Let's Get Growing - 2013

Happy New Year's Eve to you all on what will be my final post of 2012!
I have today started my biodynamic schedule for sowing and growing in 2013...it's a leaf day today, changing tomorrow to a fruit day part way through. I always leave sowing to a full sign day, therefore my beans, peas, early bush tomatoes (experiment on the Grapevine) and peppers will not get sown until the 2nd, leaving me New Year's Day to get some vital greenhouse tidying completed. I am going to need those cleared benches real soon.
Today I sowed a tray each of Precoce de Louviers Cabbage, Greyhound Cabbage and mixed lettuce leaves. They are currently occupying my sunniest windowsill, but as soon as they are through, I will pop them into a double walled propagator in the greenhouse.
Let us hope that 2013 is a better GYO season than 2012...personally I can't wait to see the back of it!

Days 3 and 4 - Chook Book

What dreadful weather in which to introduce new chooks. They have managed some "out time" inbetween squally showers. New feathered friends can be introduced to free ranging after three days and so here are the newbies on days 3 and 4.

In Which I Introduce My New Composters

As you are aware, we lost three of our four beautiful hens, which left only Eloïse. She has been on her own for some time now and hadn't succumbed to whatever the others had. We felt that once she had got through her autumnal moult, she really needed some companionship. I think both Mr VVG and myself felt a certain amount of trepidation at taking on more hens after losing three so quickly. But over six months have elapsed and with the colder weather setting in, we all need someone to cuddle up to. So I set to on Google!
We have always loved our blue eggs, having bought the Clarence Court Cotswold Legbar ones, ever before we had and lost our beloved Sage. She was our only Cream Legbar - mad as a box of frogs; flighty and loud. When she laid an egg, you knew about it for the next thirty minutes! But the breed is at risk of Mareks disease and although the vet never diagnosed that (nerve issues), I did not want to take that risk again. So I looked at blue egg laying hybrids and lo and behold I found the Cotswold Legbar, from Legbars of Broadway. A true gentleman, Phillip Lee-Woolf met us part way with a crate of beautiful looking birds. Appearing to be in great health - I hate tempting fate - and young, but ready to mix with other chickens. Perfect! He is a most knowledgeable poultry breeder, running courses on "hen keeping" and even sells CDs on "chook speak"...
We had decided beforehand to take two Legbars, with a view to taking two more at Easter, in the guise of Black Burford Browns. In the crate were two black BBs...kismet! OK then four it was, until we saw a chestnut brown BB with a darker neck feathering...enter stage left Paloma "Chookface" Faith!!

The two black BBs are Carmen and Tallulah


Then we have our two true blue layers, Coco and Lola, owing to the feathers in their hair. They are showgirls...Cotswold Legbars of Broadway. Remember the name and check out the website to listen to Walking In Circles, a song about the intensive farming of a battery hen...I guarantee it will haunt you.

HSL First Choice Seeds Are In

Yeay! Yesterday saw the postman arrive with not one BUT FOUR envelopes with seeds.
The others are a long story and involve the Grapevine; this one involves an update on my Heritage Seed Library choices.
A long time ago...well OK, a week ago I sent off my 2013 seed request, as detailed in an earlier thread...so here they are. All the ones I requested. I'm so happy...

Christmas Wreath - Getting Crafty

A beautiful crisp Winter's day beckoned, well OK autumn, but it felt colder. Striding no further than across the main road away from the bottom of our lane, we found ivy, holly resplendent with berries and rose hips. Our garden provided yew and bay foliage. With a little help from shop bought mistletoe I managed to create four very individual and might I say so elegant Christmas wreaths. I am so pleased with them that I intend making many more and hope to sell them into the village hostelries, farm and village shops. Wish me luck! Oh and Merry Christmas xxx

Beans Means A Long List

A good friend of mine has been bumping up my seed collection of the heritage beans out there. I had a few, being a member of HSL and last year I managed to save myself enough seed for the next two year's sowings of my 2012 choice, Blackpod Runner Bean. Others I have bought from Real Seeds or Pennards, but most are gifted, so that I may sow and save seed, putting back when stocks are running high. I can't wait...

