These are blog posts that Alison Mundie has made.
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These
are exciting times here at Harlow Carr with all the flooding over the
last 2 weeks, and much time being spent mending paths washed away by
the torrential showers. Thankfully, a desperate team effort managed to avert the potential disaster of a flood in Bettys cake shop! Our kitchen garden and 3x3m plot are luckily at the top of a hill, and apart from the paths have come off very well. Add to the list of advantages of raised beds that floodwater runs around them on the bark paths
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One of my favourite vegetables, I can never plant enough leeks so they had to be included in the 3x3 plot! They're a good choice for a small space, and look very ornamental. Ours
were sown back in February in a 9cm pot, and are now ready to plant out
- not quite ‘pencil thickness' (as all the books say) but sturdy plants
like thin spring onions. Made the planting
holes with the end of a rake (forgot to bring the dibber), and emptied
out the leeks, shaking the soil off the roots. Interestingly the books all have different takes on cutting the roots down inlength, varying between to 2.5cm or not at all. Basically,
it makes putting the leeks into the planting holes easier, plus you
don't want the roots twisted round at the base of the plant, so I cut
mine down to 3-4cm. If the leeks are taller than around 20cm, cut some of the leaf off too. The variety is Varna, a dual purpose leek (as many are) that
can be broadcast sown & then thinned to grow as a baby leek, or
grown on to a larger size to harvest in autumn or early winter.
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Long time no blog
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Another
gorgeous day, albeit cooler than the roasting weekend temperatures -
everything is growing before our eyes, and watering is a constant
demand already. Covering
our hardening off plants in the cold frames with green shade netting
seems to help stop them wilting & keeps them cooler
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With
the fantastic warm sunny weather over the last week or so, things are
really getting going & we could easily fill twice the time we have
each day! Apart from keeping up with the sowing and planting, we're frantically preparing for next week's Veg Day - Get Growing! on Wednesday, 11 April. Its part of the RHS's Veg Year activities, related to the Grow your own Veg programme, and there
will be lots of veg-related talks and demos, a product corner
(including a variety of raised beds on show) and children's activities. You could also come and visit the 3x3 plot, and the kitchen garden in general! With
all this work to do, we didn't really need the diversion of chasing
young rabbits from a burrow found in the kitchen garden..
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The
seeds I sowed under the cloche in the 3x3 plot have germinated, so I
uncovered them in the sunshine on Thursday in the morning. They
had literally grown and spread their leaves by the afternoon when we
were closing the frames down for the night - amazing what a bit of
warmth and light will do. This is the most
exciting time of year for growing as well as the busiest - when things
change before your eyes and you can almost watch plants grow -
brilliant! This thrill of seeds growing never goes away, no matter how long you have been doing it - its still amazing
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Several
of the plants we started under glass have been moved out into the cold
frames next to the kitchen garden and 3x3 plot, to begin the hardening
off process before being planted out. We will probably do another sowing in the greenhouse before we start sowing direct into the soil in early April. Before then germination can be a bit unreliable. The good news is that you don't need to have a greenhouse to raise plants in modules or pots - I sow mine at home in a cold polytunnel, in seedtrays with clear plastic lids and it usually works fine! The little plastic patio greenhouses would work as well, or a coldframe. Sowing
in modules gives us a couple of weeks start in the season (the plants
are ready to go when conditions outside improve) and a reliable result. If you do get behind with sowing, don't panic - later-sown crops often catch up anyway
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Spring
has certainly felt as if it has sprung here over the last week - we
were working outside in shirtsleeves in the sunshine - its so tempting
to sow loads of stuff, but still a bit risky. This
week the sharp winds are back, and frosts - you really have to take a
full wardrobe out with you to cover any weather permutation.
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Friday, 2 March 2007
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Friday, 15 February 2007
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