Fruit Week into February

Today I have transplanted all January sowings of both tomatoes and peppers. Some were biodynamically sown, others synodic. All have been transplanted on synodic.
Those sown on biodynamic have returned a 75% germination rate. Those sown on synodic have returned a 100% germination rate. All were sown using the same conditions, separated only by a few days in the calendar.
They will be kept on window sills in the orangery now in order to grow on.

A Sample Selection

5th February - intended date for sowing broad bean Aquadulce

February Sowings

February signals broad bean and early peas in gutter sowing. Brussels sprouts, PSB, greenhouse tomato seeds all beckon this coming month.

Here's my list for my forthcoming schedule:-
Beans and early peas - 5th Feb
Beetroot, Radish and Spring Onion - 7th Feb

January Sowings...

With January came a New Year, not just in the calendar, but also in the grow your own schedule. Whilst most seed sowing gets under way during the months of March and April, January saw early sowing experimentation on tomatoes, peppers and of course, potato chitting. Leeks and onions too! It was exciting because it signalled a new beginning, hope and brought a sense of purpose to all those preparations I made in November/December.

It's time to get growing once more!

Those I have sown in Jan:-
Tomatoes
Peppers
Leeks
Onions
Lettuce
Celeriac
Sweet Peas

Garden Organic Membership/Implementations Copper Tools

Is it possible to have the best day ever and roll all opportunities for happiness in one? YES! At Garden Organic, Ryton...
Today was Potato day, where I swapped my cast off seeds for much prized HSL varieties - YIPPEE. Then I got all speciality spuds in one place - DOUBLE YIPPEE. Followed by a visit to my favourite garden tool people, Implementations Copper, who were exhibiting there - TRIPLE YIPPEE! A new hoe, dibber and sickle/Turkish knife. These, quite simply, are the best tools that money can buy. They glide like a hot knife through butter. They make mincemeat of the most arduous task and in a quarter of the time. Join the copper tool revolution, one at a time!
Today, quite simply was perfect! We joined GO too, so now there's no excuse!

My Allotment Plan 2012

The allotment is undergoing a structural readjustment and is a constant work in progress of late. But here it is so far...liable to change

Main plan

http://gardenplanner.suttons.co.uk/garden-plan.aspx?p=184442

Succession Plan

http://gardenplanner.suttons.co.uk/garden-plan.aspx?p=215736

Divide and Conquer

Following on from a good friend's post on getting more from raised beds, I have decided to break our huge beds up a bit. The six beds we had were two of three year rotation. Since I made one into a permanent fruit bed, it's messed up the original set up. So the two middle beds of 9' x 13' are getting a makeover. We have started with one bed becoming a 9' x 6'6", the remainder will be divided by a diagonal path, leaving two triangles. These should be easier to stretch over, rather than balancing on a scaffold board; this becomes Bed number 5 split. The same will happen to Bed number 2 and a different split, but divided nonetheless to Bed number 4.
Keeping up? No, neither am I, so it's a good job I have a planning tool...

THE BEDS

Bed Number 5

Bed Number 4

Bed Number 2

Grief Over Leaf

January 22nd saw a New Moon, which equals a Leaf week. Great, I thought until I researched and realised I needed to add in flowering veg too. I didn't have the cauliflower seeds I needed, nor the cabbage seeds I have subsequently ordered from Real Seeds. Let's hope my parcel arrives before the leaf week ends. All veg seeds I want to sow this week I should wait on and open them in February's leaf week instead...more torture!
The only leaf seeds I have managed to sow have been mixed lettuce and herbs.
Roll on Spring and Real Seeds packing department :)

Winter Cheer

I thought I would share my other garden with you...well, a small part of it!

Cyclamen

Further Seed Order From Real Seeds

Oh dear, I had no cauliflower seeds to sow and this week is a leaf/flower week in the lunar calendar...so I hit the iPad and managed to order the following from the Real Seeds website:-

Calabrese
Quick Heading Calabrese
Cima di Rapa San Marzano
Precoce de Louviers Spring Cabbage
Piacenza Savoy Cabbage
Ottobrino Romanesco Cauliflower
Long Lisse de Meaux Carrot
D'Eyesines Carrot
Full White Celery
Sutherland Kale
Emerald Oak Lettuce
Early Annonay Pea
Charmette Pea
Double Standard Sweetcorn

Best not look again...!