• Orca Dwarf Bean
• Black Valentine Dwarf Bean
• Tigers Eye Bush Bean
• Redlands Greenleaf Dwarf Bean
• Italian Rose Bush Bean
• India Rose (unknow) Bean
• Hidatsa Dwarf Bean
• Coco Climbing Bean
• Tendergreen Dwarf Bean
• Blue lake Climbing Bean
• Cherokee Trail of Tears Climbing Bean
• Red Climber Semi Climber Bean
• Flavert Dwarf Bean
• Canadian Wonder Bean
• Cranberry Pole Bean
• Madeira Maroon Climbing Bean
• Black Croation Bean
• Littlefield's Special Bush Bean
• Vetch's Climbing Bean
• Mayflower Bean
• Roignon De l'Oise Dwarf Bean
• Buff Beauty (Carters Polish) Bean
• Borlotti Lingua di Fuocco Dwarf Bean
• Dalmatian (Ernie's Big Eye) Bean
• Blue Jay Bean
• Anasozi Dwarf Bean
• Tarbais Climbing Bean
• Dapple Grey dwarf Bean
• Birds Egg Climbing Bean
• Cosse Violet Climbing Bean
• Turkey Craw Climbing Bean
• Striped Bunch Climbing Bean
• Czechoslovakian Climbing Bean
• Yugoslavian Black Dwarf Bean
• Black Calypso (Ying Yang) Dwarf Bean
• Xenia Field Bean
• Vermont Appaloosa Bean
• Soissons Bean
• Inca Pea Bean
• Polish Runner Bean
• Czar Runner Bean
• Blackpod Runner Bean
• Sue Mitchell's Runner Bean
• Mr Jones Broad Bean
• Crimson Flowered Broad Bean
• Aquadulce Claudia Broad bean
• The Sutton Broad Bean
• Bunyards Exhibition Broad Bean
• Salford Black Runner Bean (a new one sent to me by an HSL member - pic below)

Heritage Seed Library Catalogue 2013

HURRAH! It's that time of year again when the good and the great at Garden Organic send out their treasured list of cared for varieties. Thank goodness for seed fairies is all I can say. The guardians do a fantastic job and I hope to be one myself in the future - perhaps when I get a bit more adept at the GYO game. Anyhow I have chosen my six and have requested a lucky dip packet (I wonder if they go into a trug rather than a hat). My six are:-

• Sweetcorn, Sweet Inca
• Runner Bean, Corsican
• Pea, Shropshire Hero
• Broad Bean, Cretian
• French Bean, San Antonio
• Lablab, Ying's

Mr VVG picked the last one on my list, it's an exotic crop. Let us hope and pray that a Yorkshire man, born and bred, will eat it in the end!

It's Wet Out There

Despite all best efforts by the Great British summer sun to deposit some last minute vital rays on the plot, it is sodden and squelchy underfoot. Mercifully we have free draining soil and raised beds, but even so, yesterday's trip to the plot, during which I planted shallot Jermor, onion Radar and garlic, varieties Marco, Cristo and Germidour, was a decidedly sticky experience. As I slid around on my bark paths, now ever so slightly mud filled, attempting to use my newly oiled trowel, the planting was difficult. With hindsight it was too wet to dig, even in my soil, so I will wait before planting my further varieties of Solent Wight and Purple Wight garlic, but at the same time I shall incorporate a sprinkling of compost in the bottom of those planting holes, so as to minimise any possibility of rot.
Those that I have planted, received a good mulching of compost on top. Here's hoping with all the wet, that it brings the worms up to pull all that matter down.

There is an upside to the wet soil in that it makes weeding much easier, so yesterday the saffron bed received a much needed tidy up and that will be compost mulched later today,  which will protect those emerging shoots.

It's time to dig up your horseradish and make sauce and I have to say that Zazen999's thongs (sorry honey) have made sizeable plants. I will dig up the largest plant and chop the main root, removing the small ones to be replanted. Should make for a bigger spread than ever next year.

En route to the allotment we stopped via our nearest Wyevale garden centre and managed to pick up some reduced turf, for the top of our garden. It's the area where we removed the holly tree and needs a complete renovation of the grass area. A new Rhubarb plant fell into my trolley at the same time. This one gives you stalks much later and right through to Autumn, prolonging that rhubarb crumble and custard craving.

Whatever you do this weekend, don't forget to check out your local garden store/nursery for some possible end of season bargains.

Here's a picture of my sunset view from the allotment through my raspberry fedge - taken today.

Maintenance and Mulching...

It is that time of year and coincides with a synodic week of rest, for maintenance and mulching of fruit trees. So Mr VVG and I have been cutting larger circles out of the orchard grass, around each tree - we have a mix of plum, apples, medlar and quince - liming the soil and then mulching with a combination of our own compost and leafmold.

Medlar Fruit

The one tree that I mulched this way last year, as an experiment has such beautiful dark and crumbly soil, that we are now widening this to all trees. I have also mown the grass off hard for what I suspect may be the final time this year. We have raked the slowly falling leaves, only 10% drop so far, but have already filled the chicken wire cage to about two thirds full. I smile as I realise that at the same time as riddling our compost heap to reveal a bin full of usable compost, we have filled two more. As we utilise last year's leafmold, we are refilling with this his year's. Gardening is a cycle. Mother Nature has a pattern, a path to follow if you like, the wheel keeps turning.

