Liz had a fantastic idea, while we did this: re-purposing the old coal bunker as a soil bunker. We typically need quite a bit of soil over the course of a year, for potting things up. There's nowhere neat and tidy to store that much (after all, we're talking about the equivalent of at least a dozen garden centre bags of compost), but it's cheaper (and easier) to buy in bulk. At the same time, we've been eyeing up the coal bunker outside the back door, and thinking 'What use are you?'.
Liz put these two trains of thoughts together, and so (as ever) when we get round to it, we'll empty the coal bunker of the rubbish that's in it (some coal, some kindling, some real rubbish, I expect); I'll construct some sort of better-suited hatch, and we'll start using it to store potting-type compost. Garden compost, of course, will stay in the composting bays until it's needed, but potting compost, which gets brought on-site, can live here.
Having moved the soil, we decided that it's warm enough to plant out the potatoes and onions. For the last two years, we've done this earlier (potatoes on 2nd April 2011, and 1st April 2012: onions on 27th March 2011 and 1st April 2012), but the weather's been so perishingly cold that we've waited. It's now warming up, and looking like it'll stay warmer: it's been averaging about 4°C for the last month, and we haven't wanted to put these into cold soil.
As before, we've done the potatoes in trenches, which we'll fill up. I'm not sure it has any practical impact on their success, but it's nice to be able to keep an eye on how they're growing, so we persist. The trenches are, as before, 18" apart, but we put four tubers in per row, as they haven't felt like the extra space (three per row) was needed in previous years. For now, it's just the earlies: Swift, Lady Christl, and Kestrel. The first and last are new to us; Lady Christl has long been a favourite. In a week or two, we'll put in the maincrop Druid tubers, which get more space: 30" between rows, and three per row. Our experiment in 2011 suggested that this spacing increased the yield (in kg/m2), which is what we're after.
The onions have previously been planted straight into the ground, which has worked fine in many ways, but leads to a very time consuming and tedious job of weeding. Spaced just 6" apart, there's not space to hoe, but onions suffer badly if they're swamped by grass and chickweed and buttercups. Which they get, unweeded. To try to combat this, instead we have planted them through the weed-suppressing membrane with which we've been warming the soil for the last couple of weeks. I worked down the sheet, cutting a cross every 6" by 6", and planted through these. Weighed down along the edges with stones, the membrane seems to be holding in position (necessary, if the shoot of the onion is to find the hole!). We'll now have to see whether (a) it cuts down on weeding, (b) the foliage escapes and grows well, and (c) the membrane interferes in the bulb swelling. Anyway: a hundred of each of Fen Early, Red Fen, and Rumba. The over-wintered onions (Radar) and Germidour garlic, along with the Elephant Garlic, are all doing reasonably. They've been in since September, and although they took a while (the Elephant especially) to get going, they all appear to be doing well. Inevitably, we've lost some Radar to the cold weather, but the garlics appear (at last count) to have all survived.
Today was a mammoth pricking out and potting up exercise. The petunia seedlings are the worst, so we started with them: probably a hundred seedlings, and I only sowed three 3" pots. They're tiny and irritating, because they have almost no root, which also means they almost unfailingly wilt, and I worry about whether they'll survive. Better were the achilleas: A. millefolium, and 'Summer Pastels', which were pleasing plantlets. The tomatoes (also very wilt-y) are now in individual pots, as are the chillis and peppers. We didn't get to the cineraria, but managed the brassicas (couple of dozen sprouts, and about 50 kale, not all of which will be planted out, or will be eaten as greens when small). The celeriac have finally germinated (I think they were too cold to start with), and we're going to have loads of seedlings. We weren't sure the seed would be viable next year, so I sowed the lot, and there are probably about 200 seedlings. I don't like celeriac quite that much, so we'll thin them gradually to the strongest seedling in each module, for around 35-40 to plant out. The sweet peas are now all potted on, and outside with twigs to clamber, except a few that aren't quite as hardy.
