Penellype's 2016 Garden Diary

[Penellype]

Strawberries!

Bare rooted strawberry plants arrived yesterday - 12 Honeoye and 12 Buddy. The Buddy were actually plugs, which suits me just fine .

Growing strawberries is something I just haven't quite got right yet. I get half decent crops but compared with what you see other people growing for example in towers, mine are pathetic. I tried one of those stackable tower pots, which at least have decent sized spaces for the plants, but the bottom layers were impossible to water and the plants at the bottom and on the shady side did badly.



I found putting the layers singly or just 2 high worked better, but takes a lot of space.



I've tried a strawberry pot (devilishly difficult to water) and fruit at the bottom trails on the ground.



I've tried "flower towers" - I had high hopes for these last year and they started off quite well, but despite regular watering quite a lot of the plants and fruit shrivelled up and died and yields were low.



So this year I am going for a mixture of tower pot slices on shelving (Marshmello, Malwina, Elsanta and Buddy and a large hanging basket supported on a large flower pot (Honeoye) - I don't have anywhere suitable to hang it.



Of course I will still hang onto the plants that are already in the strawberry pot (Elsanta) and the flower towers (Marshmello and Elsanta) but I am not expecting all that much of them. I've also got the wild strawberries to house - they did reasonably well on the pole garden last year.

[Penellype]

Quite a few signs of life starting to appear.

The onion sets I planted under fleece at the end of January are starting to show green shoots above ground.
The mizuna and namenia (but not the pak choi) are germinating in the chiligrow pots.
The leeks are germinating in their rootrainers and have been moved out into the growhouse.
The red vein spinach is just starting to show signs of germinating.
No sign of life from the parsnip seeds I put on kitchen paper in a plastic bag. These are old seed and I think I probably need to buy some new ones.
One of the flowers on the snackbite orange peppers that I cut down last autumn has opened.
The 2 big Shirley tomato plants have been moved onto self watering trays on the sitting room windowsill. Both have flower buds and developing side shoots, and one flower has opened.
The chits on the Desiree potatoes are getting so big that I planted 6 of them into 2 buckets yesterday (a week earlier than planned). These are outside under a cloche and bubble wrap, as I have run out of floor space in the garage!

Ate the first pod of 3 half pint peas yesterday. Plenty more coming along nicely.

[Penellype]

Another productive weekend in glorious sunshine - I had to wear a hat to prevent sunstroke for the first time this year.

At my friend's:
Planted 8 Desiree potatoes in buckets in the greenhouse.
Noticed the first 2 buckets of Lady C potatoes have shoots appearing at the surface. The ones planted in identical buckets in the garage at home 3 days earlier have not yet appeared, which illustrates the difference in temperature.
Removed last summer's calabrese which is still producing tiny shoots but has been overtaken by the PSB, and I will soon be needing the space to plant leeks. This was planted through weed suppressant membrane, which did the job but I found about 50 slugs under it, which is not good.
Put up mesh supports for the peas, the first batch of which (Meteor) are nearly ready to plant out.
Moved the bean wigwam into its new position.
Spread more compost as a mulch.

At home:
Planted the remaining Desiree potatoes in buckets in the garage - this required a serious rearrangement in there, but the chits were getting too long to wait any longer.
Weeded some of the old strawberry pots and mulched them and the new plants with Strulch. Moved most of them to their summer home near the fruit cage now that there is a little sun in that area.
Noticed that the Pak Choi was germinating. One of the 12 parsnip seeds in the plastic bag has formed a root, but I don't think I will bother with those as I now have some fresh seed.
Potted up the first tomato sideshoot from one of the big Shirley plants and potted on some lettuces.
Sowed 3 french bean seeds (Purple Teepee) in a pot to grow indoors and some calendula for the flower border.
Ate the remainder of last year's Nantes Frubund carrots to make room for some more carrots to be sown shortly. This enabled me to use their compost for the potatoes and clear a bucket of sieved compost from the garage to make room for the potatoes... its a bit like musical chairs at this time of year.

[Penellype]

In my experience all gardens have a "problem area" where it is difficult to get things into a state you would like, or keep it that way. Usually it is to do with bothersome weeds which defy all attempts to deal with them.

My problem area is a small piece between the lawn and the pond, just near the garage door. It is dark and damp, getting almost no sun, but it is also highly visible. And to make matters worse, its an awkward shape as the lawn is a circle, and it runs alongside a straight path. (Actually the pond is also a problem, but that is of a different sort - I think the lining has a puncture.)

At first I tried to grow annual flowers, mainly mimulus, but they never did much good. Then I planted a fern, which looked thoroughly miserable and has now just about died. I also planted some purple bugle (ajuga reptans) which seems to like it there to the point were it invades the lawn. The "weed" problem is a mixture of moss and liverwort, with the liverwort winning the battle. It has just about smothered everything to the point where it is actually growing on the leaves of the bugle.

