Today I will mostly be growing

Today I will mostly be thinning cabbages and pulling out my mini leeks which have sucumb to greenfly.

Cabbage Plot 2

Before Thinning (Wk 38 28.12.07)

After Thinning (Wk 40 12.01.0

My cabbages showed signs of whitefly which is a good time to create some space in the plot by thinning so that the pests don’t infect all plants. I thinned and destroyed the ones that had whitefly. Thinning also encourages growth as we will see in a few weeks time.

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This week I will mostly be harvesting yet more runner beans! and plenty of tomato’s.

My tomato plants dispite looking very dishevelled because I have occassionally forgotten to water them are still producing a harvest of red and yellow fruit.

My Maris Peer xmas potatoes have loved the recent warm weather and have shot up above the pot with just 3 weeks of growth. I have now earthed them up with compost to the top of the pots.

Crops Progress

• Mini Leeks - 10 weeks growth and growing strong as they are protected behind the chicory. Estimated Harvest Date: 27 Oct after 15 weeks growth.
• Chicory - 10 weeks with lots of leaf growth and no slugs!…. yet. Estimated Harvest Date: 13 Oct after 13 weeks.
• First sowing of Autumn King 2 Carrots - 10 weeks growth. Estimated Harvest Date: 13 Oct after 13 weeks.
• Second sowing of Autumn King 2 Carrots - 3 weeks growth. Estimated Harvest Date: 17 Nov after 13 weeks.
• Turnip (Atlantic) - 3 weeks growth. Estimated Harvest Date: 27 Oct after 8-10 weeks.
• Pak Choi - 3 weeks growth. Estimated Harvest Date: 17 Nov after 13 weeks.
• Cabbage - Advantage (spring greens) - 3 weeks growth. Estimated Harvest Date: December after 20 weeks.
• Cabbage - Spring Hero - 3 weeks growth. Estimated Harvest Date: April/May 2008

Reminder of Cold Weather on the way.

After watching BBC1’s Countryfile on Sunday I saw the temperatures over the UK would be tumbling this week which reminded me to buy some fleece. I bought some Horticultural Fleece for the vegetable plot and my potato buckets 3m x 6m for £5.28 incl P&P from Ebay seller ‘All Seasons Gardener’.

Below are the Week 23 picture updates of my 3 vegetable plots.

Week 21 02.09.07 - This week I will mostly be growing…

• Sweet Baby Peppers Sown 31.03.07 have been very slow growing this year but as you can see from the photo growth is finally speeding up.
• Mini Leeks (8 weeks growth),
• Autumn King 2 Carrots (8 weeks growth)
• Chicory (8 weeks growth)
• Turnip ‘Atlantic’ (1 weeks growth)
• Pak Choi ‘Riko F1′ (1 weeks growth)
• Lambs Lettuce ‘Jade’ (1 weeks growth)
• Radish ‘French Breakfast’ intercropped with the chicory (1 weeks growth),
• Runner Beans ‘Red Rum and White Lady’ (still harvesting daily - Week 17 growth),
• Tomato ‘Roma, Tornado and yellow bell’ (still harvesting every few days)
• Xmas Potatoes ‘ Maris Peer’ (1 weeks growth in tubs).

Please click here to see a slideshow of the progress of my seedlings mentioned in the list above.

The pictures below show my 3 back garden vegetable plots on 02.09.07 Week 21.

There comes a time in every vegetable gardens life where it needs a new look for the autumn months. This weekend was maintenance weekend, where out with the old and no longer needed and in with the newly sown seeds.

So I had to be brutal and out went my Chard Bright Lights and Perpetual Spinach because they were taking up precious autumn sowing space. I harvested the final spring greens from my Frostie Cabbages and then mulched Plot 2 with the spent compost from my potato containers. I raked to a fine till and then sowed 2 rows of Spring Hero Cabbages (to harvest April) and 4 rows of Advantage Cabbage (for all year round spring greens).

Plot 1 - My Chicory, Mini Leeks and Carrots are eight weeks into their new growth so it was time to add yes more carrots, another two rows as I want to harvest these in throughout the winter.

Also sown in Plot 1 were Pak Choi, Turnips and in filled the gaps in the chicory with radishes.

Plot 3 - My beans are going bananas and still producing a high enough yield for me to charge my work colleagues 50p per bundle of fresh organic beans, the 3 bundles sold pays for the next packet of seeds!

Removed the dwarf bean plants and mulched again with compost. Raked and sowed Lambs Lettuce (2 rows), 1 row of Radishes, Pak Choi (just in case the slugs get it in Plot 1) and Lettuce.

Xmas Potatoes have gone in - Variety Maris Peer, 3 buckets worth. Done.

Click here for my new Plot Plan August 2007.
Plot Plan August 2007

This week I will mostly be harvesting:-

• Runner Beans (Red Rum and White Lady),
• Carrots (James Scarlet Intermediate),
• Silverskin Spring Onions and Red Blood Holland spring onions
• Cabbage (Greyhound and Frostie),
• Leaf Beat - Perpetual Spinach,
• Dwarf French Beans (Ferrari),
• Tornado F1 Tomatos.

This week I will mostly be growing:-
4 Weeks growth for:

Pests and Diseases this week:-

• Peas - Green Hurst Shaft and petit pois lost to powdery mildew