Plant List, 2013

You may spot some flowers listed, that's to help Mrs Soggy, or bees (or both)

BASIL Lettuce Leaved
BEAN CLIMBING Borlotta Lingua di Fuoco
BEAN CLIMBING Fasold
BEAN CLIMBING, Moonlight
BEAN BROAD Aquadulce Claudia
BEETROOT Boltardy
BEETROOT Cylindra
BROCCOLI Purple Sprouting Red Arrow
BROCCOLI Tenderstem
BRUSSELS SPROUT Bosworth F1
BRUSSELS SPROUT Revenge F1
CABBAGE Celtic F1
CABBAGE Christmas Drumhead
CABBAGE Marner Early Red
CABBAGE Ruby Ball F1
CABBAGE Tundra F1
CALABRESE Belstar F1
CARROT Amsterdam Forcing
CARROT Autumn King 2
CARROT Fly Away F1
CELERIAC Monarch
COSMOS Brightness Mixed
COURGETTE Black Forest F1 (Upright)
CRESS American or Land
CUCUMBER Bella F1
GARLIC Thermidrome
GARLIC Elephant
GREEN MANURE, Mustard
GREEN MANURE, Phacelia (sown on bank for the bees)
KALE Dwarf Green Curled
LEEK Giant Winter
LEEK Oarsman F1
LETTUCE Little Gem
LETTUCE Lollo Rossa
MARIGOLD French
ONION Salad Performer
ONION Senshyo Yellow
ONION Troy
ONION White Lisbon Winter Hardy
PAK CHOI Green F1
PARSNIP Panache F1 (T&M)
PARSNIP Pinacle F1 (T&M)
PEA Mange Tout Kennedy
PEA Mange Tout Norli
PEA Oregon Sugar Pod
PEA Rapido Petit Pois
PEA Twinkle
POTATO British Queen 2E (White Fl)
POTATO Casablanca 1E (White Multi)
POTATO Charlotte 2E (White Firm)
POTATO Harlequin EM (Waxy)
POTATO Orla, EM (Multi)
POTATO Rosabelle 1E (Waxy)
POTATO Sherine 1E (Floury)
POTATO Premier 1E (Floury)
POTATO Toluca 2E (Multi)
ROCKET Salad
RUBBECKIA Cherry Brandy
SALAD Leaves Speedy
SHALLOT Jermor
SPINACH Medania
SPINACH Tirza
SUNFLOWER Giant Single
SWEDE Magres
SWEET PEA King Size Navy Blue
TOMATO Black Prince
TOMATO Cosmonaut Volcov (Semi bush) - did not germinate, I think I kept seed too long.
TOMATO Ferline F1
TOMATO Legend F1 (Bush)
TURNIP Snowball
WILD FLOWER SEEDS Floral Meadow (For Bees) Mix Anual and Perennial

Still for sowing: some over-wintering carrots (Eskimo) and Spring Greens (Durham Early)

The veggie beds in Spring

 Potato beds, with the wild flower and elder bank behind

Broad beans, climbing beans and peas

Brassica and leek seedlings in trays) under net. Garlic, elephant garlic, onions, shallots and spring onions

More broad beans on a spare patch

Last of the Spring greens with more onions behind, plus petit pois

Brussels sprouts, calabrese and broccoli, with recently hoed mustard green manure 

Cucumber, French marigold with odds and sods sheltering from  frost

Tomatoes, plus two climbing courgettes in pots, plus some more tender plants hiding away.

Black Gold

Black Gold was a term (according to Wikipedia) coined during the outbreak of the Industrial Revolution concerned with the value and usefulness of oil. It has probably been assigned to other things as well, and I'm surely not the first gardener to think of compost or soil in those terms.

The other day, as I was emptying compost from one of my several compost bins, more or less with every fork or spade full, I was thinking what valuable stuff this is, and all for free! It has now been spread onto some of the veggie beds, with some held back for Mrs Soggy's tubs and baskets.

It can be disheartening if efforts at making compost do not turn out fine and healthy results, just getting a few things right can make a big difference  perhaps the most important of which is to get a good balance of material to compost. If you pile in lots of grass cuttings and little else, it'll just be a slimy mess you produce;  on the other hand, lots of egg boxes, cardboard and shredded prunings will likely stay pretty much looking like a pile of dry kindling. However, mix those 2 together and you should be in business!

For some good advice, visit Garden Organic or the RHS web sites.

Digging out from a compost bin

Each bin yields between 2 and 3 barrow loads.
(Next to it you can see the last of the shredded Brussels Sprouts stems
going into the bins for the whole cycle to start again).

Hot Weather Tolerant

Just doing plant labels (while I wait for it to warm up before heading out onto the veggie patch today) for April sowings and just had to share the banner emblazoned across the Calabrese "Hot weather tolerant" - so am I, but will either I or my Calabrese ever get any to tolerate, it doesn't feel like it right now with a northerly wind whipping 2ºC air round about outside.

Early morning

These few mornings, as I walk the dog, I have been able to enjoy the sun just above the horizon or linger to examine the work in and around the fields off our lanes. Here is quite a stretch of hedge laying, towards Childhay. 

