A Beautiful Dress and Some Beans at Last!!

I'm not sure what I'm more pleased about; my broad beans finally poking through or managing to buy an entire wedding outfit (for the four weddings I'm going to this year) in less than an hour yesterday at West Quay, Southampton!! I can show you a picture of my bean but certainly not of my outfit as it is a surprise for the Beloved Husband. Will he go mad with passion and rip it off me? I certainly hope not as it cost a fortune but he will think it is very chic although I'm sure he'll find great amusement at me teetering in four inch heels especially at the wedding in a tent.

This is my first broadie of this year - took 19 days to poke through but it finally made it and there were mounds of earth on the other modules so by the time I have a look today I'm sure there will be more. Hoorah! Mum telephoned me last night to tell me her broadies are poking up from the ground outside so there are beans here in Reading and there in the West Country!

The other exciting thing I did on Friday was sow my first hardy annuals into modules ready for planting into the ground a bit later in May. As always I am amazed at the variation in seed size and shape ranging from curly Calendula to shuttlecock-like Scabiosa and how come the seeds of two different Alyssums are so different - Oriental Nights being teeny and Gold Dust being the size of tomato seeds. Strange world!

The final exciting thing I did on Friday was order a whole batch of seeds from Sarah Raven (details and photos to come later); I just can't resist her catalogue and managed to spend £28, which seems minimal in comparison to the £285 I spent on a wedding outfit!!! As she faints......

Arrival of the New Greenhouse

What amazing service - I ordered my new greenhouse on Wednesday and it is sitting in my kitchen waiting to be built on Thursday! Yes I may already have a fabulous 6x8ft greenhouse which we put up last year but itis being used for storage, potting and growing tomatoes so I needed more space. As the seedlings grow on they require more light and still be protected - this I couldn't do in the existing greenhouse so I bought a new one! Two greenhouses may seem excessive but when needs must...

...unfortunately it is peeing down outside so the new greenhouse won't be built until Sunday, oh well the adrenalin of excitement will keep me going :)

Germination not Extermination

It's that time of year when all I seem to is either peer into seed trays, lift lids of propagators or stand with my bottom in the air looking blankly at soil. I've started the journey that is germination...at least that is what it should be as I have already managed to kill off two tomato seedlings by trapping the poor loves between the seed tray and the lid!! Oh dear.

I can't be too long tonight as I promised the beloved husband that I would be in bed before 11pm and it is already quarter past! I have been tryin got do my blog for three days in amongst preparing my planting calendar and looking for houses with big south-west facing gardens, rural views in a nice village with a good community. Oh and not to far to commute, good schools, plenty of room with the option of extending as and when we have more money which we are unlikely to have because anything we have found that fits is £300,000 over budget! Not just a couple of quid over then!

I digress...as usual.

Updates: heated propagator is a roaring success with a 48 hour turnaround for my new and terribly exciting tomato seeds. They've been in, germinated and are out again leaving space for the next victims.

Getting a bit leggy already I know so....I had to buy myself another greenhouse. One of these plastic things with four tiers and a nice, warm fleecy cover for the winter months. It should arrive at work by Friday - I can't wait as it is perfect justification to buy some lovely hardy annual seeds to prepare for the garden. i have Sarah Raven's catalogue which I admit I absolutely adore and if I could I would buy pretty much everything. Quite clearly I'm a sucker for a nice photo!

Other things which are happening - spring onions are finally peeping through after three weeks, which is exciting. I wonder if I will get any this year as I have never, ever had success with spring onions. The sprouts came through quite quicly but are slowly growing so not too leggy which is good. Trouble with them is that I cant recall which are which - some are Noisette and some are Wellington.

The potatoes went in on the 21st March - I won't upload a photo as quite frankly soil isn't that interesting to look at...I decided to go with Tattieman's advice to bung them in all at the same time - let's hope it works!

Not much else going on in the vegetable front so onto flowers...Agapanthus have gone into pots and are steaming ahead - no chance of extermination there methinks! the sweet peas are doing well; I do feel like I am slightly cheating there as I potted on about 30 from a 99p pot of seedlings from the local garden centre but quite frankly I don't have the space or inclination to spend the time on them. I know I could pick and choose the best varieties but I decided that 2009 is not to be a toilet roll extravaganza at Robin the Bobin's garden.

Tomato Geek

I think I am a geek. I must be. In fact I am totally convinced of it. Despite having a relatively small space to grow tomatoes and quite bad luck with blight - I think it blows our way on purpose - I still couldn't resist the lure of little packets of tomato seed calling out from me at a distance shouting "BUY ME, BUY ME, YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO TRY SOMETHING DIFFERENT SO BUY ME!!!" So I did.

Here are the siren-like packets! I bought them from Nicky's Nurseries who I have never used before but seemed to be relatively quick and friendly. I particularly liked the little seed marker you got free in each packet. I didn't like the shiny, non-biodegradable packets though but I'm sure they have their reasons for using them.

I'm getting very excited about sowing these tomatoes and I need to get a wriggle on to allow them as much sun and heat as possible as I get the feeling that these may need more than is traditional for an English summer. Hopefully I won't have to sit in the greenhouse shining an infra-red lamp on them like little lost lambs; I'm sure this lovely frosty winter we have had is going to bring a wonderfully hot summer...I can feel it in my bones!

I've been setting up a Planting Calendar this evening - this is another geek in me - on Excel and it is looking pretty good. I'm hoping that it will enable me to refer back to years gone by for useful bits of information I'm bound to forget as the grey matter goes over the next few decades...here's hoping. For the useful reference that is and not the deterioration of the grey matter!

