This week in your Kitchen Garden.
- Thread starter Mrs Magpie
- Start date
Callie
Pivoting
Do you know what it is yet?Any idea what the round leaved seedlings are that have come up in amongst my lettuces?
Leafster
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I took the decision to weed them out of the lettuce bed but I did pot a couple up so I could see what they grew into. Sadly, they haven’t grown much yet so I still don’t know. I’ll post an update when there’s something to report.
seeformiles
Lost in the wood
Broad beans sprouting nicely (and Little Gem lettuces germinating)
Planting out the tomatoes today. I have a slightly bizarre selection (because I bought no new seeds this season) so growing from saved seed/old seed. I seem to be a bit heavy on cherry tomatoes...with the only large size being Russian and Czech potato-leaved varieties (but always worth growing to beat the blight as they are ready in 55 days), Am also growing a few Piccolo which do come true from saved seeds, plus the very odd millefleur types ( absolutely gigantic trusses). I only have space for 24 plants this year and a couple in the greenhouse. Also going to try to get all the cosmos, tithonias, echinacea, campanulas etc. in to minimise the onerous watering over summer (plus, I want to go to the wood).
Will be waiting till June before I do the squashes and courgettes, while I have already sowed french beans directly in the soil.
Will have to put up with B&Q as I need compost (avoiding garden centres).
Will be waiting till June before I do the squashes and courgettes, while I have already sowed french beans directly in the soil.
Will have to put up with B&Q as I need compost (avoiding garden centres).
Leafster
.
I'm leaning towards artichoke at the moment. The first true leaves of the seedlings are lanceolate and slightly silvery. I think the next ones should look more like mini artichoke leaves, assuming I'm correct!
Leafster
.
If they are artichokes then the parent plants are already 1.75m tall and spilling out over the border. I wish I'd saved more seedlings now but I'm pretty sure I haven't the space for even the two I have saved.That's kinda exciting. And big
ETA: With the flower spikes I've had them grow to over 2.5m. They are monsters!
My cucumbers and courgettes are still in the tiny pots I started them in because compost delivery for the big ~50L tubs they're to go in keeps being rearranged. Just been given a bag of compost for something else, that I could take a bit from. Reckon I'm better potting on to something *slightly * bigger now, or hanging on till Thurs/Fri when I can get another delivery sorted if the first still hasn't shown up? Iirc they don't like having their roots disturbed? They're starting to look quite unhappy now though.
Artaxerxes
Look out, he's got a gnu!
Lettuce radish and rocket all in season.
Latah tomato from Real Seeds, earliest I think I’ve ever had an outdoor tomato.
Latah tomato from Real Seeds, earliest I think I’ve ever had an outdoor tomato.
The39thStep
Urban critical thinker
Latah used to be one of my faves as it’s early enough not to get blight.
Artaxerxes
Look out, he's got a gnu!
White beetroot starting to get big enough to eat...
Red lettuce, green lettuce and rocket are powering away to...
Red lettuce, green lettuce and rocket are powering away to...
I grew that last year. I forgot it was a bush variety and cheerfully nipped out all the side-shoots leaving me with a depleted (but tasty) crop. Got Stupice this year as my 'blight buster. Hoping for my first crop around 1st week in July.
Give them a quick dose of liquid food - any sort of balanced fert. will do (including a cheapo Poundland Doff one I sometimes use). Don't feed when dry though.
I am seeing this a lot in all my still potted seedlings. Base fertilser in potting mix only lasts for 6 weeks or so...so have been using Maxicrop every week. Water first until the plants have full uptake of liquid, then either do a foliage spray or a bottom watering first thing in the morning (before the compost gets too dry).
Cheers, I was doing this (plus watering several times a day - see pic in garden thread of how root bound they were!) but they're out in big tubs now so all good chillis I planted out without any hardening off seem to be coping too. Poor cucumbers were sending out roots right up past their cotyledons.
Which is probably why they look a lot better than some of my seedlings! Really, they looked pretty good, Iona...and unless the soil is really compacted when you plant, they will grow away with no trouble. At college, my tutor told me to look at the cotyledons. These will persist quite a while after planting, if the seedlings have enough nutrients. An unhappy plant will cannibalise the cotyledons (which were a vital nutrient source until a good root system developed). This is really noticeable on curcubits...and yours (although I could only see one), still looked green and healthy (rather than yellow and shrivelled).
Its the watering which is doing my head in. Little, slow-growing, drought loving plants like pinks can sit in teeny pots for months...but tithonia is really on the point of suffering. Like you, I am having the compost conundrum. Whether to go off in search of more or hang on just another week or so till they can manage the hurly-burly of an allotment bed. Looking at my (dying acer), I suspect I am going to be driven out in search of John Innes anyway, some point this week.
Sigh - pit off compost turning again...to idle in front of a screen for hours. Energy levels all over the place.
Yeah the courgettes looked a lot less happy leaf-wise tbf
What compost do you need? Lots of places online you can order and get it delivered.
Because a lot of my plants are kept in permanent containers, iona, I use a loam based mix. Multi-purpose is OK for a summer season but no good for long-term...((mostly because it isn't actually soil and is unable to sustain the electrical and chemical interactions which determine soil fertility and nutrient take up...and also, it degrades quite quickly, leaving problems with aeration, drainage, saturation...O a whole lot of things - keeping long term containerised plants is a whole lot more tricky than planting into topsoil. I have always stuck with the John Innes recipe (you can make your own as well as buy it ready made). So, I generally use Clover John Innes 3 as it is cheaper than Westland. I hate J Arthur Bowyers and wouldn't use it for anything. But anyway, I have never sourced a supply of J.innes in tonne bags so end up buying 30litres, for between £5 and £7 each...which means a trip to a garden centre since neither B&Q nor Homebase stock JI3.
seeformiles
Lost in the wood
Try Alpine Strawberries. About 20 years ago, we bought some seeds at Winchester Cathedral (they were recreating a medieval garden) and stuck them in a pot on the patio. They escaped into the cracks and, every year since, have put out fruit with no effort required from us
Lots of places online doing garden centre sized bags, you don't need to buy in bulk to get it delivered if that's easier...
I have cheered myself up by planning a visit to a local(ish) garden centre which also has an aquatic dept...because my poor goldfish are having a torrid time with algae in the tank so I will pick up some oxygenators and water test kit at the same time...and maybe even replace the tubes because the light spectrum changes when the tubes are old and failing a bit. Even better, you can phone ahead and they bring out the bags to you...while the aquatic centre is separate from the main block.
Oooh, might see if there are some zinnia seeds available - still time to sow...and then there are biennials (claps hands in glee).
Even better, Iona, my pharmacist has phoned to say they have sourced another weeks worth of my script and it should be back in full production by June 12th....and I have a new customer with a sodding great big chaotic garden. All looking good.
Hoping all is well with you.
The39thStep
Urban critical thinker
Garlic , getting warm here now so might as well dig it up before the soil becomes too hard
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TopCat
Putin fanboy
Lidl coir based compost is so good and so cheap. 2 quid 40 litres
