T THE GOOD WEATHER DID NOT LAST LONG

Yes it is true the good weather we had did not last very long and i think most gardeners will be a bit fed up with it. In the week or so that we had that good weather i managed to get the front garden sorted out  and then went to the back garden and cut the lawn which was getting very long and as you will all know it does not look very very nice when it is cut because of the thickness of the grass stems which  looks terrible. For many years i have always cut the lawns to about 2 inches long and twice a month, by doing this i have found that the grass will thicken and keep much greener. Another reason for doing it that way is because if we should have a very hot spell the grass will not scorch  and will stay green.  All the grass cuttings are then given to the chickens which is good for them.

Going onto the the other side of gardening  i must say that the tomato  plants are really going ahead now  and are now in there final growing place. The one side of the green house i have planted 5 strilo  toms and on the other side i have  planted 3 sungold  3 gardeners delight. Apart from those that i have mentioned i have 8 young plants coming on the my little nursery these are seeds from last years growth and were left in the ground ware they germinated this year and turned into very nice young plants.

Iam pleased to say that the kelsae onions that i ordered arrived on the 16th april and they are now potted ready to go into there final places. I must say that they were in good condition when they arrived  and were still wet on arrival which i was pleased with. There was very little yellowing of the leaves so they were not in transit very long which in sum cases it can cause stress.
Going onto runner beans  i planted 40 beans (benchmaster) which most have germinated and are about 3inches tall so it looks like all is going well at the moment

As to the flower section again all is looking good. The dahlias are growing well and also the asters. I still have about 40 pellis plants that are growing but they are a bit behind but they will be ok by june comes around which is when i put all my flower plants in the garden and not before mainly because of fear of the frost.
This is all for now will give update later on.
  

sTTHE LAST 2 DAYS I HAVE HAD AN UNWANTED GUEST IN THE GREENHOUSE

 First all the good news is that all the seeds i have planted are now starting to grow so it wont belong before i will be doing some more transplanting into pots. As to the tomatoes they are really starting to grow now so i will be giving them a little feed to help them on .Re to the long carrot seed that i have sewn in the pipes i have covered them with the bottoms of the pop bottles which will help protect them when they germinate and also help them to grow until they are big enough to stand up to the weather. The beetroot is also growing well  and so are the lettuce  also doing very nicely are all the flower seeds that were sewn.  I have already potted  40 aster plants and i should have another 40 to do later on.  The next ones to be potted will be the dahlias so in about another week that will be another potting job.

                                             THE UNWANTED GUEST
Well what can i say except that on wednesday morning when i went to the green house i found that a lot of items had been tipped over and that one of my begonia bulbs was missing out of the place ware  i planted  it. Eventually i found it on the floor and something had been nibbling at , i first thought it was a mouse so i set 2 mouse traps in the night to see if i could catch it. On thursday  morning to my suprise i was drinking my cup of tea in the kitchen when i saw a bl---dy grey squirl  come out of the green house., i went straight up there  and found that at the back end of the green house it had made a hole for itself to get in and out. I have now solved the problem and i hope that by filling in the hole with stones and wire mesh it wont happen again. I have never had this happen before so i hope it is the first and the last time.  I suppose i was lucky really as it could have been worse. One final word for now  i have not forgot about posting photos. More later on.

THIS IS THE WEATHER WE NEED FOR GROWING

There is no doubt about it this is the kind of weather we need to give all that is planted a boost . I have  looked at the forecast and it seems that we might have this fine weather for a week but the old saying is seeing is believing so we will have to wait and see if it comes true.
Today i have potted all my asters so that is one good job out of the way. The next lot to do will be the dahlias but i think that will be in about a weeks time. The pellis plants are not big enough yet to deal with but i should think in about a weeks time they can be potted on. It was around a week ago i bought a pack of 3 begonias so today i planted them in the hanging baskets to get them started. They should give a good show when in flower. Last year i planted begonia rex but for some reason they did not turn out as good as i expected, never mind you do get disappointments now and again.

Having  check  the 10ft green house i noticed i have some room under the bench  and  have decided to grow some mushrooms and to grow them i am going to use a bin about 2ft long and 15" deep. This is something new to me so it is going to be interesting to see how it turns out. (ADVICE WILL BE WELCOME)  I am thinking of growing the button type.
As most gardeners will know there is always something to do  out side of greenhouse work so all being well i am going to take advantage of this fine weather and give the grass a cut or should i say get my son to do it for me but the thing is he has gone to folkstone for 5 days with his mother so it looks as if i will have to try and do my best and have a go. THIS IS ALL FOR NOW UNTIL LATER ON.    

