2012 – the year that salad forgot

It has to be said that 2012 wasn't the best year for salad leaves. I started well, with a couple of small lettuces overwintered in the greenhouse and moving into the early spring we have good harvests from cut and come again salad leaves grown under a heavyweight glass cloche in a raised bed. But then the drought set in and then the monsoons started. And the salad stealers arrived... It seems that the slugs in my garden have a good appreciation of the perfect moment to harvest (devour) young salad leaves. They, as I, would check on the developing seedlings on a daily basis. And when the leaves had reached the perfect tender size to be picked, I headed out to the cloche to find....nothing. Absolutely not a trace of them. This happened a couple of times before I gave up completely on the resowing front and started buying the bagged supermarket variety again – at least that way I could guarantee I would have salad available when I wanted it.

Anyway, I have started the new year afresh with renewed optimism and have sowed my first batch of salad seeds in a seed tray in a propagator in the greenhouse. Let's see you fight your way through these, slug invaders!

seeds sown on the damp surface of a potting compost and homemade compost mix

Seeds tucked up under a layer of vermiculite and the propagator lid

Itchy fingers

I just knew I wouldn't be able to resist sowing at least some seeds in January. I tried distracting myself with horticultural revision, I tried sitting on my hands, but to no avail. I could literally hear the seeds crying out from their packets (in the seed tin, in the cupboard - they're quite loud these seeds...).
I justified it to myself by deciding only to sow seeds that take ages to germinate, like lemon drop chillies, or those that are really hardy, like leeks. But then blew that by including tomatoes and sweet peppers as well.
I explained to my other half that I'd definitely started to sow seeds as early as January last year - and then looked at my nerdy gardening diary book and saw that it was actually the middle of Feb before I'd done anything. Well at least I can say I've improved on last year...
Anyway, it may be too early, and I may live to regret this rash seed sowing, but it's just lovely to see the propagators sitting in their usual places on the heated kitchen floor. It feels like the growing year is within reach.
Anyone else want to 'fess up to any premature sowing?

January greenery

Given the mild weather we've had the last 2 or 3 months (ignoring the 3 days of freezing temps just last week) it's not surprising that some crops are much further on they they usually would be this time of year. The Aquadulce Claudia and Sutton broad beans, which were sown in late October germinated rather rapidly. Usually they get a bit of a growth check in Dec/Jan with a freezy spell and occasionally a blanket of snow. But not this year, at least not yet. These photos were taken in early Jan - some of the bean plants are already 40-50cm tall and flopping about. I really need to get out and create my usual 'boxing ring' style support with twine and pruned branches from elsewhere in the garden. I'll just add that to my to-do list...

Sharing the blogging love

I was delighted recently to be given this blog award by Caro at Urban Veg Patch. The Suburban Veg Plot blog was originally started just for my own interest and veg garden records rather than to gain any wider readership (yes, I am relatively shy in real life!).  However, as I've started to read and enjoy gardening and chicken blogs by others, it's nice to know that in some small way people out there are getting some pleasure and/or amusement from mine. So, thank you Caro and I'm very happy to accept!

Acceptance of the award is conditional on the following:

Copy and paste the award on your blog
Thank the giver and link back to them
Choose five blogs (with less than 200 followers) that you'd like to pass the award on to and leave a comment for them on their blog.

So, my 5 chosen blogs to pass this award on to are:

My Little Garden 

Digging For Victory

Self-Sufficient Dreams

Life with the Ex-Batts

Veggiegobbler

These blogs cover the full range of growing exotics in Malaysia, growing veg according to 1940s advice, making plans for a smallholding dream, ex-batt chicken antics and veggie growing Down Under. Some of them I've been reading longer than others but all have given me a smile and a chuckle along the way.

There's a new sheriff in town...

Meet Georgie. Her shortcomings in the neck feather department are more than made up for by her size and attitude.

New year, new books, new chickens, new hope

Hello January 1st with your dark sky and wintery rain. My garden has taken on its usual slippy slidey muddy winter form courtesy of the London clay below. But the fruit trees are filled with chaffinches and house sparrows feeding frenziedly on the various fatball feeders I have hung out for them. And signs of spring are already out there - rich red buds are swelling on an ornamental quince.

Hello Christmas reads with your inviting covers and promise of homegrown bounty. There seems to be a smallholding theme developing... maybe I'll be needing to modify the title of my blog in 2012 if certain discussions come to fruition? My Gardeners' World subscription was renewed by my lovely in-laws so I'll be taking in all Monty's and Carol's ideas again this year. And the Versailles book? Well, it came with an invitation for a weekend visit to see the gardens for myself! I can already feel the parterre envy stirring deep within.

Hello new chickens with your pale combs and scantily clad wings. You three seem to have settled in
well since we brought you home on Dec 29th, but if you could just stop bullying the two chickens we already had, then life would be even more lovely. We re-homed you from a battery farm so that you could enjoy a carefree and free-range life, but that means you have to do the same for Chicken Licken and Ruby who have spent the last 2 days having their homelife turned upside down.

