Wellrooted - Gardening and vegetable growing diaries from the West Country

Produce

Jul 25th 2010

By: Paul

1 comment
I haven’t been able to get up into the gardens as much as I would have liked over recent weeks, but it has looked after itself quite well with all of the rain we had. We have been enjoying a lot of the fresh veg now coming from the plots. The biggest successes so far have been cucumber, runner beans, french beans, mange tout, courgettes, squash and potatos. The carrots have not been brilliant so we will do something better with those next year.

The greenhouse tomatos are now just starting to turn red, as are the outdoor ones. This will be the next load of produce to emerge I believe. We now tend to get about 3 good size cucumbers a week and around the same number of courgettes.

Some of my ideas for next year…
- No potatos in the main bed – they overshadowed a lot of other plants like the carrots and made the plot hard to access.
- Grow more onions, carrots – didn’t have enough of these this year.
- Do not grow lettuce ‘salad bowl’ – they became covered with aphids and were not easy to prepare.
- Come up with a better hydroponic solution to avoid mould – any ideas anyone?
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Ideas for next year.

Jul 6th 2010

By: Doug

1 comment

One of the reasons for this blog was to enable me to learn from mistakes from the previous years… I usually make the same mistakes year on year so hopefully this post should help me out!

This year’s thoughts so far…

Firstly, not enough lettuce. Perhaps next year I should dedicate a couple of smaller tubs to salads. Be good if they could be moved from the greenhouse later in the summer to allow for a longer growing period.

Remember to Plant Giant pumpkin in a place it will fit… Perhaps in some one else’s bigger garden! It is now about 5 ft long and growing very fast indeed.

Less tomato’s in a tub. They seem a little overcrowded this year. I must also remember to be more vigilant in removing the branches before they get too big. Just think of all that wasted energy that could have been tomato’s!

Courgettes need no love in order to grow well! Plant and leave alone. They will be fine.

Chili plants and peppers need slug pellets even in the greenhouse. How do they get in???

Plant Aubergines earlier.

More strawberry plants.

Plant onions further apart, they get big! – No need to use sets, seeds seem to produce better onions.

Parsnips and Beetroot are great to grow – Maybe a few more next year.

Leave room for leeks.

Plant Kelsae and Ailsa Craig seeds in January.

Remove some branches from the tree over the plot.

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Hydro-Disaster!

Jun 27th 2010

By: Paul

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I knew things were too good to be true! I went out to the greenhouse to find some of the newly forming tomatos on the hydroponics system had dropped onto the floor with blackened sides to them. After some more investigation, the problems appeared to be more substantial. I had a look at the roots and found mould.

After some research on tomato diseases, I came to the conclusion the problem was FUSARIUM WILT due to the mould within the roots and instead of them being white, they had become brown and mulchy. I had to make the call and couldn’t risk the disease spreading around the greenhouse so I have aborted the hydroponics experiment for this year. I will come back with a better system next time!

On a better note – the peppers survived from the hydroponics and I have now replanted them into soil…

…and I have lots of tasty courgettes

Pauls Garden
Strawberry

Jun 23rd 2010

By: Doug

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The garden and greenhouse are now officially full… I wonder if i am going to be able to move around at all if things grow any more. Shouldn’t complain!

First things first, I must first introduce a new member of the family… “Parsnip” She is an amazing little Springer spaniel, just 11 weeks old.

Now back to the garden. In the little bed the Beetroot and parsnips are doing really well. I suspect i should start to pull up some soon but I have never grown beetroot before so don’t know? – I will have a look tonight. On the right you can see some of the sweetcorn planted out last week. They are growing well but maybe planted out a little late. Far right is the so called giant pumkin (not so giant right now).

In the greenhouse the tomato’s are looking really good. Alot of flowering right now so hopefully there should be a good crop this year. The peppers suffered rather badly from slug attack so i have resorted to organic slug pellets (something I usually try to avoid) They are recovering well. The greenhouse is also providing a steady crop of lettuce which together with the pea tops, graden herbs and beet leaves make for a delicious salad. The greenhouse Courgette plant is amazing and I get new courgettes every single day. I can barely keep up with the picking! The butternut squash plant has been traied over the potting bench and has started to flower.

Toms in the conservatory are a little further on than the greenhouse. I really should have used bigger pots as it makes it much easier keeping up with ther watering. They are starting to produce some nice looking toms, The variety in the picture below is an Ailsa Craig.

Back out in the garden everything is doing well. I had a first crop of Broad beans this week which was a nice treat. They never go very far though, What I thought was loads was just enough for one dinner…

Picture of the big bed. – Onions are doing very well indeed and the runners have started to produce those beautiful orange flowers! I am really looking forward to the first peas that should be ready some time this week. My pea hedge worked pretty well in the end.

We are also starting to get some really nice strawberries and the slugs are not eating them! I suspect this is due the the Newts or Frogs from the pond getting to the slugs first! I am really starting to like my pond! I am sure the Rhubard could spare a few leaves for a crumble this week.

