Poll: what seeds have you started so far this year?

Posted by louisa on Thursday 14 April 2011 in growing | 0 comments

I’ve been seeing lots of people blogging and tweeting about their greenhouse contents recently – what’s been sown and when. It’s interesting that some people nearby are planting some of their things much later than me – but other things earlier. I guess we all find our sweet spots between ours schedules and our plants’ demands.

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to see what people have sown up until now so I made a poll – feel free to tick all that apply. Sorry some things have been grouped together and other things have been missed out entirely — the only way to avoid the list getting super-super long!

I’ve put my answers in now but I’m hoping to add to it by the end of the day – I’ve got a whole load of “to plant in April” things just begging to jump into soil!

Tomatoes: determinate or indeterminate, that is the question

Posted by louisa on Wednesday 13 April 2011 in growing | 2 comments

I think I’ve just about reached the stage where my first set of tomatoes needs potting on.

These are the ones that survived the Great Damping Off Disaster of 2011 and they seem to be doing quite well. I have some later ones that are still in modules – they’ll need moving up a stage in a week or so but I think this first batch could use moving on ASAP as I think they’re a little cramped now and starting to suffer as a result.

Up until now, I’ve been more interested in the resulting type of tomato than the actual growing process – I’m a naughty gardener, naughty naughty – and I suspect my crops have suffered as a result.

Now that I’m trying to be more efficient though, I want to do things right. This “potting on” stage now will potentially be to the plants’ final destinations so I’ve been reading about determinates/indeterminates and that sort of thing to make sure the right tomatoes end up in the right pot. According to the wonderful Wikipedia,

Determinate, or bush, types bear a full crop all at once and top off at a specific height; they are often good choices for container growing. Determinate types are preferred by commercial growers who wish to harvest a whole field at one time, or home growers interested in canning. Indeterminate cultivars develop into vines that never top off and continue producing until killed by frost. They are preferred by home growers who wish ripe fruit throughout the season.

I have planted three main types of tomatoes this year: some rich Roma plums for sauces, some sweet cherry tomatoes (Sweet Million F1 – I sowed some yellow cherry Golden Nuggets as well but they all died in the aforementioned Damping Off Tragedy), and some “standard size” Moneymakers. Nothing too exciting but some variety – some for now, some for sauces, some for whatever.

According to a bit of Googling around, I’ve found Roma tomatoes are a determinate bush, Sweet Million an indeterminate vine and Moneymaker is another indeterminate vine, albeit with slightly bigger fruit.

I had hoped to grow some in the greenhouse (in big pots and growbags) but had thought I’d take advantage of some vertical height in the garden by growing some in hanging baskets/upside down containers too. (Although I’d keep said baskets/containers in the greenhouse for at least another few weeks until it gets a bit warmer.)

eHow (which I admittedly always read with a slightly sceptical eye) tells me:

For baskets, you will want to use determinate tomato plants because they will not continue to grow bigger than the basket can hold, while indeterminate ones will.

But equally, I have to consider tomato size:

The size of the tomato plays an important role in whether or not it is going to be best for growing in baskets. Traditionally, there is less room in hanging baskets for a plant to reach full maturity. Therefore, cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes and other dwarf tomatoes will work best in hanging baskets.

Ok… The “standard size” indeterminate Moneymakers seem destined to grow as cordons from pots/bags in the greenhouse – easy peasy. But what about the Roma & cherry tomatoes? The determinate Roma may be suitable for a hanging basket as they won’t sprawl, but perhaps the plum size fruit will be too big/thirsty for in a basket? The cherry tomatoes are the perfect size for a basket but my variety’s indeterminate nature may cause problems there…

Any experienced tomato growers care to weigh in? Do you prefer all determinate or all indeterminate or a combination of the two?

Creating miniature forest gardens?

Posted by louisa on Friday 8 April 2011 in growing | 9 comments

On Wednesday Linda pointed out that my sawing wood avoidance isn’t lazy but “efficient”. Yes, *cough*, efficient, I concur.