Hello EU barren cage ban. Though some European countries have failed to meet the Jan 1st 2012 deadline for removing all barren cages from their egg production industry, I am proud to know that the British egg industry is now barren cage free. Intensively produced eggs in the UK will still come from chickens kept caged, but the enriched cages do at least allow the birds to exhibit some natural behaviours such as stretching wings, perching and laying eggs in darkness. The British Hen Welfare Trust has been very busy in the past few months re-homing as many ex-battery chickens as possible in the approach to the ban - in order to prevent them being sent to slaughter. Only this morning I came across this lovely story of a rescue. If you can spare anything, please make a donation (details in the post itself), if you have room to offer a home to some ex-batts, please go to the BHWT website, and if you buy eggs, make sure they're British. We can hope that the momentum behind this campaign continues to improve the welfare of animals within our food industries.

My best wishes to you all for 2012 - may it bring you happiness, laughter and joy.

snow time like the present

Hurrah! The snow has gone!!
As pretty as it looked, after only a few days it became a bit tiresome, not only preventing me getting to the office on a few days (during a very busy time) but also stopping me from really getting into the garden. But thankfully the blanket covering has vacated the suburban veg plot.
This weekend was a hive of activity - moreso in the kitchen than on the plot. Paper potting ahoy! All of my tomato, chilli and sweet pepper seeds have now been sown in little paper pots and the seeds trays placed on my lovely heated kitchen floor.


Feltham First peas have been sown - I'm experimenting with the guttering method this year rather than direct sown. I had my builder from last year leave me 2 pieces of guttering cut to 1m length (the width of my raised beds).


The idea is that once germinated and ready to plant out, I need only to dig a shallow trench and then slide out the contents of the guttering, pea plants and all! I now have them filled and covered with holly to keep off any hungry mice.



Lancashire lad purple podded peas along with Autumn Mammoth 2 leeks have also been sown - the former in loo roll tubes and latter in a 5'' pot. I'm hoping to do better with successional swing this year, so I have another leek variety to sow in a month's time. Last years leeks were started off slightly later than planned and so we've had the benefit of them only since November. They've been great as baby leeks though - brushed in olive oil and cooked on a griddle pan - mmmm. Will be nice to see what they're like fully grown this season!

Seeds and seedlings

The rain this weekend did nothing to tempt me into working in the garden. I ventured out as long as it took to do a quick weed tidy of the cabbage plot and harvest a couple for spring greens, but then scuttled back indoors to the warmth. I used the opportunity to have a long-overdue sort out of my seed box. How on earth have I managed to accumulate so many packets of seeds when I've been gardening for barely a year? I definitely didn't buy them all - lots came free with gardening magazines. I'm sure I won't use them all - there's only so much coriander leaf a girl can eat.

The seedlings are coming on well: a couple of lancashire lad peas and aquadulce claudia broad beans will go out under cloches shortly after hardening off, the moneymaker and gartenperle tomatoes are starting to show secondary leaves and I followed them up with sowing a couple of roma tomato seeds (plum toms for cooking apparently) and some scotch bonnet chili seeds obtained in a postal seed swap. Latest on order: floridor courgette seeds (little round yellow ones!)

1st potato update of 2009: currently chitting Mimi and Anya seed potatoes on the bedroom windowsill (rapidly running out of space!). I'll start these off in potato grow sacks in the greenhouse next month.

Wind and water

Having survived the frost of early January, my veg plot has now been buffeted by winds and rain from this weekend's gales but came through virtually unscathed. Come Sunday morning the only casualty seemed to be a water butt lid that had been thrown around the patio. We decided that it was finally time to set up the new butt to collect rainwater from the greenhouse guttering. I'm not sure how long this one will take to fill compared to the two connected to main drainpipes on the house, but every little helps given the predictions that the summer of 2009 will be a scorcher!

Some more seeds were sown (lancashire lad peas, aquadulce claudia broad beans, rosemary, moneymaker and gartenperle tomatoes), some seedling pricked out into larger pots (purple sprouting broccoli) and all of these are sitting happily in an unheated propagator. Mid-morning, the sun put in an appearance whilst I was weeding the cabbages and made me forget all about the wintry weather.

Plot preparation

The very beginning of the growing year seems an odd time. This is my first January with a veg plot so each season reveals something new - and I'm loving the discovery. And my first discovery of 2009 is how much growing there actually is going on - even despite the below freezing temperatures of late. My fears for the spring cabbages were unfounded after all - they seem to have shaken off the worst of the freezing conditions and are looking happy in their little bed.

After weeks of searching I finally managed to locate a source of manure - from a local riding stables. And it's free! So, I found a small space near the compost heap and have begun to build up a manure pile which should be rotted down enough to be used in the summer. My veggies are going to love it!

Welcome to 2009

A frosty morning awaited my first garden visit since before Christmas. My broad bean plants were looking less than perky but they are under horticultural fleece so I'm hoping that they'll be okay. The spring cabbages seemed okay but as the weather forecast this coming week could be as low as -3C overnight, I covered them in fleece also. Belt and braces, as my granddad used to say... Despite the weather, the onions (4 different varieties, including 1 red) seem fine with the frost and their green shoots are still growing strongly.

My inherited rhubarb patch is already  showing signs of new growth. It seems only last week that we pulled the last stalks! I've decided that 2009 is to be a year of garden experiments, so I've upturned a plastic dustbin over the patch to try out forced stems.