Setting aside the worrying  stuff about Fracking - we have been harvesting lots of produce from the veg patch in the last few days.

I feel a sense of dread at what the future may hold for us here around Much Marcle if Fracking does come here :(

I have just told a friend about it and she was shocked - she had no idea of the issues involved or that there was such a threat in Herefordshire.

But life has to go on, even with all the turbulence around us. We have a water leak in our kitchen, and have been lifting spuds, and having friends round to drink tea.

Please, if you could, sign the petition Ban Fracking in Herefordshire

Ice, and a slice

I had some nice presents in the post today :) I will save the first present to talk about tomorrow so here is the second parcel to arrive.

This was a load of lovely organic seeds from  The Organic Gardening Catalogue sent to me by the nice folk at Ice   Ice is a new, flexible customer reward programme which identifies sustainable products and services, from high-street retailers to small independent businesses, presents them to you in a one-stop shop and rewards you generously when you buy them via Ice.

Ice say on their website that

Our mission is to mitigate climate change via mass consumer purchase power. By changing small things we do and buy every day, together we can minimise harm to the environment, help mitigate climate change and preserve the ice caps.

Ice promotes sustainable living and keeping things organic, including encouraging more people to grow their own fruit and vegetables from home. As part of this ideal, Ice is running a ‘Grow Your Own’ competition alongside The Organic Gardening Catalogue (one of its partners) to encourage home grown, sustainable produce and they asked me if I would take part :) hence the collection of lovely seeds they have sent me

I have been a long time user of organic seeds from The Organic Gardening Catalogue so was delighted to be asked to join in with this competition. I will be sowing these seeds in the next week and will be giving regular updates on their progress as well as hints and tips on how to sow them and (hopeful) how well they grow. I may even provide you with some recipe hints for using the crops :-) 

And the slice? Well that refers to my lovely Celery and Salad leaves - 

freshly picked from the garden, provided as plug plants by Rocket Gardens and tasting absolutely delish. I have such an abundance of salad crops at the moment, the tomatoes are just starting to trickle out of the polytunnel and my idea of heaven is a boiled egg and salad sandwich, with home made bread and home grown salad along with home laid eggs. Bliss! 

Hope you all have a lovely weekend ;-)

How I prick out and pot on my tomato plants.

I have been asked quite a few times recently how I grow my tomato plants, a reminder that there is a  "How to " guide on growing tomatoes, peppers and aubergines on the "How to..." tab up the top and I also talk about this subject on my YouTube channel.

But I realised I haven't discussed what I do with the plants once they have germinated so I thought I would do another  "How to" guide,  on pricking out and potting on Tomato plants.

Seed sown Feb 10th 2013, in porch in heated propagator at ~20 C














 March 2nd 2013 - seeds germinated and seed leaves showing.
 
At the end of March the seedlings were pricked out into individual 2 inch pots, with the soil well up the stem so as to encourage aerial roots to grow.



  

April 14th 2013 Plants well grown and need moving from these 2 inch pots into next size (3 inch) pot.

If you click on the photo above, you can see the tiny hairs on the stem - these will form more soil roots if buried.

Again, the stem is covered with soil to encourage the aerial roots ( the tiny hairs) to turn into soil roots - this gives the plant a better root system and so it can take up more nutrients and water.
 

And so we come to today, where I potted some plants on again, this time into 4 inch pots. These are not the same plants as above ( they are now in 6 inch pots and have their first flower trusses) but I thought it would be useful to show how I do this.

I carefully took the plant out of  the old pot. You can see from the photo below how much extra root system has been produced by earthing up the stem each time.

 This is the way I re fill the pot around the plant.

I put the plant in the pot and tilt it away from me,

then gently pour growing medium into the pot on the side nearest to me.

 I then tilt the pot towards me and pour growing medium into the pot on the side furthest away from me.

This puts the plant upright in the pot, and I add more growing medium until the soil level is up to the next pair of true leaves.