Onions, Shallots and Tulips In Pots

Well it is root week and having already sown (biodynamic system) overwintering onion sets into modules for the allotment and shallots direct into the polytunnel, it is time for me to sow some more using the synodic system. I am growing Radar and Shakespeare as my Japanese onion sets this year. Golden Gourmet and Jermor are my shallot varieties.

It's bulb time too and with that in mind I intend planting up two pots to provide some Spring cheer outside my greenhouse door, variety Tulipa "Vagota".

As Autumn gathers apace and the leaves start to fall, I would urge you to remember to gather them up and either black bag them or make a chicken wire cage. We have the latter and one of our jobs this week will be to transfer last year's leaf mold out for use in the polytunnel, leaving an empty space for this year's haul.

Autumnal Housekeeping

Whilst I have been clearing and turning the polytunnel around ready for Winter growth, Mr VVG has been harvesting the remaining potatoes from the plot. Beds are weeded and ready for green manure sowing, so that they can rest and overwinter. One bed has the fruit in it and will be topped with a compost mulch. The asparagus bed will have been cut down this week and also topped with compost. One bed will be growing the overwintering brassicas. The third and final bed to be occupied will house leeks, garlic and Japanese onions. The beans, squash and raspberry fedge are yet to be harvested, but their future is dependent on the weather.
This is pretty much it for now. There is nothing more to be done until the October/November sowings.

Going Potty On The Lotty

After a week out of action, owing to recovery from an operation, I went down to the allotment today. One word, carnage. Squashes, fairly recently planted are yellowing and getting nibbled. All early potatoes have blight and were dug up. It's been the most pathetic yield ever on these, which is a real disappointment given all the new varieties I was hoping to try. Only the Amorosa yielded anything sizeable - thanks for the recommendation Zazen999 - I should listen to you more often! It's one for my list next year. Beetroot was bolting, most of it pulled and cooking as we speak. Leek seedlings look to have rust and they are not even planted into final position yet. Time to pull most of them out and go and buy some...sigh! The broadies that still had lots of life left in them last time I looked, all black and dead. They were pulled out and composted, so no more broadies. The peas are fattening and we should have a fair number of those to go at. The runner beans look thoroughly miserable and boy do I know how they feel. My blackcurrants that I had asked Mr VVG to harvest for me, hadn't been and had fallen off and rotted. The raspberry canes are so high and yet very little yield. What there is has no flavour or has gone mouldy. I don't know whether to laugh hysterically or cry. All my heritage varieties and synodic sowing has faired badly this year. I may resort to biodynamic for 2013 and mix some modern varieties with my heritage, just for back up.
I have pulled the last of the kale. I have weeded four beds out of six. I will be buying large bales of compost I think and mulching everywhere before planting anything else. It's quite obvious that any nutrient is just being washed totally from my soil, which is sandy loam. Nothing else will grow in such dreadful weather conditions, so I give up for now.

PS. I have reported my blight to blightwatch in order to warn others in the area.

Foliar Feeding

Good old Boots Plc. After some signs of magnesium deficiency on my tomatoes and French beans I decided upon an Epsom salt shower. They look perkier for it today too. Just a tablespoon of salts to my big Haws watering can and splash it on all over. Wish it would work on me. Epsom bath time!

Cabbage for Springtime and Brassicas for the Hungry Gap

Yes I know it is still Summer, somewhere...but it's time to think about sowing brassicas for the hungry gap. I have already mentioned Kale, now it's the turn of Spring Cabbage. I had a really great crop from my July sowing last year. So, I will sow only biodynamically on this tomorrow. These may get into my polytunnel, just depends how big the shoehorn is!
My chosen varieties for this year are "Precoce de Louviers" and "Piacenza" from Real Seeds. Never having grown these before I am interested to know if anyone else has and their views upon either of them please. I will also be sowing Broccoli Raab or Turnip Broccoli, variety "San Marzano", another experimental variety for me. It's a quick cropper, turning around a harvest within 60-80 days. Not really a filler for my hungry gap, although if the bad weather continues the hungry gap will be considerably wider than normal.

All Hail The Great Kale

Tomorrow signals a biodynamic day for leaf and with that in mind, I am going to sow some kale seeds then and some more on the New Moon, around the 19th July. These will be going into my polytunnel eventually, so I will be able to run a little experiment as to which germinates better and which grows more strongly. July is my usual month for sowing Kale - Toscana de Nero. I love this variety as it stands up so well to overwintering and to the various pests that come its way in the Spring. It is definitely one for the hungry gap!

