May Day

So, May Day already! I was up early to bring in the May and greet the sunrise.

I spent a lot of this afternoon getting plants ready for sale at the Blossomtime event this weekend - two days of celebrations of cider and apples and the beautiful fields full of apple trees in blossom we are lucky enough to have around here.


I now have around 100 mainly tomato plants ready to sell with the profit going to Garden Organic.




I also spent a fair bit of time washing the very last of the pots. I set up a washing station at just the right height for me to wash things without hurting my back, which made the job a lot easier.



I just need to sort out all the leaflets and seeds and stuff I need for my composting stall at Blossomtime and  I will be ready for my first "Compostwoman" event of the year :)


Tonight there was a knock on the back door - some people had seen a chicken up the lane and stopped to ask if it was mine - nice of them - so I walked up to have a look.

I spotted this handsome little fellow - a Silkie or Polish Bantam, but he would not let me catch him. I telephoned some neighbours but he was not theirs and he had gone the next morning. I do hope he found his way back home and was not eaten by the fox.






This is the view up the lane past our house, as you can see we have no near neighbours!

First tomato flowers and lots more tomato plants

 #tomatoplants #polytunnel

Today I have been in the polytunnel standing here

 Pricking out and potting on a lot of these. 

If you want to know how I do my potting on of tomatoes there is a "How to" guide up the top or you can find it here. I have done more than 100 plants now.

These are much larger plants which I sowed the seed for on 2nd Feb this year - These are early varieties, Latah, Salt Spring Sunrise, Costaluto Genovese and Yellow Perfection.

I have already planted some out into their final positions in the polytunnel and they have flowers on them.

but there are lots more plants waiting for me to get on and finish clearing up and sorting out the last bit of the polytunnel. Better get on with it then.

April - planting potatoes, mowing grass and sunshine

  Today we planted potatoes, Charlotte and Nicola, in these raised beds outside by the wood.

  

 25 of each, in each bed.

 I took the chance after the potatoes were in the ground to have a walk in the wood and admire the bluebells.

Then I got on the mower and cut all the grass.

 Also used the hand mower to get to the more difficult bits. I usually use the push mower, but my arm is still not up to doing that, so petrol power it was.

 Blondin and Sweetie admiring the fresh cut grass.

 Then we cleaned the outside of the polytunnel - it is amazing how much green manky stuff grows on the outside over a year!

Finally - tomato flowers on a Latah tomato plant inside the polytunnel :) Soon...

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 :-)

Monday in the polytunnel, with Rocket Garden fruit bushes to plant up and more tomatoes and peppers

I have spent a lovely day in the garden and polytunnel, it has been warm and sunny and I wandered around in t shirt and jeans, no fleece, no coat, no gloves!

I have been pricking out more tomato and pepper plants - I have done several hundred now and I have them in the cold frames in the polytunnel or on the window sill in the porch. I have no more space left!

The first batch I did are growing away really quickly and are nearly ready to be potted on again!


As I mentioned  I have become a Rocketeer and I received my first  Constant Garden delivery from them last week.

I should have received  a selection of organic seed potatoes ready to be chitted and planted - these would have been

Early potatoes x 10 tubers. Variety Colleen or similar, Second early seed potatoes x 10 tubers . Variety Maris Peer (or similar) Maincrop seed potatoes x 10 tubers . Variety Isle of Jura (or similar) Salad potatoes x 10 tubers. Variety Charlotte (or similar) Also included a 10 litre sack of wormcast

But as I have already planted out my potatoes (same choice of organic varieties - great minds think alike) , the lovely people at Rocket Gardens very kindly agreed to send  me a Small Fruit Garden, instead. They also sent me the bag of wormcast fertiliser.

So I was very excited to get my box delivered on Wednesday last week.

 Lovely straw packing keeps the bare rooted plants safe and damp

And paper bags to hold the Rhubarb crown and Strawberry runners

A comprehensive set of full instructions on planting the bushes is provided. All the plants are beautiful, lovely, healthy looking plants. The Strawberry runners needed to be soaked in water straight away for a few hours to rehydrate.

The rest of the plants were fine to be left for a few days as they are bare rooted, so I actually planted them up into pots on Friday, along with the now re hydrated Strawberry runners.

 Four bare rooted Autumn fruiting Raspberry canes

I planted up the Gooseberry bush

And the Blackcurrant and Raspberry canes as they were on Friday evening.

I took these photos today when I was working inside the polytunnel. This is the Blackcurrant bush after just 3 days in a pot in the polytunnel Amazing what some soil, water and warmth will do to a good healthy plant :-)

 And these are the Strawberry runners after being in the soil for three days - see how fast they have grown already!

I have yet to plant out the Rhubarb - have to find a larger pot to put it in.

All of the bare rooted plants were in excellent condition and beautifully packaged up and of course I have composted all of the packaging ;-)

Can't wait to get my next delivery in a week or so - this time it will be plants :-) Lots of plants ;-)

In other news, I managed to sow some beans and peas in pots and also the parsnips into cardboard tubes - if you want to know more see the "How to" page at the top of this site for more info.