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My first salad harvest.
Harvested my first salad! By taking one or two leaves off of each lettuce plant I made a beautiful fresh salad to go with my lunch hopefully without inhibiting the growth of any one individual plant. Check out my oven-roasted round courgettes with cheese and chilli baked fondue here
Ele
A flurry of activity when my mail order plants and seeds are delivered.
I had a very exciting delivery this morning from www.organicplants.co.uk including an oriental mini pack and some radish seeds. These new arrivals will hopefully thrive in the new pots I have acquired. These particular pots were gifted to me but I have noticed that pots frequently become available on www.freecycle.org for nothing which is ideal if you, like me, are on a low budget and don’t mind a slightly rustic look to your container collection. I have also acquired an old wine case which looks great and should be fine as a plant container.
I have planted the whole of the oriental mini pack in one large pot and watered them in. I think they might be a little too close together so if they don’t grow as well as I think they should then I will pull a few out to give the rest some more space. As a trial, I have decided to use some Carbon Gold compost. It is peat-free and enriched with “Bio-char”. I have planted my plug plants in their all-purpose compost and my seeds in their seed compost and I will let you know what I think about it in a few weeks.
I sowed some radish seeds in a terracotta pot (1cm deep) and some French beans in my wine case (5cm deep). For the radishes I just removed 1cm of soil from my pot and scattered the seeds on the compost’s surface before returning the soil and watering in. For the beans I poked a 5cm hole with a pencil, dropped in the seed, covered, gave the box a good tap to remove air gaps and gave them a generous drink of water. I also planted some parsley and coriander in some small pots so they will be nice and established before the frosts start to hit and I can bring them inside so I will have some of the less hardy herbs in the winter too.
My gardening activities today were supervised by this little guy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTVEvIMD8jY&feature=youtu.be (an incredibly tame robin who hopped around while I was planting, less than a meter away from me at times). Me and my muddy knees can’t wait for my seeds to start coming up. Happy gardening, Ele.
Above: The box of plants that arrived from organicplants.co.uk
Below: All of my new containers
It’s great to label your pots so you don’t forget what’s in them. I make mine out of cut up margarine tub lids.
The astounding progress my plants have made without me.
Back from my weekend away and my plants have thrived in my absence. The spinach is actually starting to look recognisably like spinach and I am predicting that I will be able to harvest it in about ten days time. The lettuce too has gotten much bigger. I think I will be able to start taking the odd leaf very soon: cut and come again varieties seem to have been a great choice so far. Even my chilli plant has started to grow fruit. I will pull all but one of the chillies pictured off to use for cooking so that the plant has more energy to put into foliage and root growth. I can’t believe how successful my first few weeks have been as an organic container gardener. Can’t wait for my new additions to arrive! I will keep you all posted, Ele
Today we began a trial of professional peat-free growing media. We have 9 different types, each sown with:
LETTUCE-Maureen (little gem type)
CHINESE CABBAGE-Kaboko
CABBAGE-Caraflex (pointed Spring cabbage)
We have 8 organic media and one conventional X 3 crops X 4 reps = 108 trays
The trays were filled by hand, then sown using our automatic Visser sowing line. The trays will remain in the germination room for 3 days. In hot weather, lettuce seed is prone to thermo-dormancy, so it’s better to germinate at a constant 16°C. It’s also difficult to manage the watering if the trays are laid out in the greenhouse, when temperatures can reach 43°C. We want to give optimum conditions for germination so that any differences we measure in germination and emergence will be due to the growing media.
Once the seed has chitted, we will lay the trays out in randomized blocks on a concrete floor. Watering will be via gantry, which is very uniform. We will water (and later feed, if required) according to the needs of each product.
I will post results and pictures on this blog, but the test media will be referred to by code number only until the end of the trial. Thanks are due to the growing media manufacturers who provided samples free of charge.
