Friday, March 19, 2010

Catnip sown


Sowed Catnip seeds today, low groundcover to provide some useful insect forage. A few of the broad bean seeds are emerging, but some appear to have rotted in the ground. We did have a lot of rain though...
The second crop of peas are growing like crazy lately, they're now between 6 inches and a foot high.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Mesclun growing nicely


As you can see from the picture above. We are starting to have some warm days now, although it can get quite cold suddenly in the afternoons. Still some hail around.
So far, none of the seed sown at the end of last month is up; nasturtium, borage, broad beans - so I dug up a spot and found one of the beans - its got the start of a root poking out of it, so I reburied it, and am hoping for the best. One worry though, I keep finding small white grubs in the soil that look like theyre just itching to get going eating the roots of my plants. Not quite sure what to do about that.

The slugs or something have continued on the broccoli and cress sown last month, grazing most of it now. I guess the iron isnt working as well as it might. I sprinkled some of last years barbecue ash around, and that seems to have slowed them a bit. Unfortunately, there is a limited supply.

Planted out some tomatoes, about 10 plants, a mixture of different types so I can compare them later. When they get growing, I'll take some cuttings and see if I can make more plants from those and how fast they bear fruit compared to the parents.

Some of the pots had 2 seedlings (of course, they were the ones I bought $9/5)
In order, left to right, the plants are:
Beefmaster, Beefmaster, Sweet100, Lemon Boy, Large Red Cherry, Large Red Cherry, Sunsugar red, Health kick, and Champion.
I planted these at the very front of the bed so as to catch as much sunlight as possible. Behind are the broad beans, and in the middle, I will plant the runner beans when the weather warms.