Germination test for parsnips

The fist batch of parsnips I sowed at the beginning of March were not a suceess: out of six seeds, one in each plastic cell on the window sill, only one sprouted. The seed packet is new, other things are sprouting happily in the same propagator, and the packet said to plant from March so it shouldn't be too cold/dark; therefore, it must be that parsnips are particularly fickle.

Since I don't have unlimited space for underused plastic seedling trays, this time I'm going to use the system described here: http://vegpatchblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/this-weather-is-now-getting-boring.html .

This way, I make sure that only good seeds get sown in the plastic cells. Parsnip seeds may be fickle but at least they're easy to handle!I do like roasted parsnips, so hopefully I'll get more than a crop of one this year. Here's my own seeds from this morning, covered in cling film and resting on the wet paper:

Hace un mes sembre 6 semillas de chirivia, de las cuales solo una germino. Para evitar acabar con bandejas de compost y solo una o dos plantitas, que mi espacio no es ilimitado, esta vez voy a mirar primero cuales de las semillas estan vivas, y solo sembrar las que han germinado en el papel mojado.

Lei en otro blog que las semillas de chirivia varian mucho y no todas germinan, lo cual explica por que a mi se me dieron tan mal. El paquete de semilla era nuevo, y en la misma ventana otras semillas si que se dan! Por lo menos, son semillas grandes y faciles de ver. Las he puesto en este plato en la ventana, cubiertas con film de plastico para que no se sequen. A mi las chirivias asadas me encantan, asi que a ver si este ano tengo cosecha.

Hardening off my seedlings

The bad weather (spring snow!) has ruined my plans of a weekend planting out and finishing building my path at the allotment. Meanwhile, some of the seedlings I planted last month are growing fast, and I'm having to find them space until we get some decent spring weather again (the shock from indoors to frost will kill them). I'm starting them in the kithen window (warmest), moving them to the shed first, so they get used to colder temperatures gradually ('hardening off'), and the final step will be planting them out in the allotment.

These are some lettuce and some spring onions, sowed in some plastic cells (I cut the trays to fit into the windowsill propagators). (Note the white stuff behind the window? Yes, it's snow.) The plastic freezer bag is meant to keep the moisture in, but also makes it much easier to move!

Lechugas y cebolletas esperando a que el tiempo mejore y las pueda plantar en la huerta. Las voy pasando de la cocina a la caseta para que se vayan acostumbrando al frio poco a poco, ultima parada la huerta. Lo blanco detras del cristal es nieve. Las bolsas de plastico mantienen la humedad, pero tambien es mucho mas facil mover los semilleros de plastico.

My purple mangetout peas, in another corner of the shed:

Mis guisantes, en otra esquina de la caseta:

These lettuces are still in the kitchen window. The beer glass upside down fits the pot perfectly, and is prettier to look at than the plastic bags:

Estas lechuguitas todavia estan en la ventana de la cocina. El vaso boca abajo es mas bonito que las bolsas de plastico:

Building paths and sowing rocket

The paths next to the raised beds were getting very muddy and the good compost was falling into them, so I built these mini "retaining walls" today, with some boards that were lying around:

Ayer me dedique a la construccion: para mantener el compost en su sitio, y no en el camino, he puesto estas tablas de madera (a la derecha del camino, en la foto). Ahora esta todo muy delimitado y ordenado, como a mi me gusta!

The other thing I made/built today were these containers at the back of the plot. I've sown the one on the right with rocket, and I plan to sow one container every two weeks to have a succession of crop. I think they look good, hopefully they'll work too!