Flaming June Becomes Flipping July

What do they both have in common? Soggy ground, snails and slugs. What isn't wind blown, rotted or checked in growth is nibbled. Anyone growing their own is facing a difficult year in growing conditions. One of the worst I've known. There's no let up in the rain and humid conditions, which are perfect for blight. I have had three full smith periods in a two week window. Mr VVG is currently on his nightly polytunnel slimey search. A must if we are to continue cropping successfully in there when all else is struggling out on the lotty.
We are harvesting new potatoes at the moment - win, which are not returning huge yields, but are at least ours before slugs get there. Today's varieties are Shetland Black, Red Duke of York and Lady Christl. They should feed us through the coming week or two. Broad beans are the major success this year, despite their frosting as they overwintered. I suffered quite a lot of black leaves on the young plants, but they have come back even stronger. We continue to pick them every time we visit - win. Peas are coming slowly, but they appear to be struggling with all this wet weather. What we have had have tasted lovely and without pea moth damage. Raspberries are arriving slowly, as are strawberries. Currants need the sun to ripen. Leek seedlings are still in clumps awaiting a dry period so that I can work the soil and plant. Thankfully, I pulled all the overwintering onions up and chopped/froze them. They were beginning to bolt and I foresaw a storage problem. We have four freezer bags of them, ready prepared - win. Garlic, once dried, got blitzed and turned into lazy garlic, white wine vinegar added, popped into jars and stored - win.
I feel it's not been a total wash out despite the best efforts of the wet weather gods...

Round Up On The Allotment

Ha that grabbed your attention, didn't it?!
Wouldn't use such evils - but I have been weeding. About three trugfuls of thistles and annual weeds. Loathsome things! Anyhow progress report from today, or as stated above "my round up!"
Garlic - pulled as it was showing signs of rust. Strung and hung up in the polytunnel. This frees up half a bed for my squashes :)
Onions - some were bolting and have been pulled, chopped and frozen. But they are a good size (4"). Bed 6 onions all pulled as of 10/6/12 for drying.
Broad beans - another two colanders full, with lots more to come.
Early potatoes - disappointing yields - half a bucket out of ten plants. The foliage was showing signs of dying off.
Peas are flowering.
Runner beans are winding their way up the Munty frame.
Raspberry hedge is a two to three foot high fedge! About two foot deep. Masses of fruits forming - mmmmmm!
Strawberry bed - attention required tomorrow :(
Currants - strings of flowers ;)
Parsnips - none germinated AGAIN!
Rhubarb - masses pulled, chopped and stewed.
Lettuce - two lovely green lines.
Kale - half pulled. Two sticks given away. The rest chopped, washed and frozen.
Spring cabbage - remainder pulled, chopped, washed and frozen.
All in all a very mad four hours at the allotment followed by another frenetic two hours.
Yawn!

Pot Marigolds

I have grown both English pot marigolds and French marigolds this year. The English ones are planted up into my shallow tubs on the greenhouse steps. The French ones are planted amongst the polytunnel tomatoes on pest control duty.
Next job...nasturtiums in baskets!

Polytunnel Planting

Have polytunnel, will sow. One side devoted entirely to tomatoes (and this is not all of them)! Second side has sown a double row of dwarf peas, Charmette and Hatif D'Annonay, a single staggered row of Champion of England peas, Goldensweet Mangetout, courgettes, patty pan squash, Boothby's Blonde cucumbers and French beans. Various salad leaves and basil completes the planting for now. It's very exciting having another space to grow in.

Cool Cucumbers For Hot Houses

Back in February I sowed my cucumbers and gherkins, now in May they get planted. I sowed two Beth Alpha cucumbers which are for greenhouse growing only. They are six inch sweet fruits which I harvest one of daily. Two plants give us all we need.
The gherkins, I sowed three of Piccolo Di Parigi and two Cornichons de Paris. All are now planted upon the staging in ring culture pots and growbags. I find this method works well for me. I then grow up strings attached to the high shelf above, once they reach that far, all seedlings will be off the shelf and planted out. Three cucumber plants of Boothbys Blonde will go out into the allotment later.
Pics here...

Changes To The Garden - polytunnel pics

It's been a long time in this garden, nearly fifteen years and in that time it's been transformed, albeit slowly, from old bloke's wrecking yard to herbaceous beauty. Well I think so anyhow. We must have dug out hundreds of stones, rocks, metal objet d'army and car parts. The old tea roses stuck around a square of grass have been replaced by a willow, alchemilla, David Austin roses, tree peonies, standard peonies, choisya, oriental poppies, hellebores and much more. The other side was hard standing for a tatty caravan. Both went and the new soil provided a superb start for what are now mature trees, shrubs and plants. It is only now as I sit back and admire the verdant growth pitched against the indigo blue of the ceanothus that the years of backbreaking work bear fruit. I feel smug. But not for long, because beyond the paradise is "the Somme", formerly badly laid or very old hard standing, ripped up to make way for a new polytunnel and gravel area. This is where I intend to put my permanent raised beds, be they wooden or brick built. Hopefully it will not take another twelve years to see this come to fruition, but I know in the end it will be worth it...life already has taught me this much.