Update - arrived 28/1/12

Building a Munty Frame

When you're trying desperately to sit on your hands with regards to sowing more seeds, it begs the question of "what else can be done?" So, this week of rest in the Lunar Calendar has seen me sieve out and turn the compost heap, find suitable poles for forthcoming beans and a frame for the runners.
As you know, this year sees a break away from the traditional for me. No St George or Scarlet Emperor runner bean. Instead I will be sowing Blackpod, my HSL choice.
In Winter the time can be used to prepare a composting material bean trench, so this is where my fixed frame comes in.
Mr VVG and I went to buy some posts. Four to be precise! Two short (ready sharpened) and two longer (jump poles, which will need cutting and sharpening). I have decided the beans will hang down over a path, for ease of picking and since we are both fairly tall, we will need good head height.
In order to provide clearance we have set the two shorter poles three foot into the raised bed, meaning it can gain height before it meets the longer poles on the other side in another raised bed.
See picture 1

It is here that I have dug my trench and popped in wet newspaper, kitchen peelings and my own compost resplendent with hen poop.
I will be able to plant low growing crop in front of these beans. The poles are set facing South, which is essential to see your bean tips running away up your soon to be strings/canes.
Once both sets of poles were in place, we fixed the run struts (made from half round fencing rail) from pole to pole and across.
See picture 2

Now the canes can be added and tied at the criss-cross, et voila!
See picture 3 (to be added).

All this needs now, is late Spring/early Summer and those ten runner bean plants, which I will sow at the start of May.

New Years Honourable Veg List

MY CHOSEN VEGETABLE VARIETIES FOR 2012

Asparagus - Connovers Colossal - bed 7
Broad Bean - Aquadulce, Crimson Flowered (HSL), Mr Jones - bed 4
Bean, Runner - Blackpod (HSL), Mrs Connell's Black - bed 4
Beetroot - Chioggia, Golden Detroit, Sanguina, Forono, Egyptian Flat Rooted, Cylindra, Cheltenham Green Top, Bulls Blood - Bed 2 split
Brussels Sprout - Seven Hills, Rubine - Bed 4 (after beans/peas)
Carrot - yet to buy - raised bed
Celery - Giant Red
Celeriac - Balder (HSL)- bed 2 split
Celtuce - bed 5
Garlic - Albigensian Wight, Chesnok Red, Lautrec Wight, Early Purple - bed 6
Leek - Bleu de Solaise, Jaune de Poitou, Monstruoso de Carenten - bed 5 split
Onion - Red Electric, Shakespeare, Senshyu, Jaune Paille de Vertus - beds 5 and 6
Parsnip - yet to buy
Pea - Golden Sweet Mangetout, Bijou Mangetout, Champion of England Tall, Table Talk (HSL), Jeyes (HSL), Carouby de Mousanne, Clarke's Beltony Blue, Robinson Tall - beds 4 and 3
Potatoes - Bluebelle main crop - bed 2
Potatoes - Amorosa, Sharpes Express, Pentland Javelin, Arran Pilot, Swift, Lady Christl, Red Duke of York, Salad Blue, Lady Balfour, Pink Fir Apple - bed 3
Potatoes in bags at home (maybe) - Yetholm Gypsy, Edzell Blue, Belle de Fontenay, Kestrel, Highland Burgundy Red, Shetland Black, Piccolo Star,
Pepper - Sweet Chocolate
Radish - Giant of Sicily, Purple Plum - Beds at home
Swede - Bjursas (HSL) - Bed 4 after legumes
Tomatoes - see separate thread on Tomatoes for 2012 (too many to list here)

Potatoes For 2012

OK, have gone a bit mad this year...gulp! Final list for my chosen potato varieties are:-

Maincrop
- Bluebelle
- Lady Balfour (Early)
- Salad Blue
- Pink Fir Apple
- Belle de Fontenay
- Yethom Gypsy

First Earlies
- Pentland Javelin
- Swift
- Red Duke of York
- Amorosa
- Arran Pilot
- Lady Christl


Second Earlies
- Piccolo Star
- Yukon Gold
- Edzell Blue
- Kestrel
- Shetland Black

I have two beds on the allotment dedicated to one bed mains and one bed earlies. The rest will have to take their chances in bags at home or in the patch at the bottom of the lane (I grew Desiree there two years ago which cropped really well). I have dispensed with my usual varieties and am growing a line of each of the earlies.
Reason? Because I am fed up with the same old, same old if I'm honest. 2012 is my year of change!

Salad Blue - Chitting Nicely

Update - went to Ryton's potato day on 28/1/12 and purchased:-
Edzell Blue, Yethom Gypsy, Ratte and Shetland Black.
That's me sorted...

Poop From The Coop

Well what kind of soil would it be without the help of these two ladies?!
Sage is a Cream Legbar.
Eloise is the white and black splashed Marans.
We love you both - my wonderful compost makers.

Introduction of the supporting cast

Roosty the Dog aka Rupert

I am a Wire Haired Fox Terrier and I am four years young! I am definitely a puppy still...in my head and I go everywhere with my mummy.
I don't like the allotment when it's cold. I shiver. Mummy says I will be getting a new shed of my own to sit in real soon, BUT we must call it a tool store because the PCs at the Parish Council are anal. I don't know what that means, but I bet it's something to do with sniffing bottoms.
So, to recap I'm Roosty to my friends, Rupert when I'm naughty and I go wherever, but always. Today, I will be going to buy potatoes. Hope they're chips...I like chips...they're my favourite!

