Just a quick mention and link to the Fork’n Monkey Blog Awards of which I was anonymously nominated for 2 of the categories - Proud Parent award (for my little seedlings) and the Green Fingers award. Check out the other nominees here at the Fork’n Monkey blog awards.

The results will be posted on Tuesday but whatever the outcome I’m glad that my blog has become a part of a blogging award ceremony.

Right I’m off to the Essex Garden Show in Brentwood tomorrow and hopefully the weather should hold as cloudy. No doubt the temptation of rows and rows of lovely plants will get the better of me and I will be back home with a boot full!

Today I was mostly planting out my dwarf beans (ferrari and borlotto) and creating the bamboo cane framework to support them in the raised bed.

Bamboo cane support for Dwarf Beans
I cut 4 x 6 foot canes in half and put them in the soil opposite each other in the shape of an X. I put four of these in with enough space to plant a bean to a pole or cane. I then put another 3 foot cane across the tops of all the X shaped canes to stabilize the structure. I then used garden twine to secure the two upright and top horizontal bamboo canes together. (See picture above for more details). I planted one bean to each pole or cane but you can plant 2 to a cane if you want.

Heres what it looks like now:-

Ferrari Dwarf Beans at the back of the plot and Borlotto dwarf beans at the front.

As you can see from the picture above, I have not left any room for my runner beans, big oops!

It’s a bit of a logistical nightmare this year as I’ve decided to grow new crops and haven’t quite researched the correct harvesting dates. I had planned to put the runner beans in Plot 3 after the broad beans and peas had finished their crops, however the broad beans and pea pods are only just forming in May and my runners are a week away from needing to go into the ground, doh!

Nothing came up out of the soil with my first sowing of brussels sprouts so luckily i’ve managed to squeeze my dwarf beans into the last scrap of space left so at least thats something.

Solution
I have decided to build another narrower raised bed plot just for the runner beans this year. This will be done next week so I can get then runner beans into the ground.

I’m still having some organisation issues with the lack of space in my mini greenhouse. I know its my own fault I have 13 cucumber seedlings potted on and I’m the only one who eats cucumber in my household however I can’t bear to give up any seedlings. Also I have let a few flower seedling trays creep into the greenhouse this year as our garden borders are in desperate need of brightening up. (they have had a distinct lack of attention due to my vegetable plot). So I have a bit of a juggling act on my hands!

This weekend I have planted out the 3 calabrese plants into plot 3.

Potted on 1st batch of february Tomato ‘unknown’ seedlings into larger pots.

Potted on Broccoli (tenderstem) seedlings

Somehow I think I have planted too many Broccoli and Calabrese seeds (this might be adding to my storage issues!):

The weather this week has been more favorable to gardeners with a mix of sunshine and showers. This is the perfect weather for seedlings to put on a spurt of growth and tender plants can be planted out without fear of frosts.

My lovely dwarf beans will be planted out soon on Plot 3. I’m growing varieties Ferrari (same as last year) and a new one - Borlotto. I can’t wait to see the mottled red and white pods on this variety. Then my runner beans won’t be far behind.

Below are some comparison photos of my plots so you can see the progress in just 2 weeks. The first picture is 2 weeks ago on 19.04.08 and 2nd is a current picture of my plots on 03.05.08:-

Plot 1 - Roots and Salads

• Sowed 2nd row of Carrots (James Scarlet)
• Whilst weeding I found the culprits of my nibbled radishes, 2 baby slugs erh!

Click here to view the progress of Plot 1 since 09.02.08.

Plot 2 - Brassicas

• Planted out 3 Calabrese (ironman) plants into top left of plot.
• Sowed 2nd rows of Cabbage (Winter Tundra)
• Pulled up 1 cabbage (advantage) to make way for Calabrese

Click here to view the progress of Plot 2 since 09.02.08.

Plot 3 - Beans and Peas

• Broad Beans and Peas have put on a spurt of growth and are flowering,
• Mange Tout seedlings have appeared.

Click here to view the progress of Plot 3 since 09.02.08.

Blog Page Updates

1. Click here to view my new slideshows on the Plot Gallery Page including cucumbers, cabbage and mange tout.
2. Click here to view My Master Plan of seed sowings which has been updated as of 03.05.08.

These Broad Bean (the sutton) flowers are so stunningly different with black eye’s on white petals. If you have never grown them before, like myself, there is nothing quite like these unique flowers. They certainly brighten up my all green plot.

Whilst the excitement is flowing, I couldn’t help but show a picture of my first pea pods of 2008 which are just forming on my over-wintering peas (douce provence).

After 24 long weeks of growth over the winter season (sown back in November 2007) I can’t wait for the pea to form, there’s nothing quite like the taste of fresh garden peas and they usually don’t make it to the house as I eat them off the pod like sweets.

After the heavy downpours of rain this week, I should have guessed that the slugs would be out in force.

I can officially declare that the slug hunting season is now open and they are heading to a vegetable plot near you (please not my lettuces again this year) so this is the time to get out your slug and snail reinforcements a bit quicker than I did.

Whilst I was watering my cabbages plot, removing yellowing leaves and any leaves that were touching the ground I had the misfortune to touch a slimy creature, yes thats right the dreaded slug! This was a small baby slug which has got into my plot before I managed to slug proof it with copper tape. Perhaps it was just reminding me to be a bit quicker off the mark for next year!

