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.
Sunday, 16 March 2014
Saturday, 15 March 2014
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.
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.
Thursday, 13 March 2014
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.
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.
Tuesday, 11 March 2014
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.
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.
Monday, 10 March 2014
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.
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.
Sunday, 9 March 2014
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.
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.
Saturday, 20 July 2013
NICE TO BE BACK ON THE BLOGG
Hi all, after been ill for quite some time i have now been able to start keepiing in touch with a lot of people i know and to find out how they are doing this year in the gardening season. No doubt they will be pleased that now the fine weather has arrived and that it will give the veg a boost as well as the tomatoes,but saying that we also got to think about the watering which is very important especially with the soring hot weather we are having. Before i carry on i would just like to say that i WIIL be getting intouch with all the bloggers i know. This year i have not been able to do alot but i have managed with a little help to get the runner beans going and up tp now they are doing well, i also managed to get in 40 turbo onion sets and they to are not doing to bad. As to big onion it has not been possible but all being well i will be ready for next year.Re to the green house i have got 12 tomatoe plants doing fine and the ones i have are (super sweet 100) (alise craig) (gardeners delight) I forgot to say the beans i am growing are polstar and lady di and they realy are growing fast and full of flower, mind you i do give them a lot of water which is in the morning and also at night. Just a little info on what i do before i plant out my beans and that is to give them a good dose of seaweed exstract every 4 days over a period of 3 weeks and it has proven to me that it does work and how i found out i first used the exstract on 10 plants and not the rest and as i said it proved to me that it does work. Any how it is now time for me to close but i will be back.
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