This week in your Kitchen Garden.
- Thread starter Mrs Magpie
- Start date
Do you want any red pepper seeds in case they're crappy F1s or something? (Am assuming you mean you're saving seeds from supermarket peppers, sorry if I've misunderstood) I bought a small pack of seeds then got more from local blind seed swap so I have plenty...
Finally got round to digging up most of the oca - there's a proper childish joy in rummaging around in the dirt and coming up with handfuls of buried treasure. Carrots sown late last year are just reaching usable size and I've been sowing various salady things outdoors both direct and in modules. Planted the first potatoes yesterday too.
The39thStep
Urban critical thinker
Broad beans are fine but I’d have put the peas a little closer together tbh . Beds look in excellent fettle
I am hoping to bring my dye garden plants to harvest this year. I sowed madder root (rubia tinctorum) 4 years ago, so this year, the roots should be extensive enough to harvest enough for dyeing but still leave a good amount for future years. Along with the more usual dye plants (dyers greenweed, woad, anthemis, safflower, I am waiting on seeds for Japanese indigo (persicaria tinctoria) to add to the indigofera I have. I am insanely excited about this as I even have a small amount of homespun yarn from sheep which graze in my wood. Natural dyes work brilliantly on wool (they can be tricky on cellulose based plants such as cotton, nettle, hemp etc.). It has been a long-term ambition to spin, dye and knit enough yarn to make a new gardening jumper. I have no plans for any sort of self-sufficiency from my allotments...but growing colours!!
I grow a lot of monocots, iona. I seem to have a lot of luck with geophytes ...and finding a tiny bulb, (either enlarged stem or root) from sowing seeds is really thrilling. It took 6-7 years to grow some lilies from seed...but finding those little pearly bulbs definitely encouraged me to keep going from year to year. I also have a lot of paeonies on the go this year - I won't even see a shoot for another whole year...then 4 years until they can store enough energy to flower.
Sweet Cicely has just emerged from vernalisation - they have insane cotyledons - the 2 seed leaves are 3inches long (with the characteristic umbellifer architecture.
I grow a lot of monocots, iona. I seem to have a lot of luck with geophytes ...and finding a tiny bulb, (either enlarged stem or root) from sowing seeds is really thrilling. It took 6-7 years to grow some lilies from seed...but finding those little pearly bulbs definitely encouraged me to keep going from year to year. I also have a lot of paeonies on the go this year - I won't even see a shoot for another whole year...then 4 years until they can store enough energy to flower.
Sweet Cicely has just emerged from vernalisation - they have insane cotyledons - the 2 seed leaves are 3inches long (with the characteristic umbellifer architecture.
First brassicas have begun brassicking inside their bottle cloches. Peas are doing ok after planting out on Friday - was totally convinced I'd come back to find them entirely eaten by something, for some reason. Direct-sown soup peas are germinating well too. Broad beans are doing pants but they're bound to get their arses into gear just after I decide to start off extras indoors.
The39thStep
Urban critical thinker
My broad beans are just about ready to eat
PSB is sprouting away in the garden, still eating last year's chard from the allotment and leeks are about ready to pull up. Carrots are germinating well, especially for old leftover seeds. Planted twenty strawberries today.
Was chatting to my allotment neighbour and she isn't risking putting much in the ground yet but already has courgettes at potting-on size
andysays
Love and solidarity
Did you force that rhubarb? I'm currently using a wheelbarrow as an impromptu forcer and am hoping to get some rhubarb in another week or so.
PSB is sprouting away in the garden, still eating last year's chard from the allotment and leeks are about ready to pull up. Carrots are germinating well, especially for old leftover seeds. Planted twenty strawberries today.
Was chatting to my allotment neighbour and she isn't risking putting much in the ground yet but already has courgettes at potting-on size
I planted potatoes today, and have recently planted out spinach, lettuce, pak choi, red cabbage and spring onion seedlings.
The ground is prepared for carrots and parsnips, but not sure whether to sow until the current cold snap is over.
Heat loving plants like courgettes and tomatoes won't be sown until later this month.