POTTING AND SOWING MORE SEEDS

As i said on thursdays blogg i will be potting on the young tomato plant into 4"pots. Altogether i  the potted the following.
10 gardeners delight.
7 strillo.
3 sungold fi
  I grew these last year except strillo and i had a very good crop from all of them. I also grew sweet million but i am giving them a miss this year  and growing strillo in place of them. Now that they have been potted they have been put into the nursery box that i made to progress until are ready to go into there final growing position.
The seeds that i have sewn are
stock
pansy
and more dahlias.
Tomorrow i will be transplanting aster seedlings into pots so it looks as if i am going to have a busy day. You do have to be careful when handling small seedlings . but because they have grown 2 sets of leaves i should not have much of a problem.  This is a short blogg for now until tomorrow.

NURSERY BOX FINISH AND A BIT OF INFO

Because of the cold weather we have had today i  lit the paraffin fire in the green house and carried on finishing off the nursery box for young plants. Although i say it myself it did not turn out to be a bad job considering i am not a carpenter and also it cost me very little money. I had everything that i needed in my garage which i accumulated over a period of time so you see i do not throw anything away just in case i might need it.

To morrow i think i will do a bit of transplanting of the tomatoes and put them into 4"pots because i do not want them to get to leggy. They will go straight into the nursery box ware they can grow and get acclimatised to the green house  before they get put into there final  growing position  (ie ground and pots) in the 10ft greenhouse.  Well it wont be long now before i receive my onion plants . As i have said  they are the kelsae onion and i intend to hopefully have a good year in growing them and have some good results but time will tell.  There is one thing i will be doing this week end and that is to sow a few more long rooted carrot seed just in case the ones that i have sown do not germinate.
Going from veg to flower seed  all the asters have germinated and doing fine so i will have a lot of transplanting to do later on . Today i planted delphinium seeds which will be just right for next year .It was a long time ago when i last grew these and they are such a lovely flower  so i decide to grow them this year.

Going onto other blogs, i have been looking to see how they are getting on and i have noticed that they are doing very well especially those that do a lot of showing. It really is nice to read there blogs and not only that you can also learn quite a bit re to there ways of growing. It is obvious to me that they do start growing very early and i suppose you have to get things like big onions and so on ready for the shows that they enter in early September or may be sooner  I recall that about 6 years ago when i entered the garden shows with flowers and veg the judging  would be in july so you had to grow early to get the garden ready.
Well that is all for now until later.      

ODD JOBS AND MAKING A NURSERY BOX

I was a little bit late going to the garden this morning because i had a lay on in bed (i am not lazy but it made a change from getting up early) When i got my self together and finished my cup of tea  the first thing i did was to check all the seedlings and found that all was ok.

Although the weather was not to bad i decided to get on and make a nursery box in the 10ft green house  ready for the toms to be put into before they go into there final growing place. Mind you there is still plenty of time yet so i wont be in a hurry to transfer. The box is 15"x 22"x 22"  so you can see by the measurements it is not to big. I am debating weather to put bubble rap around it to help keep the temperature pretty stable in the night as well as in the day which i think will help but  i will decide later on.

Before i forget, i do not think i have mention before but  i did put a few parsnip seed (DOUCHES F1) in a plastic container to chit and they now have done that so i will be getting a couple of 4"x4ft pipes for them to go in.

Up till now everything seems to be going fine but you never know what is around the corner so i am very cautious and i keep an eye on all that i do. Mind you things do go wrong and sometimes you cant help it but again that is how life goes.

Another little job i done was to make a pain of glass secure in the 10ft greenhouse which was cracked horizontally so i put a run of mastic along it and re clipped it in. (another job well done)

This is all for now until later on. 

STUMP CARROTS (SWEET CANDLE) ARE NOW SOWN

Now that the stump carrots are sown  in the pop bottles they have been put in the 10ft green house until they can be put out into the ground when they have germinated. As i have said i will be putting them by the side of the onions which  i have done for a  few years now and all seems to grow ok. I have used 40 bottles and all of them has been filled with  VITAX Q4 compost . I made a statement about this compost and i would like you to believe me when i say it is one of the best i have used. It does not have any bits or pieces in it like other types of compost so you do not have any waste. I can also say that it does not need to be sieved so you can use it right away for sowing small seed .

Re to the long carrot seed  i will be sowing them on the week end into the long pipes which i will cover until germination takes place. Because the weather is still cold  i will be covering the top of pipes to help with germination  seeing they will be out in the open. I have also decided to grow a few long carrot seed  in very small pots just in case i have a bit of a problem with the ones out in the pipes. I suppose you can say it is a back up plan.

