Tag Archives: leeks

Ne’er cast a clout or throw anything out

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We picked up another bag of Lldl’s best peat-free compost on Saturday and in between the rain and the suprisingly warm for the time of year sunshine we filled up an old washing up bowl (with some drainage holes in the bottom) and sowed some lettuce seeds. May not be classy but it works.

A good few years ago we did a great Saturday gardening course with our friend Scarlett Cannon and she us told of many ingenious ways of growing spuds including using carrier bags and such-like containers. An old shopping bag with holes in the bottom and a seed spud in it is now perched on a found in the street coat stand down the side of the garden. A bit unorthodox but why not?

And finally we had to put another layer of bricks below the old windowpane as those shallots are fast moving on! Keep your fingers crossed we get more sunshine that rain this week heading into May.

Rising to the top

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It’s only been around a week and the seeds on the kitchen windowsill are now starting to germinate. How good is that? The plastic tray and cover that gets dumped at the bottom of the garden for most of the winter is well valuable for starting off the plants indoors, then as the spring progresses we move the plastic cover over seeds we’ve sowed outside so it’s worth its weight in gold.

The first to show their heads are the Longest Leek trial seeds we got free from Medwyn’s, we are hoping they’ll be of the Jack and the Beanstalk type variety but they cost us nothing so we’re happy of whatever we’ll get. Next to them are some Chamomile which we’ve never grown before and we’re trying Dyer’s Chamomile too. It’s good to experiment in the garden! Best of luck to everyone who’s also sowing stuff, send us in your pics and we’ll post them up!

 

Songs to sow seeds to

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Songs to sow seeds to-March

Here’s a nice collection of tunes to accompany your seed sowing this month. It’s an excellent mix tape from Chronixx and Federation Sound as mentioned on the great David Rodigan show the other week.

It features some well known chronixx tracks over some classic rhythm tracks like jah jah jahovah, king tubby meets the rockers uptown, cuss cuss, monkey man, joyride and much much more!

This month is a funny one for seed sowing as it’s still not warm enough to sow everything outdoors but you can give some carrots, beetroot, kale, broad beans, leeks, parsnips, spinach and turnips a go if it’s not too cold. I sowed a row each of beetroot, carrots, lettuce and spinach the other day, if they don’t work, they don’t work and it’s only a couple of rows of seeds wasted.

You can always start these indoors this month: aubergines, herbs including basil and the like, brussels sprouts, cauliflowers, chilli peppers, sweet peppers and tomatoes and what about starting a pot of salad leaves on the windowsill.

It’s still a bit early for spuds but in a couple of weeks time it will be and the gardening season will get underway and we won’t know what’s hit us!

STOP PRESS: Cheers to our mate Ciarán in Canada for sending us a pic of his advocado from seed (and some find looking sage in the background) that have grown all the way through their mild winter. How good is that? avocado

My leeks are no Usain Bolt’s, let me tell you!

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Rakim – It’s Been A Long Time [DJ Premier – Original Version]

It was sunny yesterday morning so I went out early in the back to tidy up the bottom bed, weeds were beginning to sprout there and bindweed was finding it’s way in too. I do like a bit of clearing and weeding as it also gives my headspace a chance of a clear-out too (man)!one clear bedFunnily enough I was going to “rest” that bed this year, but in February I obtained a great selection of stuff from the seed swap organised by Lewisham Gardens and Golightly Gardens (post here.) Then there was that bargain seed job-lot I won on ebay too (post here) and that’s apart from packets bought from the garden centre, so those seeds had to go somewhere!on a cheery tipIt started with some poppies, then it was beetroots, carrots and a couple of salad crops. Then I added a couple of different varieties of sunflower, parsnips, rocket, cornflowers and not forgetting there were some strawberry plants in already. It looked like a garden designer’s nightmare (below pic: the plot in the summer). So much for a “resting” bed with nothing in it!June_2015_2It’s like gardening itself though, once you start it’s difficult to stop. You go out for ten minute’s “tipping around with a hoe” and you return a few hours later after finding “another job I just had to do”.Tarrium and garlicOne thing though, a row of leeks that I started off from seed (above, in the seed tray in the “found in the street” terrarium taken around late February) are just about ready if I wanted to use them small. How long do they take to grow?Back bed leeks

Summer the first time

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June_2015_2Where’s the time going to this year? It’s July next week and the garden is now starting to go a bit mad. The bed at the bottom of the garden (pic above) the one that I was going to “rest” this year funnily enough, has started to develop into a right old mixed patch.

Don’t ask me why it’s got like that as it certainly wasn’t planned and I blame it on all the great seeds I got from the seed swap at the start of this year and from the big ebay bargain pack the other month.

From the back of the bed going forward I’ve now got sunflowers which stretch around the side too, a row of poppies (poppies in rows? That’s a bit OCD I hear you cry!), leeks, carrots, beetroot, parsnips and at the front a mixture of poppies and cornflowers. Talk about a bit of gardening anarchy!June 2015_3 PoppiesPoppies seem to be a bit of a favourite of mine this year as I have a few dotted around the garden where I’d scattered seeds randomly. The ones shown above and and below I’m sure came from the seed swap and hopefully will keep self seeding!June 2015_4_pinkTalking of seed, here’s one of the pepper plants which were sown earlier this year on the kitchen windowsill which gave them a bit of a head start. It’s a first for me as I never usually have much luck with peppers. Roll on the sunshine!June_2015_1

You raise me up (just like a runner bean cane)

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Tarrium and garlicA big thanks to the weather for the weekend just gone and it looks like spring has finally sprung!  Things are certainly on their way, I’ve got some healthy looking leek seedlings, black poppies and garlic in the glass terrarium I found in the street a couple of years ago (above) and the bulbs are starting to come up in the found empty champagne case too (below).Garlic in bucketsEarly Sunday morning I popped into Shannon’s (ta to Paul, Araba and Alexi for the lift) and got myself three bags of multi-purpose compost to put into the new raised bed (below) made out of a couple of free scaffolding boards procured from Paul a couple of weeks earlier. So thanks to a cheap argos drill, some spare wood and a quarter of a tin of fence protector left over from last year, it’s now a home for beetroot, carrots and climbing french beans. And look at the runner bean cane wigwam, that’s been put in a bit early!Raised bed and bean canesAnd here’s a tune dedicated to all who put in a few hours over the weekend with their mowers, garden forks, spades, trowels and (new pair of) loppers while enjoying the good weather in their gardens and allotments! Roll on the spring!

Damian Marley – Hard Work (Dedicated to all Westminster City Council gardeners)