Vegmonkey and the Mrs.

The carrots are growing now which is a positive although it is the third sowing. I did intend to have a whole bed of them this year but they really haven’t worked. My thinking is that slugs or snails have been beheading them very early on in their growth. Either way, we have been harvesting them slowly over the past few weeks. They will provide us with enough orangey (and purpley) goodness for at least the next couple of months but there won’t be any going into storage, I don’t think.

The parsnips however have gone great guns. I bought brand new seed which seems to have loved the soil in our raised beds. We took one out tonight to have with our roast dinner. It was small, but I’m looking forward to eating some much chunkier ones around November time when the cold and frost really increase the sweetness. These keep really well in the ground so it looks like the sand in the shed where we normally store our roots will be remaining relatively empty this year.

I’ve decided to blame the ‘friendly’ neighbourhood cats for the failure of my carrots to germinate. It has absolutely nothing to do with using old seed or storing it incorrectly… I got a bit carried away yesterday and created a mini fortress for the carrots to germinate and grow in peace. If they do manage to get in, I’m hoping the service will be so uneven that they will just decide to go elsewhere!

There are canes around the outside and across the bed. The only problem now is the difficulty of getting anywhere near the mini greenhouse at the back of the garden! This way, though, I am able to clear the fleece off the beds and let the plants breathe a little more now that it has warmed up. The Mrs. has since decorated the fortress with a variety of multi-coloured clothes pegs because ‘it looks pretty.’

On the parsnip/radish/spinach bed, I’ve encircled it with a mixture of bricks and slates so that the cats can’t climb up that high, that’s the theory anyway. The parsnips have all germinated which makes a pleasant change and the first radishes of the year are about a week away from picking! The Mrs. attacked the Rhubarb plant last week, stripping it of all but three of its stems, mixing them with cooking apple and making a cracking crumble.

I’m generally over my ‘will it grow…i better plant twice as much’ syndrome for this year as most stuff has started. The overwintering onions have doubled in size, well, the leaves have anyway will all this humid weather we’ve been having…the bulbs will surely follow over the  month. The peas are have also shot up since being planted out. The only problem with planting them out in guttering is that the roots get all tangled up, although they do get the chance to really grow. Some of the seedlings including roots were 30cm long!

I created a mini wigwam structure, then strung string across at 20cm intervals to give the mange tout peas something to climb up. I neglected to do this last year and they all sort of flopped over, as they didn’t have anything to attach themselves to.

I’m happy to report too that the parsnips have mostly all germinated which has surprised me, baring in mind i had one root last year. Never again will i use Parsnip seed more than a year old. The carrots however have not done as well. Most of the seed i have used goes out of date this year – out of 9 rows planted at home, i probably only have about 10 seedlings emerging. It’s not too early, or none would have come up. I think i’m going to have to buy a reliable variety and replant the missing areas next weekend.

The tomatoes have been very interesting. There’s me thinking that all varieties grow at the same speed but apparently not so. Even seed of the same age, growing in the same container, but a different variety is radically different (did i just write radically???).

Moneymaker – 90% germinated

Fantasio – 80% germinated

Legend – 70% germinated

Oregon Spring – 10% germinated

Gardener’s Delight – 0% germinated.

Fascinating really. It may be due to a number of reasons, but it seems i may not have an GD planted this year.

Haven’t been down the allotment – will probably go next weekend. The potatoes will need to have the fleece removed i think. Let’s just hope we don’t have a frost anytime soon!

The carrots are one of the slowest things to grow in our garden. I’ve been filling in the gaps of the ones that didn’t germinate with new seed, and all gaps are slowly being covered. I’m working on removing the onions soon, so i can get some new carrots in before the end of July. We’ve put purple carrots in this year, due to the benefits of purple veg on health, but also as a bit of an experiment! The first baby ones wil be harvested and taken to a BBQ we are going to on Sunday.

The Perpetual Spinach went in to fill the space, but also to provide us with a supply of leaves that won’t bolt (unlike standard spinach) like the chard and rocket have. It will hopefully keep growing if we keep harvesting, long into the colder months, and maybe even into January. We planted it closer than we should have incase plants failed, which they have…more than we expected actually.

For a while now i’ve been meaning to do 2 things on here, the first is to write a post about the ‘Garden Blog Directory’ and the second to answer Curtis at Growing Thumbs Gardens ( http://www.growingthumbs.com/ )who tagged Vegmonkey and the Mrs. to find out a few facts about us.

So, first, check out http://blog-directory.gardeningtipsnideas.com/index.php. This is a directory of other gardening blogs, mostly in America and Australia, but also around the world too. It’s a useful resource for someone starting out growing as it shows what can be done with a big space, a small space, a lot of spare time, a little spare time etc.

Now for the facts, i think 3 is a nice number,

1. I am a primary school teacher and the Mrs. works in the travel industry

2. We are both under 30. Bet that’s a shock!

3. We really are new to this – we’ve only been growing Veg from April 2007, and are learning quickly. Are always open to new ideas but in such a small space, i think we prefer to grow a lot the veg we like. Nothing fancy,  just onions, carrots, leaves etc. All the stuff that stops us buying overpriced, chemical covered, old, tastleless shop veg.

Just wish more people could be bothered to do it…

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While i’m here, might as well mention the tease that is our sweetcorn. I came, it grew, it produced one very, very tiny cob – with the most amazing sweet taste – and, well, that’s it. Much, much earlier planting next year!