Weeds, Shoots And Leaves.

My squash seedlings have just pushed their way up through the soil. Two initially and now seven of them are showing.

The garlic bulbs have already sprouted where I planted them out in the garden. I counted five of those. In fact, three in one place where I only planted two, so I could be counting a rogue 'plant', will have to see what it turns into. Pleasantly surprised by these as I wasn't expecting much to happen. It will be interesting to see what size the bulbs finally grow to.

There is no sign at all of the runner beans and mangetout seeds I planted up two weeks ago. Perhaps I was being too optimistic with such old seed. I've put some more beans in to soak - if those don't sprout or the others don't pop up within the next couple of days, I'll be off to buy some more seed.

I started planting up the SFG veg box. One square with beetroot - sown in three rows and one square with carrot in two rows. I sowed as thinly as possible which is a bit difficult with the fine carrot seed and the strong wind that has been blowing all day.

With all the recent rain, it's a lot easier to weed at the moment. Bindweed is having a field day but it's easy to pull up and very satisfying to do so. Any bindweed gets bagged up for the dump - I don't trust that in my compost bin.

Full To The Brim

Returned from a day in London to find one of my water barrels overflowing, full to the brim. I switched the outflow to the new water barrel and a day later this is almost full too. One dustbin to fill and then that's it.

That will be three full water barrels and a dustbin full of rainwater to keep my garden watered as and when it needs it.

The pond is now full as well.

Vegetable Box - Phase 1 Complete

Finished topping it up with the contents of a growbag, coir block and finished off with the planting squares.

Now it's already for planting.

Hurrah! It's Raining

Not much it has to be said. There was a light shower this morning and it's just about dampened the ground but better than nothing. More forecast for the rest of the week so it will save me having to water by hand and hopefully fill up one of the water butts.

Turned over the compost heap today. It's a bit slow breaking down but hopefully a good stir will speed things up a bit. Don't think it will be ready for this year somehow.

Beans, beans are good for the heart

... well I certainly hope so as I will be harvesting several different varieties later this year, all being well.

As the expected showers haven't yet appeared, I managed to get out into the garden to do some more planting and seeding. I've now planted up five strawberry plants that I bought last weekend some of them are setting fruit already, although I'm sure I'll be competing with the birds for those.

I spent a jolly hour or so sifting compost and topping up the new Square Foot area. Extremely hard work on the back, bending over to dig out spadefuls from an old dustbin which I filled up last year when the two compost bins were full. A mix of compost, coir and vermiculite this time. One more load should do it, although I've now run out of compost, until I turn one of my compost bins over.

Earlier today, I spent some time planning out what's going to go where, in which grids in my Square Foot garden - taller plants at the back - like most of the beans, root vegetables and salads at the front

I've also planted up some more beans - Broad and Dwarf French this time, which now makes four different types so far. Using old toilet rolls filled with compost, so I can plant them directly into the ground when they come up. No sign of anything appearing in the 'pots' I planted up last week - early days I guess, if indeed they sprout at all, being pretty old seed.

The first herbs of the year have also been started off - coriander, mint and basil. I transplanted some chives earlier in the week from where they'd seeded themselves on the patio. Lots of tiny little bulbs with roots and the start of flower heads. Replanted them by the back-door for easy access for salads etc.

A few nasturtium seeds have been planted in with the courgettes and the gooseberry. I've just read that they're good companion plants for beans, radish, apples and brassicas, so a few more will get planted when the beans go out.

Vegetable Box - Building Phase 1

A happy co-incidence, when I was out volunteering on Thursday this week, we were repairing a stile. The old wood was going to be dumped onto a pile, where it would be chopped up and probably chipped, so having asked first, I rescued a few appropriate planks which looked ideal for my square-foot plot and turned out to be just the right length.

Today, after putting together a new bench, I created a simple box frame 3ft x 4ft and placed it at the end of the garden, which gets the sun until late in the day. Having broken up the very dry soil where it was going to placed and dug out as much of the bindweed roots as possible, I lined it with dampened newspaper then filled it with a mix of compost, vermiculite, the remnants of a bag of manure that was lying around in the shed and a handful or two of pelleted chicken manure. It's only half full so will need another barrow load or two of compost and if I can get hold of it some well-rotted manual before adding the planting squares.

From what I've read recently the wet newspaper will suppress the weeds. Whether it will have any effect on the rampant bindweed will be interesting to see. As the local cats will think Christmas has arrived early - I've covered it with netting to keep them off.

Waiting For Rain.

Who says you can't fit a quart into a pint pot. My most recent purchase in preparation for the rain forecast for this weekend ... which probably guarantees there won't be any!