Hedge laying near Childhay

Spring Jobs and seed sowing

This is transition time, from the over-wintered crops to preparation time for new sowing and planting, of course some crops for this year were planted in the autumn, garlic, broad beans and so on. The carrots, parsnips, spinach (leaf beet) beetroot are having to make way and the Brussels sprouts, leeks, kale and spring greens will have to give up their beds soon too.

It's also a confusing time weather-wise, alternating between dry frosts (with occasional powdery snow) and today, rain and 8 deg C.

Parsnip, carrots and beetroot ready for use (see the lovely Tête à Tête enjoying the spring sunshine)

The parsnip and spinach (leaf beet) cleared and off-cuts of leaf beet left to rot in.
I'll be putting manure on here very soon  in preparation as one of the potato beds.

These are over-wintered alliums: Elephant and ordinary garlic, onions ans shallots.

One of the broad bean beds, some gaps to be filled by fresh sowing after Jack Frost re-visited

Cabbage (spring greens) just staring to leaf up, so ready for use soon.

The last few leeks (I'd just dug some - we had leek and potato soup for lunch today).

In the summerhouse (easier to keep warm than one of the greenhouses)
celeriac germinated and taken from the cosy propagator 

In the last week or so, I have sown:

BASIL Lettuce Leaved
BEAN, Broad. Aquadulce Claudia (Infilling)

BROCCOLI Tenderstem Green Inspiration F1 (one of my all time favourite vegetables)
BRUSSELS SPROUT Bosworth F1
BRUSSELS SPROUT Revenge F1
CABBAGE Marner Early Red
CELERIAC Monarch
COSMOS Brightness Mixed (helping out Mrs Soggy)
CUCUMBER Bella F1 (A new variety to try)

LEEK Giant Winter
LEEK Oarsman F1
MARIGOLD French (For companion planting with the greenhouse tomatoes)

ONION Salad Performer
ONION Salad White Lisbon
PAK CHOI Green F1
PEA Mange Tout Kennedy  (In root trainers)
PEA Rapido Petit Pois (In root trainers)
PEA Twinkle (In root trainers)
RUBBECKIA Cherry Brandy (helping out Mrs Soggy)
SALAD Leaves Speedy
SPINACH Tirza
SWEET PEA King Size Navy Blue (helping out Mrs Soggy)

I have gone back to root trainer module sowing for the early peas, after experimenting with sowings in plastic guttering last year. The idea is to slide the peas and their undisturbed roots out of the plastic gutter and into the soil; I think there was more root disturbance than with modules.

Sustainability

In one word the sub-title of a Guardian story (to which I was alerted by Lucy Jones, who will be speaking at our garden club meeting in March) sums up much of what underpins my commitment to gardening organically.

I do not doubt that science, research and development have much to offer, after all gardeners have always tinkered about, experimented and sought to build on what nature offers us, but I do not think it is any kind of progress if what we do breaks our relationship of stewardship for the land and responsibility to those who will follow us.

So, the story of Bhutan's commitment to organic production couldn't fail to be of interest to me. In the UK our government at one time talked about measuring happiness, which perhaps shows that at least someone was thinking outside the usual box, but Bhutan has gone much further, basing its economic development on the pursuit of collective happiness. (Now there's a topic for the political philosophers amongst us; here's one for you conspiracy theorists too - when I originally miss-typed "amongst" the browser's in-built spell checker offered Monsanto as an alternative.)

The full story of Bhutan's commitment is told here in The Guardian's article - enjoy.

Potatoes

I was Potato Day here yesterday and I now have quite a range of varieties to try - working on the assumption that whatever the weather, the more the merrier and more chance of something doing well.

My potato varieties (including 2 of our favourites, Charlotte and Toluca):

British Queen (2nd early, floury)
Casablanca (1st early, multi-purpose)
Charlotte (2nd early, waxy)
Harlequin (early main, waxy)
Orla (early main, multi-purpose)
Premier (1st early, floury)
Rosabelle (1st early, waxy)
Sherine (1st early, floury)
Toluca (early main, waxy)

So, let's see what the seasons bring.

I also bought onion sets. The over-wintering onions will give an earlier crop, but the spring planted ones generally keep better. I bought Turbo and Red Baron.

I can see the back wall of my potting shed again!

Do you marvel at people with neat sheds and workshops, with immaculate tools set out, gleaming and ready for the next job? I don't know how they do it, my shed seems to have its own force-field, not repelling  but attracting every manner of junk to its heart, slowly but surely accumulating such quantities of rubbish that I can barely open the door and shove a fork or rake in there before swiftly securing the door again.

Well, today, not being wet for a change, I was able to empty it all out (now I know what that smell was: a dead mouse) busily brushing corners that had lain undiscovered seemingly since the last ice age. It is now the perfect example of horticultural order, at least until the force-field once again draws all unto itself.

Organic Advice and Information

I am always on the lookout for information about organic gardening and (through Google+) I came into contact with James Middleton who runs the really informative blog on anything organic gardening or allotmenting. Don't just take my word for it, have a look here

As you've probably noticed, if you can't eat it, I tend not to write about it, but James covers much more ground (hopefully not with weeds), it even seems to tie in quite nicely with the seasons. Nice one James!