                                                     UPDATE ON THE TOMS
    
Well the toms are really growing now and are coming to there second set of leaves so it wont belong before they can be put into 4"pots.  In the next couple of days i am hoping to make a 2ftx2ft  nursery  box so that when the toms have been repotted they can be put in it so they can grow into sturdy plants.
That is all for now till later on.

SEED SOWING AND POTTING AND INFO

well  today has been a day of buying seeds and doing a bit more potting. First thing this morning i went to wilkinsons  and bought beet root seed (detroit) and iceberg lettuce seed .  They have now been sown and it has kept the wife happy.  I did how ever put the beetroot seed in  seed trays to give them a good start and will transplant when large enough in to the garden. No doubt very one might say he always seem to use seed trays for most things  but as i have said before i have nearly always done this and have had good results. Mind you one of my reasons for doing this is because i have learnt over the years  that by starting seeds in seed trays i do not have the problem of trying to get a fine tilth in the garden and also i can control the watering  until they are planted in the garden.

What i have done with the lettuce seed is just  put 12 into compost and when they are big enough they will go into the ground as well as between the toms  I will do the same in about 3 weeks by doing that i will have a continuous  crop of lettuce  in the summer. (The chicken will have some of them).

 Now that the veg seeds are planted i carried on filling the pop bottles for more sweet candle carrot seed  so by the time i have finished i should have with a bit of luck about 40  which will all go into the green house until the weather gets a bit better and then they will go by the side of the onions in the garden.

I have been told that i will be having my kelsae plants the first week of april  so it wont be long now.
 When they arrive they will go straight into 4" pots for a while  which will have a growing mixture to help them develop a rooting system  before they go into there  final place in the garden  This should be about 4 weeks from potting.

                                                           Onion fly and larva

Quite often i get ask how i deal with onion fly and larva, well as most will know it is a horrible thing  to look at especially when the leaves get to about 2ft tall and you start to see damaged being done. It is a problem and what i do is to spray the leaves with  potato starch with a touch of  washing up liquid mixed in   when the leaves are about a foot long. I am afraid i can not give much more info  on this subject so all i can say is to try it and see how it goes. I will say that i do use it and it does work up to point.  That is all for now till later on.

ODD JOB DAY IN THE GREEN HOUSES

I have been meaning to do a few jobs  in the green houses  so i thought i would have a go today. My first job was to do a slight repair to the roof of the 10ft green house with the help from my son. For some reason 2 of the top panes of  glass in the roof  had dropped about 3" and the rain was coming in so that  was a job that had to be done. It only took about an hour so it was not a hard  job.
The next job to be done was to adjust the door but found that it needs new wheels which i will order tomorrow.  Now the one thing that i do most years is to light a sulphur candle and kill any nasties that are lying  or hiding away but i make sure that there is nothing in the green house such as plants. Now that it is ready i will  light the candle on sunday night and all should be clear by monday morning.

As i have said i have got everything ready for the toms but i did add  strengthening bars to the top of the  support cane to make it more secure.

Now in the 4-6" green house ware i do all my sowing and potting , i have got rid of a lot of bits and pieces that i really do not need and when you do this it is surprising how much room  you have found.
After completing the above job i had a good check on all that was growing and everything looks ok.
I have been told by the boss (wife) that she would like me to grow some beet root, so it off to shop tomorrow for seeds.  That is all for now trill later on.    

POP BOTTLE DAY TODAY

Because the weather  has not been to good i have spent most of the day in the green house filling the pop bottlers with the carrot mixture for the stump carrots ( sweet  candle) and also sowing 3 seeds in each. one.
By the time they are done i will have filled approx 40 pop bottles and also seeded. Up to now  i have completed about 20 and they are going in the 10ft green house in the morning so they can start to germinate. When they have germinated they will be put in to there final position which is next to the onions. As i said i will be showing some photos later on so all can see what i am doing.  One might ask why i do not put them straight in to the garden  ,well my reason is because the weather we are having as far as i am concerned is not right  at the moment for germinating in the garden either in pots or the ground. By getting them to germinate in the green house ware the temperature is much warmer you get a better chance of growth when you do put them out in the garden when the weather permits plus the fact that you have not lost any time when growing and getting them ready for showing.

CARROT  SEED.
For a few years now i have received seed  which has been treated and untreated and to be honest with all i am not to keen on the treated type. I do not know if any one will agree with me but i have found that they do not germinate so well.  Can any one tell me what they are treated with and for what reason.

Well it wont belong before my onion plants will arrive and i am looking forward to see what results i can achieve this year. I am hoping to get  good results but i suppose you can only do your best and have a bit of luck with it.

