A smorgasbord of seedlings

Quick seedling roundup:

Mon 22nd October - planted out a dozen broccoli, half a dozen cauliflower, and a lone red cabbage. Some of these were looking a bit iffy but perked up once planted. Since then, someone's been a-nibbling some of the leaves (in particular the cauliflowers seem to be a favourite). They are all out of sight down the end of the garden (which is all of 10 metres away).

Sunday 28th October - planted out six brandywine, three green zebra and three gardener's delight tomato seedlings. I've put these in the same area as last year as it works so well for watering, but next year I'm going to have to rotate them back into less convenient spots.

Sunday 4th November - I should have sown these a month ago but today I've finally set up seed trays for:
Tomatillo - green and purple varieties
Chilli - Caribbean and Ancho varieties
Capsicum - Marconi Red and Jimmy Nardello
Bergamot
Jamaica
Basil
Cape Gooseberry
Jicama (the first batch of these I did earlier didn't do so well, only one germinated and it died off).

In other gardening news, something has been attacking the strawberry leaves (an insect? There are all these small holes in the middle of the leaves), the coriander has bolted and been removed and the chamomile did the same - we did have several weeks there of a gently waving forest of green topped with white flowers. Still weeding through the rest of the herb garden and tidying things up ready for the planting out of the rest of the herb seedlings, I have Mexican mint, feverfew and anise ready to go in.

Oh, and three hearty courgette seedlings still to plant out!

Maybe I haven't been as slack on the gardening front as I thought.

Herb garden

(Have just found this October post lurking in my drafts and not posted- oops!)

After much hard working digging in bricks yesterday 23 October I now have an official herb garden. So far there's sage and rosemary in one panel, and chives and german chamomile in another...and subsequently basil, oregano, hyssop and mexican mint seedlings have been planted out and are all growing (well, except for one basil casualty). And now I have the brickwork done I can sow the seeds for the few herbs that are direct-sown.

23 October:

12 November: (watch that chamomile patch grow! The transplanted chives are also flowering)

 

I've also transplanted four Russian Red tomatoes, three Green Zebras and two Gardeners Delight, and subsequently three tomatillos, three ancho chillis and four capsicums.

Down the bottom of the garden I've also transplanted a Cape Gooseberry. I have a couple more of these to go in a neighbouring bed but that bed needs reweeding first. My wrists and knees weren't up to that after establishing the herb garden!

Last year I had grown some forget-me-nots in a pot sitting by the front door. These are now flowering again and I even have one plant that has crossed the concrete path and popped up in the main garden in the perfect spot by the edge of the path. Thanks Nana!

Seeds - batch 2

But first, a report on batch 1: Tomato (Russian Red) - wonderful peasant stock! All germinated, all hardy-looking, all coming along nicely Tomato (Green Zebra) - the number that I actually wanted have germinated and have their first true leaves now which is good news Tomato (Gardeners Delight) - as always, the cherry tomatoes are the weaklings of the bunch. They did mostly germinate, but were a bit spindly - still got a couple of more sturdy-looking ones so hopefully they will continue to thrive. Cape Gooseberry - today the first couple of seedlings have poked their heads through, hurrah! Parsley - the problem child of this a particular batch. Still plenty of time to resow though. Chamomile German - fertile wee bunch, and oh so tiny Peppermint - like the Cape Gooseberry, the first couple have just poked their heads through Oregano - we have germination, I am shocked! Now to keep them alive. Marigold (Mexican Mint) - three or four germinated here, will probably need to sow some more as I wanted a big group of these this year. Now on to batch 2: Sown today for the Mexican garden were Chilli (Carribean Blend, hoping for some Scotch Bonnets in here) Chilli (Ancho - as per last year) Tomatillo (as per last year) Epazote (hopefully they will germinate this year). And for the ordinary garden were Pepper (Topepo Rosso) Basil Bergamot Hyssop I have a space and a plan for a proper herb garden this year, just need to get some bricks or something to outline the segments.

Roundup

Finally got around to the final sowings today.

Direct-sown into the salad garden was three varieties of lettuce, along with corn salad and spinach. Into the herb garden went chives and dill (I also transplanted in a parley yesterday). And into the Mexican garden went jamaica, a variety of hibiscus that makes a tasty drink. I also sowed another row of peas, and transplanted the watermelon.

Into seed trays went: ancho chilli, Marconi red pepper, tomatillo and epazote (all for the Mexican garden), plus basil, bergamot and passionfruit. I'm hoping it's not too late for these Mexican additions, I should really have had these underway a month ago.

A quick trim of the citrus trees to remove some of those lower small branches attracting the whitefly, and done for the day!

Delight or disappointment?

