our own little ways of doing things and not always at the right time but as long as you get results there is not a problem. As everyone will know we are now having a very cold spell how long it will last who knows but we must make sure all plants are protected from the frost so i hope all you gardeners take heed  YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

THE COLD WEATHER IS COMING

Now that we have been told that we are going to have a few days of cold weather i have decided not to take any chances of loosing what i have already sown and also germinated. What i have done as i do most years when we get a cold snap is to cover with fleece and news paper. My way of dealing with it is that i put the fleece over first and then news paper on the top so as to capture the damp and the coldness.I also make sure that my dahlias are covered to. I also again make sure that my xanths are covered as they are starting to produce small cuttings.Another thing which i do is to make sure that all my compost is covered as well because if you have compost that is very wet and it freezes you got a problem when you want to use it. While on the compost subject,i do not buy any compost from anyone who has not had it under cover through the winter and there are a few gardeners who do agree with me on that statement. At the week end i will make my decision as to ware i will be growing my onions-carrots long-stump carrots and also my toms. I have a vague idea but we will see.

A DAY IN THE GARDEN

After all the very bad winds and rain we have been having lately i decided to take advantage of this  dry and sunny day  and do a bit of tidying up  and a few repairs to the polytunnel. First thing i had to do with the help of my son was to reseal most of the joints with a fabric which i got off  ebay which was designed for polytunnels. The tunnel i have is 11ft long and a 30mtr roll of sealing tape was enough  to seal all joints.(I will post a photo in my next blogg) The next job to be done was to star and sort out all my pot and pans also my seed trays ready for my flower seeds and with a bit of luck i am hoping to have a good year with them this year. As some of you might have experienced it can be be very hard to germinate very small seeds but there is a solution which i have used for quite a few years. First of all i put the small seeds that i intend to use in a very small plastic bag and then put them in a fridge for about 1 month before i intend to sow them. When the time comes to sow them i fill my trays with fine compost and use  warm water to moisten the compost, after about 30mins i then sow the seeds. I do how ever give the seeds that are covered a mist spray of water.

The flowers for this year will  be
gazania
dahlias  from seed
cracker jack marigold
night scented nicotiana
aster   milady
Will  also have a few hanging baskets.
This is only a few items for now but know doubt there will be more.

Growing parsnips for 2012

Received a packet of parsnip seeds on the 31-12-11 from the garden catalogue that i use.The name of the seeds are called duchess F1. I have not got a lot of  experience in growing long parsnips so if anyone can give me some advice i would appreciate it very much. It has gone through my mind that you grow them more or less the same way as carrots. Also what length of time do they require if growing  for shows

I mentioned in my garden list for 2012 that i only have a small garden for veg but i think i might be able to  squeeze in a few more tubes for the parsnips. I think this year is going to be very interesting  based on last year as my health was very bad and i am afraid i lost out on quite a lot  but still that was then so lets keep our fingers crossed.
In my next blogg i will be showing some pictures of my seed-plant nursery which i keep in my 10ft green house.,it is only 4ft long and18inches wide and it is surprising what you can get in it. It is made out of house insulation boards and it is 2in thick ,it is also held together with 3" nails which you only have to push in  and then put duct tape on the corners. the bottom is one full sheet in which you build the sides on.  JOB DONE.
By the way you fit the lighting and heating system in after you have finished building.


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