The cauliflower and broccoli seeds we planted last week are now ready to be pricked out. We prick brassica plants out into 3" square pots where they will stay until they are planted out in the garden in a few weeks' time. The 3" pots are filled with multipurpose compost, firming this down gently before... Continue Reading →
Planting out some more cucurbits
The cucamelons have continued to grow away as quickly as they started, and were moved outside last week to harden them off before planting out. We've never grown these before, so we're not sure what we're doing, but a quick Google search gave us some ideas. They grow like a vine, so we fixed some... Continue Reading →
Some more potting on of peppers…
Today we potted on Emily's Gogorez peppers - they definitely needed some more room! They're also currently doing a little better than mine at the moment! We filled the pots up about half way with soil, and then topped with compost: Next, we made some room in the centre of each pot large enough to... Continue Reading →
Some growing top tips
Everyone prefers a cauliflower with a white curd. However, this means that you need to shelter the curd from sunlight, to prevent it going yellow. One way of achieving this is to tie the cauliflower leaves together at the top once you see a cauliflower starting to form. Like us, our plants need food... Continue Reading →
A general update
The courgettes are growing well in their pots and are starting to produce lots of courgettes. Once ready, carefully cut the courgettes with a knife, ensuring the main stem of the plant is not damaged. The cucamelons are growing away well - we think they'll be ready to plant out next week! However, as they've... Continue Reading →
Topping up the herb garden
Lots of the herbs have already been planted out, for example mint, parsley, sage, lovage, chives and tarragon. These were started off from seed earlier in the year (around March time) and were planted out towards the middle of May. However, a couple of herbs we grow don't take as long to grow, and tend... Continue Reading →
Taking cucumber cuttings to grow more plants
It's always a good idea to have successional sowings of the various vegetables you grow to length their harvest period. Therefore, we would always recommend sowing little but often. However, you don't always have to start again from seed. Instead, you can take cuttings from the existing plant and root these. Cucumbers are an example... Continue Reading →
Tending to runner beans
This week, the runner beans have got to the top of their canes! And our first runner beans are starting to set after the bees have been hard at work pollinating them. Once they reach the top of their cane, we usually snip their tops out. This helps the plant to focus its energy on... Continue Reading →
Sowing brassicas
We helped sow some brassicas today: cauliflowers and calabrese. Like with most things, we sow our brassicas and grow them on in pots before planting out to give them the best chance. Firstly, we filled 1/4 seed trays with Levingtons Seed and Modular compost and dampened the compost with a fine rose watering can. We... Continue Reading →
We’re on Instagram!
If you've been enjoying our blog posts so far - we are also now on Instagram! We hope to use this to share some more of our growing experiences. Please follow us @itssowsimple