End of April to Early May
I’ve been a slack when it comes to updating the garden diary lately but it’s doing pretty well. All but the lettuce has been moved out in to the cold frame I built a couple of weeks ago.
the tomatoes (right in the image) are doing well enough. I expected them to be larger by now. Since potting on from modules they don’t really seem to have grown very much. I also have some sweetcorn which will go behind the chillies. The cucumber, like the tomatoes, doesn’t seem to have done much since potting on.
The potatoes we planted back in, I think it was, March are going great. They are a super early variety and will probably be ready mid-June. The radishes are still producing strongly and we are picking them every night. The peas I transplanted didn’t do much for about three weeks but they are finally showing some signs of life. I’ll try and take more pictures in the coming days for a proper update.
Mid-May 2022
Everything seems to be going great now, the photo below is the contents of the cold frame on 8th May. As you can see the tomatoes have shot up. As it’s lovely and warm I’ve moved a few of the seed trays into the cold frame too. The cucumbers are doing absolutely nothing which I find odd, they started really strong and have sort of given up.
I had a few spring onions that I wasn’t sure what to do with so I stuck them in pots and they have taken off. I’m tempted to pull one and see how it tastes (8th May).
The carrots are coming on well, they will need thinning out at some point. The first row of direct sown spring onions is now established – they take a long time to germinate when direct sown. The garlic is doing well, apparently though I’ve sown it at the wrong time of the year. The radishes are doing alright but the slugs seem to like having a nibble. The old peas on the right a failing, I later pulled them out and found the plug came out all in one go. I assume they had become so pot bound they were unable to start growing again. The main crop onions continue to grow very slowly.
I made a load of self wicking buckets after finding someone talking about them online. They are basically just a bucket in a bucket. The inner bucket has a few holes to both create an air gap and allow water to wick up into the soil. So far they seem to be working well.
The potatoes are going great. I’ve never seen such a healthy looking crop. This is from the 16th May and I suspect they will be finished in a month. The plant at the front right is showing signs of wilting which I think is an indication it’s done. Strangely though it hasn’t tried to flower which I would have expected.
The indoor lettuce is growing quite well no thanks to me though. Turns out I had them in pots that were too small. The plant will get to between 15 and 20cm wide and the pot needs to be about that size as well. When I repotted them I started over watering them and ended up with mould on the compost. I fixed that by removing the top 1cm or so of soil to encourage air circulation and I haven’t watered since. That seems to have fixed the problem. The tray to the left is micro-greens (sprouting broccoli I think), just a little extra I decided to try my hand at.
I thought it would be a good idea to get some poles in for the tomatoes to grow up so I bulk ordered large bamboo canes. I built the framework shown before but I’ve since strengthened it as it was a big wobbly. Who knows if this will be strong enough, cross your fingers.
Until Early June 2022
New Containers
My partner bagged some new containers for me to grow in. We have quite a lot of patio space and not much garden space so containers are really useful. I got:
- 6 large tubs, 66 litres each, 50cm across – they are labelled Smithy but google turns up Stewart Patio Tub Planters that look identical. I think I can probably get two potato plants in each one.
- 12 potato grow bags, 40cm across by 50cm high so around 60 litres. These are woven polythene which I’m not keen on as I find it tends to degrade badly in the sun but they were free so I’ll give them a go.
This gives me a total new volume of (6 * 66) + (12 * 60) = 1116 litres which is a lot of compost to be buying.