Feeling slightly neglectful of both the garden and the blog at the moment. In my defence, there's been a few disappoinments on the gardening front, so here's a roundup of delights vs disappointments for everything that's currently in the ground, in an entirely random order.

Strawberries - delight! The odd single strawberry last year has given way to a veritable bounty this year, I'm having a couple of strawberries each day on my cereal and there's plenty left for snacks and desserts. The garden bed where the one plant became dozens via the miracle of runners seems to be the right spot, and I'm getting better quantities and better sizes from the ones in the ground versus the ones in containers.

Leeks - delight! Well, sort of. The one in the ground has sprouted up and developed what must be a flower or seed head - the whole thing looks very elegant and swan-like but the leek itself has stopped fattening up. I think I'm just going to eat it. I also have four germinated leek seedlings.

Rosemary - disappointment. I think my enormous rosemary bush is on its last legs, it has dying spots all over the place

Tomatoes - delight! These seem to have gone from small seedlings to fully grown plants in no time and there's baby tomatoes on there now.

Cherry tomatoes - disappointment. I only have one successful seedling of the Mexican Midget cherry tomatoes, and one might-make-it-or-might-not seedling of the Henry's Dwarf tomatoes, and both have only been planted out today which is pretty late. Fingers crossed they'll perk up and give me a good late season crop though.

Potatoes - delight! The plant tops are horridly raggedy, with the plants in containers practically dying off. I thought this was a bad sign and there was something wrong with them, but perhaps not because there are actually potatoes under there! I've dug up half a dozen small and medium sized potatoes from under the mostly-all-dead plant and will be having them for dinner.

Catnip - delight! Assuming I needed commercial quantities of catnip, of course, which I don't. However I have successfully made a catnip toy for the cat which went down very well, and there's plenty more where that came from. It's trying to smother the lemon tree!

Capsicum - disappointment and delight. My Jingle Belles plant I'd had inside over winter didn't like the conditions outside and has died, I didn't have much luck germinating either more of these or any of the wonderful Burpees from two years ago, but I do have one Alma Paprika that's doing well and was planted out today.

Basil - disappointment. I only had three seedlings to plant out today, far from the border of nine around the tomatoes I had envisaged (although the tomatoes have grown so well there's no room for nine basil). There won't be much pesto for Tiny Tim next Christmas.

Garlic - disappointment. I think the overall quantity (8) is right but I'm afraid that it's not going to be good news under the ground when time comes to dig these up. One's died off (the black aphids swarmed the runt, even though it had been a wet couple of weeks and I though the aphids only showed up when the plant was stressed for water), and several of the others have two or three shoots rather than the one strong sturdy one they should have. I think next year I will buy fresh garlic to plant from, rather than using my own (this year's was 2nd generation).

Watermelon - disappointment, couldn't get any germination. I'll get some fresh seeds next year. I do have a seedling of rockmelon though, which I planted out today.

Pea - disappointment. It was growing, even had a few pods on it, but has suddenly died.

Lettuce - disappointment (Danyelle - no germination at all) and delight (Cos - looking really good although not quite ready to sample yet)

Rhubarb - delight - growing strongly. I also have a second seedling in a pot that looks really good but I can't justify more than one plant with the space we have available.

Eggplant - disappointment. All my egpplant luck was obviously used up on the germination front this year, I had the seedlings ready and planted out much earlier than last year but one's died, another's on its way and the last one is still hanging in there but has a definite failure to thrive.

Germination woes

I have given up on the last batch of seeds. Able to be transplanted into individual pots were 2 x basil (only two, sob!), a Mexican Midget tomato, a Henry's Bush dwarf tomato which frankly doesn't look likely to take off, and two Alma Paprika peppers, one of which is an extremely long shot.

Last night's new sowings were:
1 x Souters watermelon
1 x Collective Farm Women rockmelon
and 4 each of Henry's Bush tomato, basil, coriander, leek (hmmmm), oregano, parsley, marsh mallow and forget-me-not.

Fingers crossed! It's really pretty late to be sowing anything but my harvest is going to look pretty small at this rate if I don't.

The great race

And the winner is....... indoor courgette! It hasn't quite poked its head above the soil yet but a big mound of disturbed soil has appeared on the surface. Outdoor courgette - in the greenhouse - had dried out (mental note, must remember to check daily), so I imagine the soaking of water it just got will help it germinate.

Also on stage accepting their germination medals are: dali tomato, watermouth tomato, green zebra tomato, tigerella tomato, rhubarb and basil.

I'm hoping the others haven't withdrawn from competition altogether. It has only been a week though....

In other news, I have planted the remaining few seed potatoes in tubs - the old recycle bins now have a new use!

