This weekend, we sowed some more seeds in containers. This time, it was Solo and Golden Eye beetroot, the first being regular red beetroot, and the other a yellow coloured beetroot - a new variety for us this year. We also sowed some Mixed Leaf lettuce, Bulls Blood beet leaves, Flyaway carrots and Rougette radishes.... Continue Reading →
The greenhouse is filling up!
Last weekend, we filled the beds in the greenhouse with some top soil. We can now grow vegetables direct in the beds, or most likely, in containers that we stand on top of the soil in the beds. We'll make sure that the pots have holes in the bottom though, both for drainage, and also... Continue Reading →
A further update on our outdoor container crops
It's still a bit cold for lots of vegetables outside at the moment, especially because of the frosts we seem to keep having overnight! However, we've got some relatively hardy crops that we started off a month or so ago. The Little Gem lettuces are not quite as far along as perhaps they would've been... Continue Reading →
Our latest batch of seeds are sown
The latest crops that we have sown are chard, chop suey greens and soya beans. We've grown chard before, both the orange variety, Fantasia, and the red variety, Intense. However, the chop suey greens and soya beans are new ones for us for 2021. We sowed the chard and soya beans in small cell trays... Continue Reading →
Planting out our early tomatoes
Now the greenhouse is up and running, we have somewhere to house the early tomato plants that Dad has been growing for us. These are a variety called Mimi, a lovely sweet yellow cherry tomato variety that we've grown for the past couple of years. We find that to grow the best tomato plants, i.e.... Continue Reading →
The greenhouse is completed!
It's taken a few weeks and a number of steps, but it was all worth it! The greenhouse is fully glazed and ready to go. Before we could glaze it, we put some 5mm glazing foam on the aluminium frame to cushion the glass once in place. The door runners are a bit worn, so... Continue Reading →
Update on our Easter cucurbit sowings
It doesn't take courgettes and cucumbers long to germinate. As with our pak choi seedlings, these are pricked out into 3" pots in multipurpose compost. The plants will grow on in these pots until they are ready to plant out. These will need to be kept under glass until the risk of frost has passed,... Continue Reading →
Sugar snap peas 2021
We don't have anywhere set up to grow sugar snap peas yet. However, Dad got some started for us, and luckily the lockdown restrictions have been lifted enough here in Essex now that we are able to go and visit other private gardens, so I could plant them out! We intend to grow them in... Continue Reading →
Pricking out our pak choi
After sowing the pak choi seeds a week or so ago, they were ready to prick out. They started poking through (as you can see from the photo) after just a couple of days. And it doesn't take them long to get their first set of leaves! We probably should've done a slightly better job... Continue Reading →
Making the greenhouse look brand new (ish!)
Next up on the list of preparations for the greenhouse being erected was washing the panes of glass. We sorted ourselves a little conveyor belt system where we washed the panes with warm soapy water, rinsed them down with clean cold water. It was surprising how dirty the panes of glass were! We didn't realise... Continue Reading →
