We were so pleased with how our Midnight courgettes grew last year in containers that we wanted to give them a try again this year. We did quite a late sowing, as there were already some that Dad had grown in the garden during the first part of the season, so we wanted some that would... Continue Reading →
Psychedelic salad
Chris was bought a "Psychdelic salad" growing kit for his birthday which contained: red spring onions, yellow spherical cucumbers, multicoloured radishes and beetroot and red lettuce. A couple of weeks ago, we set about sowing each of them. The radishes and spring onions were sown directly into 10 litre pots in multipurpose compost which were... Continue Reading →
Super sweetcorn
We also wanted to try growing sweetcorn this year. Firstly, we wanted to grow the coloured sweetcorn, but turned out this is only ornamental, and we're all about things we can eat, so traditional yellow sweetcorn it was! We decided on a variety called Earliking, which was supposed to be a really sweet variety. So we thought... Continue Reading →
Lettuce (let us) chill
Lettuces can be a funny one to try and germinate, albeit one of the easiest to grow once you've got them beyond this point. Therefore, we thought we'd given a step-by-step guide to how we sow our lettuces to get them germinated. Most seeds require stratification before they will germinate. This is a process which imitates... Continue Reading →
Somewhere over the…Rainbow Chard
We sowed our Fantasia and Intense rainbow chard on 24 March. One is orange, and one is red, so we're hoping to grow a nice colourful crop with these! We sowed one seed per cell in Seed and Modular compost, pushing each seed gently into the compost. We then covered these with vermiculite, a sheet of glass and some... Continue Reading →
Charisma carrots
As we've mentioned before, we are members of the National Vegetable Society ("NVS"). Being a member of the NVS has lots of benefits, including: Quarterly magazine which includes lots of growing hints and tips An online forum where members can pose questions and share their growing experiences Access to local District Association meetings where you... Continue Reading →
Growing our own…tapas!
We are both quite into our food. Any excuse and we spend hours rustling up something for dinner. One of our favourite easy starters/meals is antipasti. And then last year, we discovered Padrons! They are best fried in a little oil until they blister and then sprinkled with some sea salt - delicious!! So this... Continue Reading →
Sowing our salad
We decided to grow some salad vegetables in large pots again this year. So the weekend before last, we got started! We put a few inches of soil in the bottom of each pot to act as anchorage if the wind gets up, and then filled each pot almost to the top with multipurpose compost.... Continue Reading →
April update
We haven't had a chance to write a post for a couple of weeks, but there's been lots going in! Potatoes These were planted in late January, but have been kept indoors as we are still getting a few sharp frosts here in Essex. Firstly, they were growing in the lean to greenhouse with a... Continue Reading →
2019 sowing planner
As promised, we have now put some suggested (hopeful!) dates to all the things we are looking to grow this year! We have set this out below - so let's see how closely we manage to stick to it! Already sown/planted Early Potatoes – Red Duke of York/Charlotte – 26/01/19 Chill pepper – Machu Picchu... Continue Reading →