I suspect there will be further tweaks to the calendar; I have already tried adding photos but I may include that in a different section. I'm going to use a good old-fashioned notebook as well but I wanted to have a graphical representation of what was being sown, planted out and picked when and so far I'm dead chuffed!

Dig Dug

I have a fetish for digging...there...I said it. Maybe I should set up Diggers Anonymous; I'm sure there would be plenty of gardeners out there who would want to join me!! I just love the feeling of turning the soil from grey lumps into soft dark brown loam - fabulous! I started Sunday just gone with a good greenhouse clearout but soon got tired of that so after a quick scrub down of the glass with eco grapefruit kitchen cleanser I got out my spade and started with the potential potato patch. Here is the 2009 potato patch in all (!) it's glory; it was going to be a flower-filled extravaganza but I really don't think I will have time or the money to get it all done so we decided to put potatoes in this year. I think the Beloved decided it for me as I did get carried away with three different types of potato and we don't necessarily have the space for that many given that I got ten in each packet!!

The digging went well and my late summer dig and turf turnover followed by pre-winter dig has worked wonders; what was pretty rubbish lumpy and rooty matter seems to be developing into a fabulously rich soil somewhat akin to fruit cake mix. I read that somewhere recently - if your soil has the consistency and colour of fruit cake then it has to be good...hmm, if only it tasted that nice too :)

Following my Sunday digging I added some well composted horse manure, which I have spread over the majority of the garden patches this year. The veggie patch has responded particularly well to the pre-frosts manure spreading and has transformed from relatively good soil to fantastic light super soil...I hope!! Here it is with that 'ready and waiting for seeds' look that fresh spring soil has...

The only other main event so far has been the erection of the poly tunnels; I decided to buy one this year as they have always sold out of B&Q by the time I think about it as does the fruit netting so I bought both. The poly tunnels are going to be one of this year's experiments, last year's being the bean contest (fun) and the fleece warming the soil (mildly successful but it has now been chomped by some bug or other and is more holier than the Pope). I have planted Chantenay carrots, Chiogga beetroot and baby spinach. Let's see how things progress as ironically as soon as I set up the polytunnels (cut one in half) the weather has turned glorious and somewhat negating the need for the tunnels and their warming capabilities!!!

Oh well here they are anyway...I thought they looked rather professional at least :)

Lessons Learnt and Put in Place in 2009.

So as I mentioned there were plenty of lessons I learnt from the 2008 growing season and now is as good a time as any to put them into place.

• Plan earlier.
• Start sowing earlier and think about staggering the sowing (although this didn't work a jot with broadies as they all ended up cropping together).
• Feed, feed and feed some more.
• Make the brussels bed a bit more firmer.
• Move the beans from their usual spot.
• Don't bother with tomatoes outside - waste of time as it ALWAYS rains in July!
• Don't bother with aubergines as the weather is never hot enough!
• Pick things and don't let them go to seed e.g. radishes growing two foot tall.

So only a few lessons then...

New Name, new year, new plans...

Well I say new year but we are already into March but the new name and the new plans bit is true enough. After a wonderful wedding in December - it really was an amazing day, the best ever in my life and I was so, so happy but I am also so, so happy that I have no wedding to plan in 2009. This year brings freedom at the weekends (although they seem to be filling up quite quickly) which means more attention to the garden all year round - last year the attention dried up throughout the summer into 'wedding season' and 'job hunting. The new name has been an interesting one - people can't spell it or pronounce it which drives me mad after having 32 years of an 'easy' name. Oh well one must for one I love...I suppose hurumph!

As for plans...well they are well underway and we have already managed to spend a fortune on composted manure, shale, plant protection and I slipped in a few seeds. Seeds seem to be most gardeners Achilles heel - there are so many wonderful options and although I declared I was going to have an easy year i.e. pick up ready propagated tomato plants, I have bought several new seeds and am so excited about getting them in the post :)

The veg patch has been well prepared with the composted manure - it was good value at four bags for ten pounds. I know I could have visited a local farm for some cheap fresh stuff but a) I was concerned after all the problems last year with manure damaging or even killing off veggies and b) collection time would have been a few weeks before the wedding and that just wasn't going to happen! So the lovely bagged and ready composted pasteurised manure was spread over the majority of the beds in January and dug in last week - Oh it does look so good and feels so good as well - lovely and loose and just begging to have seeds sown in its lovely soil. I have cleared some of the leeks out last weekend and added manure to that area but when I clear the remaining 3ft x 4ft area I will be leaving that manure-free for the brussels that will be going in there later in the year. Similarly the area with the Swiss Chard will be left free too for the carrots and beetroot although I'm getting conflicting advice about beetroot and their love or dislike for manure...it is pretty well composted so I'm going to risk it after all my beetroot can't be any worse that last year.

2008 was an interesting year for vegetables in Robin the Bobin's garden - french beans were a great success but runners were poor initially although they took off towards the more useful quiet end of summer. I'm still not convinced by dwarf beans so I don't think I'll be growing them again this year although I am expanding the veg patch so perhaps I may grow them near my potatoes. up near the house. Spring onions didn't spring at all, leeks stayed as baby leeks, one lot of brussel sprouts (noisette) didn't sprout and climbing courgettes just dropped off. My traditional winter veggies of kale and perpetual spinach were terrible although the kale is now picking up - I may have to freeze some to save it. Tomatoes were okay in the greenhouse but I'm going to reduce my crop down to two per grow bag as three was just too many and didn't crop enough...although looking through all the blurb it seems that three per bag is perfectly feasible. Who knows what is the right answer there!??