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.