Within the next week i am going to buy some capillary mats for the green houses as the ones i have has seen better days and it is time to renew There is no doubt about it they are really worth every penny as it saves you a lot of worry knowing that your young plants wont go dry or dry out.    

A FAIRLY GOOD DAY

Yes i have had a fairly quite day today, by putting the tomato plant tubs into place were they are to grow. I said that i was changing the soil in the green houses  which i did so now  every thing is ready and just waiting for the right time to put in the plants.
What i have decided to do is to grow 5 toms in tubs and on the other side of the green house another 5 will go into the grown. By doing this i will decide  which will be the best way to grow in the future . I have not forgotten the fact that i have put manure in the ground so it is going to be interesting  to see the difference in the growing . I do know that the ph is going to be different because the toms that are going into tubs will be growing mainly in half soil and half compost so i will have to give a different type of feed which is no problem.

As to the plants them selves they are starting to really grow now and all the makes i have sown have germinated. It will be a few weeks before they get re potted but there is plenty of time before they go into there final places. The one thing i did forget to say is that like most plants the one thing they do need to have is nitrogen which is one of the main items to give growth.

I do find that making a few alterations in the way of growing is good because you learn so much  and it is surprising the results you can get. I have over the years made several alterations in the way i grow things and at times i do get some surprises, mind you i also do get some disapointments but at the end of the day you have got to take the good with the bad.

I have decided this year to grow a few lettuce, but i have not made up my mind which type to grow my wife said she would like to have iceberg so if that is what she wants she will have. I will grow  them in between the toms as there will be plenty of room.

Also today i got my pop bottles ready for the stump carrots which will be sown on the week end so up,to now all is going well.   more info later on.

GERMINATION HAS ARRIVED

Tomato seeds have now come to life. sungold f1  and gardeners delight are looking ok  but i am still waiting for the strillo seed to come through. I dont think they will be long as they were sown the same time as the other ones, but as usual this does happen to nearly every seed some germinate quicker than others.

Well today has been a good day in the green house what with sorting out more  pots for cuttings. Apart from the toms most of my flower seeds have germinated which is dwarf aster--dahlia--pellis. It looks as if i will be having a busy day when i start to do the potting on but that is part of  gardening.

On wednesday i filled the pipes for the long carrots so they are ready for seed.  My next job is to start and fill all my pop bottles ready for the sweet candle carrots which grow by the side of the onions. Some people do say that it helps keep the onion fly away and also the carrot fly but i have not had a big problem with that so we will see as time goes by.

Going on to other gardeners i have noticed how well there veg is growing, i think that it is nice to be able to grow in green houses  especially if you enter shows. As i have said before you can get very good results when growing under cover because you can control nearly every thing at a better level which is more than what you can when growing out side.
All for now till a later date    

ONION TUBS ARE NOW READY FOR THE PLANTS

Well another job has been completed today and i am pleased that it is done. I find that getting the onion beds or tubs ready is a bit hard for me these days but as i have said before my youngest son has been helping me so it has not been to bad. (it was nice being the fore man)
 The no of onions going to be planted in the tubs will be 14 so it is going to be interesting to see how they grow for about 20-22 weeks  I am hoping with a bit of luck that i can get a few to about 5-6lbs which wont be to bad considering they will be grown out in the open.  As most will know you will always get better results when you can grow in green houses   mainly because you can have better control over the way of growing and not have the problem with all the nasties that are out in the open air plus all the  slugs and snails.

A little bit more info and that is i will be posting a few photos at a later date so that all can see how i am progressing ,mind you i am not a good photographer but you will see how things are going.

Will post more later on.

IN THE GREEN HOUSE TODAY

Today i  decided to sort out the 10ft green house and change the soil. It has been 2 years since i last replaced the soil and to convince myself that it should be done i tested for ph and found it was not what it should be. The first job with a bit of help on the shovel  was to take all the soil and compost out that was in there down to about 12" i then  turned  the bottom to make it a bit loose. Now that was done i put chicken manure in the bottom about  4-5" deep i then added layer of top soil  with compost which made it back up to 12".  The other side will be done tomorrow so that will be a good job done.

I do think that these jobs should be done now and again because the ground can go stagnant and it does have an effect on the crops plus it helps to stop leaf curl and also end rot  which is not very nice to see at times. Mind you i do believe in giving plants the right nutrients (ie food) and also water but there are times when you can give to much water which no doubt a lot of gardeners know about .

Re to the soil ph i am quite happy if i can keep it between 5-7 and also nice and moist if  i can achieve that i should not have any worries.