A few years ago I decided it might be a smart move to mulch the area with horticultural grit, to improve the drainage and suppress the weeds. It did neither, and I started removing the liverwort and topping the grit up with pea gravel a couple of years ago. This seems to work better, but I still had an area of about 3 sq ft of mainly liverwort. So this week I started attacking it. I've got rid of about 2/3 of it and I now have a bucketful of gritty liverwort which I think I will have to take to the tip, as I don't think my hotbin will like it much. The plan is to finish this over Easter (weather permitting).

Hopefully a layer of new gravel will keep the liverwort at bay a bit, but planting anything other than the bugle is probably not possible due to the fern roots as well as some rocks and tree roots from my Japanese maple in the way. I might try a container there instead.

[Penellype]

Gorgeous spring salad for a lovely sunny day:



Clockwise - pea half pint, chervil, baby spinach, mibuna, red and green komatsuna, chinese celery leaf, choy sum microgreens, namenia and red mizuna baby leaves, corn salad, lettuce winter gem baby leaf and relic, early mizuna.

Just add ham, mayonnaise and a chunk of home made bread

[Penellype]

Somewhat frustrating weekend for gardening, but at least we avoided the horrendous winds experienced further south, although we did get about an inch and a half of rain this morning.

Managed to plant the last of the Charlotte potatoes at my friend's and do quite a bit of weeding there. Also sowed some spring onions in the greenhouse.

At home it was a case of sowing peas, french beans (to live indoors) and red cabbage, and potting up a couple of tomato sideshoots. I also moved leeks and calendula seedlings into the cold frame from the growhouse and peas into the growhouse from under the grow lights.

After such a wet winter my front lawn is covered in moss. This morning I noticed several large bare patches had appeared apparently over night. The culprit is a blackbird, probably gathering moss for her nest - they do tend to nest in my leylandii hedge. I just hope the grass will grow back, as it is a real mess at the moment

[Penellype]

Major rearrangement time today.

The great thing about working from home is that there are days when you can nip in and out of the garden, keeping an eye on work while getting quite a lot done outside.

I decided it was time to put the net back on the carrot cage, so I moved last year's carrots out of there - I still have a pot of Eskimo on the go and a later sown pot of Marion which I haven't started eating yet. The 3 square pots for Marion, Nantes Frubund (both already sown) and Eskimo (yet to sow) went in there along with a bucket of parsnips sown a few days ago and a trough which will house my turnip seedlings.

The komatsuna and mizuna/namenia in the salad planters are now pretty much on their last legs. The first was moved onto the hedge path, displacing a bucket of kohlrabi which is starting to bolt - this is now on one of the raised beds and will be eaten tomorrow. The other salad planter went next to the carrot cage, displacing a pot of beetroot which isn't doing too well. This is now in the very shady area near the raised beds.

Having cleared the veg garden I put up some pea netting and planted out the Douce Provence peas. I also moved the bucket of early Meteor peas out of the growhouse as they were getting a bit tall - these are now on the flower garden, which is not needed for bedding plants yet. Their place was taken by a bucket of Lady C potatoes.

The other potatoes also had a bit of a shuffle round. 2 buckets of Desiree which were under a cloche near the hotbin were moved under a smaller cloche nearby, and the remaining 3 buckets of Lady C were brought out of the garage and put under the bigger cloche. This rearrangement meant moving 2 buckets of leeks to the other side of the bigger cloche, displacing the bucket of brokali which was moved to the flower garden. There are also 4 18 litre pots with 1 Lady C potato in each - these were brought out of the garage and put on their water tray on the hedge path, covered with a double layer of fleece. None of these have any greenery showing yet, but I am hoping the sun on the buckets will help and I now have room for more buckets of potatoes (Sarpo Mira) to be planted soon in the garage.

The potatoes displaced a shelf of strawberries which has been moved onto the flower garden and a trough of spinach which is now on the path next to the cold frame until I decide where to put it.

I also lifted the fleece off the onions a little using a hoop, as it was rubbing on them.

Time for a nice hot bath to ease my aching back as no doubt there will be more moving around to do tomorrow!

[vixylix]

wow! I'm tired just reading that!

[Penellype]

Now I know why I did so much yesterday. Went out today and it was freezing cold and windy. Managed to put up the net over my gooseberry and blackcurrant bushes (to keep out the sawfly) and take some photos before retreating indoors in the hope of an improvement this afternoon.

The forecast for York was (and still is) rain from 9pm. However, when I went outside at around 3pm it was starting to drizzle and by the time I had harvested the kohlrabi and pulled a few carrots it was properly raining. I grabbed some spinach leaves and retreated indoors again

Hopefully it will be warmer and drier for at least some of the time at the weekend.

Finished the last of the stored Sarpo Mira potatoes today - they have kept very well. I still have some mash stored in the freezer to tide me over until the new potatoes arrive - I don't buy potatoes from the shops.

[Penellype]

Rather a mixed weekend. Yesterday was pretty much a write off, with rain for most of the day. Today was much better with some quite warm sunshine at times.