I’m trying to be as efficient as possible in the garden this year – both according to that meaning and the conventional one — and from that and some recent reading, I’m thinking of creating two small forest gardens spots in my garden.

For those not familiar with the idea, forest gardening is a way to multicrop one area – growing (usually) edible plants, shrubs and trees at up to seven different levels, from the treetop canopy levels to ground cover and even root veg. You can create them at a forest scale or even just in small container. It’s efficient in terms of space – a variety of potential food from one area – and can be efficient in the not-sawing-really-lazy sense too if most/all of the layers are perennials or self-seeders.

Both spots I’ve thinking about are in raised beds underneath trees – the first underneath a super tall 100 year old silver birch, then second under a recently planted (currently 2 years old) morello cherry. The silver birch would be canopy layer-plus-plus as it’s miles away from anything else. The cherry, which is on semi-dwarf rootstock, will grow to no more than 2.5m-3m tall so is more at the second layer, the “low tree layer”.

The idea is to have a wedge shape if at all possible – the tall things at the back, the short things at the front, so everything gets sufficient light. The trees are, usefully, in just about the right position for this – towards the back of the space (or at least with ample space to the front) and positioned so that they won’t block the sun. (The back of the house, and thus the garden, is east-facing but the southern facing aspect is completely open too so the silver birch bed gets full sun from about 10am until 4pm-5pm in the summer, and the cherry space from dawn until 2pm.)

Both spots are small and both trees will be pretty thirsty, so I probably won’t be able to plant a full set of layers of demanding fruit & veg but I think there is potential for some stuff. Even if I’m not growing huge amounts of anything in particular, as long as it’s not taking me a lot of effort, it seems to be a good use of space – especially as they’re underused/used as a dumping ground as the birch bed (at the top) is used now.

I’ve already started to plant some shrub-layer fruit bushes under the silver birch – some raspberries that’ll hopefully grow to 3ft-4ft tall. I don’t think the bed is deep enough towards the front for root veg but it’ll certainly be fine for herbaceous things — it would make sense to put borage in there (which grew to between 2-3ft last year) because it’s near the chickens who love borage and I’ve got some chard just starting off, which could go in front of that. Finally, I’m not sure I’ll have any spare plants this year but hopefully once my strawberries start multiplying, I could plant some runners as ground cover/to topple over the edge. Borage self-seeds, chard can (can’t it?) and strawberry runners will last a few years before needing swapping out – so that, in theory, sounds like it could be a lazy efficient bed.

There is only about half that space around the cherry tree so I can’t pack it out. I think big berry bushes would overwhelm the space and clash with the lower tree branches but might get away with some shorter fruit bushes – possibly a small blueberry bush (I’ve seen some that are only about 2ft tall), and when I can propagate children from my cranberry & lingonberry bushes, I could include their offspring there too (the cranberry “strands” could flop over the side of the raised bed). I guess I wouldn’t be adding either of those things this year – which would probably be good as it would let the cherry tree get established in the meantime. I wonder if there is anything not resource crazy that I could put in there now… possibly some not-moisture-crazy herbs? Rosemary? Lavender? I have some little lavender plants in the nearby herb bed which could be transplanted without too much disruption and some other rosemary plantlets nearly ready to be planted out too.

One layer I’ve not talked about is climber/vines – which is the seventh layer. If I thought kiwis or grapes would grow well enough this far up north, I’d possibly consider them for climbing up around the silver birch. Is there anything else in that category that would work? I guess I could leave some space for annual vines – “climbing” squash or something but they are very resource intensive. I’m going to make sure the beds are well enhanced with organic matter before I start but it seems silly to overload them straight afterwards.

Has anyone else created any really small scale “forest gardens”? Is there anything to watch for or need to consider? Any suggestions/advice about my initial plant choices?

Things I’m getting unduly over-excited about this week

Posted by louisa on Thursday 7 April 2011 in growing | 6 comments

1. The sunny weather
It’s just glorious out there.

2. The sunny-yet-windy weather meaning clothes line dry super quickly
I put out a load yesterday morning and another this morning – and both lots were dry by about lunchtime. Smashing!