With the help of the Soil Association, we are planning to write a full report. It’s also possible to post trays of the plants at the end of the trial. If you are willing to test how well the plants pull from the trays and establish in organic fields, please contact me: jill@delfland.co.uk
Trays laid out in our germination room
A progress report from the hottest day of the year.
It’s scorching hot here in Norwich and my spinach is thriving! My lettuce and herbs have almost doubled in size since planting. However, with the departure of the free watering service that is the British summer I think I’m going to have to be more mindful of the watering required for my pots. I have resolved to use the “give it a kick” method of determining dryness: if, upon kicking, the pot seems light then the pot needs some water.
In flea beetle news, the problem seems to be abating. The new leaves that have grown seem to have little or no damage and upon tousling the leaves no critters are jumping out. Perhaps they drowned in the downpours we have been experiencing of late.
In other news I am now on twitter (@GreenSideUpEle), so if you fancy sharing your pot growing experiences you are more than welcome to get in touch. Hopefully you too are enjoying the sunshine, Ele
My very first and very tiny harvest.
After just over a week’s worth of effort I have tasted the first fruit of my labour! Well ok, basil is not a fruit but you get the point. And I only managed to scavenge a few leaves for the garnishing of my supper but it’s definitely something. The recipe for chorizo, prawn and courgette pasta (with super special basil garnish) can be found here in the Ele’s Recipes section and I have to say, it was pretty delicious.
No news on the flea beetle front, it has been raining relentlessly here so I have been unable to continue my mini-beast hunt. I am thinking of expanding my patch already, maybe some more pots containing courgettes and strawberries. Also I am thinking of planting in some found containers. There’s an old wine crate I have my eye on… That’s all for now, Ele
My pots finally make it to my new flat but something is enjoying my produce before I can…
My pots have finally made it with me to my new flat and are looking fabulous on the patio. My spinach seedlings are just starting to get their second pair of leaves and are doing very well.
Unfortunately, something other than me has started eating my rocket. All I can say is: “thank you #agonyplant” who reliably informs me that my rocket has flea beetle. After an uneventful stake out in which I failed to catch the pests in the act I have resolved to keep a close eye. I think maybe I can’t see any because it is currently raining and they have hidden away to laugh at my soggy sleuthing. If things do not improve I am thinking of trying to improvise some sort of mini flea beetle fortress out of a pair of tights and some wire. I’m not giving up my rocket that easily beasties! Ele
The start
I have only ever really been interested in eating fantastic fresh vegetables, not growing them. But since I have moved away from home for large parts of the year (and the bountiful vegetable plot at that location), I have been getting withdrawal symptoms. So, aged 20 and freshly moved into my new flat with French windows opening onto a small terrace, I decided to give gardening a go. I have opted for container gardening since the space we have is communal and I didn’t want to annoy the new neighbours by planting cabbages in the herbaceous borders. I have planted up 3 pots; one with lettuce, one with herbs and one with spinach which I am attempting to grow from seed.
I filled the three pots with organic compost making a small hole with my finger for the plug plants and sowing the spinach seeds 2cm deep. Hopefully there will be salad before the end of the summer. Fingers crossed. Ele
The spinach has germinated!
This is my spinach just 6 days after it was first sown! I am so deeply excited by this development I am thinking of changing the label: It is no longer hopefully spinach, it is actually spinach! This has really given me the boost of instant gratification I needed to encourage me to take on more complex and lengthy projects. I am already planning what to do with my first crop. I’m thinking maybe some delicious spinach and ricotta cannelloni.
A new addition already… think I might be getting the bug
This is my latest addition. I have simply potted up a Super chilli. It is my hope that, since the pot is deep but reasonably small in circumference, it can be moved inside during the winter months so it doesn’t die in the frosts. But for now it is sunning itself outside in the Norfolk sunshine. Pictures of my pots in their new home to follow tomorrow plus an exciting update on my spinach plants… well to me it’s exciting… Ele