Seed + seed raising mix + water

Today was a big day! Sown into individual cell compartments of seed raising trays are:

4 x tomato - Tigerella
4 x tomato - Green Zebra
4 x tomato - Mexican Midget
4 x tomato - Henry's Dwarf Bush
4 x tomato - Dali
4 x tomato - Watermouth
4 x rhubarb - Glaskins Perpetual
6 x eggplant - Long Purple
3 x capsicum - Burpee
3 x capsicum - Alma Paprika
3 x borage
3 x marsh mallow
3 x chives
3 x oregano
3 x basil
3 x coriander
and 2 x courgette (Black Beauty) direct into pots

Now to collate my information on each vegetable/herb so I know where I am!

Last batch of pesto

Finally got around to making the last two batches of pesto today.

Total pesto for the year was 7 x small (150ml-ish) jars, at a rate of 1 full-grown basil plant per jar.

Beetroot

Yesterday I harvested half a dozen beetroot. These had been sitting there for quite a while because I forget about them, but everything worked out fine - they were a good size but not too big for my stock pot, and they were tasty once cooked up.

I've only done two batches of pesto so far, but hope to do another two today.

Weekend roundup

The heat is getting just a tad monotonous, is it not? I hosed the garden down again this morning (quite a mission as the hose is at the other end of the house), and noticed the following:

* The spring onions and the onions (which are particularly weak looking) are still suffering from the purple aphids, it doesn't seem to matter how much I water them

* Whitefly is back, this time on the underside of the tender new purple broccoli seedlings and on some of the citrus. I will try to remember to spray with Neem tonight.

* I seem to have planted the basil a bit late (although it will still get there - mmm pesto) and the eggplant very late - must try harder next year!

Here's my poor exhausted tomato plants mid way through the harvest:

Red Russian in the foreground, Green Zebra in the middle and Watermouth at the back. The San Marzanos are below:


And lastly, my courgette. I've been trying to get a photo of this for a while, but had to wait until all the leaves in the immediate vicinity were gone. You can see the vine coming out of the ground (it always surprises me just how dead it looks once it's dried and split, but evidently it still does the job), then it splits into two! Is this common? Both ends are equally sturdy and as productive as the average plant so I have two for the price of one.

Strawberry runners

The Camarosa strawberry plants are now starting to send out runners, so I will have to research as to exactly how to make these into new plants for the coming year. The parent plants are still producing lovely berries but I will try to have more plants next year so we can have quantity as well as quality!

So far I've had two courgettes but another three have rotted on the vine. Not sure why, will have to investigate. It's actually the second plant that wasn't transplanted until mid-October that is doing better than the first, but I think this is because it's more exposed so is getting more sun and bumblebee action than the first.

The garlic is starting to keel over. Interestingly it's just the Printador garlic from the garden centre, not the organic garlic which is still standing proudly. Last week I dug up one of the garlic (where there were two stems wedged next to each other, I figured they wouldn't reach their full potential like that anyway), and there was a definite bulb but it wasn't an impressive size yet.

I've been very slow off the mark with the basil this year. So far only two seedlings have made it into the ground, but there's another two hardened off ready for transplanting today once it stops raining.

Mental note - plant less albino beetroot! It's just not as much fun once it's been bottled. I do have a recipe for beetroot dip which I'm planning to try with the albino beetroot over the next couple of days.

The rocket has shot up and been flowering vigorously for the last 10 days or so. I tried trimming it back, and have removed one plant altogether, but I think it's time for the other two plants to come out.

Weekend update

Yesterday I gave the tomatoes some fertilizer, spotted the first tomato! (Russian Red, beating San Marzano by a day), spotted the first flower on the watermelon vine, sowed another half a dozen each of dark beetroot and albino beetroot, sowed another half a dozen spring onions, ate lots (comparatively - ie more than half a strawberry each) of strawberries, mulched with compost the burpee pepper (plenty of flowers there now) and the spot the eggplant will be going into once they're a bit bigger, transplanted the scallopini and the parsley into the ground, and moved the four pots of sage into the greenhouse.

This morning I transplanted into their interim pots seven basil seedlings, four parsley, three eggplant, two capsicum (jingle belles), and one white sage. I've popped them outside for a little bit to warm up.

More new seedlings

Last Sunday, 16th Nov, I sowed

6 x purple sprouting broccoli into an old eggcarton (4 germinated so far)
6 x borage into an old eggcarton (2 germinated so far)
2 x scallopini into individual pots

and into the seed tray:
8 x basil sweet genovese (5 germinated so far)
4 x eggplant long purple
4 x oregano
4 x parsley Italian flat leaf
4 x white sage (2 germinated so far)
4 x capsicum Jingle Belles (last year's capsicum is vigorously producing leaves now, so I may not need these new ones - however the more fun colours the better!)