3. All the green halos appearing on the trees
The sycamores started last week but the silver birches just yesterday – the leaf buds are at the ends of such spindly little branches that the buds look just like a green haze.

4. The elderflower buds are thinking about taking shape
I noticed this while having a cup of tea on the balcony earlier – the tree next to the house is budding up. Elderflowers fritters in a couple of weeks, yay!

5. That cup of tea on the balcony in the aforementioned glorious sunny weather
We generally have good tea but then perhaps, say, one in 20 cups of tea are just perfect. Perfect temperature, strength & sweetness. The sunshine & animals accompanying me at that time just added to it.

6. My previously floppy-leaved lettuces are pulling themselves into heads
I mentioned this on Twitter and ViksterBean said: “Isn’t it great when veg suddenly starts to look like veg, if you know what I mean?!” I do know what she means and it’s just jolly marvellous!

7. My first batch of tomato seedlings
I lost loads of baby tomatoes to the Great Damping Off Crisis of 2011 so I’m feeling very protective of the ones that made it through – and my babies are doing well.

8. The first early potatoes are starting to peek their heads through the first level of soil
Nearly time to level up! (Oh and to plant out the rest too.)

9. The fact we just had toasties for lunch
John and I both get over excited about toastie-maker toasties considering it’s just beans, cheese & crappy white bread (well, and peanut butter for him, and tabasco sauce for me). I think it’s a residual thing from childhood when we weren’t allowed them often because our mums considered it too much faff to clean the toastie maker afterwards (and cleaning it ourselves would be unthinkable). Today’s toasties were especially exciting as I had a nutella one as a lunch dessert. Mmm, vegetable oil.

10. Anticipation for 10pm on Saturday night
When our last performance comes to an end. Last year, my fellow tutor Karen and I were dancing/singing along backstage due to hysteria/relief on the last night of the show; this year, the hysterical/nervous dancing started last night, the final dress rehearsal. It’s the first performance tonight. I’m not on stage but I’m the stage manager so that means I have to make sure all 43 hyper teenagers are where they’re supposed to be when they’re supposed to be there. 10pm on Saturday night will be sweeeeeet.

Are you unduly excited about anything this week? What’s got you embarrassingly giddy?

More scrap wood planters

Posted by louisa on Monday 4 April 2011 in growing, making, wood stuff | 6 comments

These are WIPs rather than finished articles but I wanted to mention them anyway because it’s pretty much all I achieved over the weekend – I had a nice quiet weekend, just not as productive as normal.

On Friday afternoon, I had that “I must make!!” craving so I went to hunt around in the (supposedly for burning) wood store for scraps to planters – I found 30 plank offcuts, roughly the same length (about 25cm/10ins) and width (13cm/5ins) and 12 batten offcuts, about 15mmx30mm. I’d intended to make another long trough but I realised those pieces would make three 25cm/10inch-cubed planters without having to saw anything at all – win!

(I don’t mind sawing now that we have a decent saw that treats everything like butter – but I like to avoid it whenever I can because I’m lazy and always end up with wonky cuts :) )

As with the other planters I’ve made, these aren’t exactly working examples of right angles or beautiful to look at but they’ll do. They’re finished in terms of building but the planks were all untreated and while I’ll line the inside anyway, I think I’m going to have to treat or paint the outside to make them more weather resistant. As we’re painting the bathroom soon, we should have some paint leftover from that which I can use.

The other planter I started yesterday afternoon before I had to rush off to a not-great dress rehearsal. I went down to the bottom of the garden to look for pallets (to make a vertical planter like the one Emma suggested) but the only ones down there are too big/heavy – but I did find some old, weathered fence boards/paling, which John’s dad had salvaged & brought over at some point, so I decided to make another long trough planter from them. I’ve made up the long sides – using a salvaged/scrap 2by4 cut into quarters for the corner supports/feet – but haven’t attached the short sides or base yet. It’s going to be 120cm/4ft by 60cm/2ft when it’s finished so I might end up removing the feet and resting the base on the floor so it doesn’t have to be strong enough to support all that weight. I’m going to enlist John’s help with fixing on the sides – I’m hoping that two of us working together can actually get the angles square for a change!

