Planting plans for 2012

I've picked up a cracking little book from the local Oxfam bookshop called Vegetables in a Small Garden by Jo Whittingham, part of the RHS Simple Steps to Success. It's proved very handy with lots inspiration for next year. Here's what I've got planned so far...

In the Greenhouse

Spring

• Very early first potatoes, not sure which variety yet.
• Lettuce, Lollo Rosso - reminds me of my chef days.
• Beetroot, Pablo - small and very sweet, ideal 'baby beet'.
• Spring onion, Lisbon.

Summer

• Tomato, Super Marmande - never tried growing beefsteak toms before but love them. Very expensive in the shops.
• Butternut squash Hawk - picked up some 'Jamie Oliver' seeds cheap. Lovely roasted.
• Cucumber, Beth Alpha - cute dwarf cucumbers with the same name as my daughter Beth.

Autumn

• err... not sure yet.

In the Garden

Spring

• Potatoes, Red Duke of York - first earlies this time. Should be out by late May.

Summer

• French bean, Blue Lake - great climber and freezer.
• Celery, Utah - bit of a challenge this one, notoriously fussy and slug friendly. We'll see.
• Beetroot, Pablo.
• Carrot, Autumn King - grew this one 2 years ago and it was great, bigger and better than the fancy thin ones I tried this year. A man's carrot if ever there was one.

Winter

• Parsnip, Tender and True - I might grow this in drain-pipes against the wall. Can be a monster but tastes great.
• Swede
• Sprouts - still looking for a good variety. My other daughter's favourite veg. Disgusting IMHO...

In planters

• Squash, Red Kuri
• Courgette
• Tumbling Tom

Well, that's the plan...

First trellis up!

Weather forecast was quite bad for today so was bracing myself for a wet Sunday indoors. But when I got up it was still dry, so I got out quick and knocked up the trellises on the pergolas. Didn't get time to paint them before the rain came down...

During a break in the rain I had time to add a second lower shelf to the greenhouse staging...

The camping stove is doubling up as a greenhouse heater. Sweet peas on the top shelf to the right are enjoying the mild weather indoors!

Landsc(r)aping by

Despite winter taking its time to kick in, it's the lack of daylight that gets annoying. The clocks have gone back so there's not much to do in the evening but plan for next year. There's a patch of lawn by the fish pond that's mostly shaded so the lawn is suffering, so I'm thinking a nice Victorian themed garden, with small cottage garden beds, gravel paths and a rambling rose along the north-facing fence.

With the wonga being tight I've taken to setting up some Ebay searches for local, cheap landscaping materials, as well as the usual scans of Freecycle and Gumtree. They've all come up trumps in the past few weeks...

From Gumtree, a tonne of free gravel! Thankfully the previous owner had already bagged it up for me. 26 bags in 3 trips in the car was a nice way to spend a wet Saturday afternoon. Shame my old bulk bag split though.

From Ebay, a tonne of timber off-cuts for £3.27 from a local joiner. He makes furniture out of reclaimed scaffolding planks. There was so much of the stuff I had to leave half of it there. Should come in handy for making planters and trellis for the fences and pergola. Here's a first attempt...

I'll try growing some butternut squashes in this one. I grew one this summer, but they take up a lot of room if left to trail on the ground. If you can't go across, go up! Made a pair of saw horses to, which I made with my Xmas present to myself - a Circular Saw from Argos for £28. Fantastic. Don't know how I ever managed without one.

From Freecycle, 70 Victorian terracotta floor tiles. Needed a little cleaning up, but should serve as edging for the flower beds. From Ebay, 100 Staffordshire Blue Brick pavers for £6.00. Dirt cheap.

Again from Ebay, 12 bags of well-rotted manure for £8.00.

Oh, and a tonne of free top-soil from a local fella building an extension. The poor old Fiesta is resembling a skip-on-wheels, but the bad-boy low suspension is holding up well.

Now where did I put that seed catalogue... 

Spring is around the corner

It's been a lovely October, one of the hottest on record, but we all know winter is coming. Still, thoughts move on to spring. Time to plant some spring flowering Anemones in the woody patch at the bottom of the garden.

Most of the high street shops have stopped stocking bulbs now in favour of Christmas decorations. Poundstretcher are still holding out though. I got 30 bulbs for £3. Not bad.

Here's the woody patch under the tree at the bottom of the garden. Just planted the bulbs under the wood chippings. Should give a nice flush of colour come March time.

Also spent some time pottering around doing a few other jobs. The good people of my home town have been doing a sterling job bagging up leaves for me. Knocked together a leaf-compost bin out of some unused chicken wire. Must have collected about 20 bags of leaves now. There's more stored since the piccy was taken. Free compost. Yeah!!!

The bulbs in the summer planters are over now - the Gladioli actually flowered quite late into October. When I took the bulbs out to dry and store them there were lots of small bulblets. Collected them together and planted them in pots. Let's see what happens...

Still no joy with the mushroom spores I planted a few months ago. Bugger. Maybe it was too hot in October...

While I was in the local garden centre a piece of bamboo 'fell off' into my hands ;) Gave it a head start with some rooting powder. Let's see how that goes too...

Biggus Ficus

It's my birthday this week, so mother-in-law treated me to a trip to the garden centre. Thought about getting an apple tree to grow as an espalier against the garden fence, but too many variables to think about after sunday lunch (root stocks, pollination groups, triploids...) so settled for a Fig, 'Brown Turkey'.

Plant itself cost £12.00 and was very pot-bound and dry. After giving it a good soaking potted it up into something bigger. Years ago I remember Monty Don making a 'concrete coffin' for his Fig out of slabs. Figs need to have their roots restricted to maintain vigour and fruiting. I've got some slabs left from a project last year, so will do that one weekend in the near future. For the time being she'll enjoy some autumn sun in the greenhouse...

Jasmine into skip-raid planter

A few weeks ago I made a skip-raid planter but didn't get round to planting the Jasmine. Now I've stocked up on B&Q's cheap peat-free compost it's time to finish the job...

There she goes. I've got some Pansies grown from seed from a planter outside daughter's school. Will put them around the base of the Jasmine when they are big enough...

Tomato harvest time

Time to harvest the tomatoes in the greenhouse. Tried Cherry tomatoes this year. Good crop of 'poppets' as Aunty Ede used to call them, but too small for slicing for sandwiches. Might try some bigger ones next year.

I sowed some Early Nantes carrots under the carrots this year. Not a bad crop, not problem with Carrot Root Fly either.

Some of the Tomatoe trusses still had a lot of green fruit on them. Decided to hang them up to ripen.

With room spare in the bed, decided to try burying some pots of delicate cuttings. Hopefully the soil will give them some insulation throughout the winter.