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Landscaped pond and tomatos a-plenty

Jun 20th 2010

By: Paul

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This week saw the pond area finally finished. It’s such a nice place to sit and listen to the waterfall now. As our garden has 3 levels, we have decided to give each one its purpose. The bottom area is used for a table and chairs, the middle level is a decorative area and the top level for the vegetables and fruits.

Anyway, back to the main topic – the plants! All is still going well and the only problems we have had recently is maintaining the temperature as it’s been so hot recently. I think I’m going to have to be trading a few tomatos for a few of the plants we haven’t grown as we are going to have too many!

My main aubergene should start producing soon…

…and the cucumbers have some great yellow flowers on them.

The cucumber plants that sit on the lower shelf have had to be tied to the top shelf to support them

I’m hoping this plant will make me a nice bell pepper but it hasn’t been doing that well. It was one that survived through last year but I don’t think I pruned it back enough to stimulate new growth.

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Mid June

Jun 13th 2010

By: Paul

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Half way through June and I couldn’t be happier with the progress so far, I have had very little die out on me and we have already been reaping the rewards of our planting. We have enough lettuce being produced now that we shouldn’t have to buy any from supermarkets for the rest of summer.

The pond waterfall is now finished and the surround will be made to look a bit more appealing

The runner beans have now reached the top of their poles and have loads of flowers. They look really healthy too except for the hoards of aphids that now call them home.

Back inside the greenhouse, the hydro tomatos have now reached the top of their shelving. It wont be long before I will have to trim at the top of the plants to make sure they use their energy in making better tomatos instead of more leaves.

The cucumbers are also doing well and I have the makings of some baby ones…

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All coming along nicely…

Jun 6th 2010

By: Paul

2 comments

Yep, everything is going very well at the moment. I haven’t had any other plants die on me and even the pests have stayed away for the most part so far. We seem to be getting a great strawberry harvest every other day for such a small plot.

The row of runner beans at the end of the main run are shooting up nicely, we have lots of flowers at the bottom now.

The pond progress has been coming on nicely.

From the soil that was dug up from around the pond, my dad made a great ‘soil sive’! To reclaim some for more planting.

Up at my grandad’s place, a wood pidgeon has nested within the apple tree! It doesn’t seem to mind people though.

The tomato box I made is now bursting into life.

The courgette and squash are doing very well indeed.

I have both now producing veg.

We also have many apples on their way

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Giant Raddish

Jun 4th 2010

By: Paul

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I was quite busy last week so I didn’t get round to getting a post up but I took some pictures midweek for an update.

After thinning the raddishes out last time, the ones that were left grew quite big.

The Mange Tout is coming on nicely now as we only planted it around 2 weeks ago.

The potatos at the back of the bed have now reached the top of the netting and are completely overpowering the other plants. I might give them a trim soon.

The ‘Demon Red’ chilli bush is loving the greenhouse environment and now has so many flowers and even a few chillis.

The cucumber and aubergene also doing very well in their grow bags.

Hydro tomatos going crazy as always…

We now have a ‘tumbler’ tomato just outside the greenhouse. Great if you don’t have a lot of space as they love hanging baskets and produce loads of great tasting baby tomatos.

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A week away.

Jun 2nd 2010

By: wellrooted

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This weeks update with lot’s of pictures! Things have been growing well, we have had a fantastic cycle of rain then sun then rain then sun. Nothing like it to make the garden grow!

Heres the pics,

The Apache Chilli in the first pic has grown so much in the last couple of weeks. (See my last post for a pic two weeks ago)

Tomato’s and onions are growing well and the Apple tree has started to bear fruit for the first time.

Courgettes will be on the menu by the end of the week. Radishes and Lettuce are in full flow and I have been using the beetroot thinnings and courgette flowers in salads! Delicious.

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Dougs Garden
Heat

May 23rd 2010

By: Paul

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It has been a weekend of un-seasonable warmth, more than the usual for this time of May. My main jobs have been trying to keep the plants from wilting and dying in 35c heat within the greenhouse. Apart from that, I have been making progress at my Grandad’s place putting in more rows of carrots, onions, lettuce and some other bits to try and secure a continuous supply throughout the summer. My Dad spent most of the weekend building a new waterfall for the middle garden pond!

I did a bit of thinning in the Raddish area of the bed, they went well in our meal that evening.

The potatos at the back of the bed are starting to overpower the place a bit!

The Squash and Courgette now sit inside other of the diy boxes which I have filled with soil, this should give them loads more room to grow.

This shows the extra new lines of seeding in the second raised bed at my Grandad’s place:

The temperature was usually around 30c but peaked at 35c!

The cucumbers seem to like the heat though

And as always, with their continuous supply of water and nutrients the hydroponic plants have gone crazy. I have had to tie the tomatos out of the way of the pepper plants as they were completely swamping them!

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