At my friend's:
Planted out the meteor peas that were sown in the greenhouse - these were desperate, becoming pot bound and starting to climb up each other.
Planted out the mizuna and lettuces in the hotbed and fitted a plastic cloche over them, weighting it down well with bricks.
Sowed more peas in the greenhouse and a few pak choi in the hotbed.
Harvested parsnips, broccoli and baby carrots from the greenhouse.
Noticed one shoot appearing in a bucket of Charlotte potatoes. The 4 buckets of Lady C are growing well.

At home:
Planted out the turnips into their trough in the veg cage.
Sowed Eskimo carrots, beetroot, kohlrabi and one cucumber (cucino) as an experiment.
Moved the red cabbage to the grow light garden as it was germinating.
Potted up another tomato sideshoot.
Threw out some of the overwintered lettuces that had started to bolt and go bitter, and also one of the overwintered pepper plants which had died. The other 3 are growing nicely and 2 have flowers.
Harvested plenty of salad leaves from indoors and out.

[Penellype]

Here we go again. Forecast was sunshine and showers, but by 3pm this was the situation outside my garden door:



The white stuff is hail from a thunderstorm that was happening at the time of the photo. It finally stopped raining at about 6pm having completely annihilated any ideas of possible gardening today!

The rain has washed a lot of the mulch onto the path so I am going to have some clearing up to do.

My friend's garden is also under water, with a good half inch in the greenhouse. Interestingly the vegetable garden has only one flooded part. I've been operating a no dig regime there, but recently dug up the runner bean support from last year meaning there is about a square metre which has been well dug over. It is this area which is flooded.

[Bigmallly]

The joys of livin' in York Pene...................

[Penellype]

Indeed - York seems to attract thunderstorms for some reason. I've heard they tend to follow rivers, but I can't think of any particular reason why they should do. I think I am going to have to try to lift that path a bit though as it just seems to trap the water. Putting in any sort of drainage system is well beyond my capabilities.

[Bigmallly]

Yes I was just looking at your 4th March pic & apart from the hail, it's identical & does tend to hold water so trying to solve that would be a big help.

[Penellype]

The tide has now gone out somewhat, although everywhere is still very wet. We have had showers but nothing dreadfully heavy, and sunny intervals in between. Managed to get quite a bit done between the showers, especially today.

Some of the potatoes are starting to show above the compost in their buckets. Interestingly the Desiree (planted last, outside under a cloche) appeared first, followed by Charlotte (planted a week earlier outside under a cloche). The Lady C, planted much earlier in the garage have not yet appeared despite being moved outside (again under a cloche) but I expect them to appear any day now. The ones in my friend's greenhouse are romping away, but that gets a lot more sun.

Took the fleece off the onions yesterday as it was windy and the onions were in danger of being damaged by the fleece thrashing about. They are now upto 6 inches tall.

Planted out the cabbage plants from the growhouse and put them under the insect mesh cage. Pulled up the beetroot as I needed both the compost and the pot. Some of them are about the thickness of my finger but most were inedibly small. I haven't decided whether to bother trying to cook them or not.

Used the compost from the beetroot to plant out the last 2 buckets of Sarpo Mira potatoes which had gone into their final position on one of the raised beds. I just have 6 potatoes to plant out at my friend's now - if I can find anything to plant them in!

Sieved a load of compost and put it in the pot that had housed the beetroot, then sowed some more carrots (Nantes Frubund Fastcrop). That completes the vegetable cage for the early part of the year - 4 pots of carrots, 1 bucket of parsnip and 2 troughs, 1 of turnip and 1 of cabbage.

Pruned back the clematis on the archway as there was a lot of dead wood and tied in some new shoots.

Brushed the strulch off the path onto the soil where it is supposed to be - where it stayed for about 1/2 an hour before the birds pulled it off again.

Nipped the tops out of the 2 large tomato plants on the sitting room windowsill. The new, taller grow light has meant less distance between trusses and I have managed to get 3 on each plant instead of the usual 2 . Potted up some sideshoots - I now have 6 more Shirley seedlings and 4 sideshoots, so there are now 12 of the 15 Shirley plants I plan to grow underway.

Decided it was time to put glue bands round my apple tree as it was badly infested with aphids and ants last year. This is supposed to be the organic way of doing things. The glue is horribly sticky and nearly impossible to apply from one of those gun things like you get silicone filler in, especially while trying to access the back of the trunk of a small tree that is about 6 inches from a fence, while trying not to stand on the soil or break off the buds. Needless to say I got glue all over my hands. I then discovered that neat washing up liquid didn't even start to shift it and had to root about in my decorating cupboard for some turps. I'm beginning to think that it would be easier and safer, not to mention more environmentally friendly, to put up with the ants and aphids!

Red cabbage and kohlrabi are germinating and I think there are signs of life in the 2nd pot of outdoor carrots (Nantes Frubund) although it will be another day or 2 to before I am sure.

At this time of year I spend a lot of time just walking round and looking, checking for pests (aphids, slugs and lily beetles so far) and generally making sure all is as it should be. Time to order some slug nematodes I think.