First up the potatoe saga. I planted these early in bins in the greenhouse hoping to steal a March and get nice new potatoes. Unfortunately I'm still learning on this one. As you can see the foliage had gone yellow, so I thought they were ready. There were sort of. They could have done with more water or another week or both. So I have 1lb 6oz of mixed Anya (we think) and the odd Maris Bard.
Next a quick run around the other bigs of the garden plot. First in the greenhouse. I've still got potatoes in the bins in the foreground, although they're getting to the "need to be harvested stage". After the first bin I've been watering them alot to try and swell the tubers so I get a decent crop.
In the right hand foreground corner are the tomatoes - all Alicante I think - we had a little problem with mixing up labels. If I'm lucky the Tumbler ended up in the hanging baskets. Next we have the six peppers, although I've only got 3 in at present. The others aren't big enough yet.Lastly at the back and intent on taking over are the cucumbers, two per grow bag. We've had one cucumber off them already, and should get a load more this weekend.
Next the plot outside. The section upto the Pea enclosure is the new bit this year, and actually seems to be doing better than the piece I've been working for 5 years. Ho-Hum.
Anyway, in the foreground we have sweetcorn interplanted with leeks. Next we have three rows of self-blanching celery. It should be planted more in a block, but thats the space I had left after the sweetcorn went in.Normally in this sort of dry weather I'd be watering but with a hose pipe ban I'm saving all the water for the greenhouse and containers. Next we have the potatoes, Two rows of Maris Bard with a middle row of Red Duke of York.
One the container front, things are progressing. Starting with the 4 litre milk cartons, which I've had to secure with screws, the lettuce are going great guns, whilst the carrots are plodding a bit. I've a mixed planting in alternate containers of "White Carrots" and Early Nantes. It would appear that cutting the timber to exactly fit the handle space is critical. Whilst it's thick enough with the 4-litre bottles its not wide enough and they sag - hence the screw fixings.
On the 2-litre front I'm much happier.
The timber is both thick enough and wide enough and supports the bottles better. The lower row, with the established lettuces went in two weeks ago, 3 days after the 4-litre row, whilst the upper row only went in last Friday.
Elsewhere I'm giving containers a go for various things. I'm still trying to work out what works in window boxes, apart form lettuce which seems to grow anywhere. I've got beetroot in in at the moment - sorry no photo - but am not overly happy with it. Time will tell. In the mean time I've pressed all my large pots into service. The 3 deep 10" pots all have carrots in as does the big blue planter. The shallower 15" pots have beetroot, baby turnips, and something else. When it comes up I might know what it is.
Thats's about it for this time. I'll leave you with the first Lily flower of this year. Not bad for a 50p end-of-season pack at Wyevale 3 years ago.
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