My Allotment in 2012

Great planning has gone into 2012...copious mugs of coffee...seed packets spread across tables...Suttons Garden Planner...a book and pen...endless lists...Cleve West's Our Plot...Andi Clevely's The Allotment Book...Allotment Month by Month...you get the drift?
For the first time, this year we are ahead of the game. Mulching is completed. Raspberry canes, where fruited have been cut down. Some weeding has happened, where possible, without harming vulnerable over wintering crops. Posts and wires are up and tightened for the fruits. Broad beans, Spring Cabbage, Kale, Onions, Garlic, Leeks are all in residence. The rhubarb is coming into life. It's all feeling just a little too good. My only blot on the horizon so far? Too many seeds and not enough space for what I'm planning to grow...oh no!
More space is needed and so we have started to strip away a grass path to the side that is overgrown with couch. Mr VVG reckons it's a 4' x 20' space. I'm hoping to get it slabbed out soon, putting some stepover apples along the border. It will provide a seating area and maybe my rosy tinted visions of a summer cook up at the allotment will become a reality. It will also provide space for some temporary planters...just don't tell the man digging it out....shhhhhh!

Tidying Time!

It's been a busy two days taking down a holly tree. We didn't make the decision lightly, but this tree was surrounded by composting rubbish, had never berried and just didn't look great. So, yesterday we took the decision to remove it. The resulting wood will season after much logging and provide us with many fires. That in turn will provide us with potash for the fruiting plants on the allotment.
The view is much improved to. We hope to have a summerhouse here one day and maybe a new tree, mulberry or walnut. I just can't decide...

Full Moon - Staying True To Ones Roots

Today is a full moon and a root day in the synodic calendar, so staying true to my chosen method this year, I have sown leeks, onion and celeriac.
- Leek Monstruoso de Carentan
- Leek Bleu de Solaise
- Leek Jaune de Poitou
- Onion Jaune Paille de Vertus
- Celeriac Balder

A sum total of six trays in my house now. All on windowsills.
Is it a coincidence that today I notice chits on my new potatoes? Spooky!

Update
- Celeriac Balder starting to come through 21st January ALL DIED OFF

- Leeks all varieties starting to put on growth 5/3/12 - picture added

From Fruit to Root - Lunar Planting

Today is a biodynamic Root day and although I am trialling Synodic this year, I will repeat some sowings of biodynamic, which worked so well for me last year. This should provide me with a compare and contrast as to which method works best for me and why...results to come later!

So(w), today I will be getting leek Bleu de Solaise, Jaune de Poitou, Monstruoso de Carenten and Onion Jeune Paille de Vertus into modules. In the next three days I will be making further sowings of all again, this time when the moon is full and synodic! I will repeat both next month on leeks only for successional purposes.

UPDATE - 10/1/12 two leeks showing and through

Potato - Which Will Be My Best Spuddy?

The humble potato, can be dressed in a myriad of ways; in it's jacket, split to it's middle and oozing butter. Or naked, butter tossed, a sprinkling of sea salt and chopped mint, or maybe parsley. It's possibilities are endless!

Personally, I love the comfort of a jacket potato, crisp skinned, having been playfully rubbed with olive oil and sea salt. When cooked, split to it's gizzards and fluffed of fork, add butter. Nothing more is needed! Lights low, peace and quiet, roaring fire, a glass of wine. Just me, a fork and my majestic friend. The jacket potato is indeed food for the soul.

5th January 2012 - my diary entry
Good day with xxxxx. Went to purchase my seed taters for 2012. It didn't start well as I forgot my list of new varieties to be tried. So I had to make it up and this became a positive. I was recommended Amorosa and Bluebelle, the latter being the beauty queen of the vegetable show bench. The label suggested it the choice of the gourmet gods. SOLD!
What of my other choices? Salad Blue because it's different. Red Duke of York, because I always have! Pink Fir, ditto. Lady Christl, because everyone says so. I also added Arran Pilot, Lady Balfour, Piccolo Star, Yukon Gold and Swift.
I have a few more desired varieties in mind, which I will get from Ryton's Potato day. The two day event takes place on 28th/29th January. Maybe see you there!

Eggstra Special Spuds

Elderberry Wine

To quote a famous songster "Made Elderberry Wine..." and now it has reached the required SG, I have stopped it with Campden and am about to bottle. We have been drinking Lorina French Lemonades every time they are on offer at Waitrose. Why? Because with flip top stoppers they are great for Elderflower Fizz and now for our 2011 Elderberry Wine!
I have three gallons in demijohns to decant, which I think should give me around eighteen bottles (750ml). Hic! Just have to think of a name for my labels...

UPDATE
SIXTEEN BOTTLES

OUT OF THREE DEMIJOHNS

Christmas Order From Real Seeds Arrives

The moment I have been waiting for (well one of them - the other is HSL seeds) has arrived. My Real Seeds order is here. Just holding those little packets in my hands feels like Christmas Eve impatience...waiting for Santa! Only I am now waiting to sow...

The Tomato Collection

The Pea Collection

The Allium Collection

Miscellaneous