I do the same with peppers and aubergines, but do not bury them so deep. I am careful with all the plants not to overwater them, so as to avoid the soft stems rotting. Once the stems are harder (as they age) this is less of an issue.

I will probably pot the tomatoes into larger (6 inch) pots once more, before they go into their final places in the polytunnel, growing individually in builder's buckets standing in gravel trays.

This is what it looked like last year, at the start of July.

I only have 100 or so more plants to pot on, today!

Hope this helps you to understand how I grow them :-)

On being offered reviews and becoming a Rocketeer.

I am lucky enough to be offered all sorts of stuff to review here on The Compost Bin. Some are really right up my street, others are ..well lets just say completely not me (am being really charitable, here!) To be honest, sometimes I despair at what a company is thinking about when they contact me, given my ethics and the content of my blog - I mean, cheap chicken dinners? Really? Not on my blog. Ever. In case you were wondering, I will only EVER accept stuff to write about that meets my ethics and hopefully will interest you, my reader. I am glad to say I am getting asked to review some interesting items  - recently including wind up radios, interesting plants, organic veg seed sets, gardening books, exotic seeds, garden furniture, bee friendly seedballs. All things which I really like and want to review and then share  my views with you all. I hope you all agree! As some of you might have noticed,  I have today added a new badge on my sidebar. I have become an ambassador for organic plant supplier Rocket Gardens ,  which apparently makes me a Rocketeer :-) ( I love it!) In case you do not know, a Rocket Garden is a box brimming full of baby organic vegetable, fruit, flower or herb plants packed in golden straw and delivered direct to your door. Rocket Gardens say they take out the risk and hard work that comes with growing organic plants from seed and look after the plants when they are young and vulnerable, only letting you have them when they are the perfect size, ready to be transplanted straight into your garden.  All you have to do is pop your baby plants into their new home to begin growing. Sounds great to me! Last year, after a lot of my plants were smashed to bits by heavy rain for the umpteenth time and I finally ran out of spares,  I ordered a herb garden and some extra veg plants from Rocket Gardens - you may remember I wrote about it here I was very impressed with the plants which came, they provided me with some lovely crops and were really great looking and cropping and I loved the Rocket Gardens ethos. So, when they asked me last week if I would let them send me a  Constant Garden to review throughout 2013, I jumped at the chance :-)    Rocket Gardens say on their website Our new range of Constant Gardens are the best and easiest way to ensure you have an amazing and continuous supply of fresh produce bursting from your garden throughout the entire year. Your Small Constant Garden will comprise of a series of 5 gardens delivered throughout 2013. As with all Rocket Gardens we’ve done all the tricky stuff for you, so all you have to do is unpack your plants on arrival, pop them into the ground and watch them grow. A detailed growing guide will be provided with each garden delivery. You will need 10-15 m2 of space to grow this garden. Larger plants which take up more space such as courgettes, pumpkins,potatoes,and tomatoes can easily be grown in containers. The plants get delivered and all I have to do is unpack my plants on arrival, pop them into the ground/final container (or into holding pots until space is available in the ground) and watch them grow. I get sent a detailed growing guide with each garden delivery. So today, I received by courier the first of the five mail outs as part of my Small Constant Garden.  I will post about the contents later this week but for now, here are some reasons why I have agreed to work with Rocket Gardens and review their products and become a Rocketeer ( still loving being called that!) All of their seeds are sourced from Soil Association approved organic seed suppliers. The compost they use to grow the seedlings in is approved for use in Organic systems by the Soil Association. Their  plants are grown naturally under a fully organic regime. The water they use on the plants is rainwater that they collect from their polytunnel roofs and recycle in their own reservoir. Plants are either grown in their own individual biodegradable pots or bare rooted depending upon variety. Unlike most nurseries and garden centres Rocket Gardens don’t use thousands of plastic pots or packaging to grow the plants. All of their packaging systems have been chosen in order that they are as ecologically friendly as possible. Recycled cardboard is used wherever practicable and this in turn can be used again or put onto the compost heap to be broken down. Where non cardboard packaging is required if possible they try to source recycled products. They are a UK business based in Cornwall. They have a really helpful and informative website and really seem to want to get everyone growing organic plants at home - something I totally approve of. They run an excellent scheme for schools and at the moment are giving away a  Spring Garden a day, though out April.