                                        CHANGING THE SUBJECT A BIT

Going on to onions , i was speaking to a fellow gardener who informed me that he will get a bigger a onion if he cuts of leaves from the onion shank, now i do find that a bit hard to believe but if there is anyone out there who can say it is true  i would be very pleased to hear from them. (never heard of it before). Perhaps there is some truth in what he says, but again all the years i have been gardening i have never heard of it before. At his moment i will keep my thoughts to my self.  That is all for now till next time.

MIXTURES FOR OIOINS AND CARROTS

I have aready said that i will be making a few alterations this year re to different mixtures so this is what   i will use for the onions and carrots.

ONIONS
 peat
 compost   vitax q4
calcified sea weed
fish blood and bone
chicken manure.

CARROTS
sieved vitax q4
calcified sea weed
super phosphate

No doubt these mixes will not normally be used  but they are something i am prepared to try and i might get some good results  so i will let you know when the time is right .

The runner bean pots are also ready  filled and ready for the beans to be sown at the right time.

After doing the above i planted 40 dahlia seeds which will be for the garden border i also planted a few aster seeds.  Will post more later on.

BEAN STICKS--TRAYS---POTS--AND SPRAYERS.

Although todays weather was a bit dull with overcast i decided to get a few small jobs out of the way by using the 10ft green house to work in. The first thing i done was to dip the end of the bean sticks in a fluid to protect them from rotting when in the ground. I have done this now for quite a few years because i was always cutting some of the bottoms off ware they had gone bad.
My second job was to clean all my potting up pots ready for potting when needed. They will be used mainly for beans and tomatoes. I do use about 50+ most years and they are the 4" pots.
I also use a 3"pot for young flower plants.

Now for my onions i always use 4"pots but they are 5" deep which i have found great as i find that the roots dont get disturbed to much when putting them in there final place for growing on.
My final job today was to make sure my water sprayer was clean and working ok
More info later on.

ANOTHER GOOD DAY

Yes we have had another very nice day  and i have been able to get a few important jobs done which takes a bit of tome. The first one was to get all my mixes ready for the carrots ready to go in the long pipes which are 4ft 6" I have made a few alterations re to the mix this year to see if there will be better results than  last year but as i have said so many times it is all trial and error so we will see if any in about 22 weeks time.

The second job was to get my tubs ready for the onions which should be with me the first week of april, again i am going to make a change and use chicken manuer and sand and dried blood and fish bone.. and also calcium.
No doubt there will be people who will have there doubts about my mixtures but i do try to find the best way to grow which suits me and also the pocket. You never can tell what you can achieve unless you try these things.
My son took me to the nuseries and i was amazed at how the prices has risen compared to last year, for example the compost i used last year has gone up £1-10p per 60ltrs, a bag of fms-2 with sand is now
£13-00. Because of this i have gone back to my usual which is vitax q4 and to be quite honest with you you cant realy go wrong with it mainly because there is very little wast such as lumps and hard compost.
This is all for now untill next time.
 

A pleasant day on the garden

Yes it was a pleasure to be able to sort the garden out  what with the nice sunshine we have had today. My first job was to get my boys to do a bit of lifting for me as i am restricted in doing any lifting or bending. The one main thing that had to be done was to get the bean beds sorted out  ready for the canes to be put in the correct place, i know it is still a bit early but at  least it will be all done ready for planting when the time comes. The second job was to sort out my mixture for my carrots which consist of 2 sorts,  the first one is for long carrots which is being grown in 4ft-6" pipes when i grew them the last time they were 4ft in lenght and not a bad shape at all, i am this year going to try a slightly different method and see if there will be any different in condition. The second carrots will be grown in pop bottles as i have nearly always done and have always had good results. some people might laugh at that way but you will be surprised when you see the results. One good thing about the pop bottles is that you can put it any ware you want even in between flower plants and still get a good one.

Onions.
This year i will be hoping to have a reasonable show of onions which will consist of kelsae which will be plants from DT BROWN, the reason why i am getting them from DT BROWN is because i was to late to plant any of my own seed which i  sow in december which would give me a better chance of getting a nice big one so we will have to wait and see what happens.

TOMATOES.
I have decided to grow  again this year what i grew last year as the results were very good indeed.
1 GARDENERS DELIGHT
2 SUNGOLD F1
3 STRILLO
4 SWEET MILLION FI
I will not use all these plants as i give my daughter some has she is getting green fingers now and is doing very well.

BEANS
The beans i am growing this year is a bean called BENCHMASTER, now i have not grown these before so it will be interesting to  see the results and compare them to what  usually grow.

One last thing i would like to say, is that i hope all the  the people who suffered from this terrible weather we have had did not have to much damage done to there polytunels or green houses. Will be in touch at a later date.