Yes (under one of those council recycling boxes
) but already pulled the forced stems, stuff that's coming through now wasn't forced. Other crowns I didn't force aren't far behind, would've had some today but I dug them up and moved them less than a month ago. Chucked some manure on both clumps then and been giving them a good water weekly since which I think has helped.I've already planted potatoes but got more waiting to go in where the leeks are now and one final row of peas to be sown in the next couple weeks. Brassicas, chard, beetroot & leaf beet, carrots, lettuce / salad mix and radish have all been direct sown now plus tomatoes and chillies indoors. My garden's much warmer than the allotment so might get cucurbits for here started this week.
I sowed my tomatoes almost 3 weeks ago, and so far, the only ones up are from old (last years) seed. Nothing from this years seed order. I have been scrutinising the pots with my 10X magnifying glass!. I am particularly narked with the non-germinating Chadwick Cherry as I still had some seeds from last year but thought nope, I will use new, (supposedly) fresh seed. I am giving it until Friday before emailing the seed co. (ViridisHortus)
All the long-leaf persicaria has germinated.. If I had thought a bit harder, I would have sown it directly into the beds , It is, after all, persicaria.
Still holding off from putting much in the ground yet, but will probably do some direct spinach, spring onions. Waiting till 14th April (or thereabouts) before sowing curcubits or Frenchies.
All the long-leaf persicaria has germinated.. If I had thought a bit harder, I would have sown it directly into the beds , It is, after all, persicaria.
Still holding off from putting much in the ground yet, but will probably do some direct spinach, spring onions. Waiting till 14th April (or thereabouts) before sowing curcubits or Frenchies.
seeformiles
Lost in the wood
Chilli seedlings doing well on the windowsill and runner beans planted. Outside herbs (Lovage, mint, winter savory, thyme, mint, lavender, sage and oregano) all slowly returning.
So, after a futile wait for tomato germination, I bought another round of seeds to sow again. I was thinking about blight resistance and thought I would try some of the varieties which are (supposedly) more resistant to early and late blight. I used to grow Ferline for my main blight resister, along with a couple of early potato-leaved types (Matina, Bloody Butcher) which would generally ripen before late blight appeared. Of late, Ferline seems very susceptible to blossom end rot so this year, I am going with Akron, Cocktail Candy and the highly rated Mountain Magic, all F1s (I have a few reliable OP stable seed strains such as Harbinger, Tres Cantos and Black Cherry as well as a few other 'heirloom' types. Will report back on blight resistance and flavour.
seeformiles
Lost in the wood
Chilli seedlings doing nicely (Mushroom Pepper, Choc Habanero, Peach Scorpion) and Runner Beans are coming on well
Artaxerxes
Look out, he's got a gnu!
No luck with chilli seeds at all this year, none have germinated and they've been in since Feb. Probably to old, think they've been in the packet for over a year.
Thought they lasted well but apparently not.
Thought they lasted well but apparently not.
Buy some plants. Ime, chillis need quite a long growing season, so I think half a dozen plants with a couple of months growing, would be a decent investment of time and money. I often buy squash plants because I want a few varieties, but only 1 of each (although seeds do keep well tbf).
My daughter sows these - she uses a mix of saladings (things like purslane, landcress, mustards), peas, broccoli and spring greens, polycress, spinach, beetroot, sorrel. All perfectly ordinary seeds, bought as cheaply as possible because you can get through quite a lot of seeds. I think she tries to get Kings 'allotment size' packs of some of them. Don't buy spendy starter kits - any old seed, in ordinary seed trays will do. She sows the seed in little rows, just like a field in miniature, and harvests with scissors. She doesn't get enough to eat plates of just microgreens, but cuts a handful, along with parsley, and plops it on top of a waldorf salad or such. Her whole kitchen windowsill has 3 seed trays. She often leaves them until the seeds have just gone beyond the first leaf stage, because quite a few will regrow if greens are harvested sparingly (a few leaves from each plant. She started off doing sprouts in glass bottles (mung beans and such) and added mini-greens last summer (during the long, long summer of homework boredom).
Boudicca
Seaside Queen
Thank you. I'm going to have a go at this!
friendofdorothy
Solidarity against neoliberalism!
bit worried that the beans I planted and put out in a cold frame 2 weeks ago have been killed by the cold weather. I've planted more and kept them indoors. Lettuce I planted a week ago and put in cold frame is beginning to come up.