We've then sown some more seeds: leeks (Prizetaker, again), peas (Delicata mange-tout), salad leaves (a spicy mix, a more mellow mix for me, Lollo Rosso, and wild rocket), courgettes (a pack of five, of three varieties, which look fun), purple sprouting, 'Mystique' cauliflowers, carrots (Early Nantes, Amsterdam Forcing, and Autumn King), and Festuca blue grass. (No, that's not a vegetable.)
The window-sills are pretty packed, already: that greenhouse is looking more necessary every spring.
Lastly: today is Daffodil Day -- that is, the first daffodils are open in the garden.
As before, we've done the potatoes in trenches, which we'll fill up. I'm not sure it has any practical impact on their success, but it's nice to be able to keep an eye on how they're growing, so we persist. The trenches are, as before, 18" apart, but we put four tubers in per row, as they haven't felt like the extra space (three per row) was needed in previous years. For now, it's just the earlies: Swift, Lady Christl, and Kestrel. The first and last are new to us; Lady Christl has long been a favourite. In a week or two, we'll put in the maincrop Druid tubers, which get more space: 30" between rows, and three per row. Our experiment in 2011 suggested that this spacing increased the yield (in kg/m2), which is what we're after.
The onions have previously been planted straight into the ground, which has worked fine in many ways, but leads to a very time consuming and tedious job of weeding. Spaced just 6" apart, there's not space to hoe, but onions suffer badly if they're swamped by grass and chickweed and buttercups. Which they get, unweeded. To try to combat this, instead we have planted them through the weed-suppressing membrane with which we've been warming the soil for the last couple of weeks. I worked down the sheet, cutting a cross every 6" by 6", and planted through these. Weighed down along the edges with stones, the membrane seems to be holding in position (necessary, if the shoot of the onion is to find the hole!). We'll now have to see whether (a) it cuts down on weeding, (b) the foliage escapes and grows well, and (c) the membrane interferes in the bulb swelling. Anyway: a hundred of each of Fen Early, Red Fen, and Rumba. The over-wintered onions (Radar) and Germidour garlic, along with the Elephant Garlic, are all doing reasonably. They've been in since September, and although they took a while (the Elephant especially) to get going, they all appear to be doing well. Inevitably, we've lost some Radar to the cold weather, but the garlics appear (at last count) to have all survived.
Today was a mammoth pricking out and potting up exercise. The petunia seedlings are the worst, so we started with them: probably a hundred seedlings, and I only sowed three 3" pots. They're tiny and irritating, because they have almost no root, which also means they almost unfailingly wilt, and I worry about whether they'll survive. Better were the achilleas: A. millefolium, and 'Summer Pastels', which were pleasing plantlets. The tomatoes (also very wilt-y) are now in individual pots, as are the chillis and peppers. We didn't get to the cineraria, but managed the brassicas (couple of dozen sprouts, and about 50 kale, not all of which will be planted out, or will be eaten as greens when small). The celeriac have finally germinated (I think they were too cold to start with), and we're going to have loads of seedlings. We weren't sure the seed would be viable next year, so I sowed the lot, and there are probably about 200 seedlings. I don't like celeriac quite that much, so we'll thin them gradually to the strongest seedling in each module, for around 35-40 to plant out. The sweet peas are now all potted on, and outside with twigs to clamber, except a few that aren't quite as hardy.
We've then sown some more seeds: leeks (Prizetaker, again), peas (Delicata mange-tout), salad leaves (a spicy mix, a more mellow mix for me, Lollo Rosso, and wild rocket), courgettes (a pack of five, of three varieties, which look fun), purple sprouting, 'Mystique' cauliflowers, carrots (Early Nantes, Amsterdam Forcing, and Autumn King), and Festuca blue grass. (No, that's not a vegetable.)
The window-sills are pretty packed, already: that greenhouse is looking more necessary every spring.
Lastly: today is Daffodil Day -- that is, the first daffodils are open in the garden.
Spring bulbs in the arbour corner (© Ian 2013)
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