2010 in the garden

Its time to sit down with the seed catalogues again.

I have bought 5 different types of potato.

They are

Pink Fir - Knobbly potatoes good in salads.

Belle de Fontaney - good all rounder

Charlotte - another good salad one.

International Kidney - These are the ones that are sold as Jersey Royals when grown in Jersey.

Home Guard - These were grown during the war to keep the soldiers going.

They are all going to be grown in containers again. So I already had 3 potato bags and I've just bought another 12. All the potatoes come in 10's, I will have 1 of each type left over and I'm just going to put them in a left over compost bag.

I'm going to try some different veg this year as well.

Asparagus pea - not a pea but you eat the pods. You pick them when they are about an inch long and then lighlty steam them. The have a mild taste of asparagus.

Kale Fizz - a winter veg that will be started of in may as they have a long growing season but it's worth it as you have fresh greens in the winter.

Kale Redbor - This kale is red so it will add colour to the garden in the winter and again fresh veg when we need it.

Chinese Broccoli - this veg has long stems and the normal tops so you can eat it all.

Leef Beet Bright Lights - This again has lots of colour from bright reds to yellows. Pick it young for salads or let it grow and it can be stir fried.

I'm also growing all the usual veggies.

Red and white cabbage that can be used in coleslaw or cooked.

Mange tout peas, broad beans, french beans and runner beans.

Sweetcorn

Carrots, parsnips, turnips, leeks and swede. Lots of soup veggies.

All the salad stuff.

3 different types of shallots.

I also want to have a got at pickling veg, so I'm growing silverskin onions, gherkins and Barletta onions which will be pickled in the dark vinegar.

I also want to have a go at jams and preserves but I will list the fruit that I want to grow in the fruit section.

'm also going to grow 3 different courgettes. normal green one, 1 yellow one and 1 yellow round one.

Also aubergines, possibly 8 different types of tomatoes. I can see lots of fresh pasta sauce in my future,

2 types of cucumber, 1 thats called little finger and 1 crystal lemon on thats round like an apple.

At least 10 types of lettuce and I'm going to order a mixed leaf one that's called Italian blend. That has baby florets of broccoli in it.

Think thats it for know.

Managed to get in the garden on Saturday. I've sown some carrots, half danvers, they can be sown from February. I also sown some leeks in modules in the greenhouse. Hopefully will have earlier leeks.

I get my seeds from various places, including ebay and www.moreveg.co.uk

Moreveg sells smaller amounts of seed and they mostly cost 50p I like it because I can get a lot of different seeds and not bankcrupt myself lol. If you look at their site you can sign up for a newsletter and it tells you what to sow and when.

I've also ordered some pea seeds from ebay. They are early meteor and as soon as they turn up I will plant them in toilet roll inners. Toilet roll inners are great for starting plants that need a long root system ie. peas, beans sweetcorn. It means that you can start them off in the greenhouse and then when you plant them out leave about an inch of the roll above the ground. This helps to keep the slugs off.

Hopefully I will have fresh peas in May. Mind you most of them don't make it to the kitchen as they are so yummy when they've just been picked.

Also if I plant the peas where I will be putting cabbages it will help the cabbages. Peas take nitrogen from the air and its stored in the roots. Cabbages will be able to use this nitrogen and help them grow.

Planted some Red Sun shallots today.

I bought some Eschalion shallots from Asda on Monday and I've attempted to grow them. These are also known as banana shallots. I have some peat pots, the ones that can be planted and will rot down, and I have planted then in these.

I have also planted 2 big plant pots with meteor peas. These are supposed to be hardy and can be planted earlier than most. I have also planted some more carrots, they are also in a big plant pot. These are in the greenhouse and everything is covered in fleece, so hopefully they will be okay.

Heres a picture of my leeks. They are tiny at the moment.

Sounds like you have been really busy with the garden.... can't beat growing your own veg.

I got another couple of fruit trees to plant in the garden.

Its really great when everything is gtowing and you van just go in the garden and pick a salad.

Heres some up to date pictures of the veggies.



They are from left to right: Baby lettuce, broad beans, kale and Purple Sprouting broccoli (PSB), Lettuce, potatoes, PSB, red brussels, shallots and sugar snap peas.

I have 15 bags of potatoes so hopefully they will last me a long time.

I have also started off, tomatoes, courgettes, cucumbers, red lettuce, white cabbage, red cabbage, broccoli, romanesco broccoli, leeks, beetroot and red and white spring onions.

Hopefully I won't need to buy any veg or salad stuff this summer.

This is how my garden grows at the moment.