La segunda obra de ayer fue poner estas jardineras de plastico en la estanteria que tengo al fondo de la parcela. En la de la derecha de todo (estante de arriba) sembre rucula. Mi plan es sembrar una jardinera cada dos semanas, asi como dicen los libros tendre una cosecha continua durante mas tiempo. A ver si funciona, de momento por lo menos hacen bonito! (bueno, es un decir, pero quedan bien y parece que tengo una parcela mas productiva)

Haringey compost give-away 2013

Today was the council compost give-away. Everyone at the allotment turned up, and we had a nice assembly line going. I was in the advanced camp, shovelling the compost into bags, while Dan and Dave drove them back to base camp, and the rearguard group ferried the bags into the allotment, emptied them, and the drivers went back to the big pile and to get the next lot of bags.

When we finished the shovelling and all came back, there were hot bacon sarnies and cups of tea waiting:

Here are all the piles of compost in every plot:

And here is my own pile!

Herbs project - no space & no experience required

If I had no outdoor space for plants, or zero green fingers, and wanted to try growing some veg, I would choose growing herbs in a windowsill, without a doubt.

You only eat a little amount of the plant each time, so you only need one -  and they’re small – so suitable for a windowsill.

And they’re expensive to buy fresh for cooking – so you will save money!

Herbs, like any other plant, divide into two groups: ”annuals” -  that die naturally after one year, and “perennials” - which will stay in their pot for years. For the least amount of maintenance:  I would choose perennials: buy them from the garden centre (or the supermarket, although these tend to come in a worse state and don’t always survive), plonk them in the pot in your windowsill, remember to water them when the compost gets too dry, and don’t forget to pick leaves to eat on a regular basis!

In terms of container, it’s only a matter of personal preference: you can grow them in individual pots, or put them together in one of those long window-sill, trough-like containers. Pot size starts at mug- size (for one plant), but if you have space for something bigger the plant will be happier and last longer. Use any multipurpose compost - these plants are not fussy, and they won't need any kind of extra fertiliser.

Some herbs like it a bit drier, some prefer their compost wetter: I would grow each set in a separate long pot – and water one a bit more often than the other:

Herbs for dryer compost (they come from the Mediterranean):

·         Oregano

·         Thyme

·         Rosemary

·         Basil*

Herbs for (slightly) wetter compost:

·         Mint

·         Chives

·         Parsley*

·         Coriander*

*These three are annuals

Rule of thumb: when a plant finally dies, simply buy a new one and replace it.

Windowsill propagator

I went to the garden centre yesterday, and came back with a few packets of seeds and.... this!

I've always wanted a windowsill propagator, but in my old house I didn't have a suitable window ledge for it (they were too small or too dark). This window gets quite a lot of sunlight, despide the fence quite close opposite, and as you can see the box is just the right size and fits well. So I'm going to give it a go. Unlike the heated one from my last post, this one will be colder so I expect the seedlings to take much longer to sprout; but it will still be earlier than they would have done direct in the ground, and they won't be attacked by slugs and snails (until I plant them out).

The black cells (square pockets) come in 5 separate sets of 6 pockets each, and in each pocket I've sown: parnsips, onions, cosmos, lettuce (a variety called in the packet 'all year round') and parsley. I look forward to seeing what sprouts first, and comparing the different-looking type of seedlings - geek that I am. And because the plastic sets are separate, when the time comes to take them outside, I can take only what is ready and leave the slower growers inside a bit longer.

Tengo un semillero nuevo. Este no es electrico (no como el de mi ultima entrada en el blog), asi que las semillas tardaran mas en germinar, pero siempre tardaran menos que si las siembro sin proteccion al aire libre, y ademas evito caracoles y babosas. Esta ventana, a pesar de tener una valla justo enfrente, es muy luminosa, y el semillero encaja perfectamente en la ventana! He sembrado: cebollas, chirivias, cosmos (flores), lechuga y perejil.

Los huecos donde se planta, el plastico negro de la foto, estan cortados en cinco bandejas de 6 huecos cada una. Es perfecto para mi, porque asi puedo irlas sacando segun esten listas para plantar fuera, ya que seguro que un tipo de planta crece mas rapido que las otras. Seguro que es entretenido ver como son de distintas las 5 cosas que he sembrado, y a ver cual crece mas rapido.

