Grow Your Own Magazine

The regular sowing of small amounts seems to have worked very well this year.

I staggered sowing/ planting of:
carrots
beetroot
potatoes
lettuce
spring onions
cabbages
cauliflowers
cucumbers

If I had more space I'd love to be able to produce more than one crop of sweetcorn in a year, but it means that we savour those we get even more.

Cutecumber

I harvested my first two pots of shallots at the weekend.

They were Matador and Ambition, grown from seed, and look spankingly healthy.

To be honest, they're a lot bigger than I anticipated - twice the size of the ones you see in the supermarket.

Let's hope they taste as good as they look!

Meanwhile, harvesting is in full swing:
potatoes
carrots
lettuce
tomatoes
cabbage
chard
beetroot...

Cutecumber

It's been a great week - I've been able to harvest us enough veg for all our meals this week and given away a few bits and bobs, too.

Cauliflower, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumber, courgettes, cabbage, spring onions, garlic, peas, carrots, lettuce, beetroot.

The strawberries in pots have finished at last and I can move them out of the way.

The shallots that I sowed from seed in February are nearly ready to harvest - the skins are beginning to dry a little...

Cutecumber

We had our first tomato this week - a Bloody Butcher fruit from an outdoor plant sown in late January. There are about three others that are ripening well (on two plants) but there will be a gap before any other varieties are ready. Next will be some Golden Sunrise by the look of it, then maybe Olivade or some of the tumbling Gartenperle.

It's definitely the earliest tomato I've had but it remains to be seen if it as tasty as those which ripen later.

Cutecumber

This has been a really exciting week in the garden and my early sowings have been paying off.

We've harvsted:

Strawberries - Marshmello
Cucumbers - Rocky (mini fruits)
Lettuce - Salad Bowl
Carrots - Ideal
Potatoes - Foremost
Beetroot - boltardy
Cauliflower - Graffiti
Mixed oriental leaves - mizuna, mustard, etc

I am about three weeks ahead of last year, according to my diary, except with the beetroot which...

Cutecumber