Needless to say it met its bitter end under foot. Well I have to be ruthless if I’m going to get any lettuce this year.

Click here for some organic solutions to Slugs.

Just Added:
My official Slug Counter will be totting up how many slugs I encounter in my plots this year, see the right hand side bar just under the calendar for total count so far.

Last week we cleared out the back of our garden and took the rubbish to the local household refuse site. However I decided to save our old rusty BBQ with pine under-shelf from a fate worse than the crusher and re-use it as a plant stand. My challenge was to hide the rust and add some colourful plants on a very small budget, so heres how I did it.

What you will need is:

1. An old rusty BBQ,
2. Some terra-cotta or plastic plant pots,
3. Lots of stones from the garden (ours has more than its fair share!),
4. Compost,
5. Cheap Plants from the market or local garden centre i.e. violas, ivy, dianthus, herbs.

Method:

1. Move the BBQ to its desired location,
2. Pot up the plants into the plant pots with the compost, add stones to the bottom of the pot for drainage.
3. Arrange the pots on the BBQ to hide the rust and to hang down over the sides,
4. Place the stones around the pots to build up a pebble beach effect.

The Completed Project should look like this:

This is a perfect idea for lifting a small area with a burst of colour and more importantly recycling an item which otherwise would have gone to landfill.
Try this project out for yourself.

Yesterday I made sowings of Calabrese, broccoli tenderstem, runner and french beans and summer cabbages in pots and root-trainers for the mini greenhouse. As per my other post I already potted on my cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes and now my mini greenhouse is very full with not much space to spare.

I had a bit of a sort out and cleared out the bottom row which was being used as storage for pots and trays. Whilst I had all the trays out on the table I thought it would be a good idea to do a stock-take to record what trays of vegetables and flowers I have so far, so I might be able to keep track of them all. So here goes:

Here’s what’s in my mini greenhouse on 19.04.08:

Vegetables
All vegetables (apart from peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers) will be transplanted into the raised beds when they have grown on a bit, space has been made in the plots and when the signs of frost have passed.

Broccoli (Tenderstem F1)

• 15 x seedlings growing in 6cm square pots from sowings made on 30.03.08
• 15 x seeds sown 19.04.08

Cabbage (Golden Acre)

• 8 x seeds sown 19.04.08.

Calabrese (Ironman F1)

• 3 x potted on seedlings from sowings made on 09.02.08
• 15 x seeds sown 19.04.08

Cucumber (marketmore)

• 15 x seedlings potted on from sowings made on 08.03.08.

Pea (Ambassador)

• 8 x seeds sown on 05.04.08 2 have germinated so far.

Peppers (romano mixed)

• 9 x seedlings potted on from sowings made on 09.02.08,
• 10 x small seedlings still growing from sowings made on 15.03.08.

Runner, French, Dwarf and Borlotti Beans

• 12 x seeds of Borlotti Beans sown 29.03.08, 2 have germinated so far,
• 12 x seeds of Ferrari dwarf beans sown 29.03.08, 3 have germinated so far,
• 16 x seeds of french climbing beans sown 19.04.08,
• 24 x Runner Beans (red rum) sown 19.04.08,
• 24 x Runner Beans (white lady) sown 19.04.08,

Squash (Hawk F1)

• 7 x seeds sown on 05.04.08, none have germinated yet.

Tomato (unknown)

• 9 x seedlings potted on from sowings made on 08.03.08.

Tomato (Golden Sunrise and Green Zebra)

• 6 x potted on Golden Sunrise from sowings on 09.02.08,
• 6 x potted on Green Zebra from sowings on 09.02.08.

Tomato (Gardeners Delight)

• 3 x potted on seedlings bought from Wilkinson 12.04.08.

Flowers

• A seed tray of Penstonmen,
• A seed tray of Scabosia,
• A seed tray of Gazania,
• A seed tray of Antirrhinum’s,
• A seed tray of Cosmos.

Phew!

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Today I was mostly potting on Cucumbers (marketmore), Sweet Peppers (romano mixed) and Tomato (unknown) - could either be Golden Sunrise or Green Zebra but I forgot to label it so its pot luck what I have!

How to Pot on Seedlings

Tools Required:

• Shuttle Trays with 9cm pots, (I bought mine from Poundstretcher/Instore for £1.99 per tray) or similar,
• Multi-purpose compost
• Sieve,
• Dibber and Widger,
• Watering Can,
• Plant Labels and Pen.


Method:

1. Fill the 9cm pots with multi-purpose compost (sieving if necessary),
2. Lightly water the compost ready so it is ready for transplanting seedlings,
3. Use the dibber the make a hole in the centre of the pot of compost,
4. Use the widger or alternatively a pencil to gently ease out your seedling from the seed or cell tray, use your fingers to gently hold the leaves to transplant it and do not the hold the delicate stem,
5. Put the seedling’s roots in the hole in the compost and back fill the rest of the hole with the compost surrounding the seedling. Gently firm the seedling into the pot. Add a sprinkling of compost if needed to the top of the pot,
6. Label and water well and place pots/tray back into mini greenhouse until frost has passed.

Here’s how you pot on your seedlings:



Slideshow controls:
To stop the slide show on a picture, click on the Square button in the top centre of the slideshow. To scroll through the pictures at your own speed, click on the arrows next to the stop button.

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