Preparing The Ground

Cleared out the SFG this afternoon and sifted a few barrow loads of compost to mix in and top up the soil. I've covered the whole lot with plastic trellis in the hope that it might discourage the cats.

Still very windy today, so I haven't planted out the beans and hope it drops in the next couple of days.

Need More Beans

Well, four runner bean plants isn't going to give me much of a crop, so I've just picked up some more from Louvain Nursery just up the road, together with some mangetout plants. The SFG needs clearing as I haven't had anything to plant in it up until now and was hoping that leaving the existing plants gone to seed and weeds would at least discourage the cats.

Runner Bean Seedling

Well, so far one of the runner bean seedlings is starting to force it's way to the surface. Fingers crossed that it's not going to be the only one! I'll then decide where to plant them, back in the square foot garden again or in one or more of the pots/tubs. The SFG will be better as there's more room for them but I'll need to cut back a lot of the surrounding vegetation to make it easier to get to and hope that they don't suffer as badly from snail attack as they did last year.

Success With Seedlings

All the cucumber seedlings have germinated and the mix of salad seedlings are growing quickly in the salad trough with the recent warmth and rain. More of the spinach seeds have come up but there are a few salad and rocket seedlings which can be pricked out and ready to sow the next succession.

Have now sown up some more runner beans to see if I can actually get some to germinate this year before giving up and going off to buy plants.

Planting Session

Planted up this year's crop of courgettes, plenty of home made compost in the same tubs as last year but hope to have a better crop this time, plenty of feeding and watering.

Tomatoes also got planted up - four varieties - three small plants bought at the Plumpton Show - Money maker, Ailsa Craig and Gardener's Delight. I have no idea which one is which as none of them have labels so will find out when the fruits develop. The other one from Stanmer Nurseries is a beef tomato variety, now in it's own pot.

After last year's success with cucumbers, I've also planted Ridge cucumber seeds.

The salad seedlings are coming through. The rocket came up first, followed by the spinach and I was about to give up on the lettuce but those too are coming up. I'll thin them out when they get a little bigger and sow a few more seeds every couple of weeks.

First Seeds of the Year

I've been a bit slow getting things going in the garden this year. Had intended to stuck in after Easter but the next month just disappeared with getting my book writing finished and mixed weather (snow). Finally picked up some tomato plants, having failed to find any at last week's car boot and got the seed packets out this weekend.

Three tomato plants - Alicante, Money-maker and gardener's Delight to get things started, although as the plants are small and unlabelled - I have no idea which is which.

Replenished the soil in one of the troughs and planted it up with a mix of spinach, rocket and Salad Bowl salad. A variety that you just pick the leaves as you need them.

Went to plant out some of my beans and found that the packet of mange-tout seeds was empty. Not a trace - just a small hole in the bottom. The same for the runner bean seeds but these were obviously not as tasty as they hadn't been eaten.

What's In My Veg Box?

Some yummy leaves. Yes, doesn't sound exciting but they're great - a mixture of different salad leaves. Onions the size of footballs. Fresh tomatoes and a bunch of carrots.