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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