Schools Garden Competiton As part of our 'Dig for the Future' Schools Project we've got 30 Schools Spring Gardens to give away. One each day for the whole of April. Click here to enter your school today. And the final reason? Free organic plants for me and the families I mentor! New veg plants, some which are varieties I have not yet tried, so I can grow even more food. I am still going to carry on growing my own plants from seed but I can try new varieties and also know I have some spare plants, as back up, just in case we have another dreadful summer. And I will have even more spare plants to sell to fund raise for Garden Organic, to share around with friends and to give to the families I mentor as part of the Master Gardener scheme. Really, what's not to like?  Oh, and ...I LOVE being called a Rocketeer ! ( I said that before, I guess...)

An unexpected box of goodies delivery.

						We went to Hereford yesterday to do some shopping and when we got home I found a surprise large parcel on the doorstep, all wrapped up in brown paper and addressed to me at The Compost Bin Intrigued, (I was not expecting any more parcels after my wool order arrived this morning) I brought the parcel upstairs to the Study and opened it up. Removing the brown paper showed me this:- A  Summer Veg Starter pack  from Seed Pantry, for me to evaluate :-) Info taken from their website - Seed Pantry is a family business set up with a small team whose skills help us provide a great value, customer driven service that focuses on an informative sustainable way to shop and enjoy food growing at home. Established in 2009 Seed Pantry wants everyone to enjoy the rewards of nature and to learn about growing your own veg to eat wherever you live. We specialise in providing the expertise, veg seeds, plants and equipment for growing your own food at home and the work place, from inner city spaces to back garden veg patches.  Seed Pantry provides quality locally sourced and sustainable products with a great value service for our customers. We want to have a minimal impact on the environment, so everything is either organic, bio-degradable, recycled (including the packaging), recyclable, or should be re-used for many years - like your favourite trowel! I was immediately impressed with the brown paper wrapping and the stylish and sturdy cardboard box. My inner origami geek loves that it all fits together with tabs into slots ;-) Opening the lid ( love those tabs and slots!) there is a comprehensive set of easy to understand growing instructions as well as a full list of everything which should be in the box. I really felt like I was opening up the gardening equivalent of a fabulous box of chocolates by this stage :-) The Seed Pantry website says of the Summer Veg Starter pack Perfect for balconies, small spaces or a garden veg patch. This great kit shows you how to grow: peppers, mangetout, carrots and courgettes with all the equipment needed to start growing the seeds, including: a mini propagator, bio-degradable pots, dibblet, mini compost disks & wooden labels. When I took them all out of the box there were all these lovely things 50 wooden marker labels for remembering what you have planted & where 1 Coir seed tray 1 FSC oak dibber for making holes to plant seeds 6 coir compost starting disks  for starting seeds like peppers just add water & watch them rise! 6 mini coir posts for starting seedlings like little gem lettuce 3 x 8cm coir pots for seeds that like a bit more room like courgettes 4 x 9cm rice husk pots for seeds that need a bit of depth like mangetout 2 x 1 litre rice husk pots for potting seedlings on like peppers and a 6 cell mini propagator for seeds that like a nice and warm start like peppers(re-use before recycling)   And Summer Carrot Early Nantes, Mangetout Dwarf Sugar, Courgette F1 Clarion and Sweet Spanish Pepper seeds - enough to grow a lot of veg. And • Growing advice booklet for getting your seeds started • A season of on line tips and advice • Expert advice available at the Seed Pantry forum • Seed Pantry pencil for making notes I first came across Seed Pantry when giving away some small Autumn Salad seed boxes they had done for Garden Organic, to promote the "One Pot Pledge", and I was very impressed with the idea and the product then - recyclable, biodegradable, organic kits promoting veg growing in the smallest of spaces - what's not to like! For 2013 Seed Pantry has also launched a new Children’s Seeds Starter Kit, a Chilli Seeds Starter Pack for growing your own fresh chillies at home and a Three Seasons Kit, delivered in three boxes during the year. The Summer Veg Starter box I was sent, retails at £26 and would make a lovely gift for someone starting to garden or for someone more experienced- it is beautifully packaged and presented; contains a lot of seed and all the products are a bit different and compostable or recyclable after their lives have come to an end.     I can't wait to try out actually growing some of the seeds :-) With thanks to Seed Pantry for sending me a free Summer Veg Starter Pack.