While I was doing that yesterday, John was at his mum and dad’s house for lunch and his dad excitedly told him about his latest find for us — apparently the sawmill/joinery place he gets a lot of offcuts from had some 5m (16ft) lengths of decking going begging this week – salvaged from a replacement job or something. According to John, his dad now has a crazy idea for us to make some 5m long planters – that might be a little nuts! Perhaps I should work on my sawing skills after all…

March – end of month review

Posted by louisa on Thursday 31 March 2011 in growing, less than 12 clothes challenge, personal finance | 15 comments

March has been a rather expensive and stressful month as we’ve been having our bathroom fitted and a ridiculous amount of things went wrong. But at the same time, we’ve also learnt some new skills and had some lovely Spring days – just how fantastic is it that the world is turning green again?

Goals in 2011 progress

As in February, I’m working towards a few goals if not anywhere near completing them yet. I’ve sown a lot of seeds for veg – unfortunately lost a lot of baby seedlings to damping off and other bad propagator management but I’m learning all the time. We should have our first fully homegrown 2011 salad in the next few weeks.

I’ve not been baking that much but the four loaves we made each on our baking course at the weekend keep up my average ;) They were sourdough loaves and we also now have starters from them – not quite growing one from scratch but I’ll be satisfied if I can keep that alive and bake from it.

We’ve also been on a screenprinting course – which isn’t one of the simple living goals mentioned here but is on my personal goals list – and enjoyed it a lot. We’re booked in for another session the week after next and I’ve already got a few things worked out that I’d like to print.

Buy less than 12 items of clothing in 2011

Even though I thought I’d cave this month, my tally is still at zero. I have been looking at things online but nothing has wowed me enough for me to get out my credit card. I did add some things to basket a couple of weeks ago but deliberately left it overnight to see how I felt about them in the morning – and in the morning, I was indifferent. I quite like that.

I think a Spring jacket may break my embargo – my short woolly swing coat is a little too warm at the moment but my hoodie is at the dog-walking stage of its lifecycle. We’ll see.

One other thing: one day, while putting away laundry, I sorted through all the t-shirts/tops I have in my chest of drawers. I didn’t get rid of anything, just tidied into related piles and refolded – I rediscovered a few tops which got looked over in the usual heap format of my drawers. Shopping your own wardrobe/drawers rules!

Growing stuff and the chickens

As I mentioned above, the growing stuff thing is going well-ish. I might live to regret it if there is a cold spell in the next few weeks but I planted out my broad bean seedlings yesterday. I’ve got two lots of potatoes sown in “bags”. My tomato seedlings – the ones that survived the Great Damping Off Crisis of 2011 – are beautifully leafy. My cucumbers and pumpkins look green and luscious. The chillis & peppers are growing slowly but looking good. The radish seedlings numerous, the cauliflowers hanging in there and various lettuce & salad leaves at varying stages of sprouting but looking very promising. On the fruit front, John B gave us some jostaberry canes so they’re in the ground too now. All our other berry bushes & fruit trees are budding/leafing well (the photo above is one of the apple trees), and the two strawberry runners that I thought had died have proved me wrong. Basically, it’s all go in the garden, greenhouse & propagator!

The chickens are doing well – they’ve met our nephew on a couple of occasions (our 4 year old niece comes to visit sometimes too, and John’s young cousins, but at 13 months old, the ‘phew is their youngest visitor to date) and got an new layer of woodchips to scratch around in. In return, they’ve given us a magnificent 200 eggs exactly (well, exact at this point – if I go down later, there may be another one). That’s an average of 6.45 a day, at a rough average of 8p per egg in consumables (£12 ish of food, and about £4 for straw, shavings, seed treats & powders).