2013 planting and planning begins

The new year's planting season begins at last! Despite the last few relatively mild days, it's still too cold and wet to sow outside, so I've started my seed beds indoors.

In the heated propagator I sowed yesterday: a tray of lettuce 'lollo rosa', a tray of lemon basil, and a joint tray of tomatos ('Alicante'), peppers (pementos de Padron) and cucumber. These last three need the extra heat from the electric propagator, and have such a short growing season in the UK that they need to be sown the earliest. If the seeds don't germinate, though, or if they rot while young, I will not be too bothered as I only need a couple of plants of each and they always stock them in the garden centre (except for the peppers from Padron, which come from near my parent's in Spain and you can't find in the UK!).

You can see in the photo I also have some potatoes chitting by the windowsill: they are some red potatoes from last year's crop, that I noticed began sprouting in the shed. I wasn't going to bother with potatoes this year (they're too much of a faff to clean in the kitchen), but these red ones are unusual and I like them. The row of loo roll tubes in mugs are awaiting to be filled with pea seeds - that's one for the coming weekend.

And then there's the growing plans  for the rest of the year. I can't draw proper plans (funny, considering I work for architects...), but the messy diagram below works for me. It definitely gets easier and less esoteric each year! I have managed to maintain some sort of crop rotation from last year, so I'm not growing the same kind of crop in the same place as last year. And, amazingly, I managed to find space for everything I want to grow (!!!), and to take into account what comes first and what will go in the space left by a previous crop. 



In blue I've marked all the digging I plan to do, it's not a lot and it will all be done in by the end of March or so, so I feel quite chuffed with that! I was there last Saturday, making the supports for the raspberries and digging over that bed (I grew cabbages and beans last year), and I was very pleased to note that the soil was a nice consistency, clay but not sticky, and full of earth worms - what a nice surprise!

The front bed (bottom of the picture) is in the wors state, as I barely had time to do anything with it last year. But I've got a huge bin full of home-made compost from my house bunny that I plan to dig in this coming weekend, and I'm sure that's going to do the trick!

And finally, on 10 March all the allotment holders are planning Operation Compost: the council is giving away a huge heap of compost to anyone who turns up, and I'm hoping to get a few bags to fill in my mini-raised beds.

No tengo mucho tiempo para traducir todo lo de aqui arriba, asi que aqui esta la version reducida:

Ayer empece con las siembras del 2013, de momento solo a cubierto porque aun hace demasiado frio. En el semillero electrico (foto 1) tengo: tomates, pimientos de padron, pepino, lechuga y albahaca. En el borde de la ventana tengo unas patatas rojas del ano pasado, que empezaron a germinar en la caseta. Patatas normales no voy a plantar este ano porque ocupan desmasiado espacio y son un rollo de limpiar, pero estas rojas si porque son raras y me hacen gracia (y sabe bien). Y en las tazas/tubos de rollo de papel voy a sembrar unos guisantes este fin d e semana proximo.

He hecho un plano de lo que pienso sembrar este ano, y aunque dibujo fatal y parece caotico, la verdad es que cada ano resulta mas facil. He conseguido encontrarle sitio a todo lo que quiero cultivar este ano, asi que me siento orgullosa! Dese arriba de la foto hacia abajo, en cada una de las franjas, voy a poner:

- guisantes (junto a la valla del vecino), al lado de la menta

- judias, calabacines y pepinos; y en otono transplantare alguna berza, chirivia o nabos, y grelos

- delante del soporte para las frambuesas: tomatillos, las patatas rojas, y en otono transplantare los puerros

- cebollas y cebolletas

- coliflor, repollos y espinacas

En las jardineras bajas voy a poner: lechugas, ajos (ya estan plantados en una), rucula, una la voy a reservar para semilllero. Y donde me queden huecos ire poniendo flores para atraer a las abejas y demas animales polinizadores (y porque queda bonito!)