Fuming about seeds.

Like a lot of home gardeners, I grow a lot of traditional, open pollinated varieties, I save my own seed and buy heritage varieties from small seed companies like RealSeeds, MoreVeg and Kokopelli. I am also a member of HSL, Garden Organic's seed saving, membership organisation. I grow lots of different veg and find the diversity of seeds on offer to be very helpful in the changeable weather conditions we often experience, here in the UK. I also find they taste so much better than "ordinary" varieties.

The tomatoes pictured  in my Lammas post are a good example!

But according to leading organic charities Garden Organic and the Soil Association, the choice of what crops are available for gardeners to grow has been dealt yet another restrictive blow,

"In a recent ruling in the European Court of Justice in Brussels(1) a small French seed company, seeking to defend its sales of old unregistered varieties of vegetables, lost its case. The company, Kokopelli, argued that the basis of the EU Marketing Directive was unlawful and curtailed the right to trade seed freely. However the court opposed this and ruled in favour of the current legislation, which restricts what seed can and cannot be marketed and sold."

Read the full article here 

I suspect quite a few of the seeds I buy to grow will no longer be available to me after this ruling.

As Garden Organic and the Soil Association so rightly point out, every variety lost weakens our ability to create an effective food system that can cope with the increasing challenges of climate change and resource scarcity.”

Bob Sherman, Chief Horticultural Officer at Garden Organic said,

“It is disappointing that the EU has neglected to unravel this controversial Directive to give amateur gardeners freedom of choice. Very few people believe that trade in traditional and endangered varieties threatens the commercial seed world. Despite some recent slackening of the regulation of ‘amateur’ and ‘conservation’ varieties, it appears it is still possible for large corporate businesses to control the market with no hesitation in resorting to law against the minnows of the sector. Fortunately Garden Organic’s Heritage Seed Library is not a seed company and we will continue to work at protecting the availability of many ‘at risk’ varieties by allowing our supporters access to seeds.”

I think this is a serious mistake on the part of the EU. I am not quite sure who to complain to about this - but surely there must be something we can do?

What do you all think?

Time To Power Down? by John Walker - a really thought provoking post

A timely reminder from John Walker

As concern over Western ‘energy obesity’ moves up the agenda, can we really afford, financially or morally, to continue switching on our propagators and greenhouse heaters?

John Walker is one of my favourite writers. I used to really look forward to reading his column in Organic Gardening Magazine - and am really pleased to follow him on Twitter.  As he suggests in his article, I use our home generated electricity to run my heated propagators in Feb and March - and any shortfall is provided by Good Energy

I also follow his advice about utilising the power of the Sun to germinate seeds and get crops growing.

Even if it was originally published 5 years ago, in the much missed Organic Gardening Magazine, his article is still timely advice.

“John reminds all gardeners that there are some hard choices ahead, and changes we all need to make in the battle to keep the world cool. He writes of what he calls our Western ‘energy obesity’ and outlines a ‘diet’ to address it. There’s much individuals can achieve – how about switching off propagators and greenhouse heaters for a start? Those who throw their green fingers up in horror would do well to read John’s article to understand that a cooler greenhouse need not be the end of the world. In fact, it could help save it."

Judges’ citation, Garden Media Guild Environmental Award 2007.

Original article published in Organic Gardening, January 2007. John is the winner of the Garden Media Guild Environmental Award 2007.