compost and nick-knacks for onions-long carrots-stump carrots

Spent a few enjoyable hours on sunday with my son at the nurseries whare i get my gardening assessories. I decided not to change my way of growing so i got the following .
3 60ltr bags of vitax multipupose compost with q4.
2 bags of dried kiln sand.
I did make enquiries re to 6x manure but was told it will not be in stock for a week so i have ordered 1 bag which i will collect next sunday. The reason why i use 6x is because it is very highly concentrated and it saves a lot of back breaking work which unfortunetly i just cannot do these days and the reason for dried kiln sand is it has been sterilized so there is no fear of any germs or bacteria that also applies to the 6x. One thing i did forget is ground lime but i can get that when i get my bag of 6x. I have got all the rest that i need even for the sowing of onions so all i need to do now is get cracking and decide how to go about getting things done.

long carrots grown in tubes- stump carrots grown in pop bottles

here is a photo of the 2 types of carrots grown this year. I must say that i am quite pleased with the results but i do think there is still room for improvement. I think next year i will have to pay a bit more attention to how i prepare the growing mix to get a better structured carrot both in the tubes-pop bottles. In my last blogg i did say the mix that i use is a simple one but after giving it a lot of thought i do think i can improve it a bit better.

stump carrots grown in pop bottles

Above is a photo of the stump carrots that i grew in pop bottles this year. The type was sweet candle. As you will see they were not grown in sand but a very good make of compost which i have found to be excellent for many years. Like all gardeners they have there own litttle secrets on the way they use there growing mixtures but as i just mentioned they were not grown in any sort of sand which is used in drums ware drill holes are to be made for the growing mixture. I must admit i was not in a position during there growing period to give the attention re to watering and also checking for carrot fly which i have been very lucky by not having that problem. As to the water i did use water gel which i mixed with the growing mixture i use.

TIME TO THINK ABOUT 2012

My results on the garden for 2011 has not been very good and it is put down to ill health, any how i did manage to achieve a couple of good results with the carrots runner beans and tomatoes i am afraid my onions did not get the attention that they should have got there for i did not get a decent one that i can talk about. I have in the past mentioned that i do grow stump carrots in pop bottles and this year i grew them again with what i call reasonable results. the name is well known (sweet candle). As to the long carrots i grew them in 5" water pipes which were 4ft-6" long and again with reasonable results.(red intermediate) My method of growing is quite simple, i have mentioned what i grow the carrots in so i will now tell you what the mixture is. vitax multipurpose Q4 compost sieved and fish -blood -bone- meal. I the bottom of the pipes i do add water gell.

This is the first time i have inserted a picture . more to follow.

finale preperation for carrots-onions

I need to first say that in my last write up i said that all my tomatoes have germinated but i made a mistake by saying one of them is cedrico but it should have said GOLD STAR.

For the last 2 days i have completed my mixtures for the carrots and also prepared the 11ft polly tunnel by adding manure to the bed and also hung up the fly catchers (5 in all). I found that last year it realy paid off and did not have any problems so lets hope it will be the same this year. I would like to change the subject A bit and go on to runner beans which is one of my favorites. Last year i grew the bean called white lady and also gallaxy And the results were excellent so i will grow them again this yaer, it would be interesting to find out how they would do in shows. I would appreciate all info re to the beans.

PREPERATION AND PROGRESS

The weather has been nice lately and at least it has been dry. Apart from giving my son a little help in installing a new front door to the house i have been able to do a little work in the pollytunell. Although most gardeners would already have steralized everything in there green houses i am a little bit behind so that was done today, Ialso checked on my tomatoes (shirley, cerise, and cedrico)and they have all germinated except for 4, i dont think that is to bad as there is still time for them to come through. One thing which might be of interest is that i cover all the seed with the tops of pop bottles which i find better than using glass or polythene. why isay that is because it acts as a mini green house and it is not so fidely to check or water if required.

Another job i managed to do was sieve some more compost to fill my pop bottles ready for the long and stump carotts the only thing i have to do is to mix the ingrediants. No doubt ther will be a few comments about my method but i can say that it does work and with little exspence.

I will have a go at using water pipes which are 5" in circumference but i am not to sure wether to fill with sand and then bore holes or just use compost with ingediants.

THE BEUATY OF SNOW AND SAVERE COLD

I must admit this weather we are having accross the country is not good for many reasons,I.E the elderly, people going to work. transport, and also airports. But the one good thing about it is ,it certainly kills a lot of nasties in the garden and it also washes all the salts that was accumilated in the last growing season when it thaws. For the growing season in 2009 i was inendated with terrible fungus on all my fruit trees (apples,pears) and they did not bare hardly any fruit at all. I can now say that because of the bad weather we had in late 2009 and early 2010 it ment that the fruit trees were dorment for a much longer period. When the warmer weather started to set in i noticed that the young shoots were groing much better and looked much more healthier than ever before and because of that i had a wonderful crop of fruit and certainly did not have any fungus or other deseases. so i am hoping this comming season will be the same. (YOU CANT BEAT A BIT OF HOME GROWN FRUIT) I am not a believer in using chemical sprays if i can avoid it as i do believe it does not do what ever you are growing any good, and that if i do use anything at all it will be only be washing up liquid which is diluted. The info that i am led to believe is that we are going to have bad weather for a few months to come so be on your gard with your young early plants.