not quite spring....

but we're nearly there. A couple of gorgeous sunny days have really brought things on so we must now all hope that we don't get any sharp frosts.

The greenhouse potatoes are romping away. These are three Lady Christl in a grow sack and should give us our first picking in about 6 weeks. I'm using a technique learned from Iain at JBA which involves giving the seed a good watering at planting time and not a drop more until the shoots are well up like this. The idea is to encourage a good root system into the compost as the plant goes in search of water which in turn will allow it to absorb the maximum nutrients to ensure a good crop.

All the soft fruit bushes now have healthy leaf growth showing.

blackcurrants coming into leaf.

I still have jam from two years ago as well as last years so I'm looking for ideas to use up the inevitable glut of fruit. I thought about making smoothies and freezing them in plastic milk cartons. Not sure if it would work but if you don't try....

Had to go through to the caravan today to fix a burst pipe before we can use it for this season so didn't get any gardening done. It was such a lovely day that I hung around and just took photos.

This is the view from the Brough to Middleton-in-Teesdale road. In the distance you can just make out Inglebrough on the left and Whernside on the right. These are two of the 'Three Peaks' and are roughly 40km from where I was standing. It's not always grim up north!

all systems grow

The recent mild weather has really brought things along. So much so that I'm running out of space in the greenhouse. Tubs and containers of peas, beans, beetroot, potatoes and more. Then there's all the seed trays and....I'll stop complaining and just be thankful that the weather is being kind to gardeners for a change.

AYR lettuce which was sown last autumn is now storming away. I don't let them heart up and just pull leaves as and when I need them.

A single broad bean shoot emerging and young pea plants (Kelvedon Wonder). I get early crops by starting things off in tubs in the greenhouse then putting them outside when the weather picks up. The main sowings of peas and beans go directly in the ground from April onwards.

Beetroot in the greenhouse for an early crop of baby beets.

Outside things are also doing well. The recently planted onion sets are now showing green shoots and there is fresh new growth on the strawberry plants. With the mild weather set to continue for at least the next week there's a temptation to go for a mad frenzy of sowing and planting but I'm resisting. It would be a disaster if I filled up the plot and then we got some hard frosts. Patience is the most important thing a gardener needs to cultivate.

tattie planting

I've got the first lot of containers ready on the plot for this years potatoes. Now, I know some will say why not just put them straight into the soil but there's method in my madness. At least I hope there is otherwise I'm just mad.

The reasons for using containers are as follows.

1. You can get more spuds in a given area than with conventional spacings

2. No matter what the soil you have control of the growing medium

3. Easy to harvest...just tip out the bucket and you get no 'volunteers' left behind to sprout next year

4. Less damage from slugs and other pests and the spuds come out much cleaner

Today I risked putting out some seed potatoes, five each of Charlotte, Lady Christl and Nicola. We have no frosts forecast for the next week or so but if the weather does turn I've got plenty of fleece handy. I'm a couple of weeks earlier than the last few years but this winter has been much milder so I'm prepared to risk it. With the greenhouse crop I now have forty spuds planted and the first shoots have just appeared on the first lot that went in. The main planting will wait till the end of the month to be more sure of the weather.

potato shoots emerging

And talking of shoots the beetroot that I sowed in the greenhouse are now popping up.

All in all things are starting to shape up nicely. Wouldn't it be a great bonus if we could have a decent summer.

winter returns

A cold wind today with snow forecast for the fells tonight but pleasantly warm in the greenhouse.

I sowed the first  lot of parsnips (Palace) in the flower bucket that will be their home for the next eight or nine months. Germination is usually pretty good and I aim to thin to leave about a dozen or so plants per bucket which should give a couple of pounds (1kg) of roots.

parsnip seeds

Sweet peppers and aubergine seeds have gone into the heated propagator, along with three cucumbers. Early March sowings of cukes last year all died on me but I didn’t have the propagator and they were on a window sill which got quite cold at night. Fingers crossed!

The first tomato sowings are up and away in my home-made paper pots. I must say this was the most useful present I got last Christmas. Turned from solid oak it should certainly outlast me if I don’t lose it and it's quite therapeutic making the pots as well.

tomato seedlings in paper pots. Three varieties, hence different germination

These AYR cauliflower seedlings will soon be going into individual pots to develop a strong root system before planting out on the plot. This enables them to get established much quicker and does seem to help in the fight against club root. Good strong plants seem much more able to cope with pests and diseases. 

I managed to squeeze another bag with three Lady Christl potatoes into the greenhouse. That’s now twenty-five first earlies in and the first plantings are just poking shoots through the compost. If the weather behaves itself we'll be eating new potatoes by the end of April/early May.

has spring sprung?

Well, it's the first of March today and there are quite a few signs of activity around the garden. Trouble is, much of it is floral.

Not that I have anything against flowers I'm just itching to get picking and eating. Even the veg I can pick have names like flowers! These are China Rose radish that I pulled from a tub I'd forgotten about.

Decent flavour but a little bit woody in the centre. Not surprising really as they've stood outside all winter with no protection.

I close planted some onion sets in a container for picking as salad onions, a tip I learned from one of the forums.  You can buy loose onion sets so cheaply that it seems almost pointless sowing seeds of white lisbon....but I probably will.

Another lot of peas has been sown into a container in the greenhouse. Not sure what I'll do when the time comes to put all the containers outside to make way for the 'proper' greenhouse crops like tomatoes. I wonder what a tub of peas would look like either side of the front door!!

they're off...

The first pea shoots of the season have poked their heads above the compost!

pea shoot

I sowed these in a container in the greenhouse twelve days ago, along with some broad beans in another tub which have yet to appear. Because we like fresh peas so much I’ll be making small successional sowings every couple of weeks over the next few months. Just being able to walk down the garden path and pick fresh peas to pop straight into your mouth on a summer's day is quite magical. I know, I'm easily pleased!

A couple of weeks ago I covered part of the plot with black plastic. There are two reasons for this: firstly it warms up the soil by a couple of degrees and secondly allows weed seeds to germinate. These can then be easily dealt with before they become a nuisance among the crops.

Into the slightly warmer soil I planted twenty onion sets (setton) and risked small sowings of carrot (Amsterdam 3-sprint) and radish (French Breakfast). I’ve fleeced them over to give a little more protection but the onions shouldn’t really need it. And talking of onions, I now have over 100 sets planted and I've yet to start on those growing from seed. It's a good job we like onions.

Rhubarb stalks are now about six inches (15cm) high and I noticed the blackcurrant buds are swelling nicely. All of the fruit trees and bushes got a good sprinkle of wood ash today and I’m now looking forward to bumper crops again.

blackcurrant buds

Because of the amount of overwintered salad crops I put in last year I'm running out of space in the greenhouse. I suppose I'll have to ditch some of it to make way for the new stuff. The spring onions and AYR lettuce will probably survive outside as long as we don't get any really hard frosts and I am getting a bit sick of lettuce leaves anyway. I try not to buy fresh produce out of season but it does limit what's available at this time of year. Still, not long to wait now and then we'll be spoilt for choice.

first spuds planted and tomatoes sown

Temperatures are set to be mild all week with no risk of frosts so I put half a dozen Lady Christl potatoes in grow sacks in the greenhouse and sowed some spring onions in pots. Also decided to chance some tomatoes and peppers in the propagator but the main sowings will not be till next month. As usual I’ll be trying new varieties of tomatoes this year in my ongoing effort to find the ones with the best taste and which are happy with my growing conditions. I can’t see the point of struggling to grow something you like the taste of and conversely persisting with a variety you don’t care for.

The alpine strawberry seeds have now germinated and they are incredibly small. They'll have to get much bigger before I can think of transplanting them to their own little pots.

tiny alpine strawberry seedlings

After leaving school I worked in forestry for  a few years and have always had a 'thing' for trees. Over the years I've grown quite a lot from seed, including this very slow-growing pine from the Andes of south America.

This little specimen is actually about fifteen years old and little more than a foot high. I brought it with me in a pot when we moved house but unfortunately I can't remember the variety.