Garden early May update

Following on from my recent posts about enjoying the baby lettuce and spinach (Mini lettuce salad and Not quite a salad, but it’s a start), here’s the latest update from Tim’s garden:

Here’s the second batch of Runner Beans (first beans didn’t germinate, probably because it was a cool start to spring) in seed trays, just before transplanting into bigger containers:
Also just behind is another batch of spinach taking shape.
And a transplanted photo:
I try and get them as big as possible before they go out in the wilds and get attacked by the slug army, the blackfly, the cat, foxes, etc.

The thinned out lettuce are taking advantage of the extra room:

The first early (Arran Pilot) potatoes are starting to grow nicely now we’ve had a few nice weeks, to the left you can see the main crop of (Desiree [red]) potatoes that were planted at the same time are a little behind in terms of growth:

The leeks in front (hard to photo them as they look like bits of grass at the start) have taken to living outdoors under the protection of the wire:
And the onions are doing really well under the protection of the wire too, they have grown through and will lie on top of it as the leaves get larger and flop down:

Happy growing!

Mini lettuce salad

The lettuce (there’s not that many) are big enough to start thinning them out so there’s enough room for the remaining ones to grow further. So today I’ve finally made a proper(ish) salad, baby butterhead lettuce, spinach and onion leaves:

I’ve also planted the third batch of spinach and lettuce. My plan is to plant 5 – 10 every month to start with then reduce the numbers when I run out of space.

Not quite a salad, but it’s a start

It’s only spinach and onion leaves, the lettuce isn’t ready yet, but I love spinach so I enjoyed it on the side of my dinner plate:
This spinach is my first, so I’ve underestimated how many plants I need to get a good crop. Fortunately there’s lots of time for the second batch to catch it up.

Any spinach growing tips would’ve appreciated 🙂

Garden latter April update #gardening

We’ve had a couple of warm days and things are starting to grow.

Here’s the outside onions that had outgrown the egg boxes – which was a bad idea by the way, not enough room for the roots!

Though no birds have had a go at them, so the fact that they have sprouted in the egg boxes was good, maybe bigger containers next time. The wire is keeping the cat off them for the moment too.
And some greenhouse onions:

With some in containers that were destined for outside, but I ran out of space, so they’ll probably end up being eaten in a salad instead.
The sprouting garlic I planted is growing well:

And the red onion that sprouted is a double sprouter, no ideas what to do with it, I’m going to leave it and see what happens!

The spinach is growing well:

The leeks before:

And after transplanting out:

Though they are tricky to spot.
And the lettuce before:

And after container upgrade:

The reason for the containers is that I still haven’t mapped out where I’m going to plant them yet!
After the transplanting I sowed a few more spinach and a few more lettuce. The plant is to keep reminders in my phone so that I don’t forget like last year.
The early potatoes are breaking the surface, not worth a photo yet. Though most of my patch is potatoes this year, so there will be better photos later I’m sure.
It’s interesting looking at the photos again… So many weeds and stones that I didn’t see before.

Garden early April

The onion plan, grow in egg trays in green house until they sprout, then transplant. Theory is they won’t be pulled up by blackbirds or destroyed by animals, plus avoiding late frosts which we’ve had a couple of.

The protection from the cat I am going to try is:

Which is some wire shelving / mesh laid on bricks. I will tie it to the bricks once planted. Ken gave me the idea, the idea is the onions grow through the wire and lay on top of it, cats don’t like walking on it, so they are protected.
I’ve no idea where the leeks will go yet, talking of leeks, here’s the start:

Then the lettuce:

And the spinach is growing well so far:

Potatoes and runner beans haven’t broken the soil / compost yet. Fingers crossed.

This time of year is by far the slowest, waiting for the temperature to rise and the sun to come out. Nice to see some things growing now.

The start of my 2013 gardening #Gardening

On the 8th of March I planted:

• Runner beans – Enorma
• Onions – Turbo
• Potatoes – Arran Pilot and Desiree
• Lettuce – Butterhead
• Spinach – Spinacia Oleracea
• Leek – Autumn Giant 3
• A head of garlic that was sprouting
• A red onion that was sprouting
• (this I may regret) some sprouting Maris Piper that were destined for the food bin

Nothing unusual or terribly new, OK, the Spinach is new for me, but I couldn’t resist as the seeds were 29p from Lidl.
Planting this year was earlier than last because the potatoes were well chitted at the time I bought them.
Then it snowed, the weather has been cool and I wasn’t expecting anything, but we have a couple of sprouts (spinach I think):

The garlic is growing well, but I forgot to snap it 😦
And… that is it so far.
I’m experimenting with starting my onion sets in egg boxes until they’ve sprouted, I got fed up blackbirds pulling them up or the cat trampling them.

So, Sun, where are you? Let’s get growing please.