Quaking in our gardening boots about the weather

We watched the weather forecast on telly last night and the tall chap in the suit was a little unsure about what’s going to happen next week, “It will get colder and there may be snow or maybe not, even we don’t know”. We deduced from this it’ll be a good idea not to be too keen this weekend especially sowing something outside, so we’re holding our horses as they say.

Because of the cold weather today we decided to give it a miss even though we had some jobs to do out in the garden. We did have post this morning that cheered us up though, a small bag of Rocket early seed potatoes (If you want to know the different types of potatoes from earlies to lates explained simply, have a look here), some shallot sets that we’ll put in mid-March after this cold spell hopefully and some packs of seeds: spring onions (the variety Guardsman that have dark blue/green leaves), purple sprouting broccoli and some miner’s lettuce which we’ve never come across  before. More on the miners lettuce here.

Also a good mate of ours sent us a packet of Quaking/Quivering Grass seeds (top right hand corner of the above pic). They weren’t sure if that was the actually name of the plant or just the name the person who gave them the seeds called them. We checked on google, it did exist but it was only one of its names, it’s also called: didder, doddering dillies, jiggle-joggles and quakers-and-shakers. More on Quaking Grass or Briza media here. Do keep warm this weekend!

A bit of happiness

It’s been a bit of doom and gloom for the last few posts what with the bad weather so here’s a couple of uplifting things seen this morning. Firstly the first poppy of the season opening up, it may be small but it’s a lovely red!

And this little seedling (below) will hopefully will be supplying us with some purple srouting broccoli if all goes well. Roll on full days of sunshine eh?

They’re under starters orders

I’ve got a collection of leggy tomato plants waiting to go in the garden until after the risk of frost has gone, like I have every year. After starting them off on the kitchen windowsill a couple of months ago, I put them in the plastic mini-greenhouse outside with the front open during the day to harden them off. This weekend I stuck one of them under the terrarium outside and also sowed  a mixture of seeds beside it. There’s onions and garlic on their way in the bed behind and in the raised bed furthest away have seed potatoes under a good deal of earthed up soil. Seed bed of the weekThe bed at the bottom of the garden which I was going to keep veg-free this year has now a row of leek seedlings which I sowed indoors on xmas eve last year and a couple of courgette seeds which went in over the weekend under jam jars for extra protection. The rest is a mixture of flowers, a purple sprouting broccoli gone to flower, rocket and strawberries. It won’t be long now until “they’re off” and we can’t wait!back bed of the week

Underground Resistance

Underground greenhouseCheers to our good mate Jim N for letting us know about this subterranean greenhouse idea (aka Walipini) which was on the Jetson Green website (who do a great line in other bonkers stuff – last week it was glow in the dark plants to replace lights!) The idea is well clever but I honestly can’t see Lewisham Council or the neighbours (“I’m sure they’re having parties down there”) appreciating me building one down the garden! More on Walipini’s /Pit Greenhouses here.

purple people eaters

The past week and a half we’ve been harvesting Purple Sprouting Broccoli. The plants took so long to mature I’d even forgotten what they were late last year! The most important thing with PSB is that you have to keep cutting the heads regularly after they start even if it gets a bit too much in the eating stakes (“What, Broccoli AGAIN?”) Once the heads open out and flower, it’s the end of that and the plants will stop producing.

salad in the cold frame

There’s even some action in the mini cold frame down the bottom of the garden (the old window frame found in a skip stuck on some bricks), the overwintered garlic is coming on and the mixed salad leaves (obtained in a 5 pack veggie seed bargain on ebay for a couple of quid) sown a few weeks ago have started. Spring has sprung my friend!

The sun sessions

That yellow thing in the sky came out again today so had ten minutes poking about the garden. It was a bit nippy but I still sowed some lettuce in the cold frame (It’s early I know but it was “leaf” day after 7am in the  biodynamic calendar so what have you got to lose, a few seeds?) and knocked off some weeds with the hoe. The big question is, will it soon be spring or have we still got the rest of the real winter to come? Who knows with this global warming lark.

if it don't fit don't force it

The forced rhubarb is starting to get on it’s way. All you do is stick a bucket (or a bucket filled with straw) over the top to keep it dark and warm, to fool the plant it’s spring and there you go  (I used the bucket the christmas tree was in.) In a few weeks it’ll be crumble and custard time I reckon.

And the overwintered garlic is looking good in their OCD uniform rows (below.) There’s overwintered onions in as well and I can’t help pulling up the immature ones and using as spring onions as they weren’t expensive at all to buy as seed onions so I got a big old bag’s worth.

clove er

Late last year I had a couple of cabbage looking plants that I had forgotten what they were, until some mates of mine said “it could be purple sprouting broccoli as that takes ages to mature” and they were right. Shouldn’t be too long before it’s ready to pick, but it’s taken a while though. I must remember to pick them before they fully flower or